Come and join in the discussion!14-15 November 2018 at LEF Future Center, Utrecht, the Netherlands
New technologies such as connected, cooperative and automated driving and floating car data will drastically change the world of traffic management.
Traditional ITS will increasingly be complemented by C-ITS and other new technologies, allowing new travel services to emerge. And with larger cities and more complex, busier networks, road authorities need to collaborate with industry and knowledge partners. In other words, traditional traffic management and roles are changing.
Over 300 experts from 21 different countries gathered in Utrecht on 14 and 15 November to exchange views on ‘Traffic Management in a changing world’ during the ITS Forum 2018. High- level policy-makers and leading industry experts shared their ideas on strategy, policy, trends and developments and ways on how to apply new technologies in the world of traffic management.
Public and private stakeholders involved in road traffic management took the opportunity to join in this discussion, share knowledge, create new opportunities and make important steps in European policy development together.
In various interactive sessions first steps for further European cooperation were taken. The experts talked about Traffic Management and its current challenges, on how to be prepared for the changes heading us and on the changing roles of road operators. In addition subjects like cooperation between public and private service providers and sharing and exchanging data were also being discussed.
They all shared a common goal: improve road safety, stimulate intermodality and reduce congestion and emissions. In other words, provide better mobility for roads users throughout Europe.
Hereby we thank all experts for their active contribution in the discussions at the ITS Forum 2018 and hope to see you again at the EU EIP Platform events.
The Forum was opened by the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, who highlighted how traffic management needs a European cooperation.
Road authorities will play a different but equally important role, traffic management in particular will need to change.The core tasks will remain capacity management by dealing with incidents and road works and providing services, essential services that save lives on a daily basis.The focus will be on exchanging data, and closer cooperation between public and private service providers.
Federica Polce, Coordinator of the ITS Platform on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (IT) highlighted some of the good results from the Platform and corridors and stressed upon the importance of the presence of road operators and stakeholders at the ITS Forum: the EU ITS Platform needs to be grounded on real field deployment activities and the Platform is representing infrastructure authorities and operators, because the common goal is providing better mobility for citizens.
The two keynote speeches were followed by a series of short interviews and discussion with Matthew Baldwin (Deputy DG for Mobility and Transport European Commission), Serge van Dam (Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management), Nick Cohn (TomTom) and Roberto Arditi (European ITS Platform). The discussion showed the importance of opening up data, the quality of the data and the need for cooperation between the different actors.
Director Investment, Innovative & Sustainable Transport – DG-MOVE Herald Ruijters kicked off from a historical perspective, stressing upon the importance of ‘connecting Europe’, also seen in the light of the upcoming Brexit. For the Connecting Europe Facility is an important tool to realize this.The EC wants to work towards a Single European Transport Area, integrating the hard infrastructure of the CEF corridors with a digital layer of services and implementation of the ITS corridors.
This is also reflected in the proposed EC budget: in the new CEF programme (2021-2027) a much bigger part of the budget (40%) will be reserved for ITS. Jan Willem Tierolf (Rijkswaterstaat) addressed the importance of the digital layer of ITS services on the Core Network Corridors. ITS is a cost-effective tool to improve road safety and intermodality and to reduce congestion and emissions.
Pierpaolo Tona (INEA) showed some figures on the current CEF programme and made clear that the CEF programme is more than just offering financial support. It boosts investments in (C-)ITS, it supports European harmonization as well as implementation of the ITS Directive. And it also delivers direct benefits to EU citizens and leads to concrete cooperation between European Member States.
In the following panel discussion with Herald Ruijters and the ITS Corridor project coordinators the major issue was: “How to improve the cooperation between the CEF Core Corridors and the ITS Corridor projects”. The first corridors are focused on ‘hardware’, whereas the latter are focused on ‘software’. It was clear that the knowledge of the people gathered in the ITS Forum should be used to improve the performance of the TEN-T Network: Ruijters invited the Platform and CEF ITS Corridors to share their objectives with the Core Network Corridors, playing an active role within Core Network Corridor Fora on a permanent basis.
In the closing session external stakeholders participated in a panel discussion. Isabelle Vandoorne (DG MOVE), Astrid Weij (POLIS/Province of Utrecht), Steve Phillips (CEDR), Emanuela Stocchi (IBTTA), Christophe Nicodème (ERF), Malika Seddi (chair of the ASECAP permanent committee) and Johanna Tzanidaki (on behalf of TISA) mainly discussed the role of the private market versus the role of the public authorities. Authorities rather hold the carrot, but if necessary use the stick. Private companies may play an important role in traffic management, but road authorities should orchestrate. They should safeguard the societal values of new technologies and avoid any negative impacts. The need of sharing data was stressed again.
The ITS Forum ended with a speech of Johan Diepens (Mobycon), presenting ITS in the Dutch culture: entering the room on his bike, he showed how cycling has been embedded in the Dutch society ‘from cradle to grave’. But also that ITS has found its way into cycling, such as bicycle parking guidance, connected bicycles and Floating Bicycle Data.
Apart from three plenary sessions, the ITS Forum offered 15 parallel sessions with 89 presentations covering the topics:
The Forum was organised by the European ITS Platform and the ITS Corridor projects and was hosted by Rijkswaterstaat in the LEF Future Centre in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Step into the future of Traffic Management by experiencing the innovative setting of the LEF Future Centre. LEF Future Center at the Rijkswaterstaat office in Utrecht is specialised in fostering new patterns of thought and forcing breakthroughs.
LEF offers a wide variety of diverse working environments and professional guidance. A session at LEF is something you have never experienced before.The different settings and work forms allow people to think differently about changes and often creates new opportunities. Above that, this way of working will guarantee a high level of interaction from which all attendees can benefit.
