Glasgow, 6 June 2016 – Councillor Bailie Liz Cameron, Hugh Gillies (Director of Trunk Road and Bus Operations, Transport Scotland), Violeta Bulc (Commissioner for Transport), Cees de Wijs (Chair of the ERTICO Supervisory Board), and John Parkinson (Director of Motoring, Freight and London, Department for Transport), marked the start of the 11th ITS European Congress.
This year Congress’ theme is “Delivering future cities now”, largely focusing on increasing connectivity, bringing new services to users and improving communication in a sustainable way. In the next three days, over 500 speakers will discuss latest topics and trends, present services and mobility solutions, and highlight policies and needs to a large scale deployment of ITS.
“It is a very exciting time for ITS and under this year’s Congress there are 3 major trends revolutionising mobility in our cities: Cooperative ITS, Urban freight and Mobility as a Service”, Cees De Wijs, Chair of ERTICO Supervisory Board, stated in his opening speech. “We will not only see that these trends will gain in momentum over the upcoming years but that they will converge. This convergence will be driven by connectivity and data exchange which will break down the existing silo thinking in the mobility industry”, he continued.
This year’s Opening was followed by the Best Paper Awards, covering the topics of cooperative ITS (C-ITS) and safety, and the first Plenary Session on connected and automated vehicles, with the participation of Magda Kopczynska (Director, Innovative and Sustainable Mobility at DG MOVE), Jacob Bansgaard (Director General, FIA), Morten Kabell (Mayor of Technical and Environmental Affairs, City of Copenhagen), and Erik Jonnaert (Secretary General, ACEA).
The ITS European Congress takes place in Glasgow from 6 to 9 June at the SECC, the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre and is organised by ERTICO – ITS Europe in partnership with the European Commission, hosted by Glasgow City Council and Visit Scotland, and supported by the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), ITS United Kingdom, Transport Scotland and the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (People Make Glasgow).
