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  • ITS news
  • Conversations from the ITS World Congress 2021 #5

17 October 2021

Conversations from the ITS World Congress 2021 #5

ITS Australia

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This week, the 2021 ITS World Congress is being held in Hamburg, Germany. In Episode 5 of our podcast series from Congress, Susan Harris, CEO of ITS Australia talks to Laura Chace, President and Chief Executive of ITS America.

Susan: Good morning, everyone. I'm Susan Harris, the Chief Executive at ITS Australia. This week, as many of you are aware, the ITS World Congress is being held in Hamburg, Germany. And while unfortunately, most Australians are not able to attend, we've taken this opportunity to connect with many of our friends and partners who are over in over in Hamburg, to get some insights from them. So today, we've got the great pleasure of talking to Laura Chase, the President and Chief Executive at ITS America. Laura, thanks very much for finding time in what I know is always a super busy schedule at the World Congress. Thanks for joining us today.

Laura: Thank you for having me, I'm thrilled to be able to talk to you remotely and look forward to seeing you and all your colleagues next year.

Susan: Looking forward to it as well, don't worry about that. Congratulations on your appointment as Chief Executive and President at ITS America, thrilled to see you take on that role. We look forward to continuing to work with you in that space. I know you've been in Hamburg now for a few days, I'll be interested to get your feel of how it's going and what the vibe in Hamburg is, and some of the themes that you're seeing coming through in the Congress.

Laura: Sure, well, it is great to be here in person finally. As you know Susan it's the first time in two years for our global ITS community to really gather in person. I think that the number one theme I would say, irrespective of the ITS is, people are really hungry for that in-person networking and the face to face interactions. So that's been very successful. And I think that has really shown people that this can be done in a safe manner, to maintain those collaborations and partnerships and connections. So I think that that's one theme coming out is that the industry can do this. We can actually continue these in-person events in a safe manner.

In terms of the ITS space, there's been a strong commitment from global partners and entities about this transition to sustainable transportation, transition to electrification, and the importance of climate change, and what our sector can do to reduce emissions. And although the different regions, I would say, are in different places on their path to sustainability, there is a collective agreement that everyone needs to be working together and get out of our silos, and really be working together, both globally, but then also intermodally, to really ensure that we can meet some of these targets and truly reduce emissions within our sector. So that's one area.

Another area theme that's come out of this conversation is, as we talk about Smart Mobility, as we talk about a lot of these innovative mobility applications and concepts that are being deployed all around the world, open data networks, and sharing data is really critical. So we need to be able to share data both among the private sector, agencies within regions, between the private sector and public sector, and then even, there's been some discussion that private sector needs to be able to share some data between competitors if we really want to have effective measures that will improve safety and mobility for consumers. So those are some of the top themes that I've seen come out of this week.

Susan: Fantastic Laura. Not dissimilar to the themes that we're hearing coming back from our own industry here. I think very much that collaboration and working together, how can you collaborate properly if you're not able to share data and find a pathway there? It's not a straightforward path. But it's a path that I think's worth investigating and great to hear that's an ongoing theme in Hamburg, for sure. What are the strong themes that you're seeing coming through in the US as well, are they consistent themes, what are the priorities that you're seeing back home in the US?

Laura: In the US we have a couple of key areas. There's a huge push right now in the US among the current administration to really transition to a cleaner transportation system and electrification. I think that's evident in some of the legislation that's being discussed and in a lot of the conversation, as you hear from President Biden and his team, and so that's, that's a big discussion for us. You can see that US automakers have made strong commitments in this space. States have put forth very ambitious goals for phasing out gas-powered cars and for decarbonisation goals. But the conversation also has to include a collaboration with the energy sector, because a huge part of moving our transportation system over to an electrified system or a zero-emission system is going to rely on strong integration with the electric grid, resiliency of the grid, and supply chains that can support this transition, as well as the infrastructure needed to create that charging network for these vehicles. So that's a huge conversation in the US right now, how can we actually put in place all of the supports needed for this transition.

Another conversation that we're having, Susan, in the US, is really around safety. Over the past year or so, during the pandemic, we saw vehicle miles travelled decrease, but we saw fatalities increase. We saw fatalities increase even more among pedestrians and vulnerable road users. So there's a conversation right now around how can we… we need to be able to deploy connected and automated vehicles in a manner that will help reduce those fatalities. How can technology be a key enabler to make sure that we can actually make a dent—a significant dent—in those road fatalities? So that's another conversation that we're having.

And then finally, I would say another key area is with regard to on-demand mobility and congestion management and other technologies that are going to actually help us get more out of our system. So reducing congestion, improving safety through these technologies, and then using new technologies to be able to connect more users to the system, and really to be able to provide that connection to opportunity through technology and transfer in transportation. We see that's a big equity issue. Equity is being discussed very heavily in the United States right now, in terms of how we can ensure that people and communities—no matter where they are—really have access to the transportation system, which is not just access to transportation, but it's really connections to economic potential to jobs, its connections to healthcare, its connections to education, connections to critical goods and services, and then just overall social interaction. So these connections are really critical. As we look to move forward past the pandemic, as we look to see how we really want our transportation systems to operate? And how can we use technology to make sure that they're serving everybody?

Susan: Yeah, thanks, Laura. It's a really interesting development. We've always known that transport is fundamental to giving people access to jobs. It's been critical to economic productivity and to people's welfare. But now to see that being really front and centre, we've got those basic kinds of productivity in line, but now we’re really moving forward to how do we look at things to be more equitable, look at things to be more sustainable, and really harnessing that connectivity? It's great to see some consistent themes coming through there, but not small challenges to deal with either. As we mentioned earlier, we're all particularly excited about the concept of travelling again and getting together. We're particularly looking forward to the ITS World Congress in Los Angeles next September. Can you give us a bit of a teaser as to some of the things that we can expect over there?

Laura: We are very excited to welcome the global community to LA. Los Angeles, as a city that has been known for so many years for its cars and their traffic and is really making significant historic investments to improve mobility, safety and air quality for its residents. They are making incredible investments in transit and in active mobility. They have in Los Angeles, the largest electric car share in the world, as well as the largest dockless scooter and Bike Share programs in the world. They have launched the first zero-emissions delivery zone in the US for all types of zero-emission delivery vehicles, and they’re currently accelerating several ITS projects in advance of the 2020 Olympics to help manage congestion and help improve mobility. There are several integrated corridor management projects that they're working on, a couple that are associated with getting goods from the port but also looking at that entire corridor. How they can more effectively move people and freight. They're also doubling down on innovation. Los Angeles has created a Transportation Technology Innovation Zone within its city streets in a particular area near the Warner Centre. We're very excited to be able to see how they are inviting mobility innovators to test new solutions on their city streets, solutions that can actually improve mobility for residents. We're excited to see that in action, to be able to see what they're piloting and to welcome everybody to Los Angeles so they can see the new technology, the new infrastructure projects, and as I said, the new innovations that are hitting the streets.

Susan: Fantastic, we're really looking forward to the opportunity to come over to catch up with all our friends and colleagues from around the globe and the opportunity to see some of those great deployments that are taking place in Los Angeles. Thanks so much for your time, Laura, I really appreciate you sharing what you're seeing there in Hamburg and some insights as to what's happening in the US at the moment. I'll let you get back to the Congress because I'm sure there are more interesting things happening there this afternoon that you want to get in touch with. I look forward to catching up down the track. Thanks for your time today.

Laura: Thank you so much, and I look forward to seeing you in person very soon.

People in this Podcast

Laura Chace President and CEO / ITS America
Susan Harris Chief Executive Officer / ITS Australia

Read more about ITS America

ITS America advances the research and deployment of intelligent transportation technologies to save lives, improve mobility, increase accessibility and equity, promote sustainability, and improve efficiency and productivity.:

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