GDPR: how will the new data protection law affect the transport sector?

As Europe’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) comes into force, organisations across all industries have questions about what exactly it means for them. Transport is only getting smarter and that is dependent on making the most of personal data. And, it works both ways. While transport companies can use personal data to monitor and tailor what they offer to each individual, customers can also personalise their own travel options – through online booking, downloading apps and ‘favouriting’ destinations or journeys.

UITP calls for better funding in sustainable urban transport

UITP (Union Internationale des Transports Publics) is calling on the European Commission to invest in sustainable urban mobility solutions to meet its climate change, energy efficiency and New Urban Agenda objectives.

The European Commission (EC) will present a comprehensive draft of the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) in May 2018.

London one of the EU’s worst cities for clean and safe transport, says study

A recent report, commissioned by Greenpeace and completed by Wuppertal Institute, Germany, has ranked London as the third worst city after analysing road safety, air pollution and transport cost.

After investigating 13 EU cities, only Moscow and Rome had scores worse than London, with the English capital revealed to be the second most unsafe city to walk or cycle in, with 22.3 accidents per 1,000,000 bike trips.

In a more positive light, London scored second best in ‘mobility management’, which considered low-emission zones, transport apps and car-sharing schemes.

Recently, Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, has discussed the potential implementation of car-free days within the capital and plans to charge the most polluting vehicles more with ultra-low emissions zones. The UK government has also published a new clean air strategy, which claims to reduce the health costs of pollution to society by approximately £1 billion per year by 2020.

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Four-day HackTrain hackathon: destination InnoTrans

In four months’ time the world’s leading trade fair for transport technology, InnoTrans 2018, will be hosting the Hacktrain 4.0 hackathon on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. Hot on the heels of the initiative’s previous success at the end of 2016, the Hacktrain returns ­– a kind of technology marathon for hackers where endurance is required from the software developers, designers and industry experts who are doing the programming.

FLOW issues roadmap encouraging private sector to use multimodal transport analysis techniques

FLOW (Furthering Less Congestion by Creating Opportunities For More Walking and Cycling) is a project that aims to put walking and cycling on an equal footing with motorised modes as a solution to tackle urban congestion by developing a methodology to assess the effectiveness of walking and cycling measures.

FLOW released a new publication “Using FLOW’s Multimodal Transport Analysis Techniques in the Transport Planning Profession”. This document outlines how transport sector businesses can use the FLOW approach to help clients and administrations (transport planning and engineering consultants, producers of transport equipment and supplies) better ask, and answer, questions about the impacts of walking and cycling measures. It can assist such businesses in communicating improved methods for analysing multimodal transport system performance.

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