Transport and mobility are part of the event experience, providing the first and leaving the last impression to all participants. It is with this in mind that Citec plans transport operations for some of the most interesting sport events worldwide.

The mobility concept and transport planning are key to the success of an event. Quite often, the complexity and interdependence of the transport plan and its operations are under-estimated: a complex set of ingredients to be mixed by experienced event transport delivery professionals.

Most recently, the Ryder Cup in France 2018 was a transport success for Citec. The latest appointments for Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Organizing Committee and UEFA Euro 2020 are further proof of Citec’s commitment and expertise.

The next European Ryder Cup in 2022 will be in Rome, and Citec has already started to work with the Italian Golf Federation to deliver a mobility plan by end of 2018 to initiate the work with public authorities.

The 42^nd Ryder Cup France 2018

For the first time in 20 years, the Ryder Cup took place outside of the UK. The 2018 edition was held in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, 25km south of Paris, from 25 to 30 September. A total amount of 250,000 spectators came during the event week, with a peak of 60,000 visitors a day being transported to Le Golf National venue.

“This was the first time the Ryder Cup was organised in close proximity to a big metropolitan area,” says Stefano Manelli, Director of Citec.

Citec delivered the mobility and event transport operational plan, with a four-year process to get all the public authorities, transport operators and other stakeholders working together towards a common goal.

The project was carried out in close cooperation with Ryder Cup Europe, PGA European Tour, French Golf Federation and the relevant transport local authorities, such as Ile de France Mobilités and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. In the very last year, the Ryder Cup preparation was also seen as the best test towards Paris 2024 Olympic Games transport operations, where the Golf National venue will again host a worldwide mega event.

 “We could implement a holistic approach to mobility; great added value was in being involved immediately after the bidding process was over and France was successfully chosen. The French Golf Federation and Ryder Cup Europe operational management strongly supported the transport project as well,” says Manelli.

Analysing demand

Among the most important planning tools was accurate transport demand, which helped considerably during operations, allowing the correct amount of resources to be allocated to each origin-destination. With reliable planning scenarios, the design of transport malls and parking areas was simplified and optimised, allowing cost reduction.

A study was carried out to predict when and where spectators were arriving from, based on ticket-holder surveys and revised venue capacity figures. This data made it possible to adjust the need for additional operations on the day from train-and-ride and park-and-ride.

Another element was to set the size of the venue to the size of transport capacity. The notion behind this is “Level of Service”.

“This was a real achievement. Most of the time, this makes the difference between a good and a bad service,” says Manelli.

The project’s final goal was to identify all areas within Ryder Cup official locations with specific transport operations such as road closures and restrictions, traffic management and temporary deviations. All activities connected to this project aimed to find the correct balance between Ryder Cup transport operations and the need to minimise impact on residents.

The whole plan represented a total surface of 500,000 m² of transport operating areas. This could give an indication to future organisers on how many logistic resources and spaces are needed for such a big event.

Operational phase

A total fleet of 400 urban buses and coaches served the four park-and-ride (for a total capacity of 12,000 car spaces) and two official train stations in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and Massy, operating four different RER lines (from/to Paris downtown), specially enhanced with 50 additional trains on the six days of operations (extra capacity of more than 100,000 passengers).

All flows reached two main temporary bus terminals on the edge of Le Golf National (East and West wing). Each terminal, specifically designed by Citec, managed up to 10,000 people per hour. During peak times, at the end of a competition day, each terminal was able to dispatch an average of 100 buses and 50 coaches.

1,000 people were directly involved in transport operations, including volunteers, drivers, parking stewards and operational managers, under the supervision of 12 Citec on-site managers coordinating transport, parking, traffic and security operations on their dedicated site.

The transition from planning to operations always requires deep and attentive work. The Citec on-site team was trained in the peculiarities of transport operations in two full-day training sessions. Site visits and liaison with the other providers were also part of the on-site training.

Contingency plans were also designed to face weather difficulties, overflows, bus breakdown and transport shortage.

Enzo Calabrò, operational project manager at Citec says: “European Tour declared that this edition was the ‘best transport ever for a Ryder Cup’ and we are extremely proud to have planned and delivered such successful transport operations for one of the most followed events worldwide!”.

Key learning

Transport planning and adopted solutions can be scaled up with regards to different levels of service, according to the needs of a specific event.

Transport can help to fit the venue to the scale of the area and adapt local supply to fit the event. Transport can offer innovative and pragmatic solutions to allow optimising the operational setup of the venue, especially now where most efforts are made on mega-events to keep these to a reasonable scale – not least according to the IOC’s “New Norm”.

Copenhagen, with its long history as a vibrant Baltic maritime hub, is set to play host to the 25th Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) World Congress. With “ITS – Quality of Life” as its main theme, this year’s Congress will explore how transport and mobility solutions can improve the quality of life in our cities by placing users and their needs at the heart of the mobility system. With this aim in mind, ITS experts from across the globe will converge in Copenhagen on 17-21 September to exchange best practices and advance the discussion on how to leverage smart mobility solutions to enhance people’s lives.

At this year’s Congress more than 10,000 participants from over 100 countries will discuss issues related to cybersecurity, resilience planning and smart transport solutions among many other themes. The ITS World Congress programme covers a range of interesting topics, from intelligent transport and the environment to the legal and safety aspects of cooperative, connected and automated mobility.

The 2018 ITS World Congress topics are:

• Mobility services from transport to mobility,
• ITS and the environment,
• Connected and automated transport,
• Next generation goods delivery,
• Satellite technology applied to mobility,
• Transport networks evolution,

Host topic:

• Cross-border mobility solutions.

“This year we will put emphasis on creative thinking, interaction and dialogue through a variety of sessions. Attendees will have access to innovative ideas and concepts from experts presenting in more than 150 dynamic sessions. Our vision is to enhance the interaction between the speaker and the audience, and thereby increase knowledge and expertise shared between our delegates from around the world” – ERTICO – ITS Europe Congress Director, Didier Gorteman, confirms.

Featuring more than 200 sessions and workshops, an exhibition, numerous demonstrations and technical tours, as well as a series of networking opportunities, associated events and social functions, the Congress is an ideal opportunity to learn from peers and share knowledge about the latest technologies and policy developments from across the world. It is also an excellent forum for the forging of new partnerships, offering participants the opportunity to join forces to push for positive change in the mobility sector.

The ITS World Congress 2018 is organised by ERTICO-ITS EUROPE, a public-private partnership of 120 companies and organisations representing stakeholders in the intelligent transport ecosystem, in collaboration with the City of Copenhagen, the European Commission, ITS America and ITS Asia-Pacific. ERTICO believes that the Congress, by providing these stakeholders with a forum to share their experience and learn from each other, makes a key contribution towards ensuring that intelligent transport systems improve the quality of life in cities and better serve the needs of urban transport users.

“The topics of this year Congress cover the most relevant areas in today’s business and policy agendas and are in perfectly in line with our activities and priorities: Connected and Automated Driving, Urban Mobility, Clean Mobility, and Transport and Logistics. As organisers of the largest event on smart mobility and transport digitalisation, we work closely with our Partners to ensure that we drive forward our shared vision towards zero accidents, zero delays, fully informed people, and a reduced impact on the environment. The ITS Congress is a great channel for us to promote this vision as well as to meet our overseas colleagues, understand their current work, see what solutions they have already in place and what their plans for the future are.”, ERTICO – ITS Europe CEO, Jacob Bangsgaard

Sustainability in Action

Copenhagen is ideally suited to host the ITS World Congress. The city regularly ranks at the top of the world’s most liveable cities, thanks to its commitment to sustainability. The city’s green credentials are reflected in some impressive statistics – around 45% of Copenhageners cycle to work, pedalling a combined total of 1.4 million kilometres per day. In fact, there are more bicycles than people in Copenhagen and only 29% of the city’s households own a car. Copenhagen is working hard to become carbon-neutral by 2025, and the ITS World Congress will be an opportunity to learn about the technologies and policies they are using to help achieve this goal.

“The city fuses quality of life at local level with a global outlook. It is internationally renowned for its innovative approach to climate and the environment. It has a reputation as the world’s best city for cyclists. It is a living showcase for Danish architecture. But most of all, Copenhagen is a good place to be. None of this came about by chance. It is the result of years of planning and development based on the needs of Copenhageners,” Frank Jensen, Lord Mayor Copenhagen, said.

During the ITS World Congress 2018, Copenhagen’s streets and squares will be used to display innovative ITS demonstration projects showcasing the latest technical innovations. Also on show will be Danish transport solutions, research findings and technological expertise, as well as products and services from Danish companies, in the hope of encouraging growth in exports of green mobility solutions.

Lord Mayor Jensen added that the ITS World Congress 2018 is a lever to bring together international public and private partners in a close collaboration that will contribute to the advancement of worldwide future ITS solutions. “On a regional level, the goal is that the Congress should strengthen the potential of cross-border partnerships in Greater Copenhagen, and reinforce the wide-ranging alliance within the Nordic Region,” he said.

Spotlight on Multimodality

The 25th ITS World Congress is one of the culminating events in the European Year of Multimodal Transport, during which the European Commission is promoting ‘multimodality’ with a range of initiatives. Major advances are foreseen as a result of this initiative, such as new regulations on multimodal passenger rights and data. It is no coincidence, then, that the ITS Congress has as a clear focus on multimodality and how to forge a path towards truly seamless and effortless mobility and achieve a system that is more efficient, sustainable and user-friendly.

Within this context, a session at this year’s Congress will examine how Mobility as a Service (MaaS) pilots and projects are aligned with the new regulatory environment and whether the proposed regulation takes into account results from field trials conducted throughout Europe. Also at the Congress, the European Commission will provide an overview on the regulatory framework around the deployment of multimodality and will share the progress made in MaaS projects funded by the EC.

Shape the Discussion

For anybody interested in the latest trends in smart and integrated transport, the ITS World Congress represents an ideal opportunity to contribute to and shape this discussion, share knowledge and learn about the latest technologies and policy developments globally. The Congress is an ideal forum to network with like-minded enthusiasts and leading experts with a view to forging new partnerships and pushing forward the intelligent transport agenda.

The Congress programme will be complemented by a 25000 sqm exhibition with the participation of over 400 companies and organisations from all over the world, showcasing their intelligent transport and smart city technologies and solutions. The 2018 Congress will also launch the first-ever exhibition space dedicated to young ventures of smart mobility at an ITS World Congress. The Area-C Startup Connector is an exclusive space for start-ups, giving them the opportunity to present their latest innovations and meet with potential business partners.

Furthermore, delegates of the Congress will have the opportunity to go on various technical visits and view demonstrations of the latest state-of-the-art products and solutions for real-world mobility scenarios, providing answers to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, such as climate change, air quality, urbanisation, congestion and traffic safety.

By providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and best practices from around the globe, the ITS World Congress will make a significant contribution to the promotion of user-centric smart mobility solutions, both in Europe and internationally, supporting the event organiser ERTICO-ITS Europe in its efforts to improve the quality of transport systems for Europe’s citizens.

The International Triathlon Union has extended its partnership with SEL Sport & Events Logistics (SEL) to serve not only as the global logistics partner for ITU but also the travel solutions partner, offering “360 degrees” services.

“We are delighted to further develop our relationship with SEL, which has proven itself to be delivering and adding value to ITU to the highest standards”, said Marisol Casado, ITU President and IOC Member.

“We are thrilled that a company such as SEL Logistics, which has more than 25 years of experience in major events, will be delivering not only the logistic services they’ve been providing for more than a year, but will also take care of all ITU travel solutions as an international sporting federation with multiple events across the world.

“The delivery of our branding elements from race to race all over the world, and the travels of all ITU staff, Technical Officials, and Executive Board are now centralised and organised to the best quality standards.”

SEL Sport & Events Logistics will now provide logistics and freight forwarding for the ITU to all World Triathlon Series (WTS) events in 2017 and extend this service to all 15 World Cups, Paratriathlon World Series and Paratriathlon World Cups.

And as part of its “360 degrees” services, SEL will implement its travel solutions to centralise workloads and increase productivity around the available resources.

“Triathlon is a sport for all – for all ages, for all levels of competition – truly global. So for us to have the opportunity to support ITU in its quest to broaden its reach, we are excited said Pier Bottero, Chief Executive at SEL.

“We shall always endeavour to optimise solutions and services for ITU, and all stakeholders.”

ITU and SEL said they will continue to develop the partnership towards 2020 and beyond as they seek to improve efficiency for LOCs, athletes and fan experiences at ITU events worldwide.

Host City: How pleased are you with how transport plans were delivered during the 2016 UEFA European Championship?

‎Stefano Manelli: The UEFA EURO 2016 was a real public transport success. The use of public transport to get to stadiums was even higher than during previous editions, with more than 60 per cent of spectators using public transport, even when the stadium was in the outskirts.

Trains (both regional and high speed) were used by 1.5 million spectators, of which many were international. These are very good figures that are testament to the work conducted over the last three years.

I am satisfied with the working relationships with the local and national authorities, which took more than two years to be fully established.

At the national level, we had a tight cooperation with the railway company SNCF, national partner of the event, in order to define a specific Euro railway time schedule: the efforts made were crucial to provide the necessary ease to the spectators’ flows moving between the host cities. A total of 950 TGV trains were identified as “Euro trains”, including special night TGVs after matches.

We need to put the UEFA EURO 2016 in the very challenging security context, which required increasing the level of attention around the venues, fan zones and stadium in particular. In this context, I am satisfied of the overall transport and mobility planning and operations.

The only regret was the fact that we could not implement, contrary to the past two editions, free transport for ticket holders (combi-ticket): it was not part of the original engagements of the bid and we could not achieve a uniform solution among the 10 host cities. In the end, all cities proposed individual solutions to spectators with a limited impact on operations. 

Host City: Did any of the host cities pose particular challenges?

Stefano Manelli: UEFA EURO 2016 was the first 24-team European Tournament; this was the first considerable difference from the past. Ten instead of eight host cities were needed and 51 matches instead of 31, for 2.5 million spectators.

Even in a big European country like France, the level of equipment, size and experience in hosting events is not the same among all cities. Transport demand forecast was extremely challenging, for many reasons related to the size of the event. We observed less pressure on airports than in the past editions, probably as France is one of the most touristic countries in the world and offers multimodal transport opportunities.

The UEFA EURO is one event, even if it takes place in 10 different cities. The challenges were in the capability to deploy the necessary resources within each host city and to ensure a uniform approach to planning and delivering the “product”, the event. This required a very articulated coordination, which took some time to establish, but this worked very well along the whole preparation and tournament operations.

The amount of external stakeholders and private or public companies involved into the planning and operational phases was very important: in France, transport governance is decentralised and the organiser had to deal with each individually.

All activities aimed to provide a common working framework for each host city (tools, timelines etc.) and to oversee the development of transport plans and measures that were as uniform as possible, in respect of sustainability goals among others.

The support from the national authorities such as Ministry of Transport, Civil Aviation Authority and DIGES (the department of the ministry of sport in charge of integrating and activating ministerial activities around major sports events) was very important for the exchange of information and the dissemination to local level. For instance, as each participating team has an obligation to remain in the host country for the whole duration of its participation, various smaller airports around the country were impacted, where a need for additional air traffic and air safety and security conditions had to be met, requiring additional work.

Host City: What has the planning for the UEFA European Championships taught that will inform the work on Paris’ bid for the Olympic Games in 2024?

Stefano Manelli: It is certain that the UEFA EURO 2016 was a highly valuable experience and a great test both in terms of planning and operations. The good practices will be capitalised on, while the less good have already been analysed in order to improve in the future as a part of the debrief process.

France is a country with a very solid transport (and public transport) knowledge. Paris in particular has one of the first, most dense and developed public transport networks in the world. These are an excellent base already and the involvement of all relevant bodies into the process, is a very important element for the development of a robust transport plan.

Having said that, the two events are rather different and the solutions which can be implemented for a one-month multisport event in one big city are not comparable to those which could be afforded for a four to seven non-continuous days event in ten various sized cities.

There are multiple differences between UEFA EURO and a summer Olympic Games, which have a series of impacts on the transport. The overall size of UEFA EURO is more comparable to the Winter Olympic Games; the summer Olympic Games are potentially two to four times bigger.

It represents perfect recipe for a traffic jam: bring thousands of cars with tens of thousands of spectators converge on a single site at a specific time. This is what happens during major sports events.
Pure science offers a way to ease the pain. Research funded by the European Research Council will underpin next-generation traffic management systems that anticipate traffic jams, rather than reacting to them
No matter how real-time the data feeding into them, existing traffic management systems are essentially reactive, switching traffic lights, opening motorway hard shoulders, or setting up diversions, after the event.
For ERC grantee Ludovic Leclercq, of the French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Planning and Networks (IFSTAR) and professor at the University of Lyon, this is the wrong way to look at the problem. Rather than amass and analyse the huge volumes of data that flow in as a city’s streets become congested, the transport management systems for smart cities of the future should focus on the underlying causes of congestion.
Existing technologies rely too much on a never-ending process of collecting data from cars and road sensors. For example, IBM and Volkswagen are working together to build what they call an ‘Internet of cars’ in which sensors in vehicles generate geospatial data that indicates traffic density and patterns in real time. IBM has also worked with the city of Eindhoven to implement a system that collects data on braking, acceleration and location from sensors placed in cars and on the road.
Meanwhile, Amsterdam has a congestion management system called TrafficLink, which monitors the national road network to help reduce congestion in the capital. The city plans to expand the system and to connect it to satellite navigation systems inside cars as they drive into the Dutch capital and its metro area.
Such traffic management systems may be getting smarter, but they continue to rely on collecting and analysing massive amounts of data, which is then passed onto traffic managers, who then attempt to inform driver behaviour after the event.
Collecting so much data is both “difficult and poses ethical questions,” says Leclercq. Traffic managers use it to assess traffic flow, and to identify and remove bottlenecks from the system.  But notes Leclercq, this does provide any insight into what caused the congestion in the first place.
He hypothesises that knowing more about how people choose departure times and routes would make traffic management systems much more effective.
At the heart of his ERC project, MAGNUM (Multiscale and Multimodal Modelling Approach for Green Urban Traffic Management) is the creation of a citizen science simulation game, which will be made available in the first half of 2016. Volunteer users will be able to sign up and input their preferences for traffic routes. Leclerq will combine this information with existing traffic data to determine which journeys cause the most congestion in a system.
Users will also be asked what kinds of incentives would lead them to alter their departure times or routes, or to choose to travel by public transport rather than by car. Factoring driver behaviour (demand) into road network capacity (supply) models, will provide the inputs for efficient and green traffic management.
Based on the information, traffic management systems will become truly smart and traffic managers will be able to adjust their strategy and switch, “from user equilibrium to system equilibrium,” Leclercq says. 

This article was written by Florin Zubascu of Science/Business