The international transport technology event of the year: ITS Australia’s Global Summit 2023

This summer, TISA attended ITS Australia’s ITS Global Summit 2023, which took place at Melbourne’s Convention and Exhibition Centre from 28-31 August 2023. ‘What an eventful week for TISA in Melbourne’ said Stephanie Chaufton, TISA Coordinator, who moderated two well-attended sessions: Standardisation Requirements for active mobility and Emergency Alerts & Warnings for Drivers, Automated Vehicles.

‘Developing standards is a good and essential step for active mobility’, said Paul D Yacoumis, State Government Victoria, Department for Transport and Planning one of the speakers for TISA’s session on  Standardisation requirements for Active Mobility. With increasingly polluted cities, the importance of alternatives to cars in the form of active mobility is growing, yet this brings new challenges, such as managing the coexistence of bike and car traffic, developing new infrastructure, and ensuring information is available for cyclists. The challenge is not to create an ‘ultimate one-size-fits-all’ solution for standards, but to ensure interoperability and alignment.  Other contributions included a presentation from the Cycling Industries Europe as well as from GEWI AG, presented by Danny Woolard.

There were also very good discussions in the session on Emergency Alerts and Warnings for drivers. ‘TPEG2-EAW is a huge step in the right direction to disseminate relevant information during emergency events and can prepare those in disaster areas for what’s coming.’ said Daniel Kelly of HERE Technologies. 2023 has seen scorching temperatures, wildfires as well as floodings across many countries in the world, more recently in Lahaina, Hawaii and Libya, leading to tragic circumstances.  With global warming, intense changes in weather patterns can facilitate situations that can have a catastrophic impact on human life. Providing clear early warnings via in navigation systems to both residents and tourists is vital for saving lives, which is exactly where TPEG2-EAW comes in and can make a significance difference.

Other speakers included Danny Woolard of GEWI AG, Eliot Christian of Alert-hub-org, Rob Finney of  Intelematics  and Melissa Perkins of Queensland Government Department of Transport and Main Roads.  To the question ‘what are the next steps?’  Danny Woolard proposed an official MoU between the different stakeholders.

TISA would like to thank GEWI for offering the possibility of sharing a stand at the ITS Global Summit in Melbourne.