PRESS RELEASE
Next stop: Vienna ITS World Congress
The main responsibilities of Intelligent Transport Systems are to make traffic safer, more
efficient, and more environmentally friendly. The 19 th ITS World Congress will take place in
Vienna in October 2012, and already, Austrian businesses are working hard to put these
theories into practice.
While road traffic produced more than 18% of the greenhouse gases in the EU, only 0.5% of
the CO2 emissions came from European rail. Across Europe, traffic jams cost about 1.5% of
the GDP every year. These figures make one thing clear: moving traffic off the roads is both
necessary and possible, because the capacities of alternative modes of transport have life in
them yet. IT-supported systems can contribute hugely to traffic information and regulation.
Transport technology (also called Intelligent Transport Services – ITS) increases the flow of
traffic and, as much as possible, can inform users individually with real-time traffic updates,
and alternative routes or modes of transport.
Personalised traffic information is a key theme at the annual ITS World Congresses. The 19 th
ITS World Congress will be held from 22 to 26 October 2012 in Vienna, under the header ITS
Vienna 2012 - Smarter on the way. In keeping with this slogan, the advantages of ITS for
private and commercial users are at the heart of the event. Around a thousand technical
lectures will be held, dedicated to three core areas of ITS: providing efficiency, safety, and
environmental sustainability in transport. The congress was first held in Paris in 1994 and
rotates annually between Europe, Asia, and America.
Consumers in the Spotlight
Host BMVIT (Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation, and Technology) expects at the
conference around 3,000 experts from the fields of IT, telecommunications, and automation,
and a further 7,000 visitors to Vienna. At the accompanying industry exhibition, 300
companies from roughly 65 countries will display their cutting-edge developments in areas
such as driver assistance, traffic management, and navigation. Standardisation procedures
on a transnational level are also an important issue.
In the last ten years, the BMVIT has invested around 100 million Euros in the research and
development of modern mobility technologies, giving the economy the kick-start it needed.
“After 15 years of research, the task now is to bring ITS into the real world – to bring it to
transport users and the transport business,” says Doris Bures, Minister of Transport,
Innovation and Technology. The necessary technologies are, for the most part, available.
“Austria has a very strong ITS industry, with businesses at the front line of the international
scene,” claims Bures. The 19th ITS World Congress offers the domestic economy and the ITS
community the chance to present their pioneering roles in the area of transport technology.
On behalf of the BMVIT, AustriaTech, the federal ITS agent, coordinates the interests of the
country, and is responsible for a large-scale programme demonstrating the most recent
technical developments. Experts from the eSafety Forum have assessed the potential
capabilities of intelligent transport technologies for the years 2011-2020. They estimate that
traffic jams can be reduced by 15%, and that energy efficiency of transport can be improved
by 20%. In professional circles, the expectations of the field of transport safety are even
higher, with talk of reducing fatalities and serious injuries by 30% each.
Route Planner for Austria
With regard to climate targets and reducing CO2 emissions, all possibilities are being
explored. Verkehrsauskunft Österreich (VAO) is a very significant project, creating the
technical and organisational principles for a multimodal real-time information system.
Coordinated by Asfinag and sponsored by climate and energy funds, this gives users easy
access to travel information about public transport. In a study by Gallup titled “Future of
Transport” (October 2010), in which 25,570 EU citizens were interviewed, 53% claimed that
they used their car most for everyday transport, while 22% used public transport. In cities,
the proportion of public transport users rose to 37%, and for comparison, Austria is at 20%,
with Vienna at 36%.
VAO should be available in its first version for the World Congress, and it will go into live
operation in 2013. The aim is to create an inclusive and unified transport information service
for the whole of Austria, which can also recommend so-called multimodal routes. It should
integrate public and private transport, and thus make transport users aware of alternative
forms of transport.
Experts are working on a multimodal, unified transport system on a European level too. As
part of the project In-Time, six European cities are providing traveller information on a
uniform interface. Travellers can receive a comprehensive route planner covering all
transport possibilities in the cities of Brno, Bucharest, Florence, Munich, Oslo, and Vienna.
The main aim of the project is to reduce noise and CO2 emissions, as well as accelerating
public transport.
The project ITSworks carried out a study on the effects of multimodal transport system,
using the example of AnachB.at, which is available for Vienna, and the provinces of Lower
Austria and Burgenland. According to the results of the study, at best, the use of an
Intelligent Transport System could reduce car routes, mileage, and CO2 emissions by 6%.
There is already a range of apps on the market for iPhone and/or Android mobiles, which
deliver information to transport users: the spectrum reaches from the timetable information
service qando, across Asfinag’s traffic information service Unterwegs, for which the company
put up 350 webcams along the motorways, over to the mobility app Numo Wien. According
to project partners Fluidtime and Frührot, they combine “everything you need to move
forwards in Vienna”. Amongst other things, they contain information about public transport,
City-bikes, taxi ranks, short stay parking zones, and tickets. “A good start,” says Martin Russ,
managing director at AustriaTech, “but not enough. Traveller information needs to be
available in sufficient quantity and quality, and be on hand in real-time.”
Traffic Information on a Database
The foundation for interconnected services is called the Graphenintegrationsplattform (GIP),
and it combines all of the databases and geographic information systems, in which the
transport infrastructure in the public sector is controlled and collected. GIP identifies the
entirety of software, data, and policy, which work together for the industry and for the
modernisation of transport analysis.
The aim of the project is to build up an integrated regional reference system for the
transport network in Austria. The digital map of transport links should include all modes of
transport, and transport information and management should be recent, reliable, and
should be operated on one common platform. Safety-relevant implementation, for example
accident data, should also be on the up-to-date map and can be drawn upon as a reference.
The infrastructure operators arrange the continuous updating of the database. The allocated
databases will be synchronised at regular intervals, and added to a map of Austria.
Information about the urban area will also be shown on the GIP, as will information about
car parks, car-sharing places, and public transport stations and stops. In order to efficiently
avoid traffic jams, the lower order road network will also be integrated in, i.e., motorways,
main roads, and suburban or rural roads will all be considered as options. In the future,
navigation systems from commercial suppliers will be able to access the information hosted
on open platforms, and thus can be improved. In contrast to the partly redundant
applications, which are available today, the mobility services of the future will access one
common database, and “communicate with one another”.
The 19th ITS World Congress Vienna at a Glance
When:
Where:
Exhibitors:
Exhibition Area:
Visitors:
22 to 26 October 2012
Messe Wien, Exhibition & Congress Centre
300 from 65 countries
19,900 m2
10,000, of whom 3,000 congress participants
Timeline:
22 October 2012
23 -26 October 2012
24 October 2012
25 October 2012
26 October 2012
Opening Ceremony and Welcome Reception
Congress, Exhibition, and Demonstrations
Gala Dinner and ITS Ball
Public Day
Closing Ceremony
Sponsors:
Diamond
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Kapsch, Siemens, Swarco
Bombardier, Bosch
AIT, Asfinag, TomTom, ÖBB, Wiener Linien, Wiener Zeitung
AVL, ITS Vienna Region
More information at www.itsworldcongress.com
Queries:
Mr Martin Russ, Managing Director AustriaTech, [email protected]
Ms Rita Michlits, Communications Manager ITS Vienna 2012, [email protected]
T +43 1 2633444-43, F +43 1 2633444-10, M +43 676 6150006