With two weeks to go until Road User Charging Conference 2021, CiTTi meets speaker Gert Blom, strategic mobility advisor, Municipality of Helmond, who will discuss if smart mobility is only something for the big cities.
Taking place on 07-08 September at the Steigenberger Wiltcher’s, Brussels, Road User Charging Conference 2021 provides the latest insight, case studies and debate on current trends and future challenges that affect senior decision makers who have responsibility for intelligent transportation systems and road pricing.
This two-day gathering of leading practitioners welcomes delegates from around the world and across sectors to encourage active discussion and peer-to-peer learning.
Name: Gert Blom
Job role: Strategic mobility advisor
Organisation: Municipality of Helmond
What is the best thing about your job?
Being involved in bridging the gap between technology-innovation, policy, user needs and deployment
Does legislation help or hinder development in the sector?
Legislation sometimes hinders first pilots, but is needed to come to sustainable and useful solutions. In the end it will help those innovative companies who also understand and act according the need for regulation and develop solutions which are useful to the individual customers, but at the same time do not harm or, even better, improve society as a whole.
What is the biggest challenge facing those with responsibility for developing sustainable urban mobility solutions in 2021?
Making the step from all sort of pilots all over Europe towards real deployment of sustainable solutions, including sustainable business models
What’s your best piece of advice for those looking to implement sustainable urban mobility solutions?
Always ask yourself when starting pilots: “what if the pilot is successful?” . Have a clear plan on beforehand how to make the next step after the pilot if it appears to be promising.
What will sustainable urban mobility look like in 2030?
Not so much different from now, not a real revolution …. Some developments already started now, will be more common. Most customers will use a MaaS provider for their trips. Public transport will be integrated in MaaS-solutions. Co-modality and inter-modality is common. Cycling in many countries is not something for leisure only, but also the first option for many trips in cities. E-bikes and e-cars will be mainstream. Cars will be safer, but not fully autonomous. More public space in cities allocated to walking and cycling, less space for roads and parking within city-centres. Automated shuttles will be used for last/first mile trips. And of course: intelligent road/trip charging for cars instead of fixed tax-fees will be implemented in most countries in Europe.
Why are you looking forward to speaking at Road User Charging Conference 2021?
Being a speaker is always the best way to broaden your network and often starting point for new project ideas. But maybe most important to be honest for the RUC: First time to physically meet again with real people, drinking real coffee after such a long period of home office, online webinars, meetings and conferences.
At the conference you’ll also be able to hear from Continental, Dublin City Council Smart City Unit, National Road Safety Authority, Viapass… and more! You can view the full agenda here. All times are shown in CEST (GMT+1).
For partnership enquiries, please contact Robert Gouge at robert.gouge@akabomedia.co.uk or by calling +44 (0) 20 8065 0465. For speaking opportunities, please contact Claudia Davidson at claudia.davidson@akabomedia.co.uk or by calling +44 (0) 20 8037 1777.
Meet some of our other speakers at Road User Charging conference 2021…
