Do Intelligent Transport Systems help to improve the quality of our lives?

The concept of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) appeared as a new Transport discipline during 1980s as Advanced Transport Telematics (ATT) when telematic systems were applied to road transport.

During the 1990s the ATT projects increased in number and complexity therefore the ATT concept evolved into the wider concept of Road Transport and Traffic Telematics (RTTT) where not only pure technology but also the effects of its application on traffic and travelling where taken into account.

In the late '90s technology evolved remarkably so Telematics became Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) whereas RTTT became Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) that identified a range of technologies including Data Processing, Control Techniques, Communications and Electronics, all applied to Transport Systems (transport infrastructures+vehicles+users).

During the last decade ITS marked an important step forward introducing the new layer of services on top of the technology one. In the same period ITS have also been identified as an important tool to improve air quality and road safety.

ITS applications cover all modes of transport and provide a wide range of services:

• Road and Urban Traffic Management
  • Travel and traffic information to users
  • Traffic control
  • Navigation
  • Surveillance
  • Guidance
• Fleet management
  • Public Transport
  • Heavy Goods Vehicles (including Freight management)
  • Dangerous and Perishable Goods Vehicles
• Multi-modality
  • Freight
  • Passengers
• Electronic payments
  • Motorway toll
  • Road User Charging
  • Parking
  • E-Ticketing

ITS solutions have originated new disciplines or disciplines branches and new policies are being studied. They concern for instance personal data management (acquisition, processing, archiving) provided by ITS during a journey that could locate and/or track&trace people with the potential of identifying their habits.

New psychological studies are being carried out to understand drivers' behaviour after receiving information provided by ITS. For example, when a Journey Time Prediction (JTP) message is displayed on Variable Message Signs (VMS) along motorways (i.e. to junction 5: 20 miles, 24 minutes) what effects does this have on drivers?

• "Good, I will be on time for the meeting"
• "Good, but what if I accelerate? I may arrive in 19 minutes and beat the system"
• "Should I still be driving for 24 minutes? Better to stop at Services"

Different responses to the message produce different decisional processes that have an effect on traffic and safety.

The European projects

An important role of promoting ITS applications has been played by the European Commission in the last three decades. The EC allocated a lot of funding to raise interest and incentivise participation to projects of private and public organisations, Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Universities/Research Centres.

During the 1990s, when there was a strong need of equipping road infrastructure with ITS applications, new European projects were launched to help some identified areas of Western Europe to grow in this direction. In 2001 these projects were named EuroRegional Projects (ERPs) and continued to install ITS along major road transport axes in W-Europe. They also measured density and effects of these installations. These ERPs were part of a multiannual programme that ended in 2006. In the meantime (2004) ten new member states joined the European Union so they were eligible to join the club of ERPs.

In 2007, when road infrastructures were pretty well equipped and two additional countries joined the EU, the EC thought about funding new services for people and goods travelling across Europe. That was the right moment to launch the new EASYWAY Project (http://www.easyway-its.eu/) that will last until 2013. This project covers geographically all the old and new ERPs with the goal of providing ITS Services such as Traveller Information, Traffic Management, Freight and Logistics Services.

Whereas EasyWay covers road transport on major European axes, the CIVITAS Initiative (http://www.civitas-initiative.eu/) takes care of ITS and Transport at Urban level.

CIVITAS started in 2002 with CIVITAS I, continued in 2006 with CIVITAS II and in 2008 with CIVITAS PLUS. Each CIVITAS project is coordinated by a municipality, because it is a "programme of cities for cities". Projects activities are divided into "Measures":

• Clean fuels and vehicles
• Integrated pricing strategies
• Less car intensive lifestyle
• Soft measures (i.e. cycling, integrated policies, travel plans, etc.)
• City access restrictions
• Collective passengers transport
• Urban goods transport
• Transport management

In many measures ITS are utilised to reach defined goals and improve air quality.

Moving from road to rail and waterborne transport, we find the MARCO POLO project (http://ec.europa.eu/transport/marcopolo/home/home_en.htm) whose goal is to decongest European corridors by introducing modal shifts to carry freight on Short Sea Shipping, Rail and Inland Waterways. This is accomplished by funding projects that start up new services or enhance existing ones. Some activities are dedicated to use the Motorways of the Sea and to share common practices among partners in order to publicise and promote successful experience in this field. Marco Polo will last until 2013 and allocate about 60 Million Euro-funding each year. Many of the activities carried out in Marco Polo projects envisage a heavy usage of ITS applications.

ITS today

As we see from what described so far, the application of ITS solutions has enormously increased in the last 20 years and it has definitely improved the quality of our lives. The possibility of checking traffic conditions before starting a journey (on Internet, on mobile devices) and during the journey (on Variable Message Signs, on Points of Information, on mobile devices as well as SatNavs) is a good results. Public Transport have buses fleet satellite-controlled and bus stops are now equipped with Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) features. Goods are tracked and traced so to ensure that they are delivered on time. These are just few examples of the huge improvement that ITS have introduced. A better use of road means less time wasted in queues and reduced amount of CO₂ emitted in the air. A lot has been achieved also thank to the economic effort that the European Commission has put in promoting ITS across Europe.

EPN Consulting is keen on supporting clients that would like to adopt ITS solutions as well as assisting those ones that are interesting in participating to European Projects.