Brussels, 05/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - To improve mobility within the EU, the European Commission is looking to galvanise the multi-modal cross-border journey planner market with the launch on Monday 5 December of a competition to identify what is currently being done best. Over the course of the next month, people will be able to vote for their favourite journey planner of the 12 shortlisted by the Commission. The Commission hopes that this initiative will focus attention on the advantages of these systems and improve service provision. Ultimately, the Commission would like it to be possible to reserve tickets online for journeys through Europe and on all forms of transport.
Around 100 journey planners already exist in the European Union but, so far, none covers the whole continent or all modes of transport. At the moment, journey planner developers have great difficulty in accessing all the information needed: with information varying from country to country, sometimes the data are incomplete or cannot be compared.
Much can be done to make life simpler for European citizens in terms of mobility and travel, says European Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas: “Finding and comparing alternative travel plans in just a few simple clicks, without multi website hassle, will help people choose the best personalised transport solution and will allow the entire transport system to function smoother and more efficiently”.
As part of the European strategy to promote more sustainable and less congested mobility, the commissioner launched a competition in which the public will vote to decide which, among 12 journey planners, are the ones which best serve their needs. There are two categories: already existing planners and plans that still have to be made into reality. The competition will run until 13 January: go to http://www.eurojourneyplanner.eu . The best entries in each category will be announced by Kallas in February 2012. The winners in each category will be invited to next year's ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) World Congress in Vienna in October 2012 to present their ideas and solutions at the Commission's stand. (MD/transl.rt)