Targetting individuals and optimising road network usage was also recommended in the guidelines. Kearns highlighted the importance of getting good information to road users in order to optimise the traffic network. Citing a traffic accident for example, Kearns explained that it was vital to use ITS in order to redirect people onto multiple different routes around it in order to actually solve the problem rather than simply move it. Kearns also described how ITS can be successfully deployed in order to minimise human involvement at the operational level. Indeed, he explained how ITS is better suited to performing mundane tasks that have to be performed by humans at the moment. In using ITS in this manner, it would free people up to work on the more complex aspects of traffic management rather than simply, for example, flipping through CCTV cameras looking for accidents. In closing, Kearns summed up stating that there was a significant challenge in making the document useful and relevant. The take-away, however was that partnerships are vital to the deployment of ITS in the field of ITS for traffic management and urban logistics. Finally, he declared that there is a balance that must be struck between standardisation, harmonisation and subsidiarity.
Helge Jensen, Agency For Road and Transport, City of Oslo - EUROCITIES
Helge Jensen, Agency For Road and Transport, City of Oslo presented the EUROCITIES position on the Commission’s draft guidelines. He began by quoting the EUROCITIES statement on sustainable cities, stating that the ‘user should be at the center of ITS, not technology’. He continued by saying that intelligent transport systems ‘should support modal shift’. Turning to his experience of ITS deployment in Oslo, he explained that, on the whole, the city was only truly embarking on smaller scale ITS projects such as fine tuning signalling for traffic management. The city’s main concern, he said, was public transport. He conceded that Oslo could be doing more, which is why, he said, that cities need the guidelines published by the expert group. He explained that there is a conflict between the types of traffic on the street whether it be private cars, commercial vehicles, bikes, public transport or freight. He posed the question of how to use the data that authorities collect as there is a lot collected but it must be used if ITS is implemented. He praised the guidelines for their detail on what ITS can offer cities for traffic and freight management stating that it is vital to sell ITS to decision makers at both the political and purchasing level. Politicians are, he said, eager to grasp the benefits of ITS and that stakeholders must chooses whatever it is possible to sell at the political level. He explained that ITS has worked extremely well for improving public transport and that the guidelines should demonstrate such benefits. He continued by saying that ITS should be used to help people make more considered choices as regards their mobility and that there is a need for more research and development to see what ITS can do for the field of urban logistics. In order to get ITS deployment moving, he suggested the establishment of a rewards scheme 15