Advancing global standards together in Ljubljana

From 20-21 June 2023, TISA and its members congregated for TISA’s annual General Assembly, hosted and organised by TISA member REALIS, in Slovenia’s capital city Ljubljana. The meeting took place at the Crystal Palace, Slovenia’s tallest building, which offers magnificent views of the city and its surrounds.  TISA’s President Thomas Kusche-Knezevic  and attending members were welcomed by Mr Andrej Ribič, Member of the Management Board of the Slovenian Motorway Operator DARS, which manages more than 625 km of motorways across the country.

Due to Slovenia’s location within the heart of Europe, it has a natural need to cooperate and seek  innovative solutions for its traffic management. ‘Our goal is to establish an effective, integrated system that will cope with today’s challenges. The basis for good decision-making is the availability and quality of traffic data. DARS ensures the constant installation of various roadside equipment for data collection on the one hand and traffic management systems on the other.’

TISA also invited Adriano Palao Bernal, Technical Manager at the safety organisation Euro NCAP, to the General Assembly, who presented an overview of Euro NCAP’s requirements and future vision. He also revealed how overall vehicle safety can be enhanced from the effective delivery of traffic information and that from 2026, Euro NCAP will encourage and incentivise vehicle manufacturers to share Local Hazard information to maximise interoperability and penetration rates. For this, closer collaboration between vehicle manufacturers, service providers and road authorities, is key.  Stephanie Leonard of TomTom commented ‘Euro NCAP as an independent organisation is able to push the needle much faster on developments in safety than regulators, making it an ideal facilitator.’ Euro NCAP and TISA agreed to intensify collaboration about these topics.

At the Assembly, TISA was delighted to give former Treasurer Andras Gorsak the TISA Fellowship. He is one of only six Fellows ever awarded. Thanking him for his tireless work, TISA President  Thomas Kusche-Knezevic  said ‘The role of the Treasurer is one that needs a lot of trust, sensitivity and very often a thick skin. TISA has been fortunate to find someone who fitted this description like a blueprint. He has weighed up the opportunities and risks of financial decisions before others knew there were some. We thank him for all the successes that TISA was able to achieve through his forward-looking work.’