The C-Mobile Stakeholder Forum is taking over the C-ITS City Pool, creating a space where participating cities can share real-life experiences, receive feedback and learn about best practices and business opportunities for deployment.

Launched as part of the CIMEC and CODECS projects, the C-ITS City Pool is a grouping of local authorities with an interest in the development of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems in cities and regions. Members work together to promote discussion on C-ITS issues in an urban context and provide input on city needs, urban use cases, and challenges and enablers in C-ITS deployment.

The CIMEC and CODECS projects have acted as a central meeting point for transport authorities involved in the deployment of cooperative intelligent transport systems in Europe, ensuring successful coordination during the initial roll-out and subsequent implementation phases. Their stakeholder network allows a transparent exchange of information and lessons learnt during initial deployments, in technologies, specifications and functions.

Launched in 2015, the City Pool has held its last workshop under the aegis of CODECS on 22 March in Dublin, where participants were presented with the transition plan into the C-MobILE structure.

The City Pool has already identified a number of hurdles on the road towards deployment of C-ITS: the limited understanding of C-ITS among the target audiences, the need to improve understanding of the technology and procurement abilities, and issues related to user engagement, open interfaces, pilot projects, privacy issues, the role of local authorities, open data platforms, and the required legal frameworks for successful deployments.

The passing of the torch to the C-Mobile Stakeholder Forum will ensure that the coordination work achieved so far will not go to waste, and will instead establish links between front-running cities and local and regional authorities with an interest in how C-ITS can improve transport and mobility in different settings: urban or interurban; in small, large or medium cities; and for the benefit of various categories of users, including cyclists and pedestrians. The integration into C-MobILE will also expand the scope of the City Pool beyond public authorities and include road users, industries, professionals such as taxi, bus or truck drivers; as well as traffic managers, road operators, fleet operators and everyday end-users.

By establishing links with C-MobILE cities and other local authorities, the City Pool will share knowledge and lessons learnt by C-MobILE cities, create new relationships with end-users of C-ITS and international associations, and actively participate in C-MobILE events including training sessions, focus workshops and showcases.

The calendar of Stakeholder Forum / City Pool events will be published in the News & Events session of the C-MobILE project.

The Stakeholder Forum is open to anyone interested in ITS and C-ITS. To join the Forum, please register here.