Congress Report
25th ITS World Congress
www.itsworldcongress.com

Organised by:

Co-organised by:

Hosted by:

Supported by:Acknowledgements
Diamond Partners

Gold Partners

Silver Partners®

Oﬃcial Media Partners

Media Partners

Nordic Media Partners

Media Supporters

ITS Nationals

Event Partners

The 25th ITS World Congress 2018
Hosted in a different location each year, the ITS World
Congress is an international meeting point for the mobility
sector, rotating between Europe, the Americas and Asia
Pacific. This year, ERTICO – ITS Europe and the City of
Copenhagen hosted the 25th ITS World Congress. The
Congress was co-organised by ITS Asia-Pacific and
ITS America and strongly supported by the European
Commission.
With the main theme: “ITS – Quality of Life”, the 2018
ITS World Congress explored and demonstrated howtransport and mobility solutions can improve the qualityof life in our cities by placing users and their needs at theheart of the mobility system.
The 25th ITS World Congress raised the bar in terms ofscope, content, and features. ITS experts from across theglobe came to exchange best practices and advance thediscussion on how to leverage smart mobility solutions
to enhance people’s lives. More than 10,000 participantsfrom over 100 countries discussed issues related tocybersecurity, resilience planning and safety amongst
many other themes.

European Commissioner for Competition, Ms Margrethe
Vestager, addressed the audience during the Closing
Ceremony on the last day of the Congress.
In addition to the packed congress Programme featuring
over 200 sessions, there were various workshops,
associated events and networking opportunities where
delegates could learn from peers and share knowledge
about the latest technologies and policy developmentsfrom across the world.
The Programme was complemented by the 20,000
sqm Exhibition area where over 400 companies andorganisations from all over the world showcased theirintelligent transport and smart city technologies andsolutions. The event also saw the launch of the first-everexhibition space dedicated to the young ventures of smart
mobility at an ITS World Congress: The Area C – startup
connector. This exclusive space for startups gave themthe opportunity to present their latest innovations andmeet with potential business partners.

Before the official Opening, a press conference was heldwith an overwhelming turnout from local and international
journalists. The panel was presented with the question:“Quality of life: How is innovation making mobility better?”.
The panel consisted of high level representatives andour main commercial partners contributing to a very
successful event for both panellists and journalists.

In addition to these indoor activities, technical visits andthe “Copenhagen 1:1” series provided direct discussions
and user engagement with the people responsible
for actual deployments in the city. A wide range ofDemonstrations showcased the latest state-of-the-art
products and solutions for real world mobility scenarios,
providing answers to some of the world’s most pressing
challenges like climate change, air quality, urbanisation,congestion and traffic safety.

During the Opening Ceremony HRH, the Crown Princeof Denmark, as patron of the 25th ITS World Congress,
warmly welcomed the participants to Copenhagen, while
the European Commissioner for Transport, Ms Violeta
Bulc, the President of the FIA, Mr Jean Todt, and the
Deputy Mayor of Paris, Mr Christophe Najdovski, engaged
in a debate about the future of ITS and road safety. The

In conclusion, the 2018 edition of the ITS World Congress,
which celebrated its 25th Anniversary in style, was amajor success. We want to extend our sincere gratitude
to the International Programme Committee and Board of
Directors, the ITS National Associations, our commercial
partners and all the people who worked together to deliver
this great event!

www.itsworldcongress.com#ITSWC18

3Key ﬁgures

10000

Participants

92

Students

250+

Sessions

12

Demonstrations

2000

Opening Ceremony

525

Public Day

25

850

Speakers

95

Staff and Volunteers

17

Associated Meetings

Technical Visits

1700

200

Demonstration slots
booked via app

Press

2400

Delegates

96

Countries

900

Technical Visits booked

36

Media Partners

4500

MinRejseplan
downloads

200+
B2B

5555

Congress app downloads

1115

Session ratings

100000Travel requests

2350

Exhibition Visitors

3900

Exhibition Personnel

400

Exhibitors

420000 Sqm
Exhibition Area

17

Commercial Partners

25th World Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services

25

ITS National Associations

Introduction

The Congress was organised around seven key Topics:
Mobility services – from transport to mobility
to liveability
ITS and the environment
Connected, cooperative and automatedtransport
Next generation goods delivery

I give my profound thanks to the main team of rapporteurs
who contributed so much to this document:
Carol Schweiger
Susan Spencer
Chris Rushton
Risto Kulmala
Simon Edwards
Sébastien Mure

Satellite technology applied to mobility
Transport networks evolution

Ashweeni Beeharee
Fang Chen
Peo Svensk

Host Topic – Cross-border mobility solutions

A team of rapporteurs was appointed for each topic
tasked with capturing the key messages and outcomesfrom the Congress, the exhibition and the demonstrations.
The tracks were addressed by a wide range of different
types of sessions, over 250 in total – Plenary, Executive,
Special Interest, Technical, and Scientific.
This Report summarises the Congress proceedings. The
first part focuses mostly on the Technical & Scientificpapers and the Special Interest Sessions; the second
part paints a picture of proceedings at the Plenary
and Executive Sessions; and the third summarises theproceedings at the High Level Round Table.

Steffen Rasmussen
Henriette Østergaard Hansen
Additional support in documenting the Executive andPlenary sessions is gratefully acknowledged from Rita
Bhandari; Julie Castermans; Stephane Dreher; Manuela
Flachi; Piia Karjalainen; Lidia Signor; and Andrew Winder.
I also thank Copenhagen City Council, ITS America, ITS
Asia Pacific and especially the ERTICO teams for theircheerful handling of all my enquiries and questions.
Professor Eric Sampson
Chief Rapporteur
Brussels, October 2018www.itsworldcongress.com#ITSWC18

5

Executive Summary
The Congress had as its main theme “ITS – Quality of Life”
and was organised around seven key Topics:

further improve when they become linked to interactive
traffic management and connected systems generally.

• Mobility services – from transport to mobility to liveability• ITS and the environment• Connected, cooperative and automated transport• Next generation goods delivery• Satellite technology applied to mobility• Transport networks operations

ITS and the Environment was one of the smaller topics
in terms of paper numbers but covered a lot of interest
areas. It was clear from sessions that the available
technology permits environmental issues to be lookedat from different perspectives and suggests that manypotentially useful solutions are being developed. The
market was very active in updating systems and services
in order to use less energy and reduce emissions but
the regulators seemed not to be moving as quickly, forexample regarding cleaner air in cities.

There was also a Host Topic of Cross-border mobility
solutions. The main themes underpinning the seven topics
were distilled into three plenary sessions supported by
twelve Executive Sessions to reflect the hot issues ofthe moment, not just within ITS but across the transportdiscipline as a whole:• Achieving higher quality of life in our cities• Ensuring integrated mobility services• What’s next for automated mobility?
The High Level Round Table (HLRT) was a key elementof the Congress with over 150 Ministers, Mayors, industry
leaders and senior representatives of national and local
governments coming together to review how intelligent
and green mobility can contribute to sustainable growth
and a better environment for all citizens. The participants
enjoyed the opportunity to meet their global counterparts
to talk about solutions to transport challenges.
Around 550 papers were presented in about 170
Congress sessions. In the three Plenary Sessions andtwelve Executive Sessions high-level industry executives,
public officials and international experts shared theirperspectives and extensive experience of ITS topics
encompassing policy, strategic, economic, technical,
organisational and societal aspects.
Mobility services – from transport to mobility toliveability was one of the three busiest topics. It showeda steady evolution based on exploiting new technologies,
adding new services using current technology, andintegrating social media information. There wasconsiderable interest in Mobility as a Service but with arather limited number of schemes fully operating globally
there was a relative lack of information, especially
actual evaluations, so it was hard to measure success.
MaaS business cases still had challenges to overcome.
Moreover operational schemes usually focus on services
for individual travellers but do little to optimise wider
mobility operations through traffic and multi modaltransport management.
Services for users continued to develop; we now
know how to integrate traveller information and traffic
management. Today’s innovation is in using new digitalplatforms (cell phones, computers, social media) tobring greater connectivity between the two systems (iedraw data from road users to support road management
decision-making; provide information to road users fortravel options etc). Route planners now do more than give
estimates of travel time based on traffic conditions at thetime of departure; they can also predict traffic conditions
as they change along the route during the trip and will

6

Connected, cooperative and automated transport
was the busiest topic reflecting the worldwide interest
in automated mobility. There was an interesting split –presentations and discussions on connected transport
were very down-to-earth with a focus on getting theproven benefits from deployment as quickly as possible
as a part of wider networks (for example interactive traffic
management) and as data sources. The emphasis insessions on highly or fully automated vehicles was verymuch on accident reduction and was urban-centric.
Technology developments were often dominant although
for both connected and autonomous cases there wasemphasis on the benefits to the end users. The tone wasquite optimistic with regard to automated driving althoughseveral speakers referred to the need to advance in verysmall steps to ensure successful deployment. In summary– connected is today; autonomous will be next month.
Next generation goods delivery was a story of
incremental innovation to help increase productivity
and minimise negative impacts rather than overnight
revolution. This industry has tended to be rather
conservative and dominated by direct supplier costs,
rather than a wider perspective of social benefit. It was
beginning to accept that open platforms holding shareddata to open standards brought benefits to everyone.
Platooning was seen as key to linking ITS innovation andbreakthrough of automation in the future. Two visions
were discussed: platooning as a driver support service;platooning as driver replacement.
Satellite technology applied to mobility was anothersmall but lively topic. The well-established role of satellite
as key enabling technology for positioning is developing
steadily as constellations are expanded. Applications forcommunication were much discussed as the telecoms
industry is bringing satellite and mobile communications
together reinforcing the point that satellite communication
is a reliable, accessible, affordable and proventechnology. Sessions also addressed applications
for earth observation and for the first time there were
presentations on safety benefits such as monitoring
infrastructure and the safety of vehicles.
Transport networks evolution was the secondbusiest topic covering the familiar areas of network
and intersection management, simulation, modelling,
security and safety but it also included many aspects
related to data. There was emphasis on the value of ‘Big
Data’ particularly as devices for collecting data can be

25th World Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services

Executive Summary

deployed cheaply and on a large scale. More and betterdata allowed more accurate simulations, which could be
used to identify incident risk areas. Most of the papers
presented evaluated the efficiencies of current trafficsystems rather than introducing novel future techniques.
Travel time estimation studies were still limited to individual
traffic state estimation so were not moving forward as
expected to cope with advances in big data analytics.
It would be useful to see new methods for real-timetravel time estimation for different origin-destination frommedium to long distances.

demonstrations with everyone giving broadly the samemessages: share data (you don’t need to own it to use it)held on open platforms in open standards formats; use
vehicles rather than own them; move people not things;
address the environmental issues before deploying notafter; exploit Connected today and plan for Automated alittle later on; expect business models to be dynamic; plan
to evolve from transport, to mobility and then to liveability
and recognise that there is no single definition of liveability– ultimately a city and its citizens need to agree on what
they want and the ways to achieve it.

And finally – looking back to the previous two Congresses
we can see a mobility services thread running throughthem as well as Copenhagen. It was clear that we’regoing through a transport transformation driven
by automation and AI, connectivity, electrification,
digitalisation, and sharing that is disrupting beyond thetransport sector eg land use planning, urban design.
There was a common “feel” across all the Topics andwww.itsworldcongress.com#ITSWC18

7

The High-Level Round Table
The High-Level Round Table on Wednesday 18
September was a much anticipated part of the Congress.
Around160 Ministers, Mayors, Industry leaders and senior
representatives of national and local governments came
together to review how intelligent and green mobility cancontribute to sustainable growth and a better environment
for all citizens.
After a short orientating Plenary including welcomesby Ms Ninna Hedeager Olsen (Mayor of Technical andEnvironmental Affairs, Copenhagen) and Mr Jacob
Bangsgaard (CEO, ERTICO) the participants divided
into five parallel streams to explore solutions for issues
facing most cities globally. These included space
management, pollution control, safety and security,
regulatory issues for new technologies and the generalchallenge of maintaining seamless mobility for all citizens
when expanding and ageing populations were putting
increased pressure on transport systems and urban
spaces.
The Round Table streams were based around three broad
themes:• Making cities more liveable by reducing congestion andimproving air quality• Helping cities to plan for the deployment of new mobility
services• The changing roles of Governments, especiallyregulating and legislating
These themes were translated into five key questions toprompt discussions• How can we reduce emissions and improve air quality?
• How can we achieve modal shift in cities?
• How can cities plan for the deployment of new mobility
services?
• How can we manage urban space use for public
transport, active modes and private vehicles, to deliver
enhanced green mobility and accommodate highly
automated vehicles?
• How might legislation facilitate the deployment of
automated transport for both people and goods?
The Ministers talked about many points relating todeployment of highly automated vehicles ranging from thepossibility of drastically reducing fatalities to benefits forolder or restricted drivers; and from the likely impact oncongestion and vehicle ownership to enabling a variety ofinnovative mobility services. Many countries were hostingtrials of some form of automated vehicle and it was not yet
clear whether their large-scale deployment would requirechanges to how cities managed urban space use.
Mobility was not yet a stand-alone aspect of everyday
life and Governments were faced with the challenge ofworking on various policy and legislative aspects relating
to the new services that automated transport would
support. For many Governments there was not yet a clear
picture of the amendments to legislation and regulation
likely be needed to facilitate the deployment of automatedtransport for both people and goods. The need to refresh
legislation to keep up with the development of transporttechnology was emphasised.

8

The Ministers noted a number of areas in which regulationneeded to be introduced or updated to support transportand mobility. These related to safety, privacy andcybersecurity issues stemming from data use, and the
new emerging partnerships of industry, government andprivate actors in providing new mobility services.
Further discussions focused on the use of data, strategies
for reducing emissions and improving air quality, thechanges needed in regulation for deployment of new
mobility services, and the push towards the goal ofzero-based fatalities. Using data for mobility presented
challenges and opportunities. There were still a number oftrust issues and a lack of adequate (digital) infrastructure
for data. This pointed to the need for a clear definition of
the objectives for data use and for standards and open
APIs for data exchange.
The Ministers agreed strongly that a zero emissions
strategy with goals for all stakeholder sectors must be
worked out. Transport should be an enabler for lower
emissions. In Europe the EC was already seen as a big
part of the solution in initiating measures to encourage

25th World Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services

The High-Level Round Table
cleaner mobility. In some countries tax changes had
advanced the penetration of electric vehicles (EVs),
setting an example perhaps for others to follow.
The Ministers agreed that a goal of zero-based could
not be achieved in a hurry. The most optimistic scenario
showed 2060 and beyond for realising the goal,
underlining the view that much work remained to be donein this regard.
The Mayors met around two tables to discuss pressing
issues facing cities today in terms of deployment of new
mobility services, modal shift, the use of urban space, andreduction of emissions and improving air quality.
To manage urban space efficiently for public transport,
private vehicles and active modes as well as aiming
to deliver enhanced green mobility and additionallyaccommodate highly automated vehicles, cities would
have to set priorities by making difficult choices. One
group of mayors ranked different modes in order ofpreference for space management: walking, cycling,
public transport, mobility-as-a-service (MaaS), cars.
Autonomous vehicles carrying multiple passengers should
be given more priority than vehicles carrying single
drivers/passengers. The Mayors stressed the importanceof exploring the scope for deploying highly automatedvehicles for freight as well as passenger services.
Every city needed to look for the causes of its congestion
problem and choose the most suitable solution fromthe multiple options available. It was important to think
long-term for mobility planning but also to be flexible
at the same time. Some transport policies and plans
operated for longer than the term of the elected officials
who instituted them and should perhaps be reviewed
regularly to ensure that they still served the best interestsof citizens.
New mobility services must be deployed to increase
the possibilities of modal shift. “Top down” and “bottom
up” approaches to deployment could both be effective
provided cities acted as enablers. The users must
be made to feel that public transport was good andsomething worth valuing. Very often they did not consider
it a good enough option.
It was clear that cities around the world had a lot incommon while facing unique sets of local issues. City
authorities had the vision to come up with solutions andwith decision making powers on transport issues, and withbold mayors, they could realise their goals. The Mayors
felt that the public sector should have more oversight andregulatory powers to give the right to experiment and run
pilot deployments for prioritisation of modes.
Working together with other cities to share knowledge
and experience had brought many benefits – not least
the sharing of open source data to improve safety andefficiency of transport. As a complement to that the
Mayors pressed the case for more “State of the Art”
documents: simple reports on what cities and countries
were doing, why they were doing it and links to any moredetailed information available.

A mix of Industry Leaders and Government Officials
also had two tables for their discussions on the use ofurban space for private and public transport, including
autonomous driving and solutions for greener mobility.
The answers for handling future mobility challenges incities were not building more infrastructure for cars. The
boundaries between transport modes needed to be
removed to create integrated and efficient solutions– across borders and also across fleet and personaltransport. We needed to rethink mobility and work withusers to understand their needs and “nudge” them
towards new habits and a culture change. There was
not always a good understanding of user behaviour
and in some areas this would be essential for change
to take place – for example we could not support future
population growth in cities if the demand for individualcars continued. It was very important to focus on thehuman factor and to understand different users’ needs.
Financial mechanisms had been proven to influence
behaviour but options such as road pricing were notalways popular for political reasons. If policies wererecast into incentive-based frameworks they could bevery effective – for example a traffic guidance system
to ensure a more efficient use of infrastructure (driving
at off-peak hours, guiding to less congested/polluted
roads, changing to mass-transit or bikes etc) could deliver
excellent results.
Good solutions required access to good data eg about
traffic and air-pollution, which in turn required good
sensors, etc. To support the technological development
and innovation needed to create future modern mobility
solutions policy-makers must introduce test zones for new
technology such as autonomous vehicles. There must be
more emphasis on benchmarking and scaling projects
when launching tests and pilot projects. Autonomousvehicles that were tested in different environments andclimactic conditions would help improve mobility in rural
areas too where public transport is not feasible in many
areas.
There was a need for rethinking approaches toinfrastructure as ITS could ensure a more efficient andflexible use of the limited space in cities. For example
better maintenance and optimisation of traffic lights
could reduce emissions by over 20% but politicians often
preferred funding for capital projects where they could“cut the red tape” to an increased budget for maintenance.
There was much discussion on data and how legislation
could both help but also hinder data’s crucial role inenabling automation. GDPR was given as an example of
how legislation was seen by the industry to be potentiallyhindering automation and connectivity. However there wasno consensus between the stakeholders regarding whoshould own the data and who should have access to it.
A poll of participants revealed the paradox that althoughlegislation in general was seen as a hindrance there wasalmost unanimous agreement that it would be necessary
to make automation happen. The issues of liability,
standardisation and harmonisation (across industries
but also across borders or even beyond the EU) would

www.itsworldcongress.com#ITSWC18

9

The High-Level Round Table
need some legislation to enable widespread uptake. All
participants agreed that it was critical to make this a
global process even though that would be extremely hardand slow.
The discussion on modal shift prompted the key questions“Why do we, or more specifically cities, actually wantautomation? What are the outcomes we want to secure?”
This should be the basis of discussions on automationand modal shift, and the regulation and policies behind
it. It was also noted that we needed different regulatory
and policy approaches on urban and rural areas for bothautomation and modal shift.
In the concluding plenary session the participants
recorded their appreciation of a stimulating opportunity
to meet their global counterparts to talk about solutions
to transport challenges. They also looked at emerging
opportunities as in many cases problems previously
considered too difficult were beginning to be addressed
because transport technology was developing so rapidly.

10

The participants at the High Level Round Table:• Noted the proven benefits of ITS for reducing
congestion, emissions and energy consumption
while enhancing safety and mobility for people andfreight• Invited the Regional Congress organisations tocontinue to work with public and private sector
stakeholders to encourage the publication ofevaluations of completed ITS implementations• Stressed the need for morelarge-scale trials of highly automated or driverlessvehicles to assess the combined impact on safety,
air quality and congestion
research on the behavioural aspects of transport
guides to the potential of emerging ITS
technologies for policy development
research on ways to manage city space including
parking and automated vehicles
guides to the different processes for procurement
research on the needs of travellers with reduced
mobility• Confirmed their wish to continue to work together toaddress the mobility challenges facing cities today
through the deployment of efficient and sustainable
ITS solutions• Welcomed plans for the organisation of a similar
high-level policy discussion at the ITS World
Congress in Singapore 2019
• Thanked ERTICO and Copenhagen City Council fororganising the event.

25th World Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services