Seamless transport - the need for connectivity and sustainability

At the beginning of August, 2011, Carole Coune took up her new role as Secretary General of the International Transport Forum at the OECD. Here, she tells ITS International of the challenges and opportunities the global sector faces. Transport is a growth industry. Despite the current financial crisis, the trend for transport is pointing upwards. Demand is mainly driven by global economic integration, a growing world population and rising incomes in emerging economies. As we head toward nine billion humans
January 24, 2012 Read time: 3 mins

At the beginning of August, 2011, Carole Coune took up her new role as Secretary General of the International Transport Forum at the OECD. Here, she tells ITS International of the challenges and opportunities the global sector faces

Transport is a growth industry. Despite the current financial crisis, the trend for transport is pointing upwards. Demand is mainly driven by global economic integration, a growing world population and rising incomes in emerging economies.

As we head toward nine billion humans by 2050, the challenge of providing the world population with their daily needs, with access to education, jobs and other activities, is being addressed by our transport system.

To succeed, transport is getting more and more efficient in moving people and goods. Access to mobility is becoming easier, and the use of transport services an increasingly positive experience.

The vision that encapsulates much of this is the idea of Seamless Transport. Seamless Transport is nothing less than the physical expression of today’s dominant mega-trend, connectivity. In the 21st century, ever more people connect seamlessly in cyberspace; it is for transport to strive for seamless connectivity on the ground, in the air, across oceans.

Seamless Transport is not least about the convergence of traditional infrastructure and the new digital universe. Electronic information pushes the envelope for connectivity into a new dimension. For policymakers, operators and transport users this creates exciting new options.

For all the promise, there are difficulties and pitfalls. Safety cannot be compromised.

International Transport Forum

The International Transport Forum at the OECD is a Paris-based intergovernmental organisation that acts as a global platform for transport policy issues.

It serves as a think tank for its 52 member countries and organises an annual summit, at which transport ministers debate strategic issues of the sector with business leaders, top academics and representatives of civil society.

The 2012 summit will be held in Leipzig, Germany on 2-4 May 2012. The theme will be ‘Seamless Transport: Making Connections’.
Efficiency may be put at risk by growing uncertainties and potential disruptions – extreme climate conditions, energy failures, social unrest, demand overload or the multiplication of transport operators, to name a few.

To give another example, harmonising the conditions for goods transport between the urban centres of the European Union and those beyond is a prerequisite for more seamlessness, in particular with a view to the growing traffic flows between Europe and Asia. Yet this requires in-depth understanding of the different markets and their evolution. Cooperation and coordinated policies remain the key issue for still more efficient cross-border operations.

Therefore, when Ministers from the 52 member countries of the 998 International Transport Forum meet for their annual summit with business leaders, experts and NGOs in Leipzig (Germany) on 2-4 May 2012, their mutual focus will be on ‘Seamless Transport: Making Connections’. Under the presidency of Japan, a country at the forefront of transport innovation, the sector’s key actors will test their new ideas and share their experiences, as part of a unique global opinion-forming exchange on the best ways to shape transport’s future.

It is my personal conviction that innovating for a globalised world in a sustainable way will remain at the top of transport’s agenda for the long term. And with well-calibrated policies we can go beyond narrow carbon-cutting objectives and make the greening of transport a showcase for how to generate economic growth in the long term all over the world.

Today, transport is a growth industry. We can make it a ‘Green Growth’ industry.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • SCATS study shows significant savings
    December 16, 2013
    Australian study quantifies the benefits of SCATS to the motorists, the environment and the economy. Opportunity weekday cost savings potential of some AUD16 million (US$15.2 million) has emerged from rigorous analysis of a one-day study of Australia’s Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) in operation. This represents 27% of the total cost of a real alternative semi-adaptive traffic control. The estimated indicative annual weekday-based value is AUD3,900 million (US$3,705 million) or 0.9% of t
    Read More
  • Georgia Yexley: Here's how micromobility can deliver public good
    June 27, 2023
    Georgia Yexley, founder of Loud Mobility, looks at the lessons on diversity, equity and inclusion which can be learned from the US and wider – and explores why it is a vital component for industry growth in the UK
    Read More
  • Getting more for less from traffic data
    August 15, 2012
    Collection of traffic and transit data has grown significantly, combining with advances in connectivity and computational modelling to good effect. Desire to do more with less – to make budgets go further – has helped create a boom in the collection and study of traffic and transport data. Studies are becoming longer, greater in number and further in-depth as more intelligence is sought, plus, transportation agencies are looking to make processes of data collection less costly, or more efficient.
    Read More
  • Mileage based charging offers secure future for funding
    August 10, 2016
    HNTB’s Matthew Click sets out why a move to mileage-based pricing is inevitable. Infrastructure is the most neglected yet the most critical engine of our society, and our continued indifference could lead to a dystopian future. Our roads, bridges and highways have been largely passed by in the digital age—marginalised in an era when funding is limited and stewardship of physical assets has given way to our preoccupation with technological innovation and data—the stuff of the virtual realm.
    Read More

Highlighted Content