The C-MobILE project has started a series of training sessions for end-users, focusing on increasing the awareness of the people in ITS and C-ITS in the different European regions of the project, beginning with the Barcelona Deployment Site on 7 May.

The session organized by Applus+ IDIADA, RACC-ACASA (Real Automòbil Club de Catalunya) and IRU (International Road Transport Union) had a huge impact, with around 50 attendees who had the opportunity to learn about connected vehicles and the different C-ITS services that are going to be deployed in Barcelona city and metropolitan area in the coming months.

The participants enjoyed different formative sessions led by Jacint Castells (Applus+ IDIADA) and Oleh Shchuryk (IRU), and answered quizzes that allowed them to compete for the title of best learner in a very interactive way.

Following the sessions, a debate started where the users had the chance to express their opinion about the different topics taught and, overall, about the Android smartphone application that will be used to provide the C-ITS services in Barcelona. The most common discussion topics revolved around the use of the smartphone while riding motorcycles, the false-positives of the safety-critical services in certain circumstances, the likely-positive contribution of the Probe Vehicle Data (PVD) service in traffic management, and the addition of other interesting services that offer updates on restricted areas during times of high pollution levels in cities, and access restrictions for certain vehicle types such as heavy trucks.

Jacint Castells evaluated the session very positively, and pointed out that “it showed that Barcelona’s citizens are willing to know more and more about C-ITS and use the C-MobILE services as soon as they are ready. They were very curious and proactive, which is always a good sign, and all their comments and advice will be taken in serious consideration as we found them very constructive and feasible”.

The session concluded with a big round of applause from the attendees, who even stayed a little longer to keep discussing the topics with the hosts.

The C-MobILE project is hosting training sessions at the eight Deployment Sites across Europe throughout 2019 to raise awareness and increase knowledge on the use of new C-ITS services. The training also highlights additional benefits and builds up the necessary skills to embrace these new technologies. The next training session will take place in Copenhagen on 28 May. More information: https://c-mobile-project.eu/training/