Regions for ITS solutions Network
RITS-Net responds to a urgent need to foster sustainability of regional transport policies via the use of Transport Telematics or Intelligent Transport Systems (usually referred to as ITS) solutions at regional level. The recent adoption of the EC Action plan for urban mobility, the ITS Action plan , the EC Directive (2010/40/EU) for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in the field of road transport, and the recently issued With Paper (COM(2011) 144 final) puts more and more emphasis on the use of ITS as a management tool of transport policies. While local ITS implementations already exist in advanced cities, these applications can be very inhomogeneous and generally not interoperable when transport activities spread out the administrative urban boundaries. 
Regions, by integrating the ITS component in a comprehensive regional mobility planning  can improve their transport policies enhancing on one hand their role of coordinators of local actions,
and on the other assuring harmonization of local ITS applications with the ITS Country plans as required by the ITS Directive. 
RITS-Net final objective is to help Regions developing individual ITS regional plans to be integrated in each overall mobility master plan and provide a common methodology to be further replicated.
The partners, composed of Regione Marche (LP); South Dublin County Council; ANATOLIKI SA-Regional Energy Agency of Central Macedonia; Vidzeme Planning Region; Development Centre Litija; Evroregion Pleven – Olt; AustriaTech - Federal Agency for Technological Measures, Autoridad Territorial del Transporte de Gipuzkoa and BIOKOM Pécs City Management, will exchange their mobility policies and practices and the use they make of ITS applications to meet mobility challenges. Via a balanced mix of interregional information, training and exchange of practices sessions together with a series of  7 thematic workshops, partner regions will investigate further the full potential
of ITS solutions in the process of planning and implementing their strategies, covering both technical and non-technical aspects. In this context, cross-matching will be made between partners presenting good practices and regions willing ‘to import’ them. This will be reinforced by the collection of the best ITS solutions in use by non-partner regions, gathered in a digital Tool-box. As the ITS planning requires not only technical knowledge, but mostly organisational capacities, partners will proceed at European and local level in parallel, building the necessary knowledge about ITS solutions from European experiences, while progressively involving local stakeholders in the definition of their ITS visions.
At the end, the partners will be able to extract from the RITS-Net exchanges, the main lessons to formulate their own ITS plans adapted to the specific local contexts. The poject will be summarised in the RITS-Net booklet and made available to other regions for further replication.