TRANSPORT Smart Class, Scotland 2019

“Taking MaaS to the Next Level” – Several converging market forces, social trends and advances in technology have started to reshape our understanding, experiences and expectations of how transport is delivered. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is central to these ideas of change in the transportation of people and goods. MaaS puts users at the heart of transport services by offering tailor made solutions based on individual needs that provide easy access to the most appropriate transport mode or service as part of an integrated bundle of flexible options. In this opening keynote, Tactran’s Partnership Director, Dr Tom Flanagan, will introduce the Tactran Maas Playbook and the principles behind the Tactran bid to the MaaS Investment Fund. The Playbook and Bid establishes the context for successful deployment of new MaaS solutions in Angus, Dundee, Perth & Kinross and Stirling. It also identifies potential projects (or “plays”) to help Tactran prioritise opportunities for investment and to help the region to capitalise on the opportunities offered by MaaS. The intention is that these solutions will be scalable and applicable to other regions and potential national platforms.

“Journey Time Monitoring is Evolving – Find out how!” – Knowing what is happening on the road network, both locally and nationally, at any given moment is a constant challenge, as is understanding peak traffic flow or the performance of congestion reducing schemes. However, innovative changes to the way we can gather road user data for journey time monitoring mean road operators can now monitor their network quickly and economically. This presentation from Clearview Intelligence, including case studies, will show how crowdsourced data is changing the way in which we monitor our roads, empowering road operators to manage live situations and improve the experience for road users.

“The Data Cluster – Driving Forward Innovation and Transparency with Public Sector Data” – Part of the ambitious 8th City/Smart Cities Scotland Programme and supported by the Scottish Cities Alliance, the Data Cluster is a working group with representation from all seven of Scotland’s cities. Since its establishment, the Cluster’s goal has been to drive forward the publication of Local Authority open data, in order to enhance transparency and open up previously closed datasets for innovation. The data published so far has covered a range of themes, and has included transport-related datasets such as EV charger usage and traffic flow, both real-time and historic. In this presentation, Doug Young, the Data Cluster Project Manager, will outline the work of the Cluster to date and its plans to expand in scope from purely open data towards the wider internal use of data to improve service delivery – vital at a time when Local Authorities are increasingly making use of IoT devices and networks for a range of operational activities.

“How to Effectively Manage and Enforce Clean Air and Low Emission Zones with Virtual Permits and Digital ANPR” – A recent UN pollution report found that air in 44 UK cities and towns is too dangerous to breathe and estimated over 40,000 premature deaths per year from road polluted air. Imperial and Videalert demonstrate that the move towards managing air quality needn’t be a giant leap into the unknown and can be achieved by simply utilising proven technologies in a way that will make a very real difference to the quality of life in our cities and towns.

“The Air that We Breathe: Enabling Hyper-Local Air Quality Monitoring with Emerging Technologies” – Government and local authorities globally are coming under increasing legislative pressure to better monitor air quality, and to deploy and actively manage ‘clean air zones’ across our cities. By 2050 a huge populations shift will have resulted in 70% of the world’s populations living in urban areas. This seismic shift is driving Smart City initiatives globally. 44% of UK councils currently do not have fit-for-purpose air and pollution monitoring capabilities (The Independent, 2017). With a more stringent government Air Quality Plan about to come into force, councils face significant fines if they are not compliant. Welsh tech company Vortex IoT will deliver a thought-provoking view of the importance of the ‘Air that We Breathe’, and explain how emerging technologies and innovation will contribute to our ever-changing societal needs and how developing a new Hyper-Local Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) solution can provide revenue-generating opportunities for local authorities and play a key role in the creation of new urban business models that are essential as the shape of our towns and cities changes over time.

“Dundee – Electrifying a City!” – In 2011 Dundee City Council began a journey to transition away from fossil fuelled vehicles, embracing new advancements in electric vehicle technology as part of its solution to improve the city’s air quality. In this keynote presentation, Fraser Crichton, Corporate Fleet Operations Manager, will present the city’s rapid deployment of EV vehicles & infrastructure, highlighting the policy and strategies which have seen Dundee become one of the most advanced regions of e-mobility in Europe.

“Smart Update from Transport Scotland” – This closing keynote from Interim Head of Concessionary Travel & Integrated Ticketing, Mary Docherty, will focus on providing a 2019 update on the Transport Scotland journey towards implementing the Ministerial vision: ‘That all journeys on Scotland’s bus, rail, ferry, subway and tram networks can be made using some form of smart ticketing or payment’. The scope of Mary’s speech will include an update on the Transport Bill, Smart Delivery Strategy and Transport Scotland’s approach to enabling MaaS and public transport interoperability.