20th September 2021, 09h00 – 12h00 CET full video on Youtube
Event program
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PERSPECTIVE:
Policy perspectives and objectives for the future mobility in Europe – Massimiliano SALINI – Member of the European Parliament – TRAN Committee
SETTING THE SCENE:
Future interurban mobility: trends, economy and evolution of transport demand – a European outlook and case studies – Kay W. AXHAUSEN (ETH – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – on behalf of World Conference of Transport Research Science)
Mobility trend analysis from the European perspective – Panayotis CHRISTIDIS Elena NAVAJAS CAWOOD (European Commission JRC)
Making full use of Automation for National Transport: perspectives and opportunities – Risto KULMALA (MANTRA Project Coordinator)
Long distance commuting trips: from the problem to good practices – André BROTO (VINCI Autoroutes)
Cooperative technologies for the integration of services: motorways and cities – Ricardo TIAGO (IMT) – Pedro BARRADAS (Armis)
COFFEE BREAK
PANEL DISCUSSION ON: MOTORWAYS, ROAD TRANSPORT AND FUTURE PRIORITIES FOR DIGITALIZATION, TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND SAFETY IN EUROPE
Steve PHILLIPS, CEDR, Secretary-General
Malika SEDDI, ASECAP, Secretary-General and CEO
Guido DI PASQUALE, UITP, Deputy Director – Knowledge & Innovation dpt.
Raluca MARIAN, IRU, Director EU Advocacy
Ewa PTASZYNSKA, DG MOVE Deputy Head of Unit – Road Transport
ORGANIZER:
European ITS Platform in cooperation with CEDR and ASECAP
MODERATOR:
Roberto ARDITI, SINA Scientific Coordinator – ASTM Group
Future of road mobility and motorways
Throughout the course of its own studies, the European ITS Platform (Evaluation Group), in conjunction with ITS Corridors and experts in the field, have developed a suite of tools and guidance designed to nurture a harmonised approach to the Evaluation of ITS. The ITS Corridors have in-turn adopted this approach, which has helped to make the benefits of ITS investments across Europe more consistent, more comparable and more visible. Initial Corridor results based on this commonly adopted approach are now presented in a single source – the Digitalization of Road Transport in Europe book – which contains an overview of the overall impacts and benefits of co-funded ITS investment.
Corona as catalyst of change
As of today we have experienced more than a year of individual and social suffering due to this disease. We are heading towards the end of the summer and we are about to reap the benefits of the European vaccination programme that allows citizens to hope for a new social normality, perhaps even a new economic normality. We are therefore in a good moment to reflect and to analyse on what has changed in the world of European roads and on what we can imagine will stay as a legacy for the future of road mobility. For centuries, geographic distance has been a driving cost function for where cities grew, where businesses had to produce/sell, and where families could choose to settle. The presence of road infrastructures has contributed to modulate this cost and consequently shaped the land-use. What if this cost today drops dramatically, thanks to new technologies? If proximity to one’s work were no longer the determining factor in deciding where to live, then the attractiveness of the suburbs could decrease, perhaps favouring small cities and villages. If people could work from anywhere, would crowded neighbourhoods start to thin out? Perhaps European society is not yet there, but it is clear that these cost functions, today, have reduced because of technologies, with a process further accelerated by the coronavirus crisis. The consequences for the organization of the territory and also for mobility are enormous.
Other challenges and opportunities
Safety – the Commission published data on road accidents: in 2020 last year 18,800 people lost their lives on European roads: a reduction of 17% compared to 2019. This is an unprecedented reduction: 4,000 fewer deaths on our roads. Nevertheless senior officials of the Commission noted that the reduction in traffic was not followed by a proportional reduction in the number of victims. From this fact, we can observe that European roads have the possibility of further improvement in terms of “safe system approach”. Can technology contribute to this target? Ageing – The TEN-T network is growing old. It is made up of thousands of km of bridges and tunnels. Many of the bridges were built during the economic boom of the 1950s/60s and are now reaching a critical moment in their design life. Member States are working to preserve the European infrastructure stock. New solutions and technologies are being explored to develop low-cost, large scale and easily deployable systems that could contribute to the monitoring of the large number of civil structures that, at present, are missing a continuous dedicated supervision. This is an additional opportunity to have a data driven management of infrastructure and traffic.
