Transport: EU push for better travel planning solutions
17 Jun 2014 03:04 PM
The
European Commission is renewing efforts to develop Europe-wide all-in-one
journey planners, making it easier to plan and book journeys that involve
several means of transport with a single online tool, even across borders.
Coinciding with the 10th European ITS Congress in Helsinki —
one of Europe's largest events in Intelligent Transport Systems and
Services (or "ITS") — the Commission has published its analysis of the current
situation of multimodal travel planners and its plans for the way forward. In
particular, the Commission is tackling issues such as restricted access to the
necessary data and insufficient cooperation between everyone
involved.
Vice-President Siim Kallas, Commissioner for mobility
and transport, said: "All too often 'Brussels' is used as a
synonym for 'heavy regulator'. In ITS and especially as regards journey
planners we need to take a different path. We need to break down barriers.
Small and innovative companies need access to travel data, so that they can
develop real door-to-door solutions. And we need more and better cooperation
between transport operators, industries, developers and Member
States."
Multimodal journey planners in Europe
With the internet and smartphones generating growth in
highly personalised services, information that spans different forms of
transport — multimodal information — is a crucial factor for smart
and seamless travel.
Apart from making it much easier for people to plan and
book their trips, all-in-one planners that integrate real-time traffic
information would also
-
improve information — making users aware of all
possible travel options, even if they are already on their
way;
-
make journeys greener — allowing travellers to
easily identify the fastest and most environmentally friendly combination of
different means of transport for each trip;
-
reduce congestion and emissions — by providing
alternatives to congested or blocked routes;
-
offer new business opportunities and jobs in a very
dynamic sector.
More than a hundred multimodal journey planners are
already available in Europe. However, they are all limited either
geographically (to individual cities or regions) or in their coverage of
transport modes. Only very rarely do they offer any cross-border
information.
Challenges
The
first Smart Mobility Challenge, an EU competition for
multimodal journey planners, as well as consultations and hearings have shown
that there are several hurdles to be overcome:
-
More multimodal travel and traffic data needs to become
available, and it needs to be made accessible;
-
The
quality of multimodal travel and traffic data is often
insufficient;
-
Data formats and protocols for their exchange are often
incompatible;
-
The
stakeholders involved (developers, transport operators, industries, regulatory
bodies, Member States) do not cooperate enough.
Next steps
The
Commission's objective is not to deliver the services or develop integrated
ticket types itself. Rather, it is to bring down barriers, to make sure that
the appropriate tools are available across the EU and to encourage their
use.
Promoting more comprehensive multimodal journey planners
facilitates the transition to "Mobility as a Service", where a
service provider makes accessible to the end-user packages (including all
necessary applications and services) under one interface. This is particularly
helpful for the end-users given the diversity of existing services (e.g.
journey planners); while end-users love the variety of the current offer, they
might encounter difficulties to find and choose the options meeting their needs
in full.
There is already a strong commitment by the actors
involved to work closely with the EU and Member States. The Commission will
lead this cooperation and provides funding opportunities under the Connecting
Europe Facility and Horizon2020 funding programmes.
About the European ITS Congress
The
European ITS Congress & Exhibition are two of Europe’s largest events
in intelligent transport systems. The annual conference brings together
decision makers, experts and researchers in the field. This year's topic
is “ITS in your pocket – proven solutions driving user
services”.
As
part of the opening ceremony, Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas will award
prizes to the winners of the "ITS in Your Pocket" contest for
mobile applications.
More information
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/its/index_en.htm
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