ERTICO: What are the main lessons learnt from the first phase of EasyWay to succeed in a European-wide deployment of ITS services?
Ronald Adams: The most important lesson is that European wide deployment of ITS services needs well organised cooperation between the involved partners and stakeholders. EasyWay is in a unique position to organise this cooperation between member states partners (including the European Commission) and external stakeholders. The first phase of EasyWay showed many good results. Experiences gained lessons learned best practiced shared. And realised projects that have contributed to both national and European goals and that have provided valuable services to the European roadusers of the TEN-T Road Network.
Nevertheless both internal and external evaluations have revealed that there is space for further improvements of the EasyWay programme. EasyWay has taken into account all internal experiences and the additional recommendations from the European Services and from external stakeholders and have concluded that a number of concrete improvement are both possible and nessassary.
One of the most important improvements to be considered for the deployment of ITS services is a more pro-active communication with both the EasyWay Member States and partners the European Services and the external stakeholders to inform and explain the proposed contents and to actively search for common solutions in debatable issues.
A second point of attention was the new European framework (ITS Action Plan and ITS Directive). EasyWay has elaborated its own long term strategy in order to describe in the so called Strategy and Action Plan a desired future state of the European road transport system in support of the deployment of Europe-wide ITS services and the creation of added value for the users of the TEN-T road network. The Strategy as agreed by all EasyWay partners provides both internal and external stakeholders with long term guidance on what to do how and where to do it when to do it and in which partnership. In this way cooperation will be faster more efficient more productive and more harmonised.
Important and consistent elements of the EasyWay Strategy and Action Plan are: the Policy framework the Vision the Core European ITS Services the Goals the Road Map and the detailed workplans for EasyWay Phase II.
The Policy framework constitutes high-level guidance provided by European and Member State transport policies concerning the direction to take in the programme execution including the definition of priorities to be considered in the planning process.
The Vision for harmonised ITS services describes a desired future long-term until 2020 state of the road transport system. As EasyWay partners work for the public good the Vision has been expressed from the perspective of end users in the European transport system – private as well as professional.
To establish the strategy to work from the current situation towards the Vision EasyWay has defined from the road operators’ perspective a range of Goals between 2010 and 2020 that will guide the definition of programme activities.
The Road-Map summarises the development and implementation steps to be taken and defines the period in which this needs to be done in order to fulfill the specific Goals. The process results in the Road-Map for EasyWay deployment. This provides the strategic foundation for the detailed planning and the guide for the exploration of future possibilities in ITS. It defines the long term actions and priorities for the planning process and a timeline for the deployment of ITS services including cooperation with external stakeholders and dependency on technical developments.
The workplans contain the concrete projects aiming both at harmonised deployment and at horizontal studies.
A last lesson we have learned from EasyWay I want to mention here is that the governance of the EasyWay Programme can be be further strengthened. The installation of the new Supervisory Programme Board with high level represenatatives from the Member States is important. The main task of the SPB is to connect national and European developments and guide the EasyWay Programme in the right direction. Other elements of further improving governance are quality and riskmanagement.
Mr Ronald Adams – Chairman of EasyWay 2011 Project and Strategic Advisor for Network Management at the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment
ERTICO: What are the necessary and priority ITS services to be implemented in Europe?
Ronald Adams: User demand for ITS services is growing rapidly and is following market trend: on-board and mobile devices as well as information services covering transport and numerous complementary usages (leisure tourism and infotainment) are some examples.
The identification of necessary and priority ITS services derives both from user needs and from European and Member State transport policies and are closely related to priorities defined in the ITS Action Plan and the ITS Directive (2010/40/EC).
Mapping EasyWay activities against the ITS Action Plan demonstrates a very large correlation between the needs expressed by the European Commission in the ITS Action Plan and the deployment and development activities within EasyWay in response to partner needs.
The recent ITS Directive (2010/40/EC) is strictly tied to the implementation of the ITS Action Plan and is intended to facilitate the adoption of EU harmonised specifications and standards for ITS services relating to road transportation and interfaces with other modes of transport for the end purpose of increasing the effectiveness and sustainability of road transportation.
The Directive identifies four main Priority Areas which are further specified in six Priority Actions for ITS services.
Mapping EasyWay activities against the ITS Directive demonstrates a very strong correlation with all four Priority Areas included as development and deployment areas within EasyWay.
EasyWay has defined its priority ITS services so called “Core Services” to be implemented in the coming years are related to:
- Pre-trip and on-trip Traveller Information
- Co-modal Traveller Information
- Management of sensitive road segments
- Traffic Management on Corridors and network
- Incident Management
- Intelligent Truck Parking
- Access to abnormal and hazard goods transport regulation
- Information and Communication Technologies Infrastructure
- VMS harmonisation (Mare Nostrum)
- DATEX II
An important instrument to support the harmonised deployment of thos core services are the so called Deployment Guidelines. For EasyWay Phase II the 2010 version of the Deployment Guidelines will be used in principle for the projects in workplan. Parallel to that EasyWay has set up a porcess for further improvement of the Deployment Guidelines which will lead to new versions at the end of 2012. Of course partners and external stakeholders play an important role in this process.
ERTICO: …and their expected benefits to significantly improve road transport in Europe?
Ronald Adams: The full potential of ITS services can only be realised if their deployment in Europe goes from local and national to Europe-wide. This is a clear goal of the EU ITS Action Plan and the ITS Directive 2010/40/EC to which EasyWay commits itself fullhearted.
From the road operator and traffic manager points of view ITS services have already proven their efficiency in addressing road congestion traffic management on sensitive networks road safety security of commercial transport operations or urban mobility and facilitating the road user travelling from A to B.
ITS applications for journey planning dynamic in-vehicle navigation and eco-driving support also contribute to congestion relief to greener mobility and to reduce energy consumption.
Reflecting with a medium term perspective EasyWay has defined a range of Goals between 2010 and 2020 that will guide the definition of programme activities.
EasyWay has defined for the year 2020: 25% improvement in safety 25% improvement in efficiency and 10% less damage to the environment due to increased use of coordinated ITS.
With a short term perspective there are five key objectives:
- to deploy Europe-wide ITS Core Services for the benefit of the road users. By doing so the programme supports the transport policy goals concerning road safety environmental impact from transport and mobility
- to achieve a widespread understanding of agreed deployment priorities (e.g. through the Road-Map) and common solutions
- to carry out common education and training activities for people engaged in TC operations in order to ensure that the adaptation and use of these services also are harmonised
- to work on the dissemination of solutions and results to organisations outside of EasyWay in order to extend the impact of EasyWay’s work
- to support innovations future ITS services and solutions
EasyWay contributes directly and significantly to the overall objective to improve quality of life by improving: safety (the reduction of fatalities and injuries) mobility (the reduction of economical damages due to delays and reduced accessibility) and mitigation of climate change (the reduction of environmental damages). The EasyWay results are clearly visible to the European road users and have significant positive impacts on the lives of many EU citizens.
ERTICO: What are the main ambitions and challenges of next phase activities within EasyWay?
Ronald Adams: EasyWay’s achievements already demonstrate the success of this unique and inclusive cooperative platform. EasyWay has and will played an important role in the creation of a seamless European transport system through coordinated ITS deployments from local regional and national level to Europe-wide according to the priorities defined in the ITS Action Plan and the ITS Directive (2010/40/EC).
So the main challenges of the next phase activities are:
- Contribute to European and national mobility and transport policies through ITS implementation namely to improve safety and mobility and reduce environmental impact from road transport by deploying and endorsing Europe-wide ITS services
- Contribute to the creation of a seamless transport system fostering deployment of services designed for cross-border continuity and facilitating extensive harmonisation
- Prioritise the ITS services and their deployment
- Foster innovation and enable future development through the establishment of horizontal activities like European pilot implementations viability studies execution of joint development activities (e.g. DATEX II)
- Promote high-level discussions within the EasyWay organisation and with external stakeholders on current and future requirements for harmonised transport systems
ERTICO: Why is cooperation so important in Europe to achieve successful deployment?
Ronald Adams: The cooperation between national Ministries Road Authorities and Operators and partners from the private and public sectors of the EU Member States is necessary to realise the common goals to alleviate road transport problems (i.e. mobility safety and environmental impact) in the EU and to serve the users of the European road network. The cooperation is on one hand a significant challenge but one the other hand a prominent and unique opportunity for European harmonisation of ITS.
EasyWay is the only organisation in Europe where Member States cooperate intensively on the development of European ITS services. Almost all road operators (authorities and concessionaires) along the TEN-T Roads are cooperating in the active development and deployment of ITS. EasyWay also cooperates through open communication with European Services and public and private partners. This cooperation will be further strengthened by means of the newly formed Supervisory Programme Board (EW SPB) in which Member States and European Services are represented. This enables the connection of national and European ITS initiatives and to make important contributions to the deployment of Europe-wide ITS services.
EasyWay intends to continue the cooperation even after 2013 and beyond 2020. The Member States realise that beside internal cooperation (between Member States and European Services) cooperation with “external stakeholders” will further harmonise and accelerate deployment of ITS and reduce economic and social costs. EC support is a key stimulus for the success of this ongoing cooperation.
Without coordination such deployment remains fragmented and cannot provide geographical continuity of ITS services throughout the EU and at its external borders and the full potential of ITS in support of European Transport Policies is not realised.
ERTICO: What do you personally see as a main personal ambition for EasyWay in your upcoming year as Chairman?
Ronald Adams: As I said before I think that the main ambition for EasyWay is the achievement of a seamless transport system through coordinated deployment of ITS services designed for cross-border continuity and facilitating extensive harmonisation for the sake of the European road user who wants to travel efficientsafe clean and convenient from A to B.
Cooperation and communication between EasyWay partners with internal and external stakeholders (private and public and includiing the European Services) is crucial to obtain this objective so there will be an important part of my focus.
Equally important to me is that we will deliver as EasyWay what we have promised in our ambitious Strategy and Actionplan. And if we succeed to do so (which I firmly believe!) we will also succeed to secure the role of EasyWay as one of the structural leaders in Europe when it comes to the harmonised deployment of ITS services.
Link to original Article
http://www.ertico.com/the-ertico-january-2011-interview/
Original Publication Date: Mon 24 Jan 2011
