The opening ceremony of ITS World Congress 2022 saw Laura Chace, president and CEO of ITS America, calling for a greater emphasis on including voices which are often not heard when it comes to planning ITS solutions.
Her plea was for the intelligent transportation community to think hard about how their products and services were used in the real world. The Congress theme of ‘Transformation by Transportation’ points to the idea that technology itself is not the focus.
“It’s about what these solutions can deliver for people,” she said. But in order to create greener, safer transportation services, there was a need to take account of all sorts of voices – not just those of the ITS sector.
“Are we listening, are we making changes to how we implement?” she asked. “Who is missing from this conversation? Who do we need to bring in to this work?”
Also at the opening ceremony, guest speaker Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti said the Congress' host city was seeking to ‘reimagine’ urban mobility. “We are trying to put the ‘human’ back into transportation,” he said. “Let’s make sure transportation isn’t just an idea, but something that implements a better world for all of us.”
Read ITS International's ongoing coverage of ITS World Congress 2022 in Los Angeles here
