Conclusions and Recommendations
Transport
In ensuring the wider use of telematics applications in the EU accession countries, it is necessary to overcome several obstacles. These include low public and political awareness and support, poor technical and organisational know-how, insecure finance from public/private sources, and institutional problems.Awareness Raising
An increasing number of CEE cities and regions are becoming aware of the benefits that transport telematics can have on the efficiency, safety and environmental friendliness of the transport sector. However, there is a danger that the effects of transport telematics tools are overestimated. Clearly, telematics tools don’t offer a complete solution for urban transport problems, but can be a valuable part of a package of instruments.One key condition to improve the use of transport telematics in the ten EU accession countries is that decisionmakers of local and regional authorities are informed why transport telematics applications should be implemented. Since there is a high demand for information on what transport telematics is, what the benefits are and what the steps of implementation are, the organisation of dissemination events (as organised in the CAPE project) are of major importance in the future. At these events, other cities’ experiences in planning and implementing telematics strategies or successfully implemented transport telematics applications from pilot municipalities should be presented. Presentations should focus on those applications areas, where the demand of local and regional authorities from the CEE countries seems to be highest:
- traffic data management and real-time data acquisition technologies;
- urban traffic control;
- public transport management/ public transport vehicle scheduling;
- information and guidance through vms;
- real-time public transport information.
Staff Training
The information deficit not only refers to the general understanding of the advantages of using Telematics but also to the choice of the right tools and implementation strategies. It is of course not sufficient "just to purchase the available telematics products," but each local or regional authority has to develop a specific telematics strategy. A basic task for deploying transport telematics is therefore to build up specific technical and organisational knowledge for key players from administrative staff. Training activities should not only focus on which kind of telematics tools should be used but also on how telematics strategies should be implemented. Moreover, key players must be informed about how obstacles, such as inter-institutional problems can be overcome.Implementation in Stages
The implementation of telematics applications are more likely to be successful when first only some tools are demonstrated which are less expensive and show rapid benefits. It is very important to plan realistically, which means that appropriate tools must be selected that are affordable. All these measures should be part of an overall telematics implementation plan. This plan should be an overall framework for the city’s deployment of telematics and should include tools that are likely to be available in the future.Inter-Institutional Co-operation
Institutional problems arise when many different authorities and agencies must be involved in the planning process for realising telematic strategies. From the outset, it is crucial that a common understanding and awareness of the use of telematics is held. A mechanism to improve inter-institutional co-operation must be developed.Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe
