Developing an ITS Strategy

The development of an ITS strategy is heavily dependent on the political and organisational framework in a country and region. Cooperation and coordination among relevant government agencies is essential to deployment of ITS but may require clarification of roles and responsibilities. Some stakeholders may view a proposal for ITS negatively and need to be won over. For example:

• there was local opposition to electronic tolling introduce to fund infrastructure development in Trondheim, Norway – even though there was an established practice of tolling for new tunnels and bridges
• some local communities in California were worried about the environmental consequence of increased traffic levels resulting from an investment in ITS (such as smart traffic signal control and better navigational aids)

Overcoming opposition requires political commitment to convince stakeholders that their concerns are understood and taken into account.

ITS deployment should not be seen as a “singular” exercise, but rather connected to similar ITS deployments which should be consistent in terms of standards (and architecture) to ensure harmonised data exchange and a common “look-and-feel” for the road user. Harmonised deployment of ITS requires active partnerships between stakeholders.

A regional ITS strategy covering several regions within a country or several neighbouring countries is necessary to achieve harmonised deployment and use of ITS services. The size of the region and the complexity of transport operations that need to be integrated will determine the levels of interoperability required. (See Integrated Operations)

International freight operations and electronic toll collection for trucks moving across borders within the region benefit from interoperability based on common standards and harmonised back-office systems. In regions which do not have an agreed ITS strategy in place, the risk of fragmented deployment of various ITS systems of different standards is high.

Certain regions around the world have cooperated to develop regional ITS strategies – such as ERTICO in Europe, ITS America and ITS Canada in North America, ITS Japan and ITS Australia in Asia Pacific. Countries in the European Union have developed a legal framework to achieve greater harmonisation.

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), no regional ITS strategies have been agreed between the various countries but regional ITS associations – such as ITS Arab – have an important guidance role in facilitating harmonised regional deployments. Many Arab Gulf states that were pioneers in ITS deployment now face a situation where there is a mix of legacy systems and standards – without harmonised specifications. ITS Arab has begun work on developing an ITS system architecture to help ensure some compatibility of specifications for ITS deployments in future in the MENA countries.

Many countries, such as Argentina and Malaysia, have recently created national ITS organisations. Other countries in Africa, apart from the long-established ITS South Africa, have recently created national associations to jump start ITS programmes and integrate key players at a national scale (such as Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt. Many of the new associations have received support from established international associations. For example, ITS Egypt received good support from ITS South Africa and ITS UK.

Technical and administration capacity-building measures for staff involvement in ITS planning and deployment must be part of the ITS Strategy. Without this the necessary expertise to plan and oversee the implementation of ITS projects, will be missing. In several cases, the use of independent third-party expertise – to provide guidance, training and manage the design and deployment of immediate ITS deployments – is a way to ensure effective capacity building. (See Professional Capacity Building)

The importance of effective liaison with all potentially interested parties and stakeholders cannot be overstated. From the outset the key public and private sector stakeholders should be identified and consulted as part of developing the national ITS Strategy. Deployment plans should be thoroughly discussed and assessed with them – as well as the general public – to ensure widespread support and buy-in of the proposed deployments. (See Policy Framework Analysis)

Key players can often be grouped into seven major categories:

• Public Administrations: many countries have centralised structures at the national level – such as ministries or road authorities – and municipalities and regional administrations at the urban and regional levels. Police services – who are often the main agency for traffic enforcement – may operate at both national and local levels. Emergency and incident management services can be part of the public administration (though they may also be private companies). Many countries have still to develop integrated plans for road incident management and emergency response (See Emergency Plans and Emergency Response)

• Infrastructure Operators: cover all organisations responsible for managing and operating transport and telecommunication networks. In many countries, a mixture of public and private infrastructure operators exist – making their integration challenging without agreed and workable cooperation arrangements (See Business Framework and Telecommunications)

• Transport Operators: cover all companies operating public transport and freight fleets for the different transport modes. In many countries, freight operations are not regulated making it difficult to introduce comprehensive freight fleet management services (See Passenger Transport Operations and Freight and Delivery Operations)

• Service Providers: cover all organisations providing services in travel and information, vehicle breakdown and driver assistance, and motor insurance. In many cases, service providers are private companies who respond to customer needs and market opportunities (See Location Based Services)

• Industry: in countries such as China and Malaysia, a healthy IT-related industry has evolved through government commitment and major investment. In other countries, investment in IT is underdeveloped in terms of both the knowledge base and available resources

• Research Institutes: cover all organisations involved undertaking research in information and communication technologies, transport planning, traffic management and ITS. These institutes are a catalyst for developing ITS deployment plans and pilot projects. For example, in China, Egypt, Korea and Singapore, major universities and research institutes are heavily involved in the planning and development of ITS solutions, as well as leading pilot deployments

• User Groups: cover all end users of transport infrastructure and services including the associations representing transport operators and freight logistics companies. In many developing economies, representation of travellers views – as consumers of transport services – to decision making bodies is minimal with the possible exception of automobile clubs. The needs and requirements of vulnerable road users – such as pedestrians and cyclists – also need to be considered (See Vulnerable Road Users)

Expectations of what ITS can achieve can be unrealistically high. It is important to provide clear and realistic figures on expected impacts – based upon international ITS deployment best practice – and to take a staged approach. It is also important to anticipate changes in stakeholders’ needs and requirements over time.

Active dialogue is needed to identify each stakeholder’s interests in the deployment of ITS – their perceived problems, expectations, roles and responsibilities. Within each organisation it is essential to identify the staff with the understanding and skills to engage with ITS. This requires professional development, awareness raising, training and education in the broadest sense about ITS – of technicians, decision makers (including the politicians), senior management and administrators. (See Professional Capacity Building)

Effective dialogue between stakeholders is the means for transforming organisational arrangements from concept into reality. A lead organisation (and sometimes a lead individual) may need to act as a champion for ITS to push forward deployment plans and coordinate the actions that will contribute to achieving a common ITS vision.

Often ITS champions will be individual experts having had experience of ITS development and deployment at the international level and with a desire to advance deployment in their home country. Individually they can contribute their experience but with the support of national Ministries and organisations they can mobilise stakeholders to help solve transport problems. An ITS study tour to countries where ITS is widely deployed can help raise awareness and understanding of its possibilities.

A national or regional task force of the major players, with high-level political backing, can also help to develop voluntary agreements and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) between operating partners on matters of common concern.

Enabling legislation may be necessary to create and support new organisational frameworks so that public agencies and (sometimes) the private sector can work together in a structured manner with transparent and clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Any significant policy initiatives and legislation are usually the outcome of a process of consultation and consensus-building among major ITS stakeholders and interest groups. For example, the table below shows the allocation of roles and responsibilities for motorway traffic management in England and Wales – between the traffic police and the road authority – under new legislation introduced in 2005.

The establishment and maintenance of an ITS programme can be greatly facilitated by a policy commitment to multi-year funding for ITS activities. Without this kind of commitment a strategy for ITS deployment will be difficult to sustain because of start-up capital costs and year on year operational costs.

Enabling legislation supports the introduction of policies and procedures for ITS applications that:

• require enforcement
• involve financial transactions
• raise issues of competition or procurement, legal liability and privacy (See Legal and Regulatory Issues)
• create incentives for the private sector to enter the ITS market

The strategy for ITS will be dependent upon the development of the national Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure. It is necessary to have a basic level of technology in place that includes the communications infrastructure, communication standards and data models. Good practice is to synchronise ITS development goals with the roll-out of ICT generally.

ITS consists of a wide range of services and products, some of which are now very well established (such as traffic signal coordination). Adapting applications to local conditions is always necessary – for instance, so coordinated traffic signals work in mixed traffic of cars, two-wheelers and non-motorised vehicles. Transport agencies have an important responsibility to lead this adaptation in their instructions to consultants and suppliers.

In countries starting a national ITS deployment programme, it is always advisable to adopt the “THINK-BIG, START-SMALL” approach. Countries need a comprehensive ITS Vision and strategy encompassing all levels of ITS services that can evolve as circumstances change. The focus will be those applications that contribute directly to the achievement of transport policy goals and operational improvements. The successful introduction of ITS should be staged over a number of years to allow for adaptation in response to technological development, changes in policy priorities, economic growth, and greater requirements for integration as new ITS functions are introduced and existing functions evolve.

 

Staged progression of ITS deployments gives the opportunity for stakeholders and users to gain confidence in the new systems and lay the ground for future plans. This can include developing small-scale pilot deployments of priority ITS services to demonstrate their viability and to fine-tune the designs and operational arrangements – in preparation for wide-scale deployment.