Transport Business

The emphasis for the ITS 2008 World Congress held in New York in November focused on the technological development of ITS in the car. To the virtual exclusion of all other forms of transport the organisers promoted the latest in ITS technologies and even went to the extent of closing substantial parts of the downtown Manhattan’s busy arterial routes on a daily basis to showcase a series of city street demonstrations.

Global financial state
Since then the global economic ‘meltdown’ started in earnest with the resultant catastrophic failure in the US car economy that has necessitated large sums of money being diverted as ‘bail-out’ packages. However, the underlying and critically important message that came from this was that US car manufacturers had continued to make undesirable models having failed to realise that what the public wanted to purchase was smaller and more economical cars.
    
In one of his first speeches as President, Barack Obama addressed this, saying: “We should fast-track the loan guarantees we passed for our auto industry and provide more as needed so that they can build the energy-efficient cars America needs to end our dependence on foreign oil.”  
    
Automotive manufacturers worldwide acknowledge that design technology is reaching its technological limits and welcome the ability for ITS to provide a 25 per cent increase in fuel consumption. Developing vehicles that can provide such fuel economy returns will encourage increased consumer uptake; and yet despite the incentive for a ‘greener’ automotive industry there is a residual concern that its development will be forced to take a ‘back seat’ during the recession.

Choice of vehicle
Irrespective of the outcome, it is important that the ITS industry needs to position itself effectively so that it can secure and then capitalise on its place in the transport infrastructure when conditions become favourable once more. Current statistics released by the UK’s Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders suggest this will take time as new car sales have fallen by 23 per cent are at their lowest levels since 1996.
    
The best selling models are smaller, more economic vehicles whose reduced CO2 emissions advantageously affect Vehicle Excise Duty tariffs. At the luxury end of the market there has been a substantial 58 per cent drop in one sports-car manufacturer’s sales and a 48 per cent drop in SUV sales.
    
Simultaneous to this, the UK’s National Franchised Dealer Association has reported a 20 per cent increase in the purchase of ‘nearly new’ cars in addition to anecdotal reports that suggest owners are keeping older cars longer and safe-guarding their finite budgets pending a financial recovery.
    
In turn this means that motor manufacturers’ investments, including ‘on-board’ ITS, are also being deferred. This places increased importance on existing roadside infrastructure and the traveller benefits that they provide.

Innovation
Clearly demonstrated throughout the World Congress was the technological excellence being developed and demonstrated by the leading nations, including the United Kingdom. The joint ITS (UK) and Scottish Development International stand in the exhibition hall became a focus for all nationalities who visited to learn from practitioners about a wide diversity of technologies and schemes ranging from ANPR installations, roadside infrastructures, ‘real-time’ bus information, ‘floating car’ data to London’s Congestion Charging. Despite being operational for several years this remains a significant topic of interest and one that indicates the prominence that the UK’s ITS industry retains.
    
Although the ITS industry has a global dimension most countries are developing systems intended solely for national benefit with ‘spin-off’ sales opportunities as an additional bonus. This is a natural commercial objective, however, without a supportive global structure each is vulnerable.
    
The UK’s ITS industry has been in existence for two decades and has capitalised on the benefits that many of the technological developments offer during that time. Its real strength, however, has come from its wider exploitation of co-operation and collaboration in pan-European as well as global projects.
    
The collective strength such as that afforded by the ever-growing ‘ITS Nationals Network’, currently comprising 30 associations from 28 countries, offers a ‘protective umbrella’ structure, which can be relied upon to support and promote the broader concepts of ITS. Increasing this network to a global state will only reinforce the value and strength of ITS as an integral part of a nation’s transport infrastructure.

Problems ahead
Nevertheless there is a challenge on the status of the ITS industry in comparison with other more traditional industries. In short it is still regarded to be in its infancy, and the lack of universal knowledge and understanding of its capabilities renders various ITS technologies potentially being sidelined as swingeing budget cuts become essential during these recessionary periods.
    
The industry’s global immaturity may be partially attributed to overly complex technological solutions associated with the lack of ‘cost-benefit’ analyses, a paucity of relevant policies and an appropriate legal framework often means that funding is diverted to conventional installations. If ITS is to achieve its full market penetration it needs to exploit its unique capabilities through global frameworks, standards, projects, and partnerships.
    
ITS elements are fortunately closely embedded with more conventional systems in many of the existing and ‘near to market’ projects thereby making it extremely difficult and costly to separate them out. Notwithstanding that all future projects will be closely scrutinised to identify all cost and benefit ratios and this places an additional responsibility on the ITS industry to ensure that its products are robust, accurate, effective and demonstrate significant customer advantages. So, rather than being perceived as an expendable luxury option, politicians, motorists, consumers and manufacturers need to be persuaded of ITS’s indispensable characteristics.
    
The EU Commission and the EU Motor Manufacturers and Safety Initiatives also recognises that vehicle development is reaching its engineering limits, therefore the next logical step entails ITS systems interacting between passive and active safety measures. A number of priority areas are outstanding across the member states, such as traffic and freight flow, harmonisation of road and infrastructure standards, integration of information systems as well as safety and security issues.

Policy framework
There is a vested interest in creating an ITS policy framework that correlates to the global spread of ITS. Citing a number of ITS success stories only emphasises the need to ‘move to the next step’ but this requires a co-ordinated global response with European, US and Japanese Asia/Pacific market co-operation in conjunction with the previously mentioned ‘ITS Nationals Network’.
    
Whilst an ITS ‘toolbox’ exists to provide technological solutions there is a need for a political ‘champion’ who will challenge any opposition. Such an advocate would clarify the current confused state of ITS, which remains shrouded in mystery. The UK is particularly fortunate in having an established ITS industry that has a surfeit of experience and expertise that it can draw upon to considerable advantage.
    
It is nevertheless critically important that ‘Intelligent Transport’ addresses this by emphasising the capabilities in creating substantial contributions as well as ensuring that all opportunities are fully exploited. As such it is imperative that ITS provides ‘mainstream’ technologies and that the ‘awareness gap’ is plugged.
    
The benefits need to be elevated to the highest political level such as the G8 nations to ensure the greatest representation. The present global economic predicament offers an ideal opportunity to adopt a ‘bullish’ approach by forging ahead in the identification and resolution of problem areas. However, the global dimension is very difficult to assess as there are widely varying levels of ITS adoption and the lack of benchmarks challenge the ‘drivers’ for unanimity.
    
Fears of flawed evidence will only delay decisions on future progress and will interfere with the focus on ITS potential. As an example – if ICT is known to readily achieve 25 per cent gains in fuel consumption, as mentioned earlier, there is an argument to forgo further research and avoid gathering additional evidence. Further justification should not be necessary and every effort must be devoted to promoting the benefits.
    
The ITS industry retains a commercial perspective on what can be achieved and jealously guards product developments. Politicians assess the opportunities as ‘what and where are the benefits?’ and ‘what is the political advantage?’ Transport authorities might be interested in the technologies but through a lack of expertise and budgets are more likely to opt for more conventional solutions. Finally ITS ‘end users’ are not interested in technical excellence and will ask the disarming question – “What will it do for me?”