ERTICO – ITS Europe held its second breakfast workshop at the European Parliament on the theme “Intelligence into Urban Mobility”. Co-hosted by Dieter-Lebrecht Koch MEP and Zita Gurmai MEP, the event boasted high level speakers from industry and the European institutions. ERTICO strongly supports its Partners’ and European initiatives in advancing and deploying ITS solutions to make Urban Mobility safer, greener, more economical and more efficient. This needs an approach which involves all stakeholders and activity areas: infrastructure, behaviour and vehicles. A focus on cost-effective and mature solutions and a coordinated implementation is vital.
More than 50 representatives from ERTICO Partner organisations, national ITS Associations, national governments, the European Parliament and the European Commission participated in the breakfast workshop.
After introductions from Christian Rousseau (Renault - Electrification of vehicles and ITS), Hans-Joachim Schade (Siemens - Intersection safety for cities) and Jan van der Wel (Technolution - Multimodal urban mobility services: the connected traveller, here and now!) and statements from Edgar Thielmann (DG TREN), András Siegler (DG Research) and Thierry Van der Pyl (DG INFSO), the floor was opened to questions and the debate begun.
Dieter-Lebrecht Koch MEP welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance that the European Parliament places on ITS as an integral part of a safe, efficient and green transport system. “ITS provides not only a smarter and more efficient transport system, but also one that will make our roads cleaner and safer”. Dr Koch committed himself to support the further deployment of ITS.
Zita Gurmai MEP highlighted the fact that urban areas face great transport challenges, affecting the majority of EU citizens, and that the most promising solution is increasing transport efficiency, where ITS will play a vital role. “ITS solutions must be available to everybody and in every vehicle”.
Edgar Thielmann (Head of Unit G4: EU satellite navigation programmes, DG TREN) gave an overview of the goals of the Urban ITS Platform and how it links with the ITS Action Plan and directive. “There is a unique window of opportunity for policy initiatives on urban ITS deployment because of policy developments such as the ITS and Urban Mobility Action Plans, revision of TEN-T guidelines and current discussion on a new European Transport Policy White Paper (Future of Transport)”.
András Siegler, (Director responsible for 'Transport', DG Research) identified research priorities in to make urban mobility more sustainable and underlined the importance of ITS in this regard.
Thierry Van der Pyl, (Director for Components and Systems, DG INFSO) described DG INFSO’s priorities for the “Call 6: ICT for Mobility of the Future – Smart Urban Mobility”.
Click here to access continue the debate on the ERTICO blog.
Click here to access photos of the event.
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