A starting point for ROSETTA was the output of the FP4 Telematics Applications Programme. This was initially based on the Concertation and Achievements Report of the Transport Telematics Programme - CARTS 1999, which summarises the activity and findings of 118 projects covering road, rail, water, air and multi-modal transport services and applications. The report identified key achievements by area, together with the impacts, benefits and future prospects. The areas included:

• services to travellers;
• services to network operators;
• driver assistance and control;
• public transport operators;
• rail transport systems;
• freight intermodality services;
• maritime transport services;
• air transport telematics services;
• infrastructure technologies, and
• emerging applications/techniques.

The CORE project, within which CARTS is produced, is on-going, and the final report is yet to be completed, though CARTS 99 is available: CARTS 99 report (pdf: 1.4Mb).

An early project activity was to gather together a range of experts from industry, academia and government for a brainstorming meeting. The aim of the meeting was to generate a list of key transport telematics application areas, which the group considered should be taken forward in order to meet the aims of ROSETTA, and to review the best way of proceeding. Whilst a presentation of the CARTS output was given as a background, the meeting was not constrained by the material presented and views and contributions were wide-ranging. The result of the meeting was a long list of areas to take forward and an outline procedure. The project team undertook additional background work with selected experts and a further expanded expert panel meeting led to a focus on eight initial Work Areas, the development of a general framework for ROSETTA activities, and a procedure for taking forward each of the work areas with small expert groups. The full Expert Group meeting would meet less frequently. The Expert Panel was again increased to support the specific Work Areas. The agreed framework for ROSETTA was:

• Context
• Strategies and Vision (functional philosophies)
• Applications - multi-modal (road,rail, water, air)
• Enabling systems (Telematics infrastructure - e.g. GSM, GPS, KAREN)
• Tools for assessment, modelling, decision support

Context

The context for ROSETTA is illustrated below:

The application of transport telematics is influenced by three main considerations:

• Transport demand
• Transport Infrastructure
• Transport quality and impacts

Strategies and Vision

Major changes are occurring which are fundamental to the ways in which we will live, work and travel in the future. These changes involve an understanding of social evolution, wealth creation and distribution, as well as technological developments. They will require radical new approaches to the ways in which people and goods move, and the rapid development and deployment of technological solutions is seen to be key to progress.

Aspects of social change include the ageing population, reducing household size, increasing importance of health and the environment, personal security, and an increasing emphasis on the individual. Current trends predict that the proportion of elderly people in Western Europe will increase substantially in the early part of this century. Medical breakthroughs are promised which will make a further step change in lifespans. As life expectancy rises, it is likely that quality of life will become more important with health, safety, security and the environment having even higher priorities. With a greater number of smaller households and an increasingly dispersed land use, the provision of efficient and sustainable transport will become more complex, potentially adding to already unacceptable levels of congestion, but providing opportunities for new bespoke services.

Economic prosperity is providing many individuals with disposable incomes which generates additional and different trip-making characteristics which will require new transport systems and services. The rapid development of e-commerce, and Internet activities more generally, will change travel patterns and generate a need for new goods and freight services.

Information and related technologies are essential ingredients to almost all aspects of future travel and transport. Location identification and tracking and tracing technologies and services will play a key role in the movement of both people and goods. Pre-trip and within-trip information together with sophisticated techniques for modelling and prediction will provide a flexibility for both people and goods in better managed systems. New commercial transaction services will provide simple security, and booking and payment options for conventional and bespoke transport systems.

ROSETTA has not set out to produce a single vision for the future. That would be inappropriate as there will be a wide variety of transport systems and services which use information technology and which will run in parallel and serve different markets. The emphasis has been on areas and systems/services for which there is a European dimension and for which a clear focused context vision can be developed.