FRONTIER’s project main objective is to build the next generation network and traffic management system for future mobility. To achieve this objective, it is necessary to take into account the expertise and considerations from all the actors involved in the mobility ecosystem.
To this end, two different workshops were organized in the context of WP2. The first workshop was held on January 17th, 2022, and the main assistants were stakeholders from the FRONTIER consortium. The structure of the webinar was:
- Explanation of the workshop, DPO and rules
- Presentation of the project
- Time for questions
- Split the participants in discussion rooms with different topics
The discussion rooms included online interactive applications to answer questions regarding initial concerns from the first stage development of the project. An offline questionnaire was also sent to the attendants to gather the information that couldn’t be discussed during the webinar.
The second webinar was held on April 4th, 2022, and the main focus were on external stakeholders. In this case the structure was:
- Explanation of the workshop, DPO and rules
- Brief presentation of the project
- Time for questions
- Big group discussion
All the questions identified to be discussed with the external stakeholders were included in an online application (Ahaslides) to avoid sending a questionnaire after the webinar and reduce the risk of missing information.
The results and all the work developed during the execution of the FRONTIER project would allow organizations to improve their operations at all levels and have a better understanding of the future transport network ecosystem, from the close collaboration with other stakeholders. Moreover, this work will also help to stablish control strategies and to improve transparency at all levels, which have been also identified as relevant requirements for the future smart mobility.
The two webinars performed in the context of engagement activities have allowed to capture the requirements and needs from 21 external stakeholders, i.e. without any active collaboration with the project. Among the participants in the webinars were professionals from both academia and industry with noticeable work experience which covered all the knowledge areas that need to be addressed in the FRONTIER project.
Findings
In general terms, the main issues that hinder the improvement of the traffic network management are the weak cooperation between the different agents involved, the lack of adequate legislation, and the lack of suitable data structures to support a fluid data exchange. At organization level, the need of more economical resources has been also identified as a drawback to improve the development of solutions in all the previous aspects. Looking deeper into the current stakeholder collaboration, which has been identified as one of the main drawbacks to improve the traffic network management, 37.5% of the respondents stated that do not have any collaboration, due to the lack of trust and the lack of an established process for communication, while 62.5% collaborate somehow with other actors mainly to offer more accurate services to the final costumers. In addition, in the 50% of cases where there exists a collaboration, this is done in an informal way without any official contract.
To build an efficient smart multi-modal mobility system, the integration of CAVs and the implementation of efficient response plans have been also identified as a requirement. This will require an efficient exchange of data in real time with the use of new technologies based on IoT and 5G connectivity. For this reason, the importance of creating a legislative framework to control the data exchange, setting of standardization rules, ensuring privacy, protecting the business and ensuring the safety in the face of any cyber-attack, has been highlighted. For the integration of CAVs in the current traffic management system it is necessary to build smart infrastructures able to provide the technical requirements that CAVs need for a proper functioning. These smart infrastructures must be on the road but also on the cloud. Hence, It will be required the development of a platform able to connect all the agents that are involved in the mobility and to centralize efficiently all the data captured from the CAVs and from the sensors of the network, allowing interoperability, flexibility, forecasting, advice, transparency, bidirectional communications and also a regular maintenance to ensure the proper functioning of all the components. Aside from the technical aspects, a smooth integration of CAVs in the current traffic network requires the education of users on the technologies behind the device in order to trust the algorithms, and to highlight to all levels the importance of data exchange, but always in a safe and regulated way.
The last topic that has been discussed with the stakeholders is the need of policies orchestrated by an impartial moderator to establish the rules of the future traffic network. The selected entity, public or private, under strict and periodic control by a responsible authority, must create laws to build a suitable framework to allow a fair data interoperability with clear rules about data privacy, and support the users at all levels, from individuals to organizations. This should be done not only at city level but also at EU level to guarantee data integration also in long distance transport for freight and people. Also, the policy makers will require expert assistance from traffic organizations and operators, specially at early stages, to support their decisions and to be trained on the tools that would control the future smart mobility such as digital twins and platforms like ANTME.