ERTICO’s Partner ITS Turkey invited ERTICO’s Chairman Dr Angelos Amditis, ERTICO’s CEO Mr Joost Vantomme, and Dr. Johanna Tzanidaki, Director of Innovation & Deployment at ERTICO to attend and participate in the SUMMITS’22 Conference in Ankara. The event covered the latest developments of smart mobility and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and provided a great set of innovative ideas and lessons learned. The Conference programme discussed current mobility challenges that cities face today and how they can overcome these challenges with ITS solutions.
On the first Conference day, Dr Amditis opened the SUMMITS’22 together with Mrs Esma Dilek, President of ITS Turkey and Deputy Director-General of Communications at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure in Turkey. Opening speeches were delivered as well by Kristian Hedberg, EU DG Move, Head of Unit Sustainable and Intelligent Transport, and the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Turkey.
The SUMMITS’22 Program brought together key actors and stakeholders in the transport and mobility sectors which provided a unique opportunity to learn about the latest ITS technologies and new mobility concepts. Dr Amditis in his opening speech presented ERTICO, the new challenges and opportunities in the era of smart mobility and the strong cooperation and collaboration between ERTICO and ITS Turkey (and other stakeholders in Turkey). “It is all about a new integrated, smart, digital, safe and green Transport System for the benefit of all citizens, a true Internet of Mobility,” said Dr Amditis. “I am happy to see the strong collaboration of ERTICO with Turkey in many fields, including training, innovation and deployment actions and SUMP tenders ” Following the Opening Ceremony, Mr Vantomme presented the work of ERTICO and its Partnerships during the ITS Policies panel session. ERTICO’s unique public-private partnership characteristic shows the great importance of the role of ITS and smart mobility in Europe. “ERTICO is working from a twofold perspective: smart and sustainable mobility. Together with our Partners, we are connecting the dots across the different sectors but also between the multimodal transportations modes”, says Joost Vantomme, ERTICO CEO. “I am are grateful for the excellent collaboration we have with ITS Turkey and thankful to Mrs Dilek because the dedicated work ITS Turkey conducts in the region is a true mirror of ERTICO in Turkey, connecting all the consistency together”.
AUS Türkiye (ITS Turkey) also presented their ITS and Mobility Plan 2020-2023 using the ERTICO ITS Strategy (slide) as its basis for clean, safe, efficient, affordable and shared mobility. At a separate meeting held between the ITS Turkey Board, the EU DG Move, Head of Unit Sustainable and Intelligent Transport, Kristian Hedberg and the ERTICO representatives, the mobility plans and opportunities for ITS deployment were discussed in depth. Both the private and the public sectors in Turkey are very much aligned with the mobility policies and strategy of the EU.
Earlier during the week, on Tuesday 8 March, Dr Johanna Tzanidaki, Director Innovation and Deployment at ERTICO and Ms Itir Coskun, Innovation Engineer at SWARCO presented two training sessions under the ERTICO Academy: Traffic Management and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and Connected and Cooperative Automated Mobility (CCAM) to an audience physically and digitally participating for the full-day courses. The ERTICO Academy certificates were handed to the successful candidates on the first day of the SummITS event in full plenary. On the last day of the SummITS, Dr. Tzanidaki presented at the Smart and Sustainable Transport panel, the updated ERTICO RoadMaps on the four focus areas on ERTICO innovation work and shared information on the dominant trends in ITS in Europe. The audience posed the question on how can the targets set by ERTICO in its RoadMaps be attained and Dr. Tzanidaki explained that ERTICO believes that targets on safety, traffic efficiency and climate neutrality are shared among all mobility stakeholders in Europe, who should be working in unison to achieve them.
ITS Turkey is a strategic partner for ERTICO – ITS Europe and this was demonstrated by the strong participation of ERTICO at Ankara SummITS 22. ERTICO partnership will foster and nourish Turkey’s mobility Plans and Strategy as presented by the Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil KARAİSMAİLOĞLU and will strengthen the cooperation towards our shared vision for the future of mobility. Thank you, Mrs Esma Dilek, President of ITS Turkey and Deputy Director-General of Communications at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure in Turkey
