On 5^th March the Estonian Road Cluster and TTK University of Applied Sciences organised a conference “iTee Süsteemid” (“iRoad Systems") addressing intelligent transport systems (ITS).

Speakers at the conference included ITS experts and developers from Estonia and Finland as well as representatives of Estonian state authorities, local governments and companies operating in this field. The conference was held in four parts, with the first three consisting of presentations and the last being a panel discussion. As in the past, the conference’s moderator was Märt Treier who is known for his intriguing questions.

The first speaker was Linnar Viik, teacher at IT College, with a presentation “ITS – who for?/why?”. The presentation focused on digital information that can be found everywhere around us but which we cannot yet use to the maximum extent. The next speaker was Risto Kulmala from the Finnish Transport Agency who introduced Finland’s new international road transport strategy. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications was represented by Toomas Haidak whose presentation focused on Estonia's ITS developments in transport. He gave an overview of current ITS systems and provided a prognosis of changes in the Estonian transport sector in the next 10-15 years.

After coffee break the conference continued with the presentation of Tanel Jairus, Chief Specialist of the Estonian Road Administration, who talked about the ITS systems and applications developed by the Road Administration. Andri Tõnstein, Chairman of the Board of Signaal TM AS, gave an overview of ITS solutions used on the streets of Estonia. He mostly focused on the ITS systems and relevant problems of four of the largest cities in Estonia, as well as personal views on and vision of ITS systems. The next speaker, Indrek Süld from EVR Infra, talked about railways. He focused on the safety at level crossings and technologies that have been implemented to ensure such safety.

After lunch break the conference continued with the presentation of Märt Puust, Project Manager of the Estonian Road Cluster, addressing the Road Cluster and its ITS working group. Märt Puust described the work of the Road Cluster and its strategy in the field of ITS, and introduced the plan of action of the Cluster’s ITS working group. The next speaker was Taivo Möll, Head of Department at TECER Ltd. - partner of the Road Cluster. He introduced a mobile application created for the prompt transfer of the measuring results of friction characteristics. Next up was Ergo Sarapu from Mobi Lab who talked about mobile developments created by his company and introduced an application for speed cameras that he had developed, and the application for public transport in Tartu. This raised the question of privacy of ITS system users as all our devices transfer and receive information. The last presentation was by Professor Dago Antov from Tallinn University of Technology who described a vision of future developments in road traffic and influencing external factors such as changes in demographics, urbanisation and development of local commuting centres. According to his prognosis currently used vehicles will mostly still be in use 15 years from now which is why we cannot expect quick developments in the spread of ITS systems in the coming years.

The conference ended with a panel discussion with Toomas Haidak, Andres Harjo (Tallinn City Transport Board), Tanel Jairus and Andri Tõnstein as participants. Andri Tõnstein pointed out that although there is much data, road users only need a small part of available information. Andres Harjo stated that the City of Tallinn intends to establish a common centre for traffic management to ensure a smoother management of city traffic. When asked about the state’s objectives in the field of ITS and our goals, Tanel Jairus replied that the main objective is to decrease the number of road users who die in traffic. Toomas Haidak noted that it is very difficult to foresee the objectives of the ITS field for the next 10 years and that we should focus on measures that would make traffic safer.

The conference team wishes to thank everyone for active participation, TTK University of Applied Sciences for a warm welcome, and gives the university’s 3^rd year students of road construction credit for efficient and active participation which contributed to the conference's successful organisation.

The conference video can be viewed: HERE

Presentations:

 
Additional information: Rene Pruunsild, Development Manager, Estonian Road Cluster, rene@tktk.ee

The conference was supported by Enterprise Estonia and the European Regional Development Fund.