A successful “first service” event of ITS Network Germany

At the ITS Forum Berlin in mid-May 2011 more than 80 expert delegates and 30 speakers came together for a very fruitful congress (in German and English) and networking event in the “embassy” of the State of Niedersachsen at one of Berlin´s finest address near the Brandenburg Gate – and they all got an up-to-date view of intelligent traffic technologies. It was the first annual meeting of Germany’s national ITS branch presented by the speaker of the board Heinz Sodeikat a former director of ERTICO.

Future ITS strategies were the focus of all official and informal talks within this two-day conference e.g. the requirements of public institutions  for enhanced traffic information by the German Federal Road Agency BASt and the WDR for German broadcast – as well aspects of private providers (PTV TomTom and others).

In the future special awareness vis-à-vis ITS solutions should be given to urban traffic taking into account that more than 72% of all Europeans reside in urban areas. While Steve Kearns (Transport for London) pointed out the positive impact of the city congestion charge the German road organisation ADAC made clear that according to its research congestion charging for cities has a minor influence on traffic flow. A much more effective approach – they said – will be the deployment of smart guidance systems for parking in resident areas. This approach was technically underlined by system providers like Kapsch presenting their C02 access control.

The second day of the conference centred its discussions around the ITS directive and its transformation into national legislation. The represantatives of the EU Commission and the German government pointed out the criterias and frameworks for needed national actions up to 2020. The traffic ministry also described the relevant procedures for enabling the placement of a German ITS law as a national mirror of the Directive. Science public institutions and industry are now requested to give input into this process.

The next annual meeting of ITS Network Germany will take place in May 2012 – in the Hessen “embassy” just across the street – and therefore again in the heart of Berlin.

 

 

 

Link to original Article

http://www.ertico.com/its-forum-berlin/

Original Publication Date: Thu 28 Jul 2011