Associations News around Europe

ERTICO: Hungarian  scheme has European potential

ITS Hungary

374 ERTICO ITS-Europe’s director of partnership services Rasmus Lindholm has met directors of Hungary’s National Mobile Payment scheme to explore opportunities for future cooperation. The event took place against the backdrop of the two organisations’ shared aim of putting ITS at the heart of the country’s Intermodal Transport Roadmap.

Lindholm sees the state-run Mobile Payment scheme as achieving more than just benefits for Hungary. “It has the potential to become a source of inspiration for public authorities and service providers across Europe,” he said.

 Echoing the point was Lajos Barcsa, deputy mayor of Debrecen, Hungary’s second-largest city, which faces mounting mobility challenges and is looking to public transport as a prime means of meeting them. “Sharing experience and learning from each other is essential,” he said.  

In its initial phase, which went live in July 2014, the scheme is enabling users to pay by mobile phone for parking and distance-based truck tolls. It will be rolled out to cover public transport fare payment, with the emphasis on enabling interoperable smart ticketing and multimodal travel.

The initiative forms an integral element in Hungary’s commitment to build ‘intelligent cities’ in conformity with EU Directive SCC3-2015 on the development of system standards for smart communities that will run on ITS-based transport.

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ITS Ireland

We like it, say Irish

A convincing 93% of respondents to a recent membership survey believe that 7075 ITS Ireland’s existence is important for the development of the sector. Major reasons for joining include widening knowledge of ITS and networking with other members, with networking emerging as the best aspect of the 2014 conference.

All who attended technical seminars and training events found them of value. But most would like to see greater emphasis on innovations. Over 95% are happy for their contact details to be shown on the ITS Ireland website.

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 ITS France

France in Space

Satellite-based navigation remains poorly understood by a significant number of actors in the ITS industry, according to research by ATEC-8082 ITS France. Its findings show that some regard GPS as a fully-developed technology, “capable of dealing with every possible locational problem”; for others, it insufficiently reliable.

 The truth, says ATEC, “lies in between”. To help clarify issues, it staged a one-day seminar on 16 March to give those attending a deeper understanding of the underlying principles, strengths and weaknesses of the technology, and of the relevant contexts for deployment.

The programme covered themes including the role of GPS in developing the intelligent cities of the future; and, in a contribution from the Bordeaux Metropolitan Council, in real-time monitoring of public transport services.

The southwestern French city will become a focus of global interest in the technology as the venue of the 2015 6456 ITS World Congress, running from 5-9 October, which has ‘Better Use of Space’ as a major theme. ATEC-ITS France is a host partner.

Speaking for the International Programme Committee, which has just announced the receipt of over 900 papers, French ecology minister Roger Pagny recently said: “The Congress aims to kick-start a new technological era by bridging the awareness gap between ITS and the space sector.”

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ITS Australia

Joining forces ‘down under’

858 ITS Australia is, for the first time, collocating the country’s two main sector events – the ITS Summit and the National Electronic Tolling Forum – at a single venue in Melbourne from 12-14 May. Says CEO Susan Harris: “Combining the two will deliver the most important gathering of ITS professionals in Australia in 2015.”

One session will cover the role of ITS in enhancing the transport user’s experience - against the backdrop of recent research by business consultants PWC for the country’s Tourism & Transport Forum. This stresses the “aversion to the unknown” lying at the heart of users’ perceptions, “often driven by disproportionate attention to system failures”.