Mobility
and transport

Information and communication technologies open up new opportunities for transport and mobility. The close linking of publicly accessible services in a network that includes public rail transport and public buses, taxis, (e-)car sharing services, rental cars, bicycles, footpaths, etc. plays a key role in a sustainable combination of mobility services that favours public transport. In road and rail transport and in aviation and shipping, the use of ICT creates new design options and solutions for the personal mobility, freight traffic and transport logistics of the future.

ICT-based assistance systems and automated vehicles are being increasingly used in vehicle technology. These systems will be interlinked in future. Assistance systems for vehicles increase road safety, help a wide range of people to become mobile, reduce emissions and make driving more convenient and enjoyable. For this to happen, the legal framework must be clarified and uniformly regulated throughout the EU, and data protection must be guaranteed.

Information on the use of transport networks and mobility behaviour is an essential basis for policy, planning, business and research. New and better linked ITS services expand the opportunities for mobility and improve the accessibility of the transport system, also making it more accessible for people with limited mobility.

In transport infrastructure, the entire operation is designed to be user-friendly before and during the journey using ICT systems and networking. Moreover, developments in digital building (building information modelling) are used not just for planning and construction, but also – and to an increasing extent – for maintenance and monitoring of conditions. Detailed recording of the transport infrastructure forms the basis for many legally binding administrative processes. The development of digital traffic graphs provides all levels of the public sector with an information system that can in future be expanded to include dynamic aspects through the use of big data in traffic.

Digitization will assist transport sector employees in their work, increase safety and help ensure that current regulations – relating to working hours or safety, for example – can be better reviewed and implemented, with due regard to data protection. In business, ICT will enable processes to become more efficient and cost-effective and operational procedures to be optimized. Since the ICT industry in transport is an internationally strong and export-oriented sector of the Austrian economy, measures in this area also add value to products and services.

Measures

  • “Autonomous driving” action plan: establish implementation expertise and a specialized competence centre for digital infrastructures to ensure that the appropriate competences in terms of planning, financing and operation are available to all operators of road transport infrastructures in Austria and that they also take the international context into account.
  • Launch test environments for automated driving from 2017 and set up a laboratory for driverless rail systems in 2018
  • Implement clear legal, ethical and safety frameworks, norms and standards for automated driving and for the use of data for intelligent traffic control systems that are able to learn from experience
  • Use the high level of ICT competence in Austria in vehicle electronics and control of drive systems to facilitate synergies between the automation of vehicles and emission reduction in hybrid and electric vehicles
  • Exploit the potential of ICT in road, rail, pedestrian and bicycle traffic and in inland waterway transport in order to make the infrastructure, guidance systems, and traffic control and management even smarter and safer and to link them all in a network
  • Promote intelligent transport systems as required in the EU ITS directive and national ITS law
  • Implement the European Strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS strategy) in public and private transport to connect road users and individual vehicles to traffic management systems and to the traffic infrastructure and enable them to interact directly with each other to increase safety, efficiency and sustainability
  • Expand nationwide and intermodal traffic information to include real-time information in order to make mobility more public-friendly as part of an integrated mobility system, a concept known as Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS)
  • Promote/expand central digital information systems for both passengers and freight for a variety of target groups
  • Continue to develop Traffic Information Austria (VAO), explore the opportunities of big data and increase the use of open data, open interface and linking-of-services approaches to create new intermodal information and payment solutions