The cooperation framework
Partners believe the cooperation framework developed in SOCRATES2.0 has laid the foundation for future deployment of interactive traffic management. It is an understanding built on trust and a common language and we consider it the first step towards a reference architecture for interactive traffic management. The partners designed and deployed relevant building blocks including the intermediary roles that led to new and enhanced services for road users.
The interactive traffic management concept offers an effective tool to increase the number of road users who have access to relevant and aligned information. When provided with the right incentive, road users seem receptive to following advice from the SOCRATES2.0 services. This contributes to the potential impact on the traffic state, thus creating effective and efficient traffic management opportunities. Several functions and services developed in SOCRATES2.0 are so successful they will be used in future projects and applications beyond SOCRATES2.0.
‘What is new in SOCRATES2.0 is public–private partnerships where private end-user services can be used to pursue aligned public–private goals. The potential is clear to the SOCRATES2.0 partners, but the challenge remains to identify the win-win-win for all stakeholders. And to find suitable business models.’
New in SOCRATES2.0
In SOCRATES2.0 the partners operate in a special, pre-commercial environment. This removed obstacles and enabled partners to go beyond the state of art. These specific circumstances eliminated the need to elaborate appropriate business models and set up specific terms and conditions for the public–private cooperation in advance. As such, the partners could find solutions that benefited all and were based on partner equality.
The development and testing of the cooperation framework and its intermediary roles was new to all partners. Partners also invested in the exchange of new types of data, using and advancing standards, developing and deploying new end-user services that include traffic management objectives, testing traffic predictions, measuring user acceptance and service performance and carefully experimenting with incentive schemes.
Win-win-win
The SOCRATES2.0 consortium placed a strong emphasis on identifying the win-win-win for all involved parties (public, private and, not to forget, the end user). They agreed that a convincing win-win-win situation was needed to interest investors. Partners conclude that the main challenge now for the successful introduction of interactive traffic management solutions is finding the right business models to support the win-win-win. Further work on value insights is needed to support this.
An impact-driven approach seems the most promising business model for the Coordinated Approach cooperation model. This model remunerates all involved parties based on their contribution to achieving commonly agreed targets. The novelty of this approach as well as the required, but lacking, data on value has meant that SOCRATES2.0 has not yet been able to develop an impact-driven business model.
Future deployment
Creating the cooperation framework within SOCRATES2.0 has been a joint journey. Each of the partners has mastered the cooperation models and intermediary roles and has been inspired by the opportunities the collaboration provides. The partners look forward to liaising with interested stakeholders to demonstrate the value of the cooperation framework and improve it with further use cases and experiences.
The cooperation framework inspired the SOCRATES2.0 partners in their collaboration. The partners look forward to applying it in follow-up initiatives together with new stakeholders so they can demonstrate its value and improve it with further use cases and experiences.
