ITS in daily life

The 16th ITS World Congress and Exhibition, held at Stockholm International Fairs 21-25 September, closed a success

The event themed ‘ITS in Daily Life’ attracted 8,000 delegates and visitors from 75 countries over the five days. This exceeded expectations, making this ITS World Congress and Exhibition one of the most successful so far. It explored how ITS can improve everyday mobility, with a strong emphasis on co-modality. For the first time, the event addressed multi-modal ITS solutions for road, railway, aviation and sea transport.
    
The exhibition saw over 250 exhibitors showcase their latest ITS innovations from advanced driver assistance systems to the latest developments in vehicle control, safety and crash prevention. It also attracted considerable interest from the general public on the final day when it was open to the public for the first time in its 16-year history.
    
Overall, Sweden was the top country by attendance with 2,172 visitors followed by Germany with 254 visitors and United Kingdom with 242 visitors. Other countries that had significant presence were China and Korea with a number of European countries attending from the 75 nations who were represented overall.
    
Great success
Bill Butler, event director for organiser Brintex, commented: “The Stockholm event has exceeded expectations in delegate attendance for the 16th ITS World Congress and Exhibition. This is due to a number of factors such as the quality of debates and congress diversity, the location and, of course, the excellence and innovation in technology showcased. The level and quality of attendees, with decision makers and industry influencers present, was very impressive.”
    
Magdalena Grahn, director, Kapsch TrafficCom AG, said: “We were very busy throughout the event and had more visitors than we expected, from a variety of countries. We are pleased with the success of our time here and will consider returning again.”
    
Richard Neumann M.A., corporate communication manager, Swarco AG, added: “The attendance here has increased compared to last year and we are very pleased with the show, especially with the quality of the visitors. We had a strong presence in the experience park, which was well attended and received.”
    
Delegates had the opportunity to attend over 250 sessions at the Congress covering various topics such as information collection and processing, traveller information, urban and inter-urban traffic management, payment systems, in-vehicle ITS and costs, impacts and benefits of ITS amongst many others.

Exhibition highlights
The Exhibition, which was free of charge to enter, offered visitors a unique opportunity to see over 250 exhibitors and meet key buyers from around the world. There was a particular emphasis on traffic safety, mobility for vulnerable users, implementation of well coordinated ITS projects and services, and multimodality/co-modality leading to cleaner climate. Many other ITS-related topics were also exhibited.
    
Key exhibitor highlights included:
Logica, sponsors of the internet café, had its experts available for discussion. Cees de Wijs, group director for Transport at Logica, said: “This year’s event was a huge success and visitors were treated to a variety of interesting keynotes, tours and technical demonstrations.
    
“Key eco-mobility solutions on show included our EMO solution that allows drivers to analyse and alter their driving practices to achieve a more cost efficient and environmentally friendly habits; while another innovative technology product on show was Logica’s Crimson tool, which allows insurance companies to charge users according to usage. Logica was also a key participant in demonstrating CVIS (Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure Systems). The live demonstrations in a van on the streets in Stockholm showcased how vehicle-to-vehicle communication and vehicle to infrastructure communication can play a role in driver convenience, safety and sustainable mobility.”
    
Visitors were able to familiarise themselves with ITS developments in Sweden by visiting Svevia Traffic Technology, the leaders in the country’s ITS market in installation, building, operation and maintenance of ITS solutions. Svevia manages and maintains 60 per cent of Swedish roads, covering approximately 60.000 kilometres. Examples of Svevia’s work include traffic management systems on roads and tunnels; road and street lighting, including the Green Street system; variable message signs and traffic control systems; vehicle integrated ITS, such as VMS (Variable Message Signs) and many more.
    
Telenor Connections is the leading global provider of managed M2M connectivity solutions, which has provided connectivity services for international deployments of ITS solutions to a number of global companies such as Volvo, Scania and Daimler. They presented their range of wireless communication services tailored for intelligent transportation systems, which can help companies achieve better productivity, enhance safety and secure environmental improvements.
    
Stand A30 featured a full-size cut model of the new Honda Insight (automobile) and a GL 1800 with C2C communication system (motorcycle). The 5-door hatchback featured the IMA hybrid system (Integrated Motor Assist) consisting of a low-friction 1.3 litre engine that serves as the primary power source, an ultra thin electric motor and a lightweight and compact battery. It also featured the ‘Eco Assist’ system, which informs the driver whether his driving style is economically friendly or not. The GL 1800 motorcycle featuring Honda’s advanced C2C communication system was also displayed with experts demonstrating the simple, logical and intuitive HMI, which allows for faster and easier recognition of critical driving situations.
    
Geveko, a leading road markings business in Europe with strong presence in several European markets, presented two of its ITS products – the LED-Mark and the LED-Guide. The LED-Mark is the world’s first surface mounted intelligent road mark. The sensors are ultra-thin and self-charging with solar cells and extremely durable batteries; it can endure extreme weather conditions as well as be positioned in locations where special risks are likely to occur. The LED-Guide consists of sensors, processing capabilities and communication devices, making it a crucial compliment to intelligent infrastructures and intelligent vehicles as it is designed to communicate and relay information to and from cars and infrastructure.

ERTICO - ITS Europe (stand H20) represents the interests and expertise of around 100 public and private partners involved in developing and deploying Intelligent Transport Systems and Services. More than 14 interactive sessions were held on the association’s stand, featuring organisations such as NXP, showcasing their new product ATOP, as the first integrated telematics solution targeted to volume markets (such as roadpricing and e-call), The North Denmark Region ITS-strategy and many more.
    
WCCTV Wireless presented the new WCCTV 3G Wireless Dome Camera System, which is IP65 compliant and offers high-speed 3G HSUPA connectivity, boosting remote monitoring quality to a new level. It also comes with increased storage capacity of up to 500GB and provides the user with complete flexibility and portability.
    
It can be deployed in any location and is ideal for rapid installation and temporary surveillance applications. This lightweight (4kg) Dome system has an integrated camera and transmission unit offered as a ‘one box’ solution that can easily be mounted onto lighting columns, buildings or any other fixed structure.
    
Users are able to connect remotely and access live images or stored digital footage from the internal hard drive. The camera itself can be controlled remotely with full pan, tilt and zoom functionality and a 360 degree field of vision.
    
Visitors to JAI’s stand had the opportunity to see the new IIT Camera System, an all-in-one traffic camera solution for vehicle imaging and vehicle recognition (ANPR). It is a self-contained traffic camera that contains all five core ANPR elements – camera, IR illuminator, ambient light sensor, triggering mechanism, and OCR processing engine – plus a heater and demister, in a compact all-weather housing
    
JAI supplies complete vehicle recognition sub-systems including core imaging cameras for high speed 24/7 vehicle capture (0-327 km/h), full lane coverage and automatic number plate reading (ANPR) combined with patented vehicle ‘fingerprint’ recognition software.
    
Stemmer Imaging presented its vehicle recognition software, which can detect vehicles when stationary or moving in any kind of traffic situation. It is also possible to classify the vehicles by cars, vans and trucks.

Demonstration theatre
In addition to the numerous exhibitors, visitors were able to visit The Demonstration Theatre in the exhibition hall, which offered an opportunity to experience five different scenarios per day. Organised by Lindholmen Science Park, the Swedish Road Administration, the Volvo Group and NetPort.Karlshamn, they demonstrated how ITS in daily life ensures a more efficient, safe and secure future using green solutions. The 30-minute demonstrations were free to attend and covered the following areas:
    
Secure Transports – The scenario followed an intermodal transport of dangerous goods, focusing on the interplay between public and private stakeholders when relations and time are important.
    
Daily Commuter – Visitors were able to follow a daily commuter on a journey to work and see how ITS-enabled commuter services for different modes of public transportation and cars to make everyday life easier.
    
Cooperative Systems – Imagine if all vehicles and infrastructure could cooperate. Visitors experienced the benefits and found out what stakeholders can do today to make it happen.
    
Safe and Sustainable Transport Solutions – What if goods could make decisions like humans? Visitors followed how ‘talking goods’ can manage challenges that appear along the way to their final destination.
    
Extended E-transactions – This scenario showed an extended concept of electronic transactions beyond e-payments, including the collection, processing, distribution and presentation of digital information.

Popular features
Other popular attractions included the outdoor Experience Park, where visitors had the opportunity to try out the latest state-of-the-art ITS applications and technologies of the future on a small-scale model roadway. A joint demonstration site from four Swedish transportation authorities gave live demonstrations of Traffic Control Centres for railway, aviation, maritime and road, showing a number of different weather scenarios, traffic disturbances and crises. There were also a variety of technical visits where participants had the opportunity to experience real life applications of ITS technologies in different aspects of Stockholm’s transport systems.
    
The ITS World Congress and Exhibition attracted decision makers, opinion formers, leading experts, technical specialists and many others from both the private and public sector, who are concerned with the development, deployment and support of Intelligent Transport Systems and Services around the world.
    
The next ITS World Congress and Exhibition, themed ‘Ubiquitous Society with ITS’, will take place in Busan, Korea 25-29 October 2010.