ITS Arizona 2019: The Path to Smart Mobility Conference Wrap-Up

Last week Mesa, Arizona was host to the 26th annual ITS Arizona conference. The event brings transportation professionals together from across industries to share ideas, research, and experiences adopting intelligent transportation technologies to build safer, more equitable networks.

With the population of Maricopa County alone accounting for over four and a half million people, and Mesa ranking the third-largest city in Arizona, ITS chose an apt host city to advocate this year’s conference theme: The Path to Smart Mobility.

The Path to Smart Mobility

The path to smart mobility is paved with innovation, strategic planning and strong leadership. Mesa and its surrounding neighbours in the Greater Phoenix area are growing fast and working hard to accommodate that growth and diversification through innovative and data-driven planning. Crucial to doing so, are ambitious smart city initiatives.

As proud members of the ITS community working to help agencies achieve these initiatives, some of our team hopped a flight to Maricopa county to exhibit our solutions alongside other vendors working to build better tools for transportation professionals.

CAVs, Workshops and More

Day one of the show kicked off with a connected vehicle demonstration made possible by the City of Mesa, Audi, and Traffic Technology Services. Participants had the opportunity to drive the surrounding conference area and get a feel for CAVs. Features of the vehicle included “Time to Green” and “Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory.”

Shortly thereafter began the Smart Mobility workshop, which aimed to break down the term, raise associated challenges, and discuss strategies for its advancement. Micro-mobility, the sharing economy, CAVs, electric vehicles or designated bike lanes are all examples of ways traditional transportation networks are being disrupted. Bringing insight from the public and private sector, the workshop underscored that progress towards smarter mobility is progress towards reduced congestion, more equitable access to public transport, cleaner air and ultimately improved quality of life for all.

The smart mobility workshop set the stage for a full day of technical sessions on day two. Some highlights for us were:

• Kerry Wilcoxon & Saroja Devarakonda’s presentation on predictive crash modelling using safety analysis at ADOT.
• Mark Franz of the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory’s session on identifying and quantifying the causes of congestion.

While a smaller-scale event than some hosted by its chapter counterparts, the ITS Arizona annual meeting was informative and insightful, and UrbanLogiq was glad to participate as a sponsor and vendor.

Interested to Learn More?

Interested to learn how UrbanLogiq integrates and leverages intelligent transportation technologies? Email us at info@urbanlogiq.com or visit us at www.urbanlogiq.com to find out more.