The share of private cars in urban mobility remains stubbornly high, despite heavy investment into public transport systems over the past decades. Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) can become the game changer by making public transport responsive to the mobility demands of citizens in real time.
This is the message the International Transport Forum (ITF), an intergovernmental organisation for the transport sector with 57 member countries, is taking to the ITS World Congress meeting in Bordeaux, France, next week from 5-9 October.
“Our modelling shows that it is possible to take 9 out of 10 cars off city streets if private cars are replaced by shared vehicles. ITS technologies empower us to provide shared mobility with similar levels of flexibility and travel times as private cars”, said ITF Secretary-General José Viegas. “If we can organise mobility more efficiently, that will greatly reduce emissions, air pollution, congestion, accidents and noise. That is why ITS tops the policy agenda for ITF member countries, and why we are in Bordeaux for the ITS World Congress.”
Viegas will present ITF work on upgrading urban mobility systems to Ministers from around the world at the Ministerial Roundtable on “ITS addressing Climate Change” chaired by the French Minister of Transport and the European Commissioner for Transport on the opening day of the ITS World Congress, Monday, 5 October. The key results of this Roundtable will be communicated in a Manifesto to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (“COP21”) in Paris in December.
The ITF will be present with a stand and at sessions throughout the conference:
- “Certification of automated road vehicles for urban public transport” with Tom Voege, Transport Analyst ITS at the ITF (Tuesday, 6 October, 11-12:30h, Hall 1 Expo – Theatre 1)
- “Autonomous, driverless vehicles: extending car-sharing and mobility as a service”, General Public Session with Tom Voege, Transport Analyst ITS at the ITF (Wednesday, 7 October, 12:45-14:15h, Exhibition Hall 1, ITS Forum)
- “Transforming freight movement through ITS”, Mini-Symposium with Stephen Perkins, ITF Head of Research (Friday, 9 October, 09-13:30h, Palais des Congrès, Room F1)
Discover and discuss ITF’s work on topics such as Big-Data in transport and autonomous vehicles at the ITF exhibition stand (A6). ITF experts will be available for information exchange and networking. Your stand host is Sharon Masterson, Manager for ITF’s Corporate Partnership Board.
