| Our man | Technology fromAmsterdam
Profile
by Richard Butter
There’s no stopping the
momentum in demand for
sustainable travel options
“The current pace of
technology development
has set the sustainability
movement in motion”
March/April 2020 Traffic Technology International 075
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
If you read this column
on a regular basis, you
may know I am into
sports. I like my racing bike a lot, but I also
like to run. And in Rotterdam, on 5 April
I will compete in a marathon. So when we
catch up during Intertraffic Amsterdam
later that month I can tell you all about it.
I will also be able to tell you about what
it’s like commuting by pedelec. For two
weeks I will be trialling the highspeed
electric bicycle through the Green Business
Club initiative that my employer has
recently joined. Founded in 2012, it has
been set up to stimulate sustainable
business practices by the companies
located in the Zuidas district of
Amsterdam. Faster than my bicycle,
I believe pedelecs can be a change agent in
society for sustainable mobility.
And since the Dutch tax office is
offering e-bike leasing, this year seems to
be an appropriate time to change my
means of transportation for commuting.
An extra stimulus for me is that my car
leasing contract will be coming to an end
this summer.
The current pace of technological
development helped to set the
sustainability movement in motion and
it is starting to pay off now. Sustainability
is a hot topic these days with new and
novel urban travel initiatives seemingly
popping up everywhere.
We can’t deny it anymore we all want
a nice, green, livable and safe city. And
therefore we need smart innovative
measures and integrated solutions.
The Dutch research organization TNO
have done some interesting work on this.
Their Department of Sustainable
Urban Mobility and Safety (SUMS)
develops and investigates, with the use of
multidisciplinary knowledge and new (ICT)
technology, smart innovative measures
and integrated solutions for the domains of
mobility, liveability and safety.
With these measures and integrated
solutions they are able to support
governments and industry with design,
implementation, monitoring, evaluation
and timely adjustment as well as scaling of
smart innovative measures in the realworld
environment.
TNO’s aim is to find the optimal balance
between the needs of transportation users
(commuters, residents, tourists,
recreationists, entrepreneurs, emergency
services) and on the other hand the quality
of the living environment.
This project confirms my thoughts and
I believe that we can enable real change,
but it always has to start at your own front
door – we need to change our own
behaviour first. Hopefully I can go some
way to doing my bit with the pedelec.
Intertraffic Amsterdam will present many
other initiatives. My team have prepared
what we expect will be the best show ever.
Not only a global overview of the traffic
technology and mobility market, it will also
be filled with good discussions about many
of the topics I have touched upon in my
column. We cannot wait to see you all in
Amsterdam and will be happy to discuss
such topics with you.
Richard Butter is director of traffic technology
at RAI Amsterdam and is responsible for Intertraffic
worldwide events, www.intertraffic.com
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