InREAKT recognised as Beacon Project for intelligent Mobility
The initiative “Germany – Land of Ideas” and the Federal Ministry for Transport and Digital Infrastructure acknowledged the “InREAKT – Integrated Help Reaction Chains to enhance Safety in Public Commuter Transportation” coordinated by the STUVA as an outstanding digital innovation for safe mobility when awarding the German Mobility Prize on June 28, 2017.
Under Secretary of State Dorothee Bär handed over the prize during a ceremony held at the Federal Ministry of Transport in Berlin (Fig. 1). InREAKT provides an innovative digital solution, which makes mobility safer and more reliable. It involves an interdisciplinary developed and IT-supported system, which is aimed at improving emergency management in public transportation in future.
About InREAKT
Imagine that you need help urgently at a stop or in a bus or train – and nobody notices. Violence, damage to property and vandalism can lead to passengers feeling uncomfortable when using public means of transport – especially at night – or even to avoiding them altogether. Members of staff belonging to transport companies can also find themselves in critical situations involving safety or medical emergencies. Consequently, effective emergency management is of great significance so that confidence in public transport is consolidated. The InREAKT system pursues this goal. It was devised in a project sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research.
The fundamental idea is the IT-supported operation of an integrated help reaction chain, consisting of the following elements: identifying a person in need of assistance, reporting an incident of this kind, alerting response services and intervention at the site of the incident. Towards this end, the project is entirely based on digital technology: for instance, optical sensing is employed to identify the incident (Fig. 2), a software-based incident management system with recommendations on how to act, which supports the transport company’s control centre, and a specially programmed employee app (Fig. 3). All technical activities were supported by interdisciplinary social scientific research accompanying research in order to ensure its acceptance by passengers.
Sought: Partners from Practice
InREAKT caters for improved emergency management in public transportation by establishing integrated reaction chains as well as an enhanced feeling of safety. This solution creates confidence among passengers and members of staff thus strengthening faith in public transportation. Now further partners from practice are needed to accomplish a pilot application and advance the development of the system. Interested transport companies are requested to get in touch via the contact form on www.inreakt.de (in German).
The German Mobility Prize
In the competition year 2017, the initiative “Germany – Land of Ideas” and the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure acknowledged trail-blazing best-practice projects revolving around safety by awarding the German Mobility Prize. According to the jury, InREAKT had shown how the digital transformation of mobility can be advanced to enable people and goods to travel more intelligently and safely in future.
A 16-strong jury of experts chaired by Dorothee Bär, MP, parliamentary under Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, selected the ten prize-winning projects in the competition. Around 170 start-ups, companies, organisations and research institutes from all over Germany participated with their projects for national distinction.
According to Alexander Dobrindt, the federal minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure “Germany is mobility country No. 1! With the German Mobility Prize we encourage determining innovations ‚Made in Germany‘. For we become the pioneers for Mobility 4.0 with the best ideas”.
“The award winners show how digital innovations can make mobility even safer. The people behind the projects provide an important contribution towards our country’s sustainability through their creativity and involvement”, was how Dieter Kempf put it; he is president of the Federation of German Industries Inc. (BDI) and also chairs the initiative “Germany – Land of Ideas”.
By means of the German Mobility Prize the initiative “Germany – Land of Ideas” and the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure publicize intelligent mobility solutions and digital innovations. The following members of the “Digital Networks and Mobility” platform of the Digital Summit support the German Mobility Prize: Continental Automotive GmbH, Deutsche Bahn AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Ericsson GmbH, Esri Deutschland GmbH, Huawei Technologies Deutschland GmbH and the Association of German Transport Companies Inc.
