IPTS Conference 2008 - The passenger experience & multi modal mobility

Although one of the paper presentations is about city cars and cybercars, car sharing is not amongst the central topics of the conference. That is a pity, for car sharing, when fully integrated into the public transport system, could be part of a real passenger friendly and sustainable transport system. MindsinMotion.net has been pointing this out after the UITP conference on this topic last October.

Nevertheless, interesting key note speakers and a broad range of topics make this two-day IPTS conference well worth visiting. Passenger organizations, public transport operators, technology experts and policy makers will all be present.

Controversial
What's more, politically controversial topics as the Dutch electronic ticketing project and the North South Line are not shunned. These projects can be visited during a 'technical tour' on the second conference day.

Plenary sessions
The first day will be dedicated to plenary sessions entirely, divided into four topics:

Passenger needs
Peter Staelens from the European Passenger Federation and Peter Kortenhorst, CEO of transport company Connexxion, will tackle topics such as the EU regulation for passenger rights and the supply and smart combination of multi modal mobility.

Market driven innovations
TransLink Systems is currently implementing electronic ticketing for different modes of public transport in the Netherlands – not without difficulties or public and political debate. Its managing director, Jeroen Kok, talks about the security issues. A ‘technical tour’ on the last afternoon of the conference gives you the opportunity to visit the electronic ticketing project.

Furthermore, a forum discussion with Peter Staelens, Peter Kortenhorst and Jeroen Kok will address the problem of how to transform to market driven innovations.

Sustainable mobile cities
This session focuses on quality of life instead of on the adverse affects of mobility and on optimally combining various modes of transport. Keynote speakers will be Helle Søholt from GEHL Architects ApS and Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives New York

Smart passenger systems
Cisco’s global head Connected Urban Development Nicola Villa will show how ICT can help cities to improve their energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and enhance urban design and management. The Clinton Global Initiative in Amsterdam, Seoul and San Francisco serves as an example.

Papers and workshops
On Thursday paper presentations and workshops will be held to collect and share best practices of intelligent systems and services from around the world. Paper sessions range from specialistic topics such as:

• Ergonomic evaluation of the door opening devices at mainline passenger railway cars for disabled users for future improvements

to innovative ideas and solutions like:

• Quality scouts
• Intermodal real-time passenger information and connection protection in public transport
• Worldwide intelligent public transport systems and services based on GSM-R
• Large scale demand responsive transport (DRT) systems
• "HandyTicket" – interoperable public transport tickets on mobile phones
• Advanced city cars

The workshop topics are as diverse.

You’ll find the complete conference programme here.

Registration
Online registration is possible up until the last conference day.