News

European Commission has launched a consultation for the implementation of multimodal digital services. The initiative addresses challenges for these services and implements Action 37 of the sustainable and smart mobility strategy. It aims to better integrate public transport and rail services to achieve seamless multimodal passenger transport, delivering the EU Green Deal.

Our members are encouraged to participate and express their opinions in the survey. The public consultation is open until 23 February 2022 and can be accessed here.

The vehicle safety testing centre Thatcham Research, international infrastructure group Balfour Beatty and CCTV technology company Exeros Technologies have become the latest Executive Members of the country’s Intelligent Transport Systems Industry Association, ITS (UK).

Executive Members of the Society are seen as industry leaders and help run the organisation and set its direction and focus.

Thatcham Research, Balfour Beatty and Exeros Technologies join Gaist and Sopra Steria as new Executive Members this year.  Overall, 28 new members have signed up since January across private and public sector organisations and academia.

“When we launched our membership drive in March, I never thought we’d be so successful in attracting such a wide range of new Members,” commented ITS (UK) Secretary General Jennie Martin.  “We have really enjoyed having new faces, opinions and expertise involved in the Society – the value of all our Members is greater than the sum of its parts, and through membership we offer them our excellent networking, knowledge sharing and PR opportunities, as they become part of our powerful combined voice of the ITS Industry, leading the conversation about intelligent mobility.”

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Hamburg continues to make progress in the field of ITS: Since 2018, the city of Hamburg has been operating a free, open, manufacturer-independent and several kilometre-long test track for automated and connected driving.

The test track is continuously operated as an open user platform where more than 16 research institutions, vehicle manufacturers and technology companies are currently testing innovative mobility services, such as automated driving functions or safety assistance systems, in a real traffic environment on public roads.

In total, more than 50 traffic lights and the Mahatma Gandhi Bridge have been equipped with communication units (R-ITS-S based on ITS-G5) and a corresponding digital information provision. Thus, more traffic signal installations than originally planned (37) have already been implemented. This forms the basis for implementing various C-ITS services for the road users there. These include a traffic light phase assistant (GLOSA = Green Light Optimised Speed Advisory), the protection of vulnerable road users (VRU = Vulnerable Road User Protection), road works warning (RWW = Road Works Warning), traffic sign information (IVI/IVS = In-Vehicle Signage) and the collection of traffic data (PVD = Probe Vehicle Data).

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The whim-App of MaaS Global started in Switzerland in fall 2021. With its partner, the public transport company TPF (transport public Fribourg), it manage to include the Swiss public transport. This includes all railways, regional busses as well as all urban public transport services. Overall, the services of some 250 public transport companies are accessible via the whim app. As far as we are aware of, this is the first national coverage of an international MaaS-offering.

The international Intelligent Transport Systems community has paid tribute to one of the pioneers of cross-border co-operation in transport technology as he enters retirement.

Christer Karlsson is stepping down after nearly 40 years in transport during which time he founded ITS Sweden in 1999 and in 2004 initiated and became the Founding Chair of the Network of National ITS Associations which he then played a key part in throughout the rest of his career.

During this time he worked tirelessly for the organisation, simultaneously placing ITS Sweden at the heart of the Network. He has been honoured with a special award to mark his retirement which was given to him by fellow founding Network member Jennie Martin of ITS (UK) and current Network vice-Chairman Mihai Niculescu of ITS Romania.

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ITS (UK)’s first major in-person gathering since the start of the pandemic will feature a discussion about how technology is helping transport reduce emissions and tackle climate change.

The industry association’s Members’ Day is hosted by Cubic Transportation Systems at their UK HQ in Surrey on Thursday 25 November.  It is also sponsored by White Willow Consulting and WSP.

WSP will present details of their “greenprint” proposing a holistic perspective – one that considers people, processes, places, infrastructure, vehicles, technology and associated data – to support comprehensive change as societies set targets and form pathways to achieve net zero ambitions.

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In the presence of 150 participants, including private companies, public and research bodies, the webinar “Funding for the digitalization of transport”, organized by TTS Italia, and moderated by the Secretary-General of the Association, Olga Landolfi, was held on 21 October.

The event was an opportunity to present the guidelines developed within the TTS Italia Working Group of the same name, coordinated by Fabio Nussio of the Roma Servizi per la Mobilità Funding Department.
The guidelines are intended to be a practical and concrete support tool for public bodies, institutions, and private individuals in order to make the most of national and European funds in favor of mobility and transport.
After the opening of the works by the President of TTS Italia, Rossella Panero, and the presentation of the results of the aforementioned Working Group by Fabio Nussio, Roma Servizi per la Mobilità, during the webinar we talked about opportunities financing, current, and future.

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The agreement between Federdistribuzione, Freight Leaders Council, and TTS Italia kicks off with the aim of supporting the logistics sector in the change of pace towards a more digital, simplified, integrated model with a view to a circular economy, in line with the principles of energy transition established by the European Union and by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Going into the details of the signed memorandum of understanding, skills, planning and best practices will be brought together to develop solutions capable of accompanying the logistics sector towards an increasingly digitalized and sustainable future, capable of reducing costs and emissions and thus creating a value chain at all levels of the supply chain. Several paths have been identified to facilitate the transition: from the promotion of pilot projects for the widespread use of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) within the distribution sector, through the creation of training opportunities and dissemination of knowledge and good logistics practices integrated, up to the realization of operational solutions for the simplification of control and monitoring procedures in the supply chain processes.

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The new Transport Minister Trudy Harrison says that the work of the British Intelligent Transport Systems industry is “pioneering” and key to the future of transport and decarbonisation.

Ms Harrison spoke to the Highways Voices podcast during a visit to the ITS World Congress in Hamburg where she toured the exhibition and met SMEs on the ITS (UK)-supported UK Pavilion.

“I’m meeting the people that are involved in the pioneering innovations,” she said. “A lot of this is problem solving, and the kind of positive mentality that I’m seeing from the people, particularly on the UK stand is fantastic, but also to be able to see the demonstrations as well, of how these smart machines are being utilizsed on real streets, in real communities, across Europe and beyond.

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In the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow, and the requirement for transport to dramatically reduce its emissions, ITS (UK) has appointed environment expert Keith McCabe to be its first Carbon Ambassador.

The Intelligent Transport Systems Industry Body is keen to underline how technology is already being used to improve air quality through a range of solutions that make travelling more efficient, from improved traffic management through navigation and modelling to enforcement of clean air zones and reduction in electricity use thanks to solar road studs or renewably-powered roadside units.

Keith McCabe is CEO of both Simplifai Systems and KAM Futures and is a leader in new thinking around distributed energy systems involving virtual power stations, smart grids and electric vehicles.

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