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The network of national Intelligent Transport Systems associations is looking to add to its knowledge sharing network by inviting country associations beyond Europe to join.

The comment was made at a breakfast event hosted on the UK Pavilion at the ITS World Congress in Dubai where the work of the 25-year old network was celebrated.

Nationals chair Donal Hodgins discussed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between ITS Ireland and ITS Australia and looked to bring the Australians, ITS Canada and other interested parties into the network.

“Our network complements the excellent work of ERTICO, who set us up a quarter of a century ago, as we share best practice among individual nations’ ITS societies,” Mr Hodgins explained. “We are here to make sure all of these associations support their members as best as possible, and so the more members we have, the more we can copy our best bits and help each other solve their challenges.”

The breakfast event, hosted by ITS UK was joined by the Chair of ERTICO Dr Angelos Amditis and its CEO Joost Vantomme and attended by more than a dozen of the Network’s 30 members who are at the World Congress this week.

(Picture shows ITS UK Chief Executive Max Sugarman, ITS Australia President Silje Troseth and ITS Nationals Chair Donal Hodgins)

The network for national ITS Associations, which is made up of 30 Intelligent Transport Systems organisations from across Europe, is launching a series of awards to recognise excellence in supporting transport technology businesses.

Five awards will be given out on 13 November during a dinner ahead of the Network’s plenary meeting in the Swiss capital of Bern (pictured).

“The awards are designed to get national associations thinking about what they do really well, so we can all use best practice as an opportunity to learn,” commented Network Chair Dónal Hodgins.  “All national associations are committed to supporting the organisations delivering transport technology  and these awards will help us do that even better.”

There are five awards:

1. National Policy Champion Award

The association most successful at influencing ITS Policy on a national level during the past year

2. Membership Champion Award

The association with the best testimonials from Members of how they have helped them from the last twelve months

3. Next Generation Champion Award

The association evidencing the most effective activities to support early careers professionals during the past year

4. Excellence in Transportation Award

The association which stands out as being the most active and effective during the past year

5. Network Person of the Year Award

The individual most valued by the Network for their contribution.

To enter one of the first four awards, associations should submit a short statement outlining why they wish to be considered for any of the awards, including evidence from members or relevant stakeholders, such as Ministries. An independent panel will judge the submissions and arrive at a decision.  That panel will also choose the winner of the person of the year.

The individual awards may be sponsored by any member company or public body.  Prices are from just €950 and, as well as continent-wide publicity across ITS National Member organisations, sponsors will get an invitation to the dinner, their name associated with the prize in all publicity, get to offer a few words about the winner and brand themselves as sponsors of the ITS National Network Awards 2024.  More details are available from ITS Nationals Honorary Communications Lead, Paul Hutton.

(Picture – Yay Images)

Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) encompasses a range of technologies that connect and automate transportation systems, promising to enhance safety, efficiency, and sustainability in urban and rural environments.  But, as the latest ERTICO World Congress webinar explained, to deliver it, there are remaining challenges around technological integration, infrastructure modernisation, legal frameworks, cybersecurity and public trust.

The webinar hosted by ERTICO on 27 June was the final one in a series of three focusing on the main themes of the 30^th ITS World Congress in Dubai this September. In this webinar, “CCAM – more than the sum of its parts”, experts from Belgium, the UAE, United Kingdom, USA and Japan delved into some of the intricacies of Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility, and the journey from innovation to real-world deployment.

Stephane Dreher, Lead of CCAM at ERTICO-ITS Europe lead the debate, setting the scene by explaining that as well as being in the spotlight in Dubai, CCAM is one of the main areas that ERTICO is working on.  The vision is that, by 2025, there are operational CCAM services integrated in the current transport system that are, he said, “accepted, inclusive and supported by infrastructure in order to achieve the policy goals of the European Commission in terms of decarbonisation and safety.”

Picking up on the European strategy, Max Lemke, Head of the IoT unit at the European Commission’s DG CONNECT directorate, explained that the vehicle of the future will be electric, connected, autonomous – or at least featuring a degree of automation – and it will be shared, which means a big disruption for the industry.  He warned that this comes with technological challenges, explaining: “We see the lines of software code increasing, I would say exponentially, and that means productivity in software engineering is a key issue.  There’s a lack of talent, lack of resources and low productivity because we have to customise everything.”  He talked about different ways components are supplied and used, how value chains are changing and how vehicles become “smartphones on wheels” and must be affordable, before detailing how Europe is delivering its innovation strategy, and how the European culture is delivering with safety.

CCAM vehicles now have around a hundred million lines of code, and may need a billion lines by 2030.  “It’s staggering,” commented Dr Steve Dellenback, Vice President R&D at the Southwest Research Institute asking, “Does that code work, how do you test it? How do you make sure it works in all different scenarios?”  He warned about the management of expectations from the public around operational performance and safety adding: “If we’re truly going to be getting to 500 million or a billion lines of code, we are kidding ourselves if we think that these vehicles are going to be perfect. And so part of the discussion we need to be having moving forward is at what cost are we willing to deploy this technology, we can’t sell it as simply being crashless, that’s not going to be true to our travelling public.”

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Europe’s Network of National ITS Associations (ITS Nationals) has elected Dónal Hodgins for a two-year period as its Chair.

The former chair of ITS Ireland is a Senior Engineer (Head of Sustainable Transport & Traffic Management) at Kildare County Council.  He was elected following a vote by the 30 members of the organisation, which has an objective to ensure that ITS knowledge and information is transmitted to all ITS organisations across the region.

Alongside Mr Hodgins, Marc Verhage of Connekt in the Netherlands has been elected to the position of vice-chair of the network.  Both are current members of the coordination committee and took up their roles on 1 July.

Outgoing chair Günther Weber welcomed the news saying: “My warmest congratulations to Dónal and Marc for being unanimously elected as Chair and Vice Chair of ITS Nationals.  I am really happy that both got a strong vote – a confirmation of their work to date, Dónal as vice-chair and Marc as member of the coordination committee.  Together Dónal and Marc are part of a strong and committed team that will lead ITS Nationals into the next steps of its exciting evolution.  Many thanks to both, in particular to Dónal, for the valuable and successful work to date, and all the best for a successful next period. For me, it was always a pleasure and very inspiring to work with Dónal and Marc.”

The new chair Dónal Hodgins paid tribute to Günther for his role in leading the ITS Nationals over the past four years especially throughout the period of the global pandemic. “I would like to acknowledge and thank Günther for his steadfast support for both myself and all the national ITS organisations belonging to the ITS Nationals. He leaves the group in an improved situation ready to face the challenges of the years ahead.”.

Reflecting on the 20th Anniversary of the ITS Nationals, he added that he is “deeply honoured to be elected to this esteemed position and am excited for Marc and myself to add to the honourable tradition of the previous title holders.  This is particularly important as we continue to re-energise the Network and place it at the forefront of promoting ITS.”

When asked what his vision for ITS Nationals is, Mr Hodgins committed to: “setting out a pathway for a sustainable ITS Nationals entity that is independent, inclusive, equitable and one that provides a variety of benefits for all national organisations and our thousands of members.  I wish to continue to build up our capacity to provide improved cooperation, collaboration, and communication between the national ITS organisations and provide the members of each national organisations with tangible benefits.”

The Network of National ITS Associations will continue to work with ERTICO to support cooperation between the two entities and improve cohesiveness between ITS stakeholders across the continent and globally.

(Picture – ITS Nationals Network)

ERTICO – ITS Europe is launching a new initiative within its Partnership – the “Thought Leadership Journeys” webinar series.

Members and partners of its network, including those from the ITS Nationals Network, are invited to join us the first edition titled “EU Mobility Shift: Navigating the Transition Pathway”.

Scheduled for 29 April 2024 from 12:30-13:30 (CET), this webinar marks a significant stride in fostering collaboration and innovation across the European mobility landscape. Through engaging discussions, esteemed speakers from various sectors will delve into strategies, challenges, and opportunities in navigating the transition pathway within the European mobility sector. 

Kindly register here by 25 April to reserve your spot and actively participate in this transformative dialogue.

Keynote Address:
Lorena Ionita, Deputy Head of Unit, DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROW), European Commission, will share valuable insights into the collaborative development of the “Transition Pathway” report recently launched by the European Commission.

Speakers:
Joost Vantomme, CEO of ERTICO, will highlight the significance of the EU mobility industrial ecosystem and ERTICO’s role in facilitating dialogue and collaboration among stakeholders.Dr Stefan Dreher, ERTICO Senior I&D Manager, will showcase relevant ERTICO projects and initiatives fostering innovation and competitiveness in the automotive industry.Stefan Deix, Director of EUCAR, the European Council for Automotive R&D, will provide insights into mobility transition pathways from the automotive OEM perspective.

Moderator:
Agne Vaitekenaite, Partnership Development Manager at ERTICO, will facilitate the interactive Q&A session, allowing participants to engage directly with the speakers and delve deeper into the topics discussed.

This webinar presents a unique opportunity for industry leaders, policymakers, and experts to collectively shape the future of mobility in Europe. 

The Network of National ITS Associations (ITS Nationals) has elected representatives from Bulgaria, Italy and the Netherlands to its Coordination Committee.

The committee leads the strategy and direction of the group, which aims to ensure that ITS knowledge and information is transmitted to all its members across the network and works closely with ERTICO – ITS Europe.

The new members of the Coordination Committee are: Laura Franchi from TTS Italia, Marc Verhage representing Connekt (ITS Netherlands) and Elena Elenakova of BITSA (Bulgarian ITS Association).  They join for two years, replacing Benoit Augarde of ITS France, ITS Estonia’s Maarja Rannama and Marco Forsblom from ITS Finland whose terms ended in December 2023.

The Network is chaired by Günther Weber of ITS Germany, supported by Vice Chair Dónal Hodgins from ITS Ireland.  The committee also includes ITS Austria’s Martin Russ alongside ITS Nationals Ambassador Jennie Martin, formerly of ITS UK and ERTICO’s CEO Joost Vantomme.  Paul Hutton of Highways News supports the organisation’s communications in a voluntary capacity.

“Firstly, I would like to give a big thank you to Benoit, Maarja and Marko, and before him Sani Remonen from ITS Finland, for their very hard work and support over the last two years,” commented Mr Weber.  “This year marks the 20^th birthday of the ITS Nationals Network, and we welcome Elena, Laura and Marc as we look to expand our support for the industry across Europe.  All three put forward compelling cases to support our work raising awareness of ITS, and their enthusiasm is bound to have a really positive effect on all we do.”

“As we reflect on our 20-year anniversary, ITS Nationals is redefining our role in the international community,” added Mr Hodgins.  “Welcoming our new members into the committee will help bring fresh ideas to help continuously improve the cooperation between, and support for, our members.  Working in partnership with ERTICO, we can deliver positive benefits for all our national organisations and their members, at a local, national and international level and boost the integration of technology and transport.”

The ITS Nationals Network is supporting a series of events and initiatives across the year including a Plenary meeting during April’s Intertraffic Amsterdam and active participation at Special Interest Sessions at the ITS World Congress in Dubai in September.

(Picture, L-R, Laura, Marc and Elena, courtesy ITS Nationals Network)

Intelligent Transportation Systems Association of Türkiye (ITS Türkiye) will organize 4^th International ITS Summit (SUMMITS’24) under the auspices of Abdulkadir URALOĞLU, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, with the participation of the leading public and private sector stakeholders and their highlevel managers on 2-4 May 2024 in Ankara.

SUMMITS’24 will last three days which will comprise of seven panels with high-level profiles. After the opening ceremony, 7^th Path of the Mind Awards in Transportation will be given to the winners and the exhibition will be opened and visited by the protocol members. SUMMITS’24 will not only include panels, and exhibition areas for ITS companies, but also sessions for presenting academic papers and innovative ITS solutions.

Senior executives and experts from ITS stakeholders in the public and private sectors, as well as from domestic and international organizations, will take part in the panels as speakers. The panel topics to be discussed during the summit are “Intelligent Transportation Systems: A Global Perspective”, “Digitalization and Innovation in Mobility and Logistics”, “Connectivity and Communication Technologies”, “Smart and Resilient Transport Infrastructure”, “Greener and Cleaner Transportation”, “Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Transport” and “Safe, Secure, Sustainable, Human Oriented and Accessible Transportation”.

We expect that most of the companies operating in the field of ITS in Türkiye will take place in the exhibition areas and will exhibit their innovative products and services.

Besides academic papers, we plan to allocate time slot for those who would like to share their ITS projects, products and innovative ITS solutions with the participants. SUMMITS’24 is open to everyone working or interested in the ITS sector. Please visit https://www.auszirvesi.org/en/home-en web address for more information regarding “SUMMITS’24 4th International ITS Summit“.

The conference took place from 12 to 13 December 2023 in Skopje, North Macedonia, and brought together a diverse group of experts, policymakers, and stakeholders in the field of ITS but also the ministers in charge of transport from the 6 South East Europe Parties, together with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine and high representatives from the European Commission (DG MOVE). The conference featured insightful sessions and discussions, culminating in the signing of the Declaration on Intelligent Transport Systems pledging the commitment to the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems.

The first day hosted high-level speakers, including the Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Secretaries in charge of transport, while the second day was reserved for technical sessions. Technical sessions featured panels on Intelligent Solutions for Road Transport, Innovations in Rail Transportation and multimodality solutions, and Intelligent Solutions for Waterborne Transport.

ITS Serbia members participated in the conference, sharing their experience with other fellow participants including ITS Austria and ERTICO representatives. ITS Serbia was presented during the discussion as a good example of the first ITS Nationals Network member in the region. Other regional partners representatives were interested to hear about the newest member, planned activities and future cooperation possibilities. ITS Serbia is grateful to the host of the conference – the Transport Community and all the participants for the warm welcome. We are looking forward to future events and joint activities in promoting the deployment of ITS technologies in the region.

The CEO of ERTICO – ITS Europe says the organisation is taking an active role in the development of micromobility as part of the diverse mobility mix to ensure their safe and efficient use across the continent.

Speaking ahead of a major “Focus On” Partnership event on the subject in London tomorrow, Thursday 7 December, Joost Vantomme explained that ERTICO is using its experience and expertise in innovation through technology, standards and regulation to help manage and promote the uptake ofnew transport modes. ERTICO is organising this event in close collaboration with the UK’s Transport Technology Forum with whom it signed an engagement plan at the ITS European Congress in Lisbon, May 2023.

“We don’t yet have an official definition of all these kinds of vehicles – ebikes, escooters, speed pedelecs, cargo bikes, tandems, velomobiles and their docking stations – it’s all very much market driven,” he said.  “Maybe that’s good for pioneering new things, not stigmatising too much through regulation, but there’s a call more and more for increased oversight from authorities.

“I will, in my speech, highlight the technology and regulatory elements to cook the meal the basic goal of safety, sustainability, and getting people towards diverse mobility modes.”

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The organisers of next year’s ITS World Congress in Dubai are reminding potential speakers at technical sessions that they only have two more weeks to submit their ideas for consideration.

Director of Communications, Congresses and Events, Lisa Boch-Andersen has written to the industry saying she wants to ensure that your valuable contributions reach us on time. 

You can submit your contribution here before the deadline of 15 December.

To guarantee a seamless submission, would-be participants are encouraged to create a profile here. This preliminary step is described as crucial to ensuring that you are well-equipped to submit your contributions smoothly. 

The event takes place in Dubai from 16-20 September 2024.

(Picture – ERTICO)