Key experts from the ERTICO Academy delivered training on ITS and MaaS in the context of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPS) to the cities of Izmir and Ankara, in collaboration with ERTICO Partner trainers from the cities of Copenhagen, Denmark and Hamburg, Germany. The city of Antwerp and its experience in the Socrates 2.0 project on interactive traffic management also provided a useful case study for the trainee civil servants, used with the permission of the Dutch Ministry, coordinating the project.
“There is nothing quite like peer-to-peer training for learning. The best experiences and lessons learned provided by the cities of Copenhagen and Hamburg can be directly shared by the public authorities of these ERTICO City Partners to the cities of Izmir and Ankara. ERTICO is ideally placed to provide the platform to bring these cities together to learn from each other, particularly due to our active work on SUMPs and the knowledge of our Partners. ERTICO really has a unique selling point,” says Dr. Johanna Tzanidaki, ERTICO Director of Innovation and Deployment and active trainer in the Academy.
Johanna and her team of ERTICO’s in-house experts Vladimir Vorotovic, Andrew Winder and Coen Bresser provided insights on Interactive Traffic Management, MaaS, ITS and Green Mobility with the long-term objective of working closer with cities to ensure that their SUMPs become more strategic and more focused on delivering innovative solutions to their citizens.
“The City of Copenhagen aims to be carbon neutral by 2025. This was a commitment we made in 2013, and today we have learnt many lessons at what works and what does not regarding the decarbonisation of urban mobility. Therefore, we are delighted to be able to share these experiences with other cities,” Jos van Vlerken from Københavns Kommune, representing the City of Copenhagen.
“Hamburg is a forward-looking city, where we see the adoption of new intelligent mobility solutions as a stepping stone towards a sustainable future. We are happy to share our experiences with cities worldwide, and we look forward to welcoming them when they participate in the ITS World Congress in 2021, taking place in Hamburg,” Sascha Westermann from Hamburger Hochbahn AG, representing the City of Hamburg.
“The ERTICO Academy remains a crucial tool for upskilling in mobility innovation. In addition to city peer-to-peer exchange, there is such a wealth of knowledge in the industry and research communities that needs to be shared with cities worldwide!” says Zeljko Jeftic, Deputy Director of Innovation and Deployment, the main driver behind the ERTICO Academy trainings.
ERTICO and its team of experts will also be providing training to the Turkish cities of Bursa and Gaziantep later in the month of October.
The ERTICO Academy is a unique training platform that offers Public Authorities and their teams’ personalised and interactive trainings in smart mobility on a wide range of topics. The ERTICO Academy facilitates learning and enables participants to upskill with the training provided by experienced mobility experts and state-of-the-art resources. Integrating innovative technologies in European transport systems offers benefits for citizens, regulators and businesses and ultimately leads to a better life for all.
