It’s the middle of June and summer is in full swing in many parts of the northern hemisphere. It’s time for another interview with some of my interesting colleagues. This time I’m speaking with Sander Maas (on the left) and Tim Wouda (on the right), who reported in from the UITP (Union International des Transports Publics) World Congress in Milan, Italy – the largest event on the calendar for anyone interested in public transportation.
What are your first impressions of the event?
Wow, this hall is full of busses. Many vendors like to show what they have to offer in a tangible way. If you cannot touch it or grab it, it is not a solution. For our part, we have had fun demonstrating our connected bus stop.
“Connected bus stop” – what is that?
It’s basically a bus stop with an integrated small cell and WiFi access point, a passenger information system and a ticket purchasing system. So it’s really a connected bus stop. The only thing missing was having a real bus drive by – but that’s a minor detail that can be easily fixed.
Coming back to public transport or transportation in general, what key messages did you see regarding ICT at the UITP World Congress?
Well, public transport customers are becoming more demanding. For example, they demand seamless door-to-door transport with connectivity and services to make traveling a pleasant experience. The whole transport system is benefiting from being connected – this goes from connected cars to having all travel information in real-time at your fingertips. There is also a big push from public transport operators to evolve their automated fare collection systems to the next level. They would like to provide the flexibility of a single transaction for multiple modes of traffic (bus, train, tram, metro, and even taxi, rent-a-car and rent-a-bike)
What kinds of visitors are you seeing? What types of organizations do they represent?
Mostly public transport operators and authorities. The operators are the ones who have the buses and are responsible for transporting passengers. They are interested in Fleet Management Solutions and onboard devices, such as devices for fare collection.
The authorities are responsible for the regulating public transport in cities and for making sure the operators provide good quality of services to citizens. They are also interested in passenger information systems (such as displays at bus stops) and making sure fare collection systems are shared between different operators.
Public transportation brings about images of old buses and trams. Do you see a culture shift in this sector to adopt new technologies?
Yes, and this shift has been underway for several years now. Buses in the Western world have been connected for a decade and have already seen a few cycles of technological evolution. A new trend that we are now starting to see is collaboration. Public transport operators don’t operate in isolation anymore and increasingly want to share data with other parties such as road traffic authorities.
Finally, you must be spending long days at the event so how do you unwind in the evening?
All of us are really busy during the day interacting with participants at the congress. So we try and get together as a team every evening and have dinner at a local restaurant with great food and an incredible view.
The post Reflecting on the transformation of public transportation at UITP 2015 appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.