Europe faces losing control of its entire Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) market to US-based titans such as Google and Microsoft, according to a senior Department for Transport adviser.
DfT transparency board member, Jonathan Raper, warned that Europe would lose out unless other member states follow the UK's lead in opening up their transport data.
Speaking at last week's 2015 European Commission ITS conference in Brussels on 'a digital strategy for mobility', he highlighted the extent to which UK transport data is already open 'and the country is moving on to the next step, in which aggregators deliver services such as customised data sets to transport providers'.
But, the transit app developer continued, UK levels of access 'are not being replicated across the EU [and] if If this is not dealt with, digital sovereignty in the EU will pass away from us'.
He went on to call for urgent moves to encourage major EU public sector bodies to become more active in opening up their data.
Meanwhile, the European Commission is currently drafting legislation aimed at ensuring 'fair and equal access' to data, primarily to encourage the creation of more high-quality travel planning applications.
Transport commissioner Violeta Bulc however stressed the need for a 'strong emphasis on standardisation' in order for the data to be of practical use to travellers and at the same time warned that 'It will not be cheap to implement ITS to its full potential'.
The news comes after a recent report by POLIS, the European cities and regions network, highlighted the value of the UK’s Government-led Urban Traffic Management and Control (UTMC) initiative for developing ITS standards compared to the city-based approach prevalent on the continent.
The UK's approach has helped tackle vendor lock-in while elsewhere there is often a dependence on readily available products, with cities a 'reluctant, for cost and risk reasons, to stray far from a local supplier base’ the report states.
Transport Network was told by POLIS that key players including the Germans and Italians want to learn from the UK's progress.