European associations and congress news

World Congress announces speakers and demo line-up

A preliminary speaker line-up and a number of live demonstrations have been announced for the 2015 6456 ITS World Congress. The demonstrations will include Automatic Braking, a plug in ‘connected vehicle’ Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control at Intersections, Remote Parking and Driver Monitoring System for Automated Driving and Bicycle Tracking.

As part of the Automatic Emergency Braking demonstration the driver’s performance will be analysed, along with the behaviour of the other road users. Drivers will receive a one-page printout and access to download a viewer and the scenarios produced during the live demonstration.

CanCan will demonstrate a smartphone application that connects with the car’s OBD socket via a dongle to receive connected services in the vehicle delivered in voice mode.

The Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard-UTBM will demonstrate a cooperative adaptive cruise control that enables vehicles to ‘negotiate’ access to conflicting spaces such as at an intersection.

Three equipped vehicles will run on a figure-of-eight circuit and visitors will be able to experience how the systems will decide which vehicle will cross the intersection first, which will be the next and so on. The demonstration will show how such a ‘sequence formation’ will help prevent gridlock and how the vehicles synchronise their speeds to avoid stops.

To download the preliminary programme go to: http://itsworldcongress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ERTICO-BordeauxITS-PrelimProgramme.pdf

• IBTTA
• Ertico
• ITS UK
  

IBTTA

IBTTA HEAD FOR IRELAND

In line with its tradition of holding its Annual Meeting and Exhibition overseas every four years, the US-based International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association (63 IBTTA) will be holding its 2015 Meeting in Dublin, Ireland from 30 August to 2 September. Speakers and contributors from both sides of the Atlantic will explore topics including innovative ideas in transport, the economic, policy and technology issues that will affect mobility in the future, and the economics of the world’s transportation system. On the practical side will be technical tours and sessions on procurement, technology and security, incident response plans, service level improvements on congested toll roads, and value added services.  Delegates will also be able to take a tour of the Guinness brewery.

ERTICO NAMES NEW CHAIRMAN

374 ERTICO has elected Cees De Wijs, CEO of 129 Swarco, to become its new chairman, replacing Jean Mesqui. The election took place during the association’s annual general assembly in Brussels where it discussed the previous year’s achievements and the next strategic steps.

These include five strategic programs to be launched this year covering areas such as connected and automated driving, freight and logistics, eCall, eMobility and urban mobility which aim to identify long-term objectives and fill current gaps for deployment.

New ITS (UK) chairman targets Glasgow Congress

ITS (UK) has elected Dr Alan Stevens of 491 TRL as its new chairman.  Dr Stevens is chief research scientist and research director at TRL (the Transport Research Laboratory) and replaces Sharon Kindleysides of 81 Kapsch who served the customary two- year term.

Dr Stevens has been involved in ITS (UK) since its origins in 1992 and said: “ITS is now ‘business as usual’ in many areas of transportation but also has exciting growth potential in areas of connectivity and automation. I look forward to engaging with both the membership and the wider Intelligent Mobility community.”

Ian Patey of 499 Mouchel was elected as vice chairman and Fraser Somerville of 1677 Atkins becomes technical director.

The Association is already planning the 2016 European ITS Congress in Glasgow (6 – 9 June) with preparations overseen by the European Programme Committee for the ITS Congresses (also overseeing this year’s World Congress).

Glasgow will focus on students and young professionals with school visits and a ‘hackathon’ both planned. Key themes will cover connected and automated vehicles, ways to bring services to users, transport applications of satellite technologies, sustainable transport and the role of ITS in helping to overcome climate change.