Dr Angelos Amditis, chairman of ERTICO – ITS Europe,
is passionate about computer systems, research
and transport, but most of all, he wants to ensure
that all ITS stakeholders cooperate and collaborate
to build a better future for the world’s citizens
How big is the carbon footprint of
the ITS World Congress? Official
figures do not exist, but with over
10,000 attendees at October 2019’s
event in Singapore, coming from
all corners of the world, it’s safe to say that
associated carbon emissions are significant.
It’s a fact not lost on ERTICO chairman
Dr Angelos Amditis as we sit down in a
quiet corner of this very event – the buzz of
the exhibition hall in Singapore’s Suntec
Centre fading to a low hum for a time – both
of us having travelled half way across the
world from our office bases in northern
Europe just over 200 miles apart. Could the
future see a virtual ITSWC taking place in
cyberspace? Amditis isn’t so sure…
“With 10,000 attendees, can you imagine
that happening virtually? I think that’s really
a very difficult task for the future,” says
Amditis. “One of the important elements of
this congress is the fact that it takes place in
a different continent each year, so it allows all
the different stakeholders to come together
and to really understand what’s happening
in every continent. And this is crucial to this
new era of smart mobility. And don’t forget
that this is just one event in the year when
we all gather together. The rest of the year
hundreds of ITS events take place all over
the world, and many of them are virtual.”
And of course, it’s not as if the purpose of
the ITS World Congress is incompatible with
014 Traffic Technology International January/February 2020
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Interviewed by Tom Stone
Angelos Amditis |
concepts to other industries and to the wider
public, to ensure future buy-in. It’s part of
the mission of ERTICO, which Amditis has
been chairman of now for 18 months.
“We are looking at a full transformation
of the ways in which we transport people
and goods – moving freight is often as
important as moving people – a new way of
thinking about mobility that is digitalized
and integrated,” says Amditis. “Everything
needs to connect with everything else. This
is why we’re using a new term at ERTICO –
the Internet of Mobility. It’s a way to really
make people understand the big picture,
taking the concept of the Internet
of Things and applying it to the mobility
sector. It’s a term that encompasses all the
services, systems, all new disruptive
technologies, all the modes, they’re all
part of the Internet of Mobility.”
During his relatively brief tenure so
far at the helm of ERTICO, Amditis has
become passionate about the aims of this
the aim of reducing carbon emissions.
“Green transportation is one of the major
objectives we’re discussing here,” says
Amditis. “Think of all the new concepts that
we’re discussing – Mobility as a Service,
electromobility, even automation, all of
these can be tools for making the whole
transport system carbon free.”
Indeed, rather than attempting to
conduct such a vast conference in
cyberspace, perhaps the future of the ITSWC
lies in offsetting its carbon footprint with
the new carbon-reducing transportation
projects it instigates. And just because it’s
not currently measured, doesn’t mean that
the benefits of the event aren’t already
outweighing the costs. “Maybe it’s already
happening,” muses Amditis.
Capturing imaginations
ITS events aren’t just about focusing minds
within the transport industry, increasingly
they are about explaining important new
Right: Angelos Amditis,
with DG Move director
general Henrik Hololei,
addressing a reception on
the ERTICO stand at the
ITS World Congress 2019,
in Singapore
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