Tampere Region ITS - A Multi-Stakeholder Public-Private Network to Plan and Develop Advanced ITS Solutions in Tampere Region in Finland

The City of Tampere in central Finland, Europe, together with neighboring municipalities, form a region of about 350,000 citizens, from which more than 200,000 citizens live in the City of Tampere. Since the beginning of the 1990’s the region has actively developed through public-private partnerships and cooperation of some of Europe’s leading intelligent transportation systems (ITS) services for citizens and private & public organizations. Examples of these advanced services are: GPS positioning and priority system for buses and emergency vehicles, real-time public transport information displays at bus stops and main public places, mobile and web based public transport information for travelers, multi-purpose smart cards for public transport, libraries, swimming arenas etc., public transport journey planner, journey planner for cyclists, voice recognition and text message based timetable information, real-time parking place information, warning system for trucks approaching low bridges, boat/ferry connection information displays, taxi and demand responsive dispatching systems, real-time traffic information portal that collects data from floating cars, fixed measurement points and traffic lights and combines all the traffic data in the city and many more. In the spring of 2007 the different stakeholders; ITS service providers, hardware suppliers, software suppliers, consultancies, universities and authorities decided to establish an open cooperation network to promote and co-ordinate the existing and future development and implementation activities in the City of Tampere and the surrounding region in a more organized and effective manner. Thus all the development activities could benefit from and support each other and make Tampere one of the main cities and test-beds in the world in the field of advanced ITS systems.