15th ITS European Congress in Lisbon: The Game Changer

June 1, 2023
|In IRF News
|By Mao Macatangay

With the opening of the 15th ITS European Congress on Monday 22 May, Lisbon witnessed three full days of innovative technology, business and policy solutions that make ITS the game changer for mobility and transport. The International Road Federation (IRF) was pleased to join its partner, ERTICO and the intelligent and smart mobility community at this successful and valuable event. 

Under the theme, “ITS: The Game Changer”, the Lisbon Congress brought together more than 2500 members of the ITS Community from 59 countries around Europe and beyond to bring into focus what is being done to deliver smart mobility today, while also discussing innovative solutions for the challenges that remain. The high-level and technical programme of the Congress included over 110 session and workshops and a Smart Mobility Summit of Cities and Regions. 

IRF Deputy Director General, Gonzalo Alcaraz joined a panel of experts at the session “Automated Road Transport – a Multistakeholder Value Case Approach” to explore the future benefits of automation for each stakeholder. Mr Alcaraz specifically addressed the pros and cons from the perspective of road infrastructure stakeholders. 

Cooperative, connected and automated technology is expected to be the game changer in passenger and goods mobility, but how do we get there? The session “Empowering Communities Through Automated Mobility Education & Capacity Building” brought together IRF and several European organisations to discuss the importance of stakeholder cooperation and capacity building in advancing autonomous mobility. Moreover, the session reported on expectations from authorities to meet policy goals in cities and at a national level, strategies developed by transport authorities to facilitate integration of autonomous vehicles, associated shared mobility services in existing transport systems, and lessons learnt from trials and commercial operations.

The Congress offered a unique setting for IRF to deliver along with other partners of the SHOW Project, a certified training on “Interconnecting the Autonomous Mobility Ecosystem”. The training session aimed to provide an overarching introduction of the Autonomous Mobility ecosystem, the different actors involved, and how they interact and interconnect with each other. Furthermore, the session presented different infrastructure-oriented technologies and how they are applied in the field, including real-life use cases deployed in cities around Europe.  

The Congress proceedings (papers and presentations) will be available by the end of June. The post-Congress Report will be available in July. For more information, visit www.itseuropeancongress.com.