ITS Asia Pacific secretary general Hajime Amano
The world’s ITS Associations participated in the ITS World Congress in Vienna, including: New Zealand, which stressed the need for future proof ITS solutions; the Netherlands; Australia called for greater ITS content in road safety strategy; ITS South Africa discussed new strategic opportunities in the country; ITS Nigeria took advantage of the World Congress to stage its global launch; UK ITS professionals were congratulated on their achievements during the Olympic Games by ITS UK; ITS Canada co-hosted a workshop on connected vehicle technology; and ITS Vienna simplified access to the congress and city with its Kongressnavigator app.
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Technology solutions must be future proofed
Driverless cars do not need physical road signs”, New Zealand building and construction minister Maurice Williamson toldKeynote speaker Hajime Amano,
Probe data had proved effective following the devastating 2011 earthquake in Japan. Data collected from moving vehicles showed which roads were driveable, and this information was then fed into GPS systems for in-car devices.
“The role of the community is vital”, Amano concluded. “The government is simply not able to help everyone in a disaster. Sharing information is important and cooperation essential.”
ITS Japan senior vice president Harry Akatsuka said humans aren’t terribly good at driving cars. Japanese research shows that half of all car accidents could have been avoided by in-car automation; rear-end collisions on a Tokyo motorway fell by 70% following the installation of on-board equipment.
Japan has also been studying platooning – with vehicle-to-vehicle communications allowing close headways – as has Australia. ITS Australia CEO Susan Harris highlighted a trial planned for a connected freight route in New South Wales, the country’s first permanent test bed, in a bid to reduce emissions and lower freight impacts on residents.
She also said Australia has completed an intelligent speed assistance (ISA) trial, the largest to date outside Sweden. Drivers were monitored for two months before and after the trial to test their behaviour modification.
Results showed a median reduction in the probability of speeding by 33%, with 93% of drivers over the age of 25 reducing the amount of time spent speeding, but only 77% of drivers under 25 slowing down. Interestingly, there was no significant difference between males and females.
Modelling of the results shows an 8.4% reduction in deaths, leading Harris to describe ISA as “the silver bullet in road safety”. Looking ahead, ITS NZ director (events) Leon Wee said it will bid for hosting rights for the next Asia Pacific Forum and Exhibition and hopes to hold the event in Auckland in 2014.
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Road safety strategy needs greater ITS content
Responding to the Victoria state government’s call for input into its new 10-year road safety strategy,While acknowledging that the south-east Australian state has “in many instances led the world in road safety”, ITS Australia regrets that the strategy discussion paper does little to flag potential for ITS.
Examples include cooperative vehicle systems, collision avoidance, fatigue recognition, pedestrian avoidance and lane departure warnings using on-board sensors. The next generation of these will be coupled with connected vehicle technologies and advanced digital road map data, and ITS Australia highlights the need for local supporting work.
Noting that the discussion paper does acknowledge ISA (see item above), it pinpoints the key to widescale deployment as “access to an authoritative, accurate and current speed zone dataset. It is critical that the Government works closely with industry”.
CEO Susan Harris told ITS International: “ITS Australia is working hard to raise the profile of current and emerging ITS road safety technologies”.
Vienna launch for African newcomer
ITS Nigeria is staging its global launch at the 2012The new association will advise the Nigerian government on ITS policy and regulatory issues, notably to encourage a more coherent approach to making journeys safer and more reliable. Problem areas include road safety, air and noise pollution and traffic congestion.
Reducing road accident levels, to which speeding is a major contributor, is a national priority, predicating the need for database improvements, speed cameras and automatic licence plate recognition. Internationally, ITS Nigeria sees itself as a focal point for encouraging interest in ITS across the West Africa sub-region
International director Debo Shopade acknowledges support received from the
Africa.”
ITS South Africa
New strategic opportunities beckon
South Africa’s ITS industry is looking forward to “exciting new projects” under the five-year Gauteng Transport Implementation Plan (GTIP) currently being discussed in stakeholder fora.The GTIP forms the initial phase of a 25-year Integrated Transport Master Plan for the country’s fastest-growing province, due for 2013 publication, which “is expected to open new strategic opportunities for ITS deployment”,
In October 2012, the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport and transit operator Gautrain hosted the African Union of Public Transport’s Second Congress on Bus Rapid Transport, which Vorster hails as endorsing a “key intervention” in the development of sustainable public transport for Africa.
Congratulations ITS Olympians
The association’s London office, which overlooked two lanes on the games-dedicated Olympic Road Network, hosted a traffic monitoring camera during the Games.
ITS Vienna Region
Congress guide extends to city
ITS Vienna Region has contributed the outdoor routing and public transport content of the ITS World Congress Kongressnavigator app, giving visitors indoor routeing, programme and exhibitor details and a personal Congress calendar. The combination with outdoor routeing aims to encourage optimum use of public transport.The app serves as a free pass and is available in advance for use on arrival for iPhones in the App Store and for Android smartphones on Google Play, and can be found by searching for Kongressnavigator. Commercial partners are looking for future market opportunities.
Set up by Austria’s three eastern federal states as a cooperative traffic telematics and public transport initiative,
