Thinking Highways Europe/row June 2007

THIN KING

HIG HW AYS EUROPE/REST of the WORLD EDITION Volume 2 • Issue 2 • Q2/2007

EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS The return of Fotis Karamitsos

PAY AS YOU THRIVE

What’s next for road pricing?

SITUATIONS VACANT

Phil Tarnoff’s search for experience

A SMART FUTURE

Phil Blythe on intelligent infrastructure PLUS

Bus Rapid Transit • Automatic Incident Detection • Climate change • Italy • Australia • South Africa • ERF • POLIS • EUROCITIES • Graham Stacey • Peter Preston • Trevor Platt the

INTELLIGENT

choice

Advanced transportation management policy • strategy • technology finance • innovation • implementation integration • interoperability

    


    
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Foreword Thinking

All kinds of everything Kevin Borras is publishing director of H3B Media and editor-in-chief of Thinking Highways Europe/Rest of the World and North America editions.

Editor-in-Chief Kevin Borras Sales and Marketing Luis Hill, Tim Guest Design and Layout Phoebe Bentley, Kevin Borras Guest Designers AkZiDeNz GrOtEsK (pages 64-71) Sub-Editor and Proofreader Maria Vasconcelos Contributing Editors Bruce Abernethy, Richard Bishop, Andrew Pickford, Phil Sayeg, Phil Tarnoff, Darryll Thomas, Harold Worrall, Amy Zuckerman Contributors to this issue Barbara Bernardi, Phil Blythe, Ruth Bridger, Phil Charles, Matt Cowley, Francesco Falco, Steinar Furan, Andy Graham, Brendan Halleman, Olga Landolfi, Miguel Martinez Olague, Donal McGuinness,José Papí, Margaret Pettit, Trevor Platt, Peter Plisner, Peter Preston, David Quin, Phil Sayeg, Daniel Scholz,

“They” say that variety is the spice of life. If that’s true, then we have a particularly hot issue for you First-time visitors to my house tend to spend at least the first half-hour of their stay staring in amazement at my wall of CDs. I have the length of an entire wall of my dining room, floor to ceiling, devoted to my rather unwieldly ‘collection’ (not that I consider them to be a collection - collections are normally made up of things you can’t actually use, like frog ornaments and second world war stamps). The word ‘eclectic’ tends to crop up rather a lot in the post gawpconversation. I hold my hands up to that one. I suppose if you have albums by Slayer, Samuel Barber, Arcade Fire, The Chemical Brothers and Bob Marley in equal measure then your musical taste can indeed be described as eclectic (and I prefer that to the “that many CDs is just stupid” comment I had last year. The thing with eclecticism is that it has to be tempered with some kind of logic (mine is that I have all 4,000+ CDs filed alphabetically by artist and then chronologically, which makes buying albums by bands that begin with A something of a traumatic

event).You could just as easily describe this issue of Thinking Highways as ‘eclectic’, he said, finally getting to the point. Our cover story is a fascinating insight into the world of Fotis Karamitsos, newly crowned Director for Logistics, Innovation, Comodality and Maritime Transport at the European Commission’s DG TREN. ITS’s prodigal son has returned and he’s very happy to be back.

“The thing with eclecticism is that it has to be tempered with some kind of logic” Our 112-page issue also features such high-quality contributions as Prof Phil Blythe’s detailed look at the Foresight programme; Phil Tarnoff’s attempt to address the US’s startling lack of qualified traffic engineers is a companion piece to Peter Preston’s quest to capture the essence of the modern traffic engineer. We also have a fourarticle piece on road pricing, one of which focuses on the

idea of rewarding good driving and travelling behaviour - and then there’s a beautifully designed eightpage review of the latest automatic incident detection market, put together by some highly talented Swedes (and a Lithuanian). Where else would you get all this AND an in-depth review of the potential for Bus Rapid Transit systems written by a BBC transport correspondent sitting comfortably alongside Paul Vorster’s third report from South Africa and the first instalment of a regular feature where POLIS invites one of its members (this time the Dutch region of Noord Brabant) to tell the world (or at least this part of it) about an innovative programme? And there’s not even room to more than briefly mention pieces from Italy and Australia and focuses on sustainable roads, satnav anomalies, climate change, reliabilitycentred maintenance, EU funding, traffic counting and a delve into Trevor Platt’s thought processes. The logical thread running through this eclectic mix of stories? Read them all and you’ll see for yourself. TH

Graham Stacey, Ira Steinhoff, Bart Swaans, Phil Tarnoff, Stijn Vandebeurie, Paul Vorster

Thinking Highways

Visualisation Tom Waldschmidt ([email protected]) Conferences and Events Odile Pignier ([email protected])

Thinking Highways is published quarterly in two editions – North America and Europe/Rest of the World - and is available on subscription at £30/€40 (Europe/RoW) and US$60 (North America). Distributed in the USA by DSW 75 Aberdeen Road, Emigsville, PA 17318-0437 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Emigsville, PA. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Thinking Highways, 401 S W Water Street, Suite 201B, Peoria, Illinois 61602, USA.

Subscriptions and Circulation Pilarin Harvey-Granell Website Code Liquid Financial Director Martin Brookstein EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING H3B Media Ltd, 15 Onslow Gardens, Wallington, Surrey SM6 9QL, UK Tel +44 (0)870 919 3770 Fax +44 (0)870 919 3771 Email [email protected]

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is published by H3B Media Ltd.

ISSN 1753-433X

Managing Director Luis Hill [email protected]

Publishing Director Kevin Borras [email protected]

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Although due care has been taken to ensure that the content of this publication is accurate and up-to-date, the publisher can accept no liability for errors and omissions. Unless otherwise stated, this publication has not tested products or services that are described herein, and their inclusion does not imply any form of endorsement. By accepting advertisements in this publication, the publisher does not warrant their accuracy, nor accept responsibility for their contents. The publisher welcomes unsolicited manuscripts and illustrations but can accept no liability for their safe return. © 2007 H3B Media Ltd. All rights reserved. The views and opinions of the authors are not necessarily those of H3B Media Ltd. Reproduction (in whole or in part) of any text, photograph or illustration contained in this publication without the written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. Printed in the UK by Stones the Printers

Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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Contents

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COLUMNS Eurocities’ Mobility Forum Prof Phil Charles’ Australian Update

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COVER STORY

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Kevin Borras talks to Fotis Karamitsos as “the Godfather of European ITS” makes a welcome return to the Brussels hot seat

Andy Graham and Matt Cowley devise a road pricing scheme based on fairness...

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GPSS integrity’s role in congestion charging, as told by Miguel Angel Martinez Olague Daniel Scholz and Donal McGuinness on fully automated toll payment by mobile phone

THE THOUGHT PROCESS Trevor Platt, Strategic Business Development Director, Serco, UK THE THINKER ITS guru Phil Tarnoff addresses the shortfall in qualified traffic engineers

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INTELLIGENT INFRASTRUCTURE Prof Phil Blythe on science and technology’s role in the ITS systems of the future EVENT PREVIEW H3B Media’s 1st UK Road Pricing Think Tank

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HOW I SEE IT The changing face (and scope) of the 21st Cenury traffic engineer, by Peter Preston

ROAD PRICING & ETC Is road pricing the best way to solve congestion, asks Steinar Furan

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Graham Stacey on reliability-centred maintenance

CLIMATE CHANGE The plus points of the UK’s Draft Climate Change Bill, highlighted by David Quin THINKING DIFFERENTLY Stijn Vandebeurie looks at the state-of-play in the automatic incident detection market in an eight-page feature fashioned by Swedish design consultants AkZiDeNz GrOtEsK

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traffic levels, described by Phil Sayeg 72

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SOUTH AFRICA Paul Vorster’s keeping a close eye on how the transport industry is helping to fuel South Africa’s 2010 World Cup plans

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 100 BBC transport correspondent Peter Plisner on the new concepts and technology helping to improve the image of BRT systems

POLICY PERSPECTIVE Sustainable roads are advantageous for the environment, say José Papí, Brendan Halleman and Francesco Falco CASE IN POINT Satellite navigation systems are not exactly flavour of the month with the trucking industry, as Ruth Bridger discovers POLIS BUREAU In the first of a new, regular series focusing on POLIS members, Bart Swaans looks at the dynamic traffic managament measures of the Dutch region of Noord Brabant T-FOCUS When mere traffic counting is not enough, by PTV ‘s Ira Steinhoff DRIVER INFORMATION Australia’s battle to keep up with its rising

p26 ITALY 106 Olga Landolfi reports from Rome as Italy attempts to keep pace, at the very least, with the rest of Europe FINANCE AND FUNDING 106 Margaret Pettit meets Jessica, Jeremie and Jaspers 112 Advertisers’ Index

EUROCITIES’ Mobility Forum

Spend wisely If you’re considering investing in your infrastructure, EUROCITIES requests that you think twice...

Before undertaking a sizeable investment in infrastructure, whatever the infrastructure may be, (even if we would prefer investment in environmentally friendly means of transport), we need to think twice. Infrastructure investments alone will not solve the problem of congested capacity in cities, neighbourhood and transEuropean transport networks. At the beginning of 2007 widespread confusion surrounded the debate on the EU financial perspectives 2007-2013 resulting in the allocation of a very modest budget for trans-European Networks and some limited gains on structural and cohesion policy for urban transport. The question we would like you to find an

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answer for in this column is the following: Do you really think that an increase in size and infrastructure capacity can be the optimal response to congestion problem and more to our current needs for a greater mobility?

“Infrastructure investment alone will not solve the congestion problem” We really doubt that this is the case. The changing situation, especially in the new Member States, imposes a reflection on this subject, particularly if you glance at the allocation of public funding for the next period. We need to look for another response to congestion, a different, more

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creative one. Let’s take a look at the problem from a different perspective. For a moment forget about the supposedly unbreakable link between economic growth and transport demand and project ourselves into the charming and unexplored world of mobility management. We can no longer reply to the increasing demand of mobility by constantly adding “capacity to existing capacity.” Instead we need to develop an approach within cities and between cities “which on the basis of predicted travel behaviours, intervenes proactively to encourage sustainable solutions both for freight and citizens, to reduce where possible their transport demands, and encourage the most sustainable modes to cover remaining needs” . Mobility management has www.h3bmedia.com

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Robert EUROCITIES’ Kelly and Mobility MarkForum Johnson become a societal need which contributes greatly to the development of new concepts on how citizens move around in and between cities. As has been mentioned several times before, we are perfectly aware of the fact that mobility is not only an increasing need but also “a right” of “urban users”. However, there are thousands of approaches and methodologies that can help to solve this issue in a more sustainable way and one of these is through mobility management. Mobility management is the management of demand through a combination of incentives and disincentives aimed at optimising the utilisation of transport capacity towards the creation of sustainable cities. Our “mobility-affectionate” readers can of course recognise in this definition a major reference to travel demand management tools such as road pricing, congestion charging schemes, low emission zones, and parking space management.

Predictive text

Now we would like our readers to understand how problems can be managed using a predictive methodology. The word management may bring back bad memories, but in our case, it is purely a matter of a better understanding of the needs of cities, now and in the future. Nothing more, nothing less. So where are we going? What do we need? Following the Adam Smith theory of perfect substitutes, will it be possible to say that a car journey can be substituted with a bike and or by walking? Without bothering you with macro-economics calculations, we believe that a bike and walking trip are much moiré environmental and economic rentable than a single car. Following this innovative

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“It is purely a matter of a better understanding of the needs of cities, now and in the future” approach we would be able to touch upon work, school, leisure tourism and foster the dialogue between stakeholders. Let’s take for instance the ‘travel to work’ issue. How many citizens really need a car to go to work? Mobility management is aimed at facilitating talks between transport operators, local authorities and businesses, in order to find joint solutions for people living in the same area. The same goes for school travel.You might have heard of something called ‘Walking on Wednesday’ that has become quite commonplace in the UK, where chilldren form a walking bus to go to school. As we mentioned before, we should not forget that this

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approach will need no small amount of psychological thinking ,thus devolving incentive and disincentive schemes in order to convince people to switch from private cars to more collective means of transport. It is a work on progress. In conclusion, we will get to the provocative question of ‘do you need to invest in your infrastructure at all?’. Of course we need investment in infrastructure and once more we would like to see the European Commission more committed to the old fashioned intermodality principle. We can do so much without huge amounts of money. Be creative, be predictive (and not predictable) and be proactive. Sometimes a lack of investment might be a challenge that will turn into an opportunity. TH For more information, please contact Barbara Bernadi, EUROCITIES’ mobility policy officer at [email protected] or visit the website at www.eurocities.org www.h3bmedia.com

On January 1, 2007 the Czech Republic’s electronic toll collection system for heavy vehicles started commercial operation. Just 70 days and 14 hours later, toll revenue reached 1 billion Czech Koruna. Electronic toll collection systems from Kapsch TrafficCom can work for you too | www.kapsch.net

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Prof Phil Charles’ Australian Update

Would you like traffic services with that?

services (such as police, fire and ambulance services), and personal travel (such as commuters, recreation, and shoppers), plus road-based transit. The primary sources of congestion are too much traffic for the available capacity, such as a bottleneck, or as a result of the unexpected reduction capacity, such as caused by a traffic incident. Once the traffic flow breaks down to stop-andgo conditions, a ‘tipping point’ is reached and the capacity is reduced even further. Traffic incidents can have major impacts, resulting in gridlock for hours. Congestion is not only growing, it is becoming more volatile as well.

Optional extras

Could offering traffic incident response services be an incentive to rid Australia of potentially crippling congestion? Highway agencies today have limited opportunities for a direct relationship with their customers - the road users. If the trend to road user charging continues then that relationship and providing quality customer service will require a significant change in focus for agencies. Two of the major challenges facing highway agencies into the next decade will be dealing with increasing traffic congestion, and securing funding for infrastructure and services – hence the growing interest in congestion charging.

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Is congestion getting worse? Congestion used to mean that it took longer to get to and from work in the ‘peak hour’. Now congestion affects more trips, extending to more hours of the day, creates even more extra travel time, extends across more of the road network and results in reduced reliability of travel. Congestion has real costs for all road users, including trucks (both long-haul and local pickup and delivery), household and business service providers (such as plumbers, computer technicians), emergency

There has been a flurry of interest in traffic congestion in Australia recently. The Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission (VCEC) published their 530 page draft report in April 2006 titled ‘Making the right choices: Options for managing transport congestion’. The VCEC concluded that ‘transport congestion (affecting road, rail and public transport) is an increasing problem for Melbourne that, if not addressed, will impose increasing costs on the community’. The Commission put forward a number of options to improve efficiency, including better management of existing road space, better interchanges with rail, efficiency measures relating to freight movements, and location-specific use of peak– period pricing to improve congestion. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) also www.h3bmedia.com

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Prof Phil Charles’ Australian Update Robert Kelly and Mark Johnson

“Congestion is a major challenge facing Australian road agencies”

published a report in December 2006 titled Review of Urban Congestion: Trends, Impacts and Solutions. The report concluded that ‘Congestion pressures are forecast to rise appreciably’ as indicated in the commissioned Bureau of Transport and Regional Economic Working Paper No 71, Estimating urban traffic and congestion cost trends for Australian cities (published in April 2007). The COAG report discussed a range of potential congestion measures including traffic management, encouraging use of transit, integrated land use and transport planning and road demand management through charges, levies, taxes, infrastructure and service pricing. COAG has agreed jurisdictions will develop a proposed package of corridor and location-specific congestion management initiatives. A clear message is that congestion is a major challenge facing Australian road agencies. So what can be done? A combination of managing existing infrastructure more efficiently

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A step in the direction of developing that relationship between a road operator and road users and building a positive image or brand is providing incident response services. The public sector operated Florida Turnpike in the US and the Highways Agency in the UK and private operators such as Transurban on their Citylink toll road in Melbourne are examples of road operators that have moved in this direction. Providing traffic incident response services is an ideal mechanism to provide a very Customer service positive image of helping Market forces already stranded motorists or road determine a number of the users caught up in traffic services we consume, queues – a win-win situation all including telephone, internet round. Using traffic incident access, energy and water response services to build supply. Extending user positive customer charging to road use seems inevitable. The challenge when relationships with road users, increases the level and quality a ‘user’ pays for a service is of service and provides a they expect higher levels and pathway for the introduction of quality of service – customer road user charging. service. Worth considering in the Private toll road operators search for congestion already understand the importance of providing a high mitigation measures. TH level of service to their Prof Phil Charles is Director customers to ensure patronage of the Centre for Transport growth. Public sector highway Strategy at the University of agencies need to address this Queensland. issue. [email protected] through active traffic and incident management, adding more capacity and moderating demand through price and non-price measures. Direct road user charging is only utilised for toll roads in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. At this stage congestion charging is not being actively considered, but is increasingly being referred to in studies and media debate as part of a package of congestion mitigation measures.

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Vol 2 No 1 Thinking Highways

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Cover Story

Back in the picture

FOTIS KARAMITSOS is back. KEVIN BORRAS spoke to DG TREN’s new Director for Logistics, Innovation, Co-modality & Maritime Transport about the past, the present and the future The name Fotis Karamitsos was synonymous with the term ITS for anyone involved in the industry in the 1990s and first couple of years of the new Millennium. As the charismatic, personable and instantly recognisable Head of Unit for Transport Telematics and Tourism at the European Commission’s Information Society Directorate General (DG INFSO), Karamitsos was at the helm of the good ship ITS as it sailed into uncharted waters - projects such as DRIVE and PROMETHEUS bringing the previously unheard of terms such as ‘telematics’ and ‘intelligent transport systems’ into the public domain and into the European vocabulary. In other words, Karamitsos oversaw and in many ways shaped ITS’s evolution from research to reality, not that the disarmingly modest native of Greece would ever admit to anything so grand. In 2001 he moved across to DG TREN (Transport and Energy) to become Director of the Maritime & Inland Transport Directorate, and that, we were mistaken for thinking, was almost certainly going to be the last we saw of him. However, late in 2006 a rumour began to take shape that Karamitsos was about to come

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home, albeit in a more elevated capacity. After six years away, was the prodigal really going to return? Yes, was the simple answer to what had become a rather protracted question. “ My responsibilities were widened last Autumn when in addition to the Maritime issues I became responsible for Logistics, Innovation, Co-mobility, Urban Transport and also GALILEO,” says the clearly pleased to be back Karamitsos. “It is great to move from time to time and it is especially exciting when you can deal with issues that really have an impact on people’s lives, like those in the fast moving field of the transport of goods and people.” A lot has changed in the intervening years, especially in terms of policy strategy, public knowledge and acceptance and so on - what, I wondered, was the biggest difference that he had noticed so far? “A lot has changed, you’re right there, but there are a lot of challenges that are still there. Of course, technologies have moved on – in some cases very big changes have occurred, but these have given new opportunities to solve the blockages we have in the system,” he explains. “The other day I looked back at some papers we produced in 1990 through the DRIVE Strategic Consultative Committee and recognised that we face some of the same issues today – congestion and the reduction of accidents were prominent – although we have made great strides in the safety field already. The new items on top of the agenda are climate change and energy Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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Cover Story (dependence and efficiency), on which we have to put a priority. Freight transport was seen as strategically important then as it is now. For freight – which I believe is a sensible field for an early push ahead with the use of ITS – we are coming out with an Action Plan in Freight and Logistics this year. Next year we will move on with an Action Plan dealing with the more general deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems & Services. “

A man very much of the people

In 1998, when I entered the ITS arena, Karamitsos was described to me as “the most important person in the European transport sector.” If there was one man that could bring ITS to the masses, I was told, it was him. Nine years on, Karamitsos still has his finger firmly on the public’s pulse, it would seem. “From a public acceptance perspective we have seen a booming of navigation systems in use, both in and out of the car,” he says.“ The GSM revolution means now that you can use the mobile devices for all the knowledgebased information and guidance that you could wish for. The question of overcrowded transport networks is high on the agenda. We can see this from the interest in Road User Charging in a number of Member States. We are addressing this through a Directive on Interoperability of Electronic Fee Collection. Legislation has its part to play, but we can also achieve a lot by cooperation between the players in the transportation business on the public and on the private sides. So I would definitively say that ITS is certainly closer to the public now.” Another knowledgeable ITS observer once painted a highly complimentary picture of Karamitsos when he said something along the lines of “If you imagine the industry as a car, Fotis is driving it and he knows exactly where he’s going and how to get there.” Now that he is back in the driving seat, what represents his greatest day-to-day challenge? “In a job like mine there is always a lot to do. It ranges from the inevitable paperwork to the detail of progressing the transport issues that we are advancing. The greatest day-to-day challenge for me is the need to balance the administrative load with the vital business of being involved with the important issues in the transport content of the work.,” he points out. “It is important for me to discuss these issues outside DG TREN in order to ensure that we here can understand fully the prime issues of the day and deliver some results that have real value to European business, industry and in particular to our citizens.” Fotis’s rather wordy job title doesn’t explain that much about what his exact responsibilities are. Does he have a typical day, for example? “ One thing I can tell you is that a typical day is a long one! There are always different dossiers to progress; there are meetings with Member States’ officials and European Parliamentarians and meetings with my colleagues here in DG TREN where we can discuss the points that will progress towards getting advanced

transport systems on the ground and in use. Then there will be meetings of the Transport Council and the Parliament to go to, and speeches to deliver and of course interviews like this one. You may have noticed that in recent weeks the issue of the continuation of the GALILEO project has occupied much of my time. I believe we are reaching a fruitful conclusion where we will see it move on with a stronger public commitment.”

Life in miniature

In the time that he has been away, ITS and telematics seem to have reached a much deeper mass market penetration than it did during his previous tenure at DG INFSO. One only has to look at the amount of cars that have satnav as standard now compared to then. To what does he attribute this marked take-up? “We touched on this earlier but we have seen the miniaturisation and vastly increased capacity and availability of electronic devices during the 1990s and during the first years of this century. The cost to the general user has come down to an attractive level too. If you can use your phone while you are walking down the street then it seems quite natural that you should be able to find your way about more easily using the same device. Satnav devices would appear to be moving on from the fixed units in cars to be more dynamic for use both in and outside vehicles.” As with any job that is even remotely involved with politics and politicians, the mythical ‘red tape’ that can

“Small interests can often confuse the bigger debate, when in fact we should be looking after Europe and its citizens’ interests”

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Cover Story

“I would definitively say that ITS is certainly closer to the public now”

keep even the most urgently needed measures from reaching their intended audience is a source of eternal frustration. However, in Karamitsos’s case, time is his biggest enemy. “Quite simply that there is not enough time to get done all the things that need to be done in the transport field,” he muses. “Also, small interests can often confuse the bigger debate, when in fact we should be looking after Europe and its citizens’ interests. The pace of development in ITS is such that it is important to get deployment on the ground rather quickly to keep up with developments. Unfortunately at the moment there seems to be a mismatch between the rate industry can develop new systems and services and the rate at which we can deploy them across Europe in a harmonised manner. Perhaps your readers have some helpful views on this. A renewed debate would be welcome!” You heard the man - please send us your views to the email address at the end of the article! www.h3bmedia.com

A little bit of history

Although it would certainly be true to say that the vast majority of Thinking Highways’ readership will know Karamitsos, either personally, by name, by sight or even reputation, there are not that many who would claim to know all that much about him. So, just who is Fotis Karamitsos and how did he get here? “It will not surprise many that I am Greek (my name is something of a giveaway), although I have lived in northern Europe for some time now. Before I came to Brussels, about 26 years ago after completing my Civil Engineering and Transportation studies in Athens and in the UK, I worked in Greece in the public sector and in the academic arena. At one time I was working on a programme for the Greater Athens Pollution Control. Of course I go back from time to time to see how Athens is becoming a cleaner city and I must admit I also go to enjoy the sun and the sea! “When I arrived in Brussels I spent some years in Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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Cover Story

“This should be a harmonised and appropriate deployment for the opening of the 21st century”

DG7 as the Transport Directorate Generale was then called. Then I had the great opportunity to kick off the DRIVE ITS research programme which was followed by the Telematics programmes in DG 13/DG INFSO. In these we pioneered developments in electronics and communications right across transport. We made great strides then in an environment which was a little less constrained by day-to-day paperwork than today.” One of the reasons that Thinking Highways was created was to better reflect the noticeable shift of emphasis away from the idea that the technology is the be-all and end-all of advanced traffic management. Fortunately, for us at least, this is a view that is shared by Karamitsos. “There definitely has been a shift. Technology progresses in any case - industry and innovation will see to that. The real issues are making use of the technology – taking it up for the best use for you and me, the public as European citizens, and I shouldn’t forget on the freight side for European industry too. So my current job as the Director for Logistics, Innovation, Co-modality and Maritime Transport gives me the opportunity to build a mixed programme of legislation and encouragement of deployment that will see the technologies used to the best advantage serving policy objectives. In the deployment of ITS we have just launched a Call for ITS in the new Multi Annual Programme for Trans-European Network. This Call covers not only ITS for road transport, but ITS for railways and in the air sector as well.”

that the legacy he left behind was still very prominent, or was there a sense that perhaps the directorate hadn’t moved on as much as it might have done? “Always you can be faced with things that have not progressed as far as you might have wished for whatever reason. I would have liked to have seen more deployment of ITS Services in the Member States than I saw on my return, but the real point is that I now have the chance – we all have the chance – to deal with that now and increase the rate of deployment. This should be a harmonised and appropriate deployment for the opening of the 21st century.” It seems impertinent to talk about leaving when you have only just arrived, somewhere but in asking Karamitsos about his future plans and what he hopes he will have achieved it was pretty much unavoidable. “I would like to see that intelligent transport services are not talked about as something separate. They are enablers of progress in improving transport. It is our business to implement the European Transport Policy ‘Keep Europe Moving’. So seeing ITS melt into just being the means of improving transport while I am doing this job would be a worthwhile thing to leave behind. “When we started DRIVE the best part of 20 years ago, the idea was to find transport applications to run on the back of telecommunications development. The automobile industry came on board because they saw many opportunities. Indeed in Europe we are strong on both Telecommunications and the Automobile Industry. We had also tried to bring the policy makers on board but with an industrial ‘flavour’ behind. We know now that this approach has its limitations. The needs of citizens and our economy in general must come into the forefront and therefore also the role of transport policy.” TH To take part in, or even start the debate suggested by Fotis Karamitsos, send your views to [email protected]

Soft return

The saying “never go back” doesn’t hold much water with Karamitsos, so I wondered when he returned to the industry where he was so influential, was he pleased

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ON THE ROAD TO FLOURISH

Like an unfolding blossom, the Swarco Group continues to expand its market presence and products, services, and solutions portfolio. Today, 40 companies in 16 countries account for more than 200 MEUR in sales related to traffic control materials and traffic management solutions. The blossom grows and gets new petals, for instance with transport telematics specialist Mizar Automazione in Italy and paint factory Swarco Vicas in Romania. The development of the blossom involves its change, but, similar to the solid roots of a plant, some things remain unchanged: our commitment to road safety with quality orientation, innovation spirit, and the partnership approach with you.

SWARCO HOLDING AG, Blattenwaldweg 8, A-6112 Wattens • Tel.: +43-5224-5877-0, Fax: +43-5224-56070 • e-mail: offi[email protected], www.swarco.com

The Thought Process

Trevor Platt Strategic Business Development Director, Serco Integrated Transport One critical feature of any ITS technology is reliability. Using technology to support the goals of reducing carbon emissions, congestion, and improving journey reliability and quality must be balanced and dovetailed with operational delivery and policy. From an operational perspective reliability of technology will invariably outweigh the features of new technology innovation. Two simple things will change the way ITS is perceived in the next few years. One will be Integrating Payment for all types of travel, including your distance based road charge and the other is providing journey times for your car journey regardless of whether you are on a local authority road, a Highways Agency, Transport Scotland, Roads Service or Welsh Assembly motorway. Nothing comes for free. Don’t over complicate the ITS solution, sometimes there is a tendency to over specify the technical solution. Get it in, working, delivering benefit and then evolve. If the solution does not evolve it will fail. You must continue to invest. You, your colleagues and all stakeholders must have a clear view of where the solution is heading. Using a golfing example, try standing on the first tee, with a packed audience while you’re wearing a blindfold. Where’s the ball going to go? Fore! Set out a clear vision, plan and strategies, communicate and deliver. Five portions of fruit and vegetables every day can help keep your body fitter, healthier and happier. Sitting in your car again doesn’t do it much good. I travel around 40,000 miles a year - but working from home a bit, using a conference call, taking the train, thinking about the carbons to counter the cost of the train ticket, asking to move the meeting by an hour so that I can get into London on a cheaper fare, have reduced my annual mileage by over 10,000, as well as my blood pressure, cholesterol levels and so on. You still need the face-toface contact and the personal space of the car, but not all the time. Think and plan more. Six lane motorways are not my idea of heaven. I can think of a good few song titles that come to mind. Road To Nowhere, The Road To Hell, Highway To Hell. You get the picture.

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If you decide you want to live on the seventh floor of a warehouse conversion in the city centre then forget the car and walk. It’s fine owning a big 4x4 when you live in the city, but it’s using at the right time and in the right way that’s important. The Conservative Party intend to focus on getting children to school on buses to reduce the 9am rush, which is all good stuff, but how about more off-road cycle routes and improved pavements and walking, coupled with healthier school dinners? Your children will all be a lot fitter and as a result will save a shed-load of much needed cash for the health service in 30 years’ time. Don’t fill your plate with more than you can chew the feeling that you ate too much is never a pleasant one. An ITS solution must evolve rather than be a ‘big bang’ as the balance with operations and policy is fine tuned. Don’t wait until you have worked out the perfect solution and certainly don’t keep talking. Talk, analyse, resolve and deliver, and then keep going ... more talking, analysing, learning, upgrade, modify your procedures, install another piece of technology ... projects must show appropriate cost benefit, but let’s see smaller pieces of benefit sooner rather than later. Not another trial! Do we really spend nine years of our lives in our cars? I am sure the doctor would prefer us all to walk the kids to school, buy a new bike, etc. We see many stats on how much congestion costs the country, the growth in car ownership and usage, how many carbons vehicles chuck-out, but I still struggle to find simple facts and figures that make things real to me as an individual that would encourage me to do things differently. I am sure I am not alone. Me saving 10,000 miles a year has done a lot for my life, but what does that actually represent in carbon savings and reducing congestion. Changing the way we work and play must be done in close harmony. Pricing can change the demand for road use, and better information will help people to improve the quality of their journey. TH Trevor Platt is taking part in the Great North Run to raise money for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. To sponsor him please visit www.justgiving.com/TPdoesGNR Interview by Kevin Borras www.h3bmedia.com

“Projects show “What ITSmust can do is appropriate cost benefit, support policy objectives but see smaller pieces andlet’s improve knowledge, of benefit sooner rather information and thanmanagement” later - not another trial”

The Thinker

Spreading the gospel KEVIN AGUIGUI looks at the potential for digital video for surveillance and homeland security purposes and wonders if we’ve come as far as we should have done…

During the past few years, a small group of zealots, lead by PHIL TARNOFF, has been on a crusade to convince public officials in the US that transportation operations can have as great an impact on mobility and safety as the construction of new facilities. In an era of shrinking construction budgets and increased costs, the effective use of existing facilities through improved operations must receive a high priority from transportation agencies

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www.h3bmedia.com

The Thinker At a recent meeting of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Subcommittee on System Operations and Management (SSOM), senior transportation officials gave the attendees a “dose of reality.” They indicated that the lack of emphasis on operations was not due to their failure to appreciate their value, but rather a reflection of a shortage of qualified personnel. Since operations is in its infancy as a transportation specialty, experienced managers who have been promoted to senior positions within their agency hierarchies are in short supply. This problem is compounded by the fact that few if any universities provide operations-oriented curricula. The discussions at the SSOM meeting concluded that a training process was needed for individuals with the interest and potential to assume leadership roles within the transportation operations field. Traditional shortcourses, because of their limited time span cannot fill this need, because they do not provide adequate time for practice and reinforcement of the principles being instructed to ensure full understanding and retention of the subject matter. When they exist, the offerings of colleges and universities tend to be relatively theoretical, and do not consider the practical aspects of personnel management, organization and policy, with which an operations manager must be concerned. For these reasons, it became clear that a new type of training was required, that focused on the needs of transportation operations managers. This training became known as the Operations Academy which was funded by the I-95 Corridor Coalition, and developed at the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Transportation Technology.

The Operations Academy

An effective traffic operations manager must be familiar with transportation policy, personnel management, organization, funding, supply/demand relationships, safety measures, traffic engineering and a host of other topics. The challenge faced by the organizers of the Operations Academy was to cover these subjects in a meaningful way. The Academy’s program was developed with the assistance of a steering committee made up of representatives from the I-95 Corridor Coalition, State DOTs, the Institute of Transportation Engineers and private industry. The committee agreed on the following set of guiding principles: • Emphasis on mid and senior level management: A prerequisite for organizational focus on management and operations requires internal support at mid and upper levels of management. The initial program was developed with the needs of these individuals in mind. • Management level training: The focus on management level personnel lead to an emphasis on non-engineering subjects such as interaction with the public, policy, performance measures, etc. Technical information was provided in a prestudy curriculum that was defined to ensure a common understanding of the tools of operations by the attendees and reviewed during an www.h3bmedia.com

initial classroom presentation. • A curriculum that emphasized retention: The development of a curriculum that covered all essential material while providing adequate reinforcement to ensure student retention, proved to be a challenge. This requirement was satisfied through classroom presentations with reinforcement through field trips, workshops, guest speakers, preparation of an operations template, and class exercises. • Lasting value to participants: While the greatest reward received by attendees was the lasting value of the education they received,additional tangible rewards were also important. Rewards identified and provided include framed diplomas, paperweights, continuing education units, news releases provided to their respective agencies, announcements and articles in trade journals, and most important, ongoing networking with their fellow attendees.

General structure

The Operations Academy program offered attendees a mix of learning experiences intended to reinforce the principles of operations through a multi-faceted training program. The two week program and the 40 hours of prestudy were allocated as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Instructional Structure Format

Per cent/time

Hours

Prestudy Classroom lectures Workshops Field visits Dinner/lunch speakers Opening/Closing Totals

33%

40

30% 15% 15%

35 18 18

4% 3% 100%

5 4 120

The glue that integrated these disparate formats was a process known as the operations template. This template was developed by the class as a continuing exercise used to identify key features required for effective operations. It included items such as customer service orientation, performance measures, organization, demand/supply balance, etc. These items were used as the basis of the workshops and for analyzing the operations that had been visited during the field trips. For example, had performance measures been identified for management of the freeway service patrol operation, and were all drivers acquainted with their existence?

Instructional content

The prestudy and classroom lectures provided the foundation for the other operations academy activities. The prestudy period was a rigorous program of self-regulated home study using a variety of printed and on-line resources. The distance learning courses offered by the Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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The Thinker

The March 2007 Graduating Class, with Phil Tarnoff in the back row, sixth from the right

Consortium for ITS Training and Education (CITE) were a major component of the prestudy program. The intent of the prestudy was to ensure that all students arrived at the Academy with a common understanding of the fundamentals of transportation engineering, safety, transit, intermodalism and ITS. The subjects included in the prestudy are shown in Table 2. All attendees were required to successfully complete a series of prestudy exams before they could attend the academy.

Table 2. Prestudy Course Material Subject

Format

Traffic Operations

On-Line (CITE) Traffic Engineering Text Various Reports On-Line (CITE) Various Reports Traffic Engineering Text On-Line (CITE) On-Line (CITE) Supplemental Report Various Reports

Traffic Safety Planning and Policy

ITS Freight and Mobility Organization and Management

The prestudy was just the beginning of the formal instruction. A series of seven general subjects identified as critical for operations managers, had been identified by the steering committee. The curriculum shown in Table 3 was developed by the instructors who were selected for their respective sessions based on their indepth experience with the subject matter. At the conclusion of each instructor’s presentation attendees were required to take a practice exam, and complete an evaluation of the presentation. A subset of questions from the practice exams was included in the final exam, which all attendees were required to pass.

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Other activities

The prestudy and classroom activities by themselves, do not offer the hands-on experience essential to reinforcing and internalizing the concepts being presented. The intent of the field studies and workshops was to provide the needed repetition and practice while offering a range of learning experiences. Field studies included freeway service patrol ride-alongs, visits to two traffic operations centers (one state and one local), and a tour of the Port of Baltimore’s container facility. At the conclusion of each field study, workshop groups were asked to complete an evaluation of the degree to which the facility employed the principles listed on the operations template. Two workshops were included in the Academy’s agenda. The first workshop emphasized the application and analysis of technical solutions to the problem of a congested corridor. The second workshop required the definition of an operations unit for an existing Department of Transportation. The workshops were completed by each of the four workshop groups. At the conclusion of each workshop, the groups were required to prepare a brief written report and a PowerPoint presentation describing their solutions. The quality of the group’s solution was evaluated by the instructors based on this material including its comparison with a set of predetermined criteria. The class was also asked to vote on the quality of each group’s solution, An interesting result of the iterative instruction (classroom, field studies and workshops), is that they provided instructors with an opportunity to assess the degree to which the material was being absorbed by the students. During the academy, it became clear that the importance of risk assessment had not been understood by the majority of attendees. Fortunately, time had been intentionally reserved on the agenda to address difficulties of this nature. In this particular case, the subject of risk assessment was further reinforced through an exercise in which the class www.h3bmedia.com

TRAFFEX 2007, Hall 4, Stand E1

Harald Klatt, Application Engineer

„With technical mobility, we make flexible traffic monitoring more effective.“

MultaRadar is the world’s most successful mobile and stationary system to monitor traffic. The technology is convincing with variable application options and precise readings, with unquestionable identification and recording. MultaRadar is ready for use extremely quickly and is very easy to operate – our service team offers effective support here. Visit us at the TRAFFEX 2007, 17th-19th April, Hall 4, Stand E1.

ROBOT Visual Systems GmbH Opladener Strasse 202 40789 Monheim, Germany Tel. +49 (0) 21 73 - 39 40 - 0 Fax +49 (0) 21 73 - 39 40 - 169 [email protected] www.traffipax.com

JENOPTIK Group.

The Thinker Graduates from the March 2007 Senior Management Program Name

Agency

Name

Agency

Tom Blaine Frank Cippel, PE Steve Clinger Patty Eason, PE Jonathan Hanson Woody Hood Daniel Jacobs Paul Jodoin Tim Lattner Bill Legg Ling Li, PE Robert Limoges

New Mexico DOT ITS Bureau PennDOT FHWA North Carolina DOT New Hampshire DOT-Bureau of Turnpikes MD SHA - OOTS MTA Bridges & Tunnels Massachusetts Highway Department Florida DOT Washington State DOT Virginia DOT NYS DOT-Operations Division

Wesley Mitchell Scott Nazar Michael Smith

MD SHA PennDOT Niagara International Transportation Technology Coalition MD SHA Maine Turnpike Authority

Lee Starkloff Gregory Stone Mohamad Tales, PE, PTOE Paul Wai Jeffrey Weatherford Aaron Weatherholt Tim Wolfe

New York City DOT Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise City of Houston DPW & Engineering Illinois DOT Arizona DOT

Table 3. Courses and Presenters Session Title

Presenter

Overview of Operations (Why it’s important) Operations as a System (Supply/Demand relationships) Relevance and Leverage (Comparison of operations with construction impacts) Performance Measures (What are they, when to use, how to use) Customer Service (Importance, managing conflict, evaluating customer satisfaction) Organization (Effective operations organizations) Planning and Policy (Regional planning, policy, funding)

Steve Lockwood, Parsons Brinckerhoff Phil Tarnoff, University of Maryland Phil Tarnoff, University of Maryland Daniella Bremmer, Washington State DOT Pat Noyes, Consultant Connie Sorrell,Virginia DOT George Schoener, I-95 Corridor Coalition

developed an actual risk mitigation plan. As a result of this exercise, an instructional deficiency was eliminated, and another level of reinforcement applied. The Academy also included a number of lunch and dinner speakers who delivered presentations on management, outsourcing, freight movement, and the roles of FHWA and AASHTO in supporting operations. The speakers provided an added dimension to the Academy, through their informal interactions with the class, which encouraged in-depth class discussions. They also covered topics that could not be included in the mainstream curriculum without exceeding the available time and attention span of the attendees. The speakers were well received, and their remarks frequently generated lively and interesting discussions.

The outcome

Twenty two students attended the Academy from agencies throughout the United States (Washington State to Florida), and with a variety of backgrounds including maintenance, traffic engineering, assistant district engineers, traffic operations center management, etc. All students successfully completed the prestudy and participated in the entire two-week program attending all lectures, workshops and field trips. The evaluations received were uniformly complimentary about the program. Representative comments included: • “The Operations Academy provided a strong, relevant program which addressed many of the problems and issues I face on an on-going basis.” – Bill Legg, Washington State DOT • “The Operations Academy brought the philosophy

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of conceptual operations into clear focus. It will build future leaders that will move into decision-making positions.” – Tom Blaine, New Mexico DOT • “This was an incredibly comprehensive program. I will be able to apply concepts learned right away, not only from the country’s expert in operations, but from our peer states’ experiences as well. I will recommend the program strongly to others in my state!” – Rob Limoges, New York State DOT One of the most significant outcomes of the Academy was the degree of networking that has occurred since its completion. A list server has been established on the Academy’s website reserved exclusively for interaction among the graduates. To this date, there has been a constant stream of messages including information on policies, memoranda of understanding, sample concepts of operations, job openings, etc. The website also includes a slide presentation describing the academy which has been used by its graduates to describe their experience to their own organizations. At the conclusion of the program, attendees discussed the possibility of a class reunion; an indication of the high level of networking that was to occur. Thus the Academy has developed an initial nucleus of personnel, likely to become the senior system operators and department heads of the future. It will be interesting to track their careers, as well as those of future graduates, to determine whether the Academy has had an impact on the integration of transportation operations into the culture of today’s transportation agencies. All the signs are positive. TH Visit www.operationsacademy.org www.h3bmedia.com

TRAFFEX 2007, Hall 4, Stand E1

Dr. Ondrej Pribyl, Product Manager, Key Account

“Our Toll Enforcement solutions offer secure data protection.”

Recording, identification, analysis – our modular electronic systems optimise toll control, provide maximum transparency and efficiency. To do this, we combine the latest digital camera technology with advanced laser triggering technique and classification systems with individually developed software solutions such as License Plate Recognition. Visit us at the TRAFFEX 2007, 17th-19th April, Hall 4, Stand E1.

ROBOT Visual Systems GmbH Opladener Strasse 202 40789 Monheim, Germany Tel. +49 (0) 21 73 - 39 40 - 190 Fax +49 (0) 21 73 - 39 40 - 234 [email protected] www.robot.de

JENOPTIK Group.

A smarter future? The UK Office of Science and Technology has completed a project under its Foresight Programme to explore how science and technology might be applied over the next 20-50 years to the design and implementation of Intelligent Infrastructure Systems that are robust, sustainable and safe. PROFESSOR PHIL BLYTHE sheds some fascinating light

The Foresight Project on Intelligent Infrastructure Systems (IIS) set out to examine the challenges and opportunities for the UK in bringing “intelligence” to its infrastructure – the physical networks that we rely on to deliver such services as transport, telecommunications, water and electricity. The aim of the project was to explore how science and technology may be applied over the next 50 years to the design and implementation of Intelligent Infrastructure Systems that are robust, sustainable and safe. For the purposes of the scenario development and the associated State of Science and Technology Reviews that were commissioned as part of the project, it was necessary to limit the scope of these studies, thus the primary focus of the project is was examine the intelligent infrastructure from the transport perspective. In itself this gives an unprecedented opportunity for the ITS community to benefit from research which is looking at a significantly long time horizons and the

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likely evolution and impact of intelligent infrastructure in the transport environment. Moreover, by encompassing in the study a considerations of not just the infrastructure and how ITS may evolve, get more joined up and intelligent over the 50 year time span, the project also considers societal changes, how vehicles and other transport modes may change, travel patterns, the implications of intelligence, privacy, the effects that disturbances such as future energy availability and climate change may have on the infrastructure (Foresight, 2006a). In the context of the Foresight Project, “intelligence” refers to the application of information and communications technologies to infrastructure.Thus, for this project, intelligent infrastructure systems are the telecommunications and data processing technologies that facilitate more effective use of our transport networks. While the project addressed the wider issues of infrastructure, it concentrated its analysis on the transport www.h3bmedia.com

Intelligent Infrastructure

infrastructure that has to meet our needs for the movement of goods and people.Where appropriate the study also considered the interactions between the transport infrastructure and other services, especially telecommunications which, as the project shows, can play an important role in transport. In an increasingly “connected” world, combining the transport infrastructure with an overlay of information technology influences behaviour by allowing informed choices about the use of travel.

Expand to succeed

An underlying theme of the project has been that unless we make fundamental changes in why and when we travel, our existing transport infrastructure can, and must, carry more people and goods without any decline in the quality of that service and without imposing greater burdens on the environment or on safety. Indeed, a sub-plot to the project was that even without signifiwww.h3bmedia.com

cant physical expansion an intelligent infrastructure system can deliver better service. The challenge is to see where and how to add that intelligence, what the barriers are to this, and what the implications of intelligent infrastructure systems would be for the many different users and suppliers of transport services. Thus the project, has through various means, examined the likely futures of transportation systems and the application of information technologies and infrastructure to them and will have a major impact on governments strategic thinking regarding the role of ITS and any coordination of future deployment. In doing so the project is in the process of addressing the following questions that it has set itself: • What would a future IIS that is safe, sustainable and robust look like? The development of scenarios which consider under different drivers and end points as to what is needed, what is desirable and what we may afford and the interThinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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Intelligent Infrastructure actions between social pressures and technological developments. • What science and technology will be available for incorporation into an IIS? An assessment of current to future potential capabilities and when future advances might be available. • How may we deliver a future IIS that is safe, sustainable and robust? Assessing the route from our current situation to the future, seeking to explore the critical steps, how we integrate the old with the new and the roles of the actors. • How do we optimise use of the IIS in the future? What is optimal use (e.g. efficient energy and hydrocarbon usage, effective service delivery and minimal environmental impact) and what market and regulatory models or measures would we need in place to deliver optimal use, such as demand management, energy shortages and direct infrastructure charging. • What are the consequences of developing IIS? Examining the timescales for implementation and the impact on society, industry, the environment and security.

Half a century hence

Vol 2 No2 Thinking Highways

Scenario development: smart futures

In parallel with the science reviews the project team consulted widely to enable them to develop a number of possible ‘futures’ for intelligent infrastructure and the likely social, political, economic, transport and environmental issues that may be present in one or other of the future scenarios. Their remit being, to build, understand and develop a range of plausible and coherent future scenarios for the future development of intelligent infrastructure systems between now and the year 2055. The axis of the scenarios offer a form of opposing futures. The horizontal axis are used to illustrate futures which are either still influenced by high-impact or low impact transport. This horizontal axis captures the drivers summarised by ‘social and resource mobility’: • The axis refers to transport, connecting some important themes about its environmental and social effects; • ‘High impact’ captures a world in which transport still has a high impact in terms of carbon emissions, waste, and other social costs. • ‘Low impact’ describes a world where innovation has led to lower environmental cost;although rate of change varies. Conversely, the vertical axis considers the issues associated with scenarios where the citizen have either a positive or negative view to accepting and using new ‘intelligent infrastructure’ and their perception of its risk: • Risk accepting/risk averse allows for worlds which have tensions between potentially benign and potentially malign outcomes. • The ‘risk accepting’ end of the axis allows exploration within a world where digital natives embrace technology and networks • ‘Risk averse’ captures a world where people are more cautious of instability and privacy invasion The purpose of this exercise was to use the scenarios to illustrate how might future generations of technologies be applied in the UK over the next 50 years to deliver robust, sustainable, intelligent, responsive and adaptive infrastructure systems. This would enable stakeholders to visualise how the technologies may evolve and the sort of impacts that is may have in 50 years time and also at earlier time horizons in the ‘build’ towards 50 years hence. For convenience the scenarios were labelled as: • Perpetual Motion • Urban Colonies • Tribal Trading • Good Intentions It is worth pointing out that the names given to these scenarios are designed simply to help people to remember them; they are short-hand labels that capture the essential feature of each ‘possible future’. Shorthand

“It is also difficult to see how, over such a long time frame, one will invest in the technology”

The process of looking 50 years ahead creates challenges for any project. It is very difficult to see how information technology might develop beyond a 510 year time horizon, let alone half a century.Businesses in particular,being realistic in terms of profits and R&D investment, do not naturally look at such timescales, however being a strategic think-piece for Government, occasionally taking the forward view is important to inform future policy and the issues Government should be considering now to ensure benefits in the long term (energy availability post-oil and climate change being two such global challenges at the moment). It is also difficult to see how, over such a long time frame, one will invest in the technology and how society might respond to those investments. To deal with these uncertainties, the future of IIS was investigated in three complementary ways: • Commissioning leading researchers to write ‘state of science and technology ’ reviews, which set out what all areas of science, including psychology, the physical sciences and technology could deliver within the next few years. The Research Reviews covered areas as diverse as artificial intelligence and data mining, through to how information affects our choices and the psychology of travel. These reviews are available in summary and as full papers at www.foresight.gov.uk/intelligent_infrastructure_systems. • Development of a Technology Forward Look to review existing roadmaps for the development and application of the technology, and to consider how IIS might shape business in the longer term (Foresight, 2006b) • Production of a set of scenarios that provide a range

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of credible and coherent pictures of the technology we might invest in, and how society might react to those investments.

www.h3bmedia.com

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Satellic Phone +49 30 259 236 0 • www.satellic.com

Intelligent Infrastructure names are also essential if the scenarios are to become part of a strategic conversation between an organisation and its internal and external stakeholders (Foresight, 2006c).

Smartdust

One of the key technology enablers for future intelligent infrastructure was identified as small wireless sensors. The report recognised that we are increasingly surrounded by computing devices that are changing the way we live our lives. In future, devices will be embedded in everyday objects and connected to the Internet over wireless networks. The impact of this ‘pervasive computing’ on an intelligent infrastructure system could be at least as great as the mobile phone and the Internet. Pervasive computing is already beginning to penetrate the transport sector, through the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to monitor the transit of goods along the supply chain and through ever more sophisticated in-vehicle systems for command, control and communications. RFID tags offer advantages over barcodes – tags can hold more data that can be read at greater distances and several tags can be read at the same time. Some tags can even monitor their environment – for example, the Container Security Initiative of the US Customs Service. These tags are the forerunners of a succession of ever smaller and more capable wireless sensor devices, collectively known as motes (an old biblical name for a grain of sand), or smartdust.The ultimate aim is to implement a mote that fits into a volume of 1mm3 using nanotechnology fabrication. Privacy issues have already affected the use of smardust and RFID, nevertheless, while individuals worry about the privacy implications of tagging, businesses that use them are concerned about information security. These sensor devices will autonomously form networks to achieve common goals while tolerating individual failures and changing patterns of ad-hoc communication. They will forward each other’s information and act as bridges to the roadside infrastructure. Each device will contain a microprocessor, a two-way radio link and some for of sensors as a payload. Tagging and sensors are part of a wider environment which includes mobile telephony. However, even new 3G networks will never provide sufficient bandwidth to support truly pervasive computing due to the high cost of infrastructure and the limited capabilities of embedded devices. One consequence of adopting an ad-hoc wireless network architecture is that computing nodes themselves become an integral part of the communications infrastructure, bypassing traditional network operators and allowing unfettered third-party access to mobile devices and their users. Indeed evolutions of the current computing devices such as motes and Smartdust will revolutionise wide area communications and also provide a

range of extremely low cost wireless sensors which can measure a wide range of specific parameters, such as pollution; noise; temperature; speed and direction; and vehicle presence - as well as provide pervasive vehicle to roadside communications which will open up new opportunities for configuration of road user charging systems and the basis for charging (Blythe, 2006a). To support the IIS project and the wider objectives of the UK DfT studies are currently underway at Newcastle University to evaluate this technology with a trial of prototype devices deployed in the City in an ‘intelligent road corridor. With the appropriate level of intelligent infrastructure in the future, wireless networks will be built using this technology, that will enable vehicles to be constantly in communications with other vehicles nearby as well the roadside infrastructure. This lends itself to a very discrete form of road pricing, whereby congestion or pollution hotspots can be priced higher than less effected parts of the road network, whilst cities and road authorities can charge appropriately to meet their demand management objectives.

“Vehicles will be constantly in communication with other vehicles as well the roadside infrastructure”

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Wireless backbone

Since a national system is currently on the political agenda, one can use the premise that this could be used to fund an intelligent wired and wireless infrastructure for roads and streets (and thus connecting into other infrastructure and buildings) in the built environment. One could also argue that this revenue-generating infrastructure could form the basis of a backbone for other applications and services – such as traffic control and disaster recovery. The pervasive nature of the technology enables cars to be ‘always connected’ to the infrastructure in the same way that home broadband users enjoy ‘always-on’ Internet access thus opening up the scope for an intelligent, configurable ITS infrastructure that will be available for a range of services to support travel and travellers, with up to the minute, bespoke, pervasive information delivery. Thus travellers will perceive direct benefits from the introduction of the technology thereby easing user acceptance. The costs of building and maintaining the infrastructure could be amortised over many such services delivered by third-party providers.

Smart markets

The Foresight Intelligent Infrastructure Systems (IIS) project largely focused on the transport domain, and includes consideration of how the operators of future transport infrastructure may harness the opportunities offered to by ‘enhanced information and communication network technology (ICT) and intelligence’ to manage the competing claims on the transport infrastructure. A significant challenge is the management of roadspace demand, particularly as ownership of private cars and the use of HGVs for the distribution of goods is continuing to grow. Despite the implementation of a range of innovative www.h3bmedia.com

“Not another road pricing conference!”

www.h3bmedia.com/thinktank.cfm

Intelligent Infrastructure

traffic management and demand mitigation strategies, and the growth of the use of ICT in transport (ITS), there is a growing consensus that some form of road pricing is needed for effective demand management. The UK is now at the forefront of research, (Blythe 2006b), and the deployment of road user charging is now in place with the successful urban congestion charging schemes in the cities of London and Durham. This from a legacy of almost no experience of charging for road use in the UK, except for a small number of tolled estuarial and river crossings and some innovative flirtations with congestion charging trials, such as the Cambridge congestion charging scheme in the mid-1990s. The Government is also now actively considering the feasibility of introducing a national road user charging system to fully or partially replace fixed car-tax and fuel-duty.

It is reasonable to consider that the charging for road use could be implemented in some innovative way not yet considered by the transport community, particularly over the 50-year time horizon of the IIS project. This is what motivated the attempted fusion of expertise on Smart markets, Road pricing, Transport Modelling and Complex systems that is described here. Technological advances, such as speed of computer processing, the real time access to information and interactive communication in a parallel and distributed fashion, have altered the scope and design of markets. Smart market solutions can now use electronic information and communication network technology (ICT) to implement market protocols. They can produce price configurations that integrate dispersed information on demand and supply conditions providing either a forward or spot market in the limited supply.

“TheUK Government is considering a national road user charging system”

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www.h3bmedia.com

“This is the same people saying the same things as last time. At least I can get some sleep...”

www.h3bmedia.com/thinktank.cfm

Intelligent Infrastructure If the cap fits...

The ‘cap and trade’ solution was investigated for SMPRT, as it is increasingly used as means of controlling and pricing negative externalities from economic activity. The core of the Smart market in road slots is a capacity to obtain bids from potential road users that represent their maximum willingness to pay for a limited or ‘capped’ supply of travel slots, in a given time slice through a cordon area of the congested road network. The parameters that determined the ‘cap’ were derived from the VISSIM traffic micro-simulator, which was used to probe traffic efficiency of the road system and identify an ‘optimal’ level of congestion. In summary the study consider below how SMPRT based solutions can be used to address the two main negative externalities associated with road transport: congestion and pollution. Our study was focused on people’s movements rather than freight and our objectives were: • To outline the scope and design challenges of SMPRT; • To demonstrate the viability of the agent based SMPRT model to create a virtual Smart Market; • To import the outputs from a transport micro-simulator (VISSIM) of the Gateshead road system into SMPRT, determining a possible optimal level of early morning congestion; • To calibrate SMPRT against the size and patterns of flow of people, goods and services around Gateshead in that part of the north-east of England The cap approach in the SMPRT uses an auction based protocol to manage demand by setting a cap on how many vehicles would be entitled to use the roads the following morning (in one hour slots) by enabling potential users (drivers) to bid for a limited number of slots. The beauty of the approach is that the operator can set exactly how many users there are of the network at any one time, thus delivering a quality service for the road network, for all those drivers who have won the auction.

Regional thinking

Such an approach is clearly unrealistic at the moment. However, in the future when road user charging is mainstream and well accepted, innovative ‘twists’ on basic road pricing may be desirable to meet a particular policy objective for a particular region. For example, as London has demonstrated, it may be necessary to increase the price of the congestion charge (from £5.00 to £8.00 within wo years) to ensure the demand restraint effect of the scheme is maintained, maybe introducing innovative variations of road pricing could be another alternative to maintain the restraining effect. It works by enabling potential drivers to submit and electronic (sealed) bid of what they deem they are willing to pay to travel in a particular slot the following day. If, for example X drivers wish to travel, however the cap is set a lower value XX then the price the bidders would pay is the lowest successful bid at the XX threshold (all those bidders that submitted a price above this threshold pay this fixed lowest bid above the cap level). By understanding the demographics of the area it is

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possible with some degree of accuracy to predict the proportion of drivers of different socio-economic groups and forms of employment that would be affected by such a system. Different forms of bidding could be experimented with including those that take into account externalities, such as environmental costs in the setting of the charge (Makie-Mason et al, 1995) This gives the road operator an opportunity to cap the traffic on the road network to an economic optimum or some other manageable or acceptable value either below or above the optimum, and to allow the market to set the monetary value of the cap. The results of the project were promising, and suggest that in the future, as technology develops, new, innovative and more targeted charging regimes could be introduced in a practical manner utilising innovative algorithms and future developments in intelligent infrastructure (Markosie, et al, 2006).

Identifying key policy issues

One of the objectives of the Foresight Intelligent Infrastructure project was to inform politicians and other decision makers on the possibilities for future intelligent infrastructure and what impacts it may have on sustainable living, travel behaviour and how new intelligence may improve and encourage multi-modal transport. Some of the wider issues highlighted are briefly summarised below: Environmental There are a number of environmental factors that science and technology are capable of addressing directly, such as noise and speed of cars. In part technology can address pollution, similarly emissions, by optimising vehicle engine performance. The H2 Cell is emission free at point of use, but will only really be effective if hydrogen generation is also. CO2 emissions may be controlled by using emission-free energy generation (renewables, nuclear), recycling (biomass), or cutting travel, domestic and business energy use. Moreover, dynamic charging for emission as part of a future road charging scheme could become viable. Technological capabilities It has been argued that new technology is not the issue, but that implementation and investment are the hurdles to be overcome. In transportation two main ways to apply ICT advances are: improved information to manage transportation & keep people informed; provide alternatives to the movement of people and possibly goods. Another area of technology application is the more efficient or lower emission profille aimachinery for a range of purposes: energy generation, vehicles, and use in built environment. Policy challenges There are competing, possibly mutually exclusive policy challenges, particularly around economic growth and observed correlations with transport and energy. Some experts suggest that ‘decoupling’ is required, partly enabled by remote-working technologies. Suswww.h3bmedia.com

WAKE UP!

This is not just another road pricing conference. This is the 1st UK Road Pricing Think Tank organised by H3B Networx, the events division of H3B Media, publishers of Thinking Highways and ETC, etc. C

Learn how to make your road pricing scheme publicly acceptable from public affairs and advertising experts.

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Listen to the industry’s best speakers talk about the policy, strategy, technology, implementation, interoperability, integration and innovation - the issues that REALLY affect the road pricing sector.

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Take part in genuine debate and help to shape the future of road pricing.

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Find out how road tolling schemes in the UK, USA, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and France were funded, financed and operated and how that can apply to your scheme.

27-28 November 2007 ... not to mention the innovative networking opportunities, speed thinking session, gourmet dinner, Loire Valley wine-tasting and a whole host of other attractions.

www.h3bmedia.com/thinktank.cfm

Intelligent Infrastructure gramme. The aim of the project was to produce challenging visions of the future and advice on the likely impacts and benefits of the various technical and policy choices that may face the UK over the next 50 years. The project findings were launched on 26 January 2006 with a Ministerial launch in London. Key stakeholders from both the public and private sector are currently committed to the taking forward of the results in major policy and research initiatives. TH The author is Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at the Transport Operations Research Group, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne. He can be contacted via email at [email protected]

References

Policy issues in Intelligent Transport

tainability ultimately depends upon less net emissions and efficient use of resources. Breaking dependence on hydrocarbons would help to address climate change, but so can spatial planning, so can new technologies, so can changing behaviours. ICT is a tool for change, but with broader implications, such as privacy and tracking to be managed. Sustainable living Good quality high density housing, integrated with work places, with amenity space, is a model for sustainable living being tried out internationally. Such Urban concentrations potentially have a better emission profile than a dispersed rural model. The implications for rural living are profound. We can define some things we should avoid: increased emissions; climate change; congestion; social exclusion etc. Planning the transition needs to start now. Changing travel behaviour When people travel they should do so efficiently. However public transport is equated by many to low social status and associated with high crime risk. People use personal transport for convenience and to avoid inconvenience, thus pervasive, personalised information delivery will be a key tool. People increasingly value their time. Ways of making more effective use of that time whilst travelling, or by not travelling, is increasingly discussed. However travel is a basic behavioural trait, driven by the value of face-toface contact. Alternatives need to be designed to deliver the same quality of experience.Transport could provide a mobile work environment for those that need it and allow modified ‘days’ for less congestion.

Summary

The paper has provided an introduction to the current research study on Intelligent Infrastructure that is being sponsored by the UK governments Foresight Pro-

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Blythe, P.T. (2006a) Intelligent Infrastructure. Proc. IEE International Conference on Automotive Electronics, The Institution of Electrical Engineers, London, March Blythe, P.T. (2006b) Intelligent Infrastructure and Smart Markets. Proc. Conference on EU Prod User Charging, Centaur Communications, London, January Foresight IIS (2006a), Intelligent Infrastructure Futures: Project Overview. UK DTI Publication 8153/2k/01/06/ NP. URN 06/522, London, January Foresight IIS (2006b) Intelligent Infrastructure Futures: Technology Forward Look. UK DTI Publication 8154/2k/01/06/NP. URN 06/520, London, January Foresight IIS (2006c) Intelligent Infrastructure Futures: The Scenarios towards 2055. UK DTI Publication 8152/2k/01/06/NP. URN 06/521, London, January Mackie-Mason, J.K and Varian, H.R. (1995) Pricing Congestible Network Resources, IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications, 13(7), pp. 11411149. Markosie, S, Allen, P. and Blythe, P.T. (2006) Smart Market Protocols for Road Transport. UK DTI Publication, Foresight IIS, London, July.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge and thank the OST Foresight team for their support, particular thanks goes to Dr Miles Yarrington, Andrew Jackson, Gordon Baker and Christine McDougal and to Sir David King (Government Chief Scientific advisor) and Dr Stephen Ladyman (Minister of State for Transport) who are the key scientific and political stakeholders for the project. The author also wishes to acknowledge other members of the Foresight expert team, whose contributions to this paper are gratefully acknowledged: Prof. Will Stuart, Prof. Glenn Lyons and Prof John Urry (my fellow project experts), Mike Kenwood (Kenwoods Words), Andrew Curry and the Futures Team (Henley Centre), Alistair Wilson (Waverly Management), and Tony Hodgeson (Decision Integrity). The author acknowledges that the reproduction of parts of the text used in this paper has been made with the with the kind permission of OST Foresight. www.h3bmedia.com

If you’re heading to a European city for the day on business, www.daytripstoeurope.co.uk will help you get the most out of your visit. It has everything you need to mix work and pleasure, including information on journey times, local transport, places to eat and drink, top sights and major events. And if you want to know what the weather’s doing, where to get a city pass or how to get somewhere, there are hundreds of handy links. No other travel site pulls together so much information from such a wide variety of sources, in such an easy to use format. Everything you need for perfect day trips.

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LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION No serious event organiser would ever attempt to promote one of its seminars solely on the back of the venue, but in Mercedes-Benz World, we have a stunning location in store. Recently built within the grounds of Brooklands Motor Museum, one of the UK’s first motor racing circuits, it possesses not only the finest conference facilities available (including a cinema that we will make good use of) but it also houses the biggest collection of Mercedes-Benz and Maybachs in Europe and a magnificent array of visitor attractions. Delegates will have full use of what Mercedes-Benz World and Brooklands has to offer (not that you’ll have that much time to explore) and an opportunity to take a spin on the skid pan and high-speed track in a top of the range Mercedes. Have a look for yourself on the website: www.mercedes-benzworld.co.uk

Mercedes-Benz World, Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey, KT13 0SL, UK

The 1st UK Road Pricing Think Tank Tue 27/Wed 28 November 2007 “I’M NOT GOING TO ANOTHER ROAD PRICING CONFERENCE UNTIL ...” ...27 November 2007. Selling The Idea: The 1st UK Road Pricing Think Tank is a different kind of conference altogether. In fact, it’s not really a conference at all in the traditional sense. Across the two days there will be intense, interactive debates, forums and problemsolving sessions focusing on policy and politics, funding and finance, interoperability and integration, implementation and innovation. Experts from not only the road pricing, congestion charging, road user charging and electronic toll collection sectors, but also from the spheres of advertising, public affairs and finance will help you make YOUR scheme publicly acceptable. THINKING DIFFERENTLY What road pricing needs is a positive spin. Drivers need to be told why it’s a good idea and that by paying to use the roads they are making a positive contribution to society. But how best to get this message across? Our advertising expert will explain how to convince the public that road pricing is something they want and need. “You are selling them a product and it’s a product they must have. Once you have sold them the idea, you are on to a winner.” Financial analysts and risk assessment specialists will share their experiences of how they applied their expertise to various tolling projects and how they are relevant to yours, while experts from the petrochemical industry will explain how the two sectors are inextricably linked in Germany and how it’s a link that needs to be more adroitly exploited in the UK. Another innovative feature will see representatives from the major political parties in the UK engage in a free-form Question & Answer session with local authorities, original equipment manufacturers and suppliers. This ‘Town Hall’ format will be co-hosted and moderated by former BBC and Sky News presenter Nici Marx (pictured) and Kevin Borras, H3B Media’s publishing director and editor-in-chief of its Thinking Highways and ETC, etc magazines.

more >>>

“Selling the Idea”

A SPEAKER PROGRAMME TO SHOUT ABOUT “A stellar line-up of speakers” is not usually a claim that holds very much water. We think you will agree that in the case of the 1st UK Road Pricing Think Tank we can use the word “stellar” with a fair degree of justification.

DAY ONE: 27 November 2007 POLICY AND POLITICS part 1 Steve Norris, former Conservative Minister for Transport, UK Jenny Jones GLA, Green Party/Mayor of London’s Green Transport Advisor, UK Michele Dix, Transport for London (ex-Director, Congestion Charging), UK TBA, Department for Transport, UK TBA, Liberal Democrat ransport Policy Spokesman, UK Representatives from the event’s sponsors will be invited to respond to the points of view put forward in the Policy and Politics session FINANCE AND FUNDING Andy Graham, White Willow Consulting, UK Bob McQueen, Senior Road Pricing Advisor, PBS&J, USA Robert Bain, Toll Project Risk Analyst, ex-Standard & Poors, UK Jack Opiola, Booz Allen Hamilton, UK TBA, Banco de Santander, Spain TBA, Midland Expressway Ltd. (M6Toll), UK PROBLEM SOLVING Daryl Dunbar, Director of 21 CN Portfolio Development, British Telecom, UK Eric Sampson, Chairman, ITS UK Andrew Pickford, Transport Technology Consultants, UK Jack Opiola, Booz Allen Hamilton, UK Bern Grush, Skymeter Corporation, Canada David Hytch, LogicaCMG, UK Ian Catling, Ian Catling Consultancy, UK

SPEED THINKING Day one will be rounded off in style with a highly novel Speed Thinking session. Similar in format to the idea of speed dating, this session will see one representative from each of the event’s eight sponsors answering pertinent questions from delegates in a series of two-minute on-the-spot interviews. When the time is up ,a bell will ring and it will be another delegate’s turn to ask a question. Fun, maybe, but this unique and informal networking opportunity could lead anywhere. LOIRE VALLEY WINE TASTING SESSION GOURMET DINNER

DAY TWO: 28 November 2007 INNOVATION AND THE FUTURE Phil Blythe, Professor of ITS, Newcastle University, UK Bern Grush, Skymeter Corporation, Canada Daryl Dunbar, Director of 21CN Portfolio Development, Britsh Telecom, UK Wiebren de Jonge, TIP Systems/Vrije Universiteit, Netherlands TIF Roundtable Discussion Representatives from Vodafone, Orange and O2 have been invited to take part in a mobile communications forum as part of the Innovation and The Future Session POLICY AND POLITICS part 2 Tom Antonissen, International Road Federation - Brussels Programme Centre, Belgium Tim Hockney, London First, UK Jenny Bird, Institute of Public Policy Research, UK Richard Bourn, Transport 2000, UK TBA, ASFA, France Representatives from the event’s sponsors will be invited to respond to the points of view put forward in the Policy and Politics session

www.h3bmedia.com/thinktank.cfm +44 (0)870 919 3770

H B Media

PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE AND “POSITIVE SPIN” Simon Elliott, Financial Dynamics, UK Speaker to be confirmed, RMG: Black Cat, UK Jack Opiola, Booz Allen Hamilton, UK Richard Harris, WSP, UK Zeina Nazer, Innova Consulting, UK TBA, Freight Transport Association, UK TBA, Automobile Association, UK TOWN HALL FORUM All speakers will be invited to take part in the closing session an open question and answer session, hosted by Nici Marx and Kevin Borras. The quality of this forum relies heavily on the audience asking searching, pertinent questions and raising insightful points. The Town Hall Forum will be what you make it - so don’t disappoint yourself!

THE COST OF ATTENDING TWO-DAY EVENT Public Authority £550 + VAT Private Sector £750 + VAT For further details contact ODILE PIGNIER via email at [email protected] or call +44 (0)870 919 3770

FOR SPONSORSHIP DETAILS CALL LUIS HILL ON +44 (0)870 919 3770 OR EMAIL [email protected]

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How I See It

The

science of

compliance

KEVIN AGUIGUI looks at the potential for digital video for surveillance and homeland security purposes and wonders if we’ve come as far as we should have done…

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www.h3bmedia.com

How I See It

The traffic engineering industry has traditionally been made up of a specialised group of professionals comprising a mixture of mathematicians and electronic and civil engineers all engrossed in the theory of traffic flow, stops and delays. Now things are changing. Suddenly, the new kids on the block are not equipped with calculators, computers, theodolites and hard hats – they are skilled in disciplines like sociology, politics and psychology. So are technical skills no longer required to be part of this industry, asks PETER PRESTON

Traffic engineering has moved into a new era, where public acceptance of a scheme is more important than a 2 per cent improvement in traffic flow. Socioeconomic factors are now out-weighing optimisation of green wave progression. But why is this happening? My background is very much a conventional one: computer science and mathematics followed by a liberal dash of programming up algorithms and trying to squeeze loop detector data down a wet piece of string. The 20th century traffic industry was thirsty for technology to allow the reality on the roads to catch up with the theory of the research lab. Siemens was in the front line of all this activity, being able to provide innovative solutions to local authorities that gave them what they wanted, with only a few hoops to jump through. Further advances in more powerful computers,sophisticated graphics aligned with parallel developments in communications and sensors fuelled this march towards a technology focused industry. This is all very well, but what about the people?

Obsessive, compulsive...

In this obsession with science, the industry, suppliers, policy makers and consultants alike forgot that a key factor to the traffic industry is the end user – the motorists, cyclists, pedestrians and public transport users and operators who actually experience the output of our endeavours. This has been really highlighted in the last year by the public’s reaction to road pricing. As soon as the British Government announced the intention to address the problem of congestion through national road pricing it seemed that suddenly everyone had an opinion (hostile to the concept if the online poll was anything to go by). www.h3bmedia.com

Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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How I See It Suddenly, privacy, civil liberties and social acceptance have become more important to the public than a reduction in congestion, accuracy of billing data or the relative benefits of GPS and Galileo. The issues discussed at traffic conferences on road pricing are all about urban canyons, alternative DSRC approaches and TIF (Transport Innovation Fund) funding, which is at odds with the national press, who are more concerned with privacy infringement, how many pounds per mile it will cost and how many billions it will swallow. Perhaps the traffic professionals have got their head in the sand – but perhaps too there is a good reason for this.

A resolve to solve

Traffic products and solutions are only applicable if there is a problem to solve, a solution available that works, a willingness for the solution to be implemented, and an acceptance that any side effects are tolerable. A bit like the pharmaceutical industry addressing a disease with a new drug. It has to be effective in treating the disease but without harmful side effects and must be perceived to be safe and effective by the users. The same applies to road pricing in the traffic industry. There is a problem: congestion. Industry is proposing solutions to this through different types of systems – utilising different technological approaches ranging from raising bollards, through licence plate recognition, tag and beacon to satellite based GPS. The traditional traffic engineering approach is to focus wholly on the electronics and mathematics behind the solution – which is exactly what has happened. The dramatic public backlash against such solutions has come as a surprise to many in the industry but this is where the boundaries of traditional engineering need to be re-assessed to include the social aspects of the system. The ‘drug’ in this case has been the focus of attention and while it may be able to solve the problem, the public at large perceive it to be an unacceptably bitter pill to swallow.

congestion and transport provision in our society; however it is also important to be able to offer a balanced view of the argument to allow an equally balanced opinion to be formed. This has not happened with road pricing. The traffic engineering lobby have been concentrating on GPS accuracy and ANPR effectiveness and have failed to create a view of road pricing to allow an informed opinion to be promoted. If the Government and our industry had combined with the right communications and media at an early stage, then perhaps the situation would be different. I am not advocating the employment of spin doctors or mass media campaigns – just a mechanism to put forward the case ‘for’ to balance the case ‘against’. We traditional traffic engineers like to stay in the comfort zone when it comes to communications, whilst the government are always concerned about not saying the wrong thing. The net result is a vacuum which is crying out for information presented in an understandable form.

“The traditional traffic engineering approach is to focus wholly on the electronics and mathematics behind the solution”

The $64,000 question (x2)

Two questions arise from this. How could this have been prevented and taking into consideration where we are today, how should we proceed? Let’s answer them one by one. How could this have been prevented? It is undoubtedly right to have a debate on important issues such as

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And secondly...

Taking into consideration where we are today, how should we proceed? The way forward is not easy. Before any progress can be made there needs to be a repair programme to fill the information vacuum and present a full, yet realistic view of road pricing without hysteria or sensationalism but with enough substance to balance the argument. The danger at present is that policy will be dictated by web-based opinion and a fear of not being re-elected which results in an ambiguous picture of the way forward. A good example of this working successfully is the London congestion charge. The two key ingredients of the success of the scheme have been clear unequivocal leadership with a clear vision and strategy, and a large marketing and PR budget to keep the users fully informed. The technology has always been a given. So, what is the future for the traffic engineering industry? I believe it is a rosy picture. There will always be the need for technical solutions to the ever increasing problems of the transport infrastructure. What we have to remember is that we are not alone, and we need to recognise that we are only a part of the solution, looking to colleagues with the social and political skills to create fully balanced solutions – without a bitter aftertaste. TH Peter Preston is marketing manager at Siemens Traffic Controls based in Poole, UK. He can be contacted via email at [email protected] www.h3bmedia.com

Road Pricing

Safe and The price is secure? right ... isn’t it?

STEINAR FURAN wonders if charging is the right way to go about solving the problem of our increasingly congested roads

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www.h3bmedia.com

Road Pricing Road toll charges have been following us since the invention of transportation. From the moment someone figured out that it is a good idea to move, be it a person or a commodity, somebody else realised that this is a good potential source of income. Through centuries, toll fares have been charged to pay for the use of roads, bridges, gates, tunnels and ferries. The reasoning behind these schemes has been very logical; The user of the infrastructure service shall pay his share of the cost. Applying this principle, the construction of a new road and the subsequent toll collection to pay the cost. The new road in turn attracted more cars, which in turn caused the road to become jammed, thus requiring even more roads…and cars… and tolls…and so on. So is more roads the only answer to the demand for more transportation? Or is it perhaps the correct answer to the wrong question? Is it maybe so that the authorities can motivate the citizens to use alternate means of transportation rather than only going by car? Could this even lead to better quality of life? In Scandinavia, Norway and Sweden in particular, has implemented schemes that approach the challenge of need for more transportation in a broader perspective. The results are promising and show that transportation does not have to become a persistent traffic nightmare for societies. Congestion is a universally bad experience. Unlike most of life’s other challenges, like visiting the dentist, congestion is bad for your temper, your health, your job, your wallet and for society in general. Congested traffic has no positive side, so it’s a pity it is so difficult to get rid of it. Or is it?

Kick out the jams

Most countries are seeing a huge growth in traffic. A seemingly endless stream of new cars enter the roads creating more and more severe traffic jams. The societies have, in most cases, responded to this challenge by building new roads, more lanes, elevated highways and tunnels, only to find that the supply of more road capacity is rapidly consumed by an endless demand for more roads. Many countries have now concluded that the race between supply and demand in the end is impossible to win. The solution to the endless problem can be as simple as managing the demand. This is an intelligent response to a difficult challenge. If we ask someone whether the traffic was congested or not, the person’s response is related to his own experience. Was the traffic jammed when the driver was using the road or not? As most of us tend to start working at the same time in the morning and also leave for home at the same time in the afternoon, congestion is rather inevitable. If we observe the situation from a demand perspective, congestion will occur once the number of vehicles demanding the use of the road exceeds the road’s capacity to handle them. Depending on road conditions, this limit lies in the range of 1,800 to 2,400 vehicles per lane per hour. Should the traffic volume exceed this limit, the result will be congestions and the throughput capacity of the road falls dramatically. The dramatically reduced traffic capacity in turn of course causes the incoming cars to www.h3bmedia.com

Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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Road Pricing pile up in seemingly endless jams. If we on the other hand check the theoretical capacity of a road and compares this with the actual demand for road availability over a whole day, we will usually find that for many roads there is a considerable free capacity available. The question is this: How can we shift the demand for road services from the rush hours to other times of the day when the demand for road services is lower?

Penalty notice

The approach chosen by authorities in Sweden and Norway has been to control congestion by combining new roads with improved public transportation services and an economical “penalty” for demanding the use of roads during rush hours. This seemingly simple solution also has another surprising side-effect.While congestion unleashes an endless negative spiral of higher cost and less efficiency, the use of congestion charging in combination with improved public transport services triggers a positive spiral of more efficient transportation and a better quality of life. The income from the congestion tax fuels the construction of new roads and pays for the investment in better public transportation. The reduced demand for road services improves the general transportation environment, making businesses in the area more profitable. This in turn paves the way for new business enterprises and makes the companies, as well as the area in general, more attractive to potential employees.

Most people would prefer to live in a society where transportation is easily available, affordable and predictable rather than living in a place where you cannot make plans because you’ll never know when traffic allows you to get somewhere. So, the solution to the problem of congestion is in many cases quite simple: Make changes to the demand for road services, so that the demand is distributed more evenly and not concentrated in the peak hours. Improve the public transportation services so that this actually becomes the primary choice of transportation for most citizens. The experience from the Stockholm Congestion Tax Programme shows this clearly, as the tax levied during peak traffic hours caused the traffic to decrease with more than 20 per cent, the travel time to be significantly reduced, traffic jams to virtually disappear and the quality of the air to improve. For a beautiful city like Stockholm, the ability to get rid of polluting cars stuck in jams is like unveiling a beautiful piece of art. These simple measures can in many cases remove the need for an extra lane or even an extra four-lane elevated motorway.Provided that the concept of demand management and better public transportation services is used on a general basis, we might soon see classified ads offering used elevated motorways. Most cities would gladly replace an elevated motorway with a playground for children. ITS makes this possible and provides us with more time to live. TH [email protected]

“The income from congestion tax fuels the construction of new roads and pays for the investment in better public transport”

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Road Pricing

Rebate, not debate 50

Vol 2 No 2 Thinking Highways

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Road Pricing “Rebate” is one of the nicest words in the English language. It means money back for something you paid for in advance but did not get round to using. In contrast, “charging” is a nasty word. The nasty side of road charging - even if it replaces road tax – has been twisted and turned to such an extent that 1.8m people emailed the almost-ex-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair about it. The biggest challenge to road pricing is not actually that people do not see the need for it – the warmest April in the UK started to make people think about their future world. The problem is that many people – even well educated ones – just “don’t get it” in terms of how they might really pay less.They cannot make the link between using a vehicle less and being charged less – they perceive that they will always be charged more whatever happens. Tabloid newspaper headlines like “38p per mile to travel“ only serve to feed this feeling. So what if we build on this idea of a rebate – and turned road user charging on its head? What if we made it a rebate for not travelling at congested times – and hence for not polluting, rather than a charge for doing so?

A taxing issue

One of life’s small pleasures is the magic word “discount.” When it appears on your car insurance renewal or telephone bill it looks good. “They” give you some money back for being a good customer. ANDY GRAHAM and MATT COWLEY on a road pricing scheme that could give the idea the boost it needs www.h3bmedia.com

Think about it. In the UK we already pay a fixed tax for road use (which also allows a check of the vehicle’s insurance and roadworthiness). What we would do in this cunning plan is pay back some of this tax in advance as a rebate to those who contributed less than their quota to congestion and pollution. Road user charging would be seen to be fair and equitable. Now this does look initially like spin – the net value of the charge would be the same after all. But there would be a real incentive to change behaviour – the key driver behind charging for congestion management. Instead of “the less you drive the less you pay “, it would be “the better you plan your travel, the more money we give you back”. As congestion and pressure on the environment get worse and road tax continues to increase, then this is a mechanism to reduce costs for drivers who take responsibility for how and where they drive. And at some point, if you really do insist on using your vehicle more than average, it really becomes a net charge to you, no longer a rebate. This means: • The polluter still pays more for driving in congested conditions - those who don’t manage their miles feel it in their pockets – and hard; • Those who do reduce their car use will see a real cash benefit; • Pre-pay systems are possible – just like for mobile phones you could add credit; • The system can be revenue neutral or skewed to support a favourable rebate to those dependent on their vehicle in old age, low emission vehicles, freight, etc; • The existing road tax system can stay, with its advantages of getting all the relevant paperwork about the vehicle linked together in a way that people understand. But we can be really clever here with the technology we need to put in the vehicles and do far more to build up goodwill: Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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• The discount may be linked to your vehicle – using a lower emissions vehicle gives you a bigger discount than a “gas guzzler”; • The way you drive could be factored in – by looking at what comes out of the exhaust pipe, better drivers get bigger discounts – just like in insurance; • The “Black box” fitted to your car that provides this rebate will provide a wide range of services which could include: • Pay-as-you-go-insurance; • Automatic paying of your congestion charge and road tax and insurance – so the efficiency savings of one bill will give you a further discount. • Insurance monitoring for Young or other high risk drivers; • An eCall service to automatically provide local emergency services with your location in an accident; improving your chances of surviving across Europe.

In the interests of fairness

Other added benefits are that vehicle manufacturer and garage customer care will improve, through using remote monitoring of your vehicle and remote software downloads. Roadside repair will improve because they will be able to respond and resolve faults quicker. A vehicle tracking service will allow you to track you own vehicle and generate reports for your own use. If you lend a vehicle to your son or daughter, you can monitor where and when he/she drives and at what speed. Converging all of these services onto a single black

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box would more than pay for costs of the hardware, airtime and installation. Essentially the black boxes could be given away free to the user, in the way mobile phones are provided to entice use of airtime. Some aspects of the technology are a given – GPS/ Galileo and wireless communications through GPRS or zigbee. But the key leap is interfacing the unit directly to the vehicle, using the CAN interface to provide the vehicle’s identity and access to its systems. This would allow the on-board unit to measure key environmental and performance indicators – what is coming out of the exhaust pipe. Hence we could move this from a charge per mile to a charge on carbon – and show the drivers as they go what rebate they have remaining.

The future on track

Commercial systems are available today that already provide some of these benefits. Trakm8 provides a very low cost tracking solution, called SWIFT, targeted at smaller fleets of light commercial vehicles. The future is linking these technologies into the vehicle, as policy tools. The “back office” used to deliver the rebate also has some potential. We could provide the discount monthly – along with a monthly payment of road tax, so you do not have to wait for a year to get your hands on the money. And we could refund this – or collect the charge - via petrol pumps. This would help those drivers who do not have bank accounts – instead of buying £30 of fuel (with a hidden tax) by cash they would buy a net £30 of fuel www.h3bmedia.com

Road Pricing but with a more visible rebate or charge. This would also have the advantage of keeping fuel tax money flowing through fuel station forecourts. But why stop at congestion charging? Journeys made by train or bus could add to the rebate too. Effectively they would become carbon credits offset against road tax . There would then be a double incentive to use public transport instead of the car – you would gain a rebate on the road tax and a further rebate for travelling on public transport. This joining up also opens the opportunities for the clever “travel agent” I wrote about in Thinking Highways’ debut issue late last year. This was a service providing one bill for your whole travel needs across all modes and incorporating all charges. This again might allow clever ways to reduce the overall cost of travel. This approach also allows a solution for the many old, classic, low mileage or difficult vehicles for which fitting a black box would be tricky and not cost effective. If they have no Canbus (or even a 12v supply), we need a workaround.

A question of trust

So why not just allow drivers of certain exempt vehicles to apply for the discount with self-certification ? For example, they could simply sign the MOT certificate to confirm the miles travelled are accurate. This may seem very open to fraud, but income tax authorities all over

the world are quite happy for you and I to tell them how much money we made last year so they can work out how tax we have to pay. Why? Because there are checks and balances with employers and the threat of an audit. The equivalent for self-certified charging is a letter along the lines of “Ah, Mr Bond, how come we detected your Aston Martin in London, Monte Carlo and Geneva but you only claimed to travel 456 miles last year…” This way we avoid fitting units to a section of low mileage high complexity vehicles that would otherwise be highly cost ineffective. And we can help members of society who just want a car for 200 miles a year in case they need to get to hospital but really do not want all the techno stuff. There are some heroic assumptions here about the way people react. Proving these through a large pilot would measure and build customer trust. This would need to weave in commercial services with meeting charging policy objectives and encompass a wide range of users. Added services like navigation need to be levered from existing popular products and services rather than starting from scratch, to show people the benefits not the technology. But the real key to success may be as simple as a change of name – to congestion rebate not congestion charge. TH [email protected] [email protected]

Road Pricing

World piece Integrity is the forgotten key GNSS requirement for successful ETC implementation, says MIGUEL ANGEL MARTINEZ OLAGUE

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Road Pricing When talking about GPS based electronic toll collection the issue of accuracy and consistent billing usually arises. Most people belonging to the GPS receiver industry admit that current receivers are subject to errors, but they would also state that with present accuracy figures GPS accuracy is more than good enough to support consistent tolling. Most listeners based on their own experience with GPS car navigators will have the perception that the previous statement is quite true. Even those that give a second thought to this subject would conclude, with appropriate map matching algorithms based on the redundant consistency of positions, that even when some occasional large error happened the billing would be robust enough to handle it. However, the assessment of this topic is not so simple. It is true that state of the art GPS receivers are capable of producing pretty good error statistics. Urban tests conducted by Transport for London during its GPS trial campaign show that the standard deviation of GPS position errors is about 6m for most receivers. However, the really important question to ask when dealing with position data that is being used to make critical decisions, like deciding if a car was inside a charging zone, is not about the accuracy standard deviation, but rather about how large GPS errors can be and how often they occur. Due to the nature of the causes of GPS errors, the GPS error distribution is not Gaussian, nor is it well determined. This means that even if the GPS position error standard deviation is very small, the errors can

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occasionally be much larger and occur more frequently than expected. If GPS errors were Gaussian, and considering an error standard deviation of 6m in urban scenarios, the frequency of errors higher than 50m should be almost zero (less than 10-14). However, urban tests carried out by Transport for London during its trial campaign show that errors higher than 50m happen as frequently as 0.1 per cent of the time. To assess this behaviour it is important to understand what causes large GPS errors. Although the GPS satellites record of performance is extremely good, the fact is that GPS satellite failures do happen without warning, and more often than you may expect. European Space Agency yearly GPS statistics report an average of 15 satellite unadvised failures a year (for instance during the summer of 2006 there were three satellite clock problems, and in one of them the induced error in some European locations was greater than 100m). The ionosphere is another potential source of large errors. In fact, presently we are within a period of very low ionospheric activity and thus GPS errors due to this are low, however more solar activity is expected beginning in 2011 and the compensation model used by GPS under those circumstances can introduce quite large errors (up to several tens of meters). In the case of Multipath it is important to distinguish between two types of multipath. Common Multipath is where the direct signal is contaminated by reflected signals. This situation can introduce errors but not as large as the so called Non-Line of Sight Multipath (NLOSM). When NLOSM happens the receiver only receives and locks onto the reflected signal and in this case the error is as large as the additional, reflected distance travelled by the signal. If several signals are affected by NLOSM the resultant position can be biased by several tens of meters and in some situations errors higher than 100m

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Road Pricing are seen. NLOSM is quite common in urban scenarios where signals are shadowed by high buildings on one side of the road and reflected by buildings on the other. In addition, when NLOSM does happen, it normally affects several positions in a row and map matching algorithms are tricked into incorrectly matching the wrong road to the positions.

Impact of large GPS errors on ETC

As it has been discussed, large errors of more than 30 m, and even 100 m, do happen with a frequency higher than most people think, however the question is: what is the impact of this on a GPS based ETC system? The impact of errors that are larger than expected is twofold: the undue charging of non-users and the overcharging of actual users. Undue charging of non-users happens when the driver decides to avoid the toll road or to stay outside the charging zone (for obvious reasons) and due to large errors the tolling system decides erroneously that the non-user was on the toll road or inside the charging zone. The worst aspect of this situation is that the affected individual will notice it on his bill very easily and this can therefore trigger social alarm and jeopardize the whole ETC model. Even if those large errors happened less than 0.01 per cent of the times, if each time they happen an erroneous bill is produced the number of persons receiving these bills would be completely unacceptable. Regarding the overcharging of users, i.e., to determine that a user travelled more roadway that was subject to a toll than they actually travelled, some people argue that this is not as dramatic as the previous case of undue charging. The reasoning behind this is that the overcharging of users would be equally compensated by undercharging, as the overall charging error is unbiased, and the situation would be similar to the one experienced in gas stations or with phone bills. However, if the magnitude and frequency of large errors is not limited then the amount and frequency of overcharging will not be either. In the case of the ABvM system that the Dutch government is contemplating for the entire road network in The Netherlands, a clear overcharging requirement has been established stating that “over charging shall be less than 0.1 per cent of all invoices”. This is a very demanding requirement, especially if specific segments, such as congested roads, were identified in which incremental charges were to be applied. This means that an extremely reliable mechanism to unequivocally identify that the vehicle has travelled each segment is a must for the reliable and compliant implementation of the system.

The integrity concept

At this stage it is important to understand that improving accuracy does not solve the problem. Even if accuracy is improved, large errors can still happen occasionally without any warning. A very similar problem occurs in other GPS applications where the positioning information coming from a GPS receiver is used to make critical decisions. This is the case with civil aviation. Civil avia-

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tion navigation specialists and authorities introduced an additional performance parameter to cope with this problem: Integrity. Integrity in this context is defined as the capability of the system to detect and warn when the position output has errors larger than a certain limit (called a Protection Level). The Integrity requirement is usually expressed as the probability of missing the detection of the previous situation and in civil aviation that requirement was set at 10-7. Therefore the probability of making the wrong decision and causing an accident is consequently limited to that value. The reason why Civil Aviation set an Integrity requirement to that particular value is quite simple: less than one accident in 10m flights is the overall safety requirement used in aviation. In the case of ETC, the requirements on position Integrity is going to depend on the acceptable probability of overcharging of users and undue charging of non-users, but in most cases a value around 10-6 should be acceptable.

How can integrity be achieved?

To meet this Integrity requirement in a road scenario is even more complex than in civil aviation. In civil aviation it is possible to meet the Integrity requirement with the use of GPS augmentation systems that provide integrity monitoring such as WAAS in the USA or EGNOS in Europe. EGNOS allows limiting any error due to GPS satellite failures or abnormal ionosphere behaviour, but provides no guarantees in the face of Multipath. In an urban scenario EGNOS is necessary but not sufficent large errors due to Multipath (mainly NLOSM) must be detected using other mechanisms. Is it possible then to accomplish an Integrity requirement for a road or urban scenario? In the affirmative case, what size would the corresponding Protection Level be? This last aspect is essential because too large a Protection Level would lead to a solution that does not permit the clear identification of whether a car was inside the zone or road. Since 2002 we at GMV have been researching receiver processing techniques that permit the computation of a Horizontal Protection Level associated with each particular position estimate. The Protection Level provided by the receiver associated with each position varies within the presence of local effects, number of satellites in view, satellite geometry, and EGNOS Integrity data. Extensive testing of the first version of the unit started during the 2006 GPS trial campaign conducted by Transport for London. The latest trials have been conducted by GMV in Madrid, with routes travelling through the densest urban areas. The previously stated goal of reaching a 10-6 Integrity probability has been achieved in the most demanding urban scenarios with Protection Level sizes below 50m. With these performances a reliable GNSS based ETC system can be implemented that fully guarantees that the probability of undue charging of non-users and the overcharging of users is within acceptable limits. TH Miguel Angel Martinez Olague is director of corporate business development at GMV, based in Madrid. [email protected] www.h3bmedia.com

Electronic Toll Collection

Talking Turkey DANIEL SCHOLZ and DONAL McGUINNESS on fully automated mobile phone toll payment

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Electronic Toll Collection

However, the reality in Istanbul proves that an onWhat is the first thing that comes to the mind of the board unit in the vehicle – though well suited to the freinformed tolling expert when thinking about hanquent users of the bridge – is not accepted by every dling toll payments? A dedicated DSRC On-Board user (as it is the case in all tolling systems where a type unit? A prepaid smartcard to be read by a payment of on-board equipment is not mandatory). The rest of the machine? not willing or able to take the on-board unit with Why not consider an easy, convenient payment sysKEVIN AGUIGUI looks at theusers potential for digital video for them have to use the contactless smartcard This paytem that people really love to use (and with hardware surveillance and homeland security purposes and ment method requires the user to stop and wonders do some with which they can impress their friends with and chose manual interaction, resulting in limited acceptance and according we’ve to their personal style)? These questions come as far as we should have done… decreasing the overall throughput of the toll plaza. came up recently in Istanbul, Turkey while looking at The result is daily congestion on all roads approachheavy traffic and congestion on the Bosphorus Bridge ing the bridge, meaning long delays for everyone. This connecting Europe and Asia. The solution was simple is where the mobile phone enters the stage. If the prithe mobile phone is a very suitable means of paying toll mary means of a rush-through payment (the on-board fares and it is convenient and secure at the same time. unit) is not accepted, why not allow the most widely Intercontinental span embraced gadget of modern life to do the job? But first things first. The Bosphorus Bridge is one of the The process of paying via phone and zipping through most important connections in one of the world’s largest the toll plaza was proposed, and in a first trial implecities, stretching over 1000 metres between the Asian mented as follows: and European parts of the city. Over 10m inhabitants • Register with the toll service provider with your and transit traffic results in excessive traffic loads on the mobile phone number, license plate number, class of bridge every day, producing maintainence costs and vehicle and preferred way of payment (credit card, congestion most of the day. Consequently, a toll is phone bill) by convenient and secure modern interacrequired to be paid for passage. tion channels. • Upon passing the toll plaza the automatic monitoring Currently tolling is arranged in a conventional mansystem reads the license plate number, captures eviner making use of DSRC-based transactions (tag/beadential images and scans the vehicle surface to a imprescon) while passing or a smartcard-based payment sive 3D data representation. From this the vehicle’s class system (OGS and KGS system) with stop and manual (and the corresponding fare) is computed automatically user interaction. With those two systems in place there and reliably according to (any) given class definitions. are already some alternatives to the formerly used • The captured data is compared to the existing regismanual tolling. www.h3bmedia.com

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Three-dimensional data is collected for each passing vehicle

pre-bookings, transactions and payment processes (credit card, deduction from the mobile phone account of the user). For the trial, this server was located in one of Alphyra’s data centres in Ireland and connected to the plaza system via a secure IP connection • SMS connection to Telsim, one of Turkey’s largest mobile phone operators. Users sent and received SMS messages from the Telsim platform which in turn were integrated to Alphyra’s payment gateway. • Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems to read the vehicle registration number. To achieve higher reading rates in all weather conditions and provide data even from rear-plate-only motorcycle customers, state of the art algorithms, cameras and invisible, eyesafe illumination were installed to the front and rear view of the vehicle. The images show the whole scene and the vehicle to allow for complete scene inspection out of the records. • Automated vehicle classification system for determining the vehicle class with highest accuracy and triggering the ANPR camera systems. By scanning the vehicles with laser-based sensors, three-dimensional data is collected for each passing vehicle. Class definitions based on all possible details of the vehicle are processed leading to excellent classification results.

Game, dataset and match tered users’ information and/or pre-bookings that have been made for toll passage. • If a valid registration or booking/payment could be found in the system, the transaction will take place and an SMS will be sent to the user confirming the passage as well as giving information on the current account or billing status. • If no valid account or pre-booking is found the data is handed as an incident to storage and possibly legal prosecution.

In case a user has neither properly registered, nor prebooked, the roadside system produces a complete evidencial dataset (license plate information and image, vehicle profile and class) for further processing or legal prosecution. All technical components have proven their reliability during the six month demonstration phase. Be it in Istanbul or anywhere else, at a bridge, tunnel or tollroad, when faced with the challenges of toll enforcement this innovative SMS-based payment system will soon enable customers to make their payments really simple with a cool and stylish tool they already really like and use: their mobile phone. TH

“All technical components have proven their reliability during the six month demonstration”

Gateway to success

To demonstrate the feasibility of a robust phone-based payment system the following main components have been installed and tested on the Bosphorus Bridge for half a year over the 2006/07 winter and spring: • Database server for managing user information and

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For more information visit www.alphyra.com and www.vitronic.com, or contact Donal McGuinness at [email protected] and [email protected] www.h3bmedia.com

Hot topic

Climate Change

AGUIGUI looks at the potential for digital video for surveillance and homeland security purposes and wonders if we’ve come as far as we should have done…

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Climate Change

DAVID QUIN on why the UK’s Draft Climate Change Bill will enable change for the better for fleet managers

Many fleet managers in the UK must have shuddered when the government announced the Draft Climate Change Bill. The Bill set the Government and its successors the target of cutting CO2 emissions by 60 per cent by the year 2050 and a 23-32 per cent reduction by 2020. For some industries this may seem a minor irritation but for fleet managers working for businesses that run entirely on fuel consumption, this can appear to be a huge challenge.However, in reality, effective fuel management provides not only an environmental benefit but also reduces a fleet’s operating costs. After all, The Energy Saving Trust estimates that fuel costs account for 20-30 per cent of the total operating costs of a fleet. So, quite simply, if you cut on fuel costs, you invariably cut a massive part of your total costs.

Where to begin

So where does a fleet manager start to cut fuel costs? From the very beginning fleet managers should start by choosing vehicles which offer more effective fuel consumption methods - vehicle specification including tyres, aerodynamic styling and fuel saving devices can all play a big role in optimising fuel consumption. The Royal Automobile `Club (RAC) estimates that the difference between an efficient and a less efficient £10,000 (€15,000) vehicle can be around £12 a week. A substantial cost to a fleet manager with hundreds of cars on the road. When purchasing your vehicles do try and do as much research as possible and ensure you compare vehicles on fuel consumption. The best way a fleet manager can evaluate a vehicle is by basing the evaluation on whole life costing therefore ensuring the most cost efficient and environmentally acceptable vehicle is purchased. Once selected, proper vehicle maintenance is essential. Simple changes such as ensuring drivers use the right gear for each situation can have a sizeable impact on the cost of running a fleet. The Energy Saving Trust suggests that vehicles driving around in the wrong gear can guzzle approximately 25 per cent more fuel than their correctly geared counterparts. Ensuring that vehicles have the right tyre pressure alone can reduce the amount of fuel needed to get from A to B by at least 1 per cent. Again, a small saving for a consumer but a potentially huge saving for a fleet manager.

Eco-economics

Driver behaviour is also important to running and maintaining efficient fleets so do ensure your drivers understand the meaning of economical driving. People often www.h3bmedia.com

wrongly assume that economical driving or ‘eco-driving’ means driving slowly or even cutting back on the number of cars your fleet uses. In fact it actually means lower bills, lower maintenance and lower insurance costs so it makes business sense to ensure that all fleet drivers are trained in how to drive more efficiently. Fuel-efficient driving is based on smooth and steady progress. Just by avoiding stop/start and jerky, irregular motion caused by congestion and the dreaded traffic jam, you can reduce fuel consumption by up to 10 per cent. Telematics devices such as GPS or SatNav solutions can be used by drivers to avoid these incidents and delays, reducing cost by allowing drivers to anticipate road conditions and avoid sharp acceleration and heavy braking. In contrast to the less agile in-car devices, several of today’s solutions can be run on mobile devices such as smartphones and allow fleet managers to deploy and redeploy vehicles quickly and efficiently.

All is not lost

The benefits of telematics can include reduced mileage and fuel costs, greater control and increased efficiency of vehicle deployment by delivering up-to-date information and allowing drivers to replan routes in order to avoid potential obstacles. Not only does this allow fleet managers to better manage the vehicles but it can also lead to a reduction in driver stress when using unfamiliar roads away from normal locations while providing an accurate estimated time of arrival. According to figures released by the Automobile Association (AA), up to 20 per cent of time spent driving on unfamiliar roads is due to drivers getting lost. Not only a waste in terms of employee time but also guzzling fuel and emitting CO2 as they go. The Draft Climate Change Bill places great emphasis on businesses to cut down on their CO2 emissions. It no longer makes a company’s environmental policy an option to please shareholders or a matter of concern for the CSR department but a legally binding obligation. For fleet managers, the Bill should be embraced as an opportunity to run a fuel- efficient fleet and more importantly, a cost-effective fleet. From simple changes such as checking tyre pressures to employing telematic devices, fleet managers can turn their fleet ‘green’ quickly and with minimum disruption and cost, safe in the knowledge that a green fleet is a cheaper fleet. TH David Quin is Marketing Director for ALK Technologies Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME Automatic incident detection by STIJN VANDEBUERIE

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Every year, between 20 million and 50 million people are involved in traffic-related accidents. Every year, over 1.2 million people worldwide die as a result of a road traffic accident. This represents an average of 3242 human beings dying on the roads each day around the world. Who keeps an eye on the highway? Who is watching over us? As traffic is becoming more and more congested in large metropolitan areas in all parts of the world, Traffic Managers are looking for intelligent systems to accurately monitor traffic flow to help keep highways safe. Especially in tunnels governments are making serious efforts to significantly improve safety for the road user due to various spectacular accidents. European guidelines are now even obliging the installation of a detection system in each tunnel longer than 1km. Safety for users and accident response management is a top priority for newly designed and existing tunnels. The interaction of accident recognition, fire detection, operation and control of ventilation, rescue as well as maintaining the infrastructure in accidental situations has to be ensured. The integration of a video detection system is seen as an important part of this “tunnel safety puzzle” …

Thinking Differently

NO STUNTS HERE Tunnels are probably the most dangerous motoring environments. In a tunnel, a seemingly small event (smoke, spilled cargo, a pedestrian) can cause a traffic incident that quickly escalates into a major tragedy. Trapped in a tunnel with no chance to escape... More and more traffic managers are convinced that investments in incident management are absolutely necessary. As they know, effective incident management can save lives! Effective incident management depends entirely on fast incident detection and fast incident verification. With each passing minute, the risk of another accident compounding the first one rises dramatically. The time to clear the original incident is critical. Stopped vehicles, wrong-way drivers, tail-backs, slow moving vehicles, fallen objects ... Traficon’s tunnel incident detection module analyses camera images in real-time and detects all major incidents within seconds. Result: the danger of the incident is substantially reduced and secondary impacts are prevented.

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AUTOMATIC INCIDENT DETECTION VIP video detection technology provides real-time aid to tunnel operators by automatically identifying potentially dangerous situations. Within seconds, the operator in the control room sees exactly what is happening in the tunnel, receiving information on position and type of incident. Thanks to the provided information the tunnel operator is able to take all necessary actions. From the Tunnel Manager’s view, information obtained through Video Image Processing can be classified as follows :

No Immediate Action Required

Eventual Action Required

Immediate Action Required

Volume Speed Density Occupancy

High Speed High density High occupancy Queue detection Stopped vehicles in niche Strange objects on the road

Stopped vehicle on the road Very slow moving vehicle Strange objects on the road Smoke and fire Inverse direction Pedestrian in the tunnel

The faster and more reliable this incident information is, the faster and more efficient the reaction can be (by VMS panels, radio, Internet, etc). What makes video detection technology unique with regard to tunnel safety management? Real-time visual feedback combined with numerical data sets video detection apart from all other detection systems. No other system detects incidents so fast and combines this with the possibility to immediately look at the seriousness of the situation. Video detection technology today is seen as fast, flexible and reliable. www.h3bmedia.com

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EASY INTEGRATION WITH TUNNEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM When implementing a video detection system, easy integration with the overall tunnel management system is an absolute must. The system needs to be userfriendly (both regarding installation and maintenance) and easy to implement into the existing overall tunnel management system. A Traficon VIP detection system is a modular system with an open architecture to improve the easiness of integrating it in any management system. It works on a very simple direct communication manner: from camera to detector, communicated to the software platform where it is incorporated into the traffic management system already in use. MOORE’S LAW Thanks to Moore’s law and under the pressure of competition and the demands and wishes of customers, video detection has matured enormously during the last decade. On the one hand, more and more new detection features were added such as pedestrian detection, smoke and fire detection in tunnels, slow moving vehicle detection, etc. On the other hand, continuous research, quality surveillance and increasing number of detectors installed, and therefore field experience (for example, Traficon has more than 40,000 detectors operational worldwide), have led to a significant improvement of the detection performance. Within the tunnel market, requirements for tunnel safety continue to rise. Traffic managers nowadays request for an intelligent system allowing them to stay in control of the situation, no matter what happens. As such, they are able to guarantee top level safety and security for the road user. More and more traffic managers are convinced that they can bring safety to a higher level by implementing a redundant AID system.

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Thinking Differently

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WHAT IS REDUNDANCY? The ability of a system to keep functioning normally in the event of a component failure (e.g. power failure, network communication failure), by having backup components that perform duplicate functions. Redundant components can include both hardware - and software elements.” The power of such a redundant system is that it prevents losing important data and, last but not least, the operator knows he can count on the system 24h/24h. He remains in control of any situation. VIDEO DETECTION: A CURE-ALL? Although video detection has proven to be a very reliable technology in bringing more safety into tunnels, it is necessary to inform that each detection technology, also video detection, has to be used correctly. Type of camera and camera position are of vital importance for having a video detection system that 100% fulfills customer requirements. For instance, a camera for number plate reading is not the same as a camera for wide area incident detection and in turn this is not the same as the camera position used for traffic counting and classification. We often find that this is still not well understood. Different applications require different cameras and different camera positions! So is video detection a cure-all? A lot depends on how it is used. Traficon advises not to start implementing video detection technology for traffic management and safety without a complete understanding of the costs and benefits associated with these systems! If taken into account the correct guidelines and parameters, if implemented correctly, video detection is very reliable and offers great solutions to the end user. CONCLUSION Video detection technology - combining fast incident detection with real-time visual feedback - is by far the most intelligent detection system currently on the market. It offers a great help for traffic operators to manage traffic safely through the tunnel. Tip: good preparations are the key to make your ITS-project a success. Make sure that in the project preparation and feasibility stage you get professional advice!

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South Africa

On the ball KEVIN AGUIGUI looks at the potential for digital video for surveillance and homeland security purposes and wonders if we’ve come as far as we should have done…

PAUL VORSTER charts how focusing on key transport issues is helping South Africa to make significant progress as it prepares to host the 2010 World Cup

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South AFrica

When the last whistle blew in Germany to signal the end of the FIFA Soccer World Cup in 2006 the attention shifted to South Africa and the 2010 event. In approaching this event, there are the pessimists who see a problem in just about everything and those who see challenges and are working hard at finding solutions. In a recent briefing on SWC 2010 and transport issues, CEO of the SA Local Organising Committee, Mr Danny Jordaan, informed the AGM of the Intelligent Transport Society South Africa about the planning parameters. The briefing served to inform ITS South Africa members of the state of planning and identified some challenges that we collectively are working on. Transport has moved to a top spot on the agenda of the public debate. It has been long overdue. Once transport became an agenda item, the transport demands of SWC 2010 pushed this even higher on the agenda for both the public and the private sectors. Whilst for several decades it was perhaps a case of denial, this debate reflects growing recognition that transport is a driver for economic growth, not a consequence of growth. Today it is recognized that the state of transport has become a serious constraint. It is often said that “change only occurs when pain exceeds pleasure” and we have reached that point when doing nothing is more difficult than actually tackling the problem! Reaching this “tipping point” bodes well for the future.

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With congestion already at perilous levels – ask anyone traveling in and around cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Pretoria – we need to prioritise a two-fold challenge. One side of the coin is congestion management. The other is to significantly improve public transport. For transport professionals, especially those working in the multi-disciplinary field of ITS, a preview of FIFA SWC 2010 identifies several important lessons: none more important than that of institutional cooperation. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel (with a little help from the team at the Revenue Services) has enough money in the piggy bank to fund projects for which there is a positive business case and a proper business plan. Transport infrastructure such as the rail network and the airports stand to receive in the order of €30billion. Airport expansion and upgrades are planned for €2.5billion, the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme is budgeted for at €1billion. Gauteng Province is the heartland of the South African economy. Covering only 2 per cent of the country’s landmass, it accounts for 48 per cent remuneration and 50 per cent of company turnover. The negative impact of congestion is thus sorely felt, in particular in the Johannesburg-Sandton-Midrand-Centurion-Pretoria corridor. This prompted Minister Manuel to quip that if you line all 2.9m cars in Gauteng bonnet to rear bumper and allow for a bit of safe traveling distance, the

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Photos on this page: Nardus Nel

South Africa

The N1 Freeway between Pretoria and Johannesburg is the busiest stretch of freeway in South Africa. (Inset) Transport Minister Jeff Radebe, as the VMS helpfully confirms, officially opens the N1 Freeway ITS Network Management Centre

total length of cars exceed the road space on which these cars have to travel. In peak times it takes longer to travel by car from Pretoria to Johannesburg than it takes to fly from the Cape Town to the City of Gold. Gauteng has 383.9 vehicles packed into every kilometre of its 7,538km road network. Its closest rival is the Western Cape with 31.4 cars per kilometre.

Let the train take the strain

Construction of the €2.5billion Gautrain Rapid Rail Link that will connect Johannesburg, Pretoria and the OR Tambo International Airport is well on track. The City of Johannesburg and the Johannesburg Roads Agency are moving ahead with plans for the €2billion Bus Rapid Transit system to link high-density nodes in and around the CBD along six main corridors. Aligned to Premier Shilowa’s strategy to streamline Gauteng into a Global City Region (as opposed to autonomous Metro municipalities), Gautrain and JRA’s BRT will form a public transport backbone for the Global City Region. Of notable importance is the role of Gautrain in serving as a catalyst for public transport integration and its role in stimulating the need for integrated ticketing. These are essential elements in the endeavour to promote public transport. The official opening of the N1 Freeway ITS Network Management Centre by Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe has pushed ITS to an even higher profile. Initiated by the SA National Roads Agency, this ITS project saw the deployment of fibre optic cable along the pilot area between Centurion and Buccleuch interchanges

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linking CCTV cameras to the Network Management Centre situated in the Midrand Fire Station where realtime traffic monitoring is done and emergency response vehicles dispatched by participating Metropolitan Government EMS services. The SANRAL Freeway Management project is being deployed to a wider area with sterling work done by the likes of the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), Ekhurhuleni and the Pretoria Metro. The National Department of Transport has announced its strategy for Soccer World Cup 2010 and with budgets unlike any previously seen for transport and ITS projects, the next few years will witness planning, deployment and integration on an unprecedented scale. Using ITS technologies appropriately to add intelligence to the transport network, in line with international best practice, is the only way to improve transport to the levels required by the growing economy. The higher the level of funding, the greater the responsibility to spend this money wisely and develop legacy systems that will serve the country well in many years to come – and guard against vultures descending on South Africa to make a quick buck and fly off again. ITS South Africa and its members in the public and private sectors are working to promote the development of a balanced transport network where technology is used in appropriate ways that can ensure interoperability. Institutional cooperation is vital to achieve this. TH Dr P J Vorster is CEO of ITS South Africa and can be contacted via email at [email protected] the ITS SA website at www.itssa.org www.h3bmedia.com

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Policy Perspective

Sustainable Roads are good for the environment, say JOSÉ PAPÍ, BRENDAN HALLEMAN and FRANCESCO FALCO from the International Road Federation – Brussels Program Centre For many years motorists have been branded as the sole culprits of all environmental damage inflicted worldwide. The image of the “dirty” car, weighed against that of other modes of transport traditionally perceived as being more eco-friendly, has contributed to the generation of one of the largest misunderstandings about the modern role of the road transport sector. This image, however, is undergoing a substantial change, mainly due to the fact that a more fact oriented approach is starting to take hold among stakeholders and the general public. An important dimension of the European Commission’s recent Transport Policy review, for instance, has been the conceptual shift from demand management to a greater focus on the supply side of transport, where each mode needs to work harder to contain the negative environmental effects of growing demand. In other words, as stated in a recent European Environment Agency report, “modal shift towards rail and inland shipping is not in all circumstances an efficient way to reduce the environmental impact”.

Green credentials

“The road sector has nothing to fear from an economic appraisal of its CO2 performance”

This new “side” to the role played by road transport vis-à-vis the environment comes at a time when the conclusions of the Stern Report and the International Panel on Climate Change’s fourth assessment report have cast a shadow over the future of the socio-economic fabric of modern societies. A “business as usual” scenario in the field of emissions, in fact, would see a surge in the stock of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere to double pre-industrial levels by 2035, generating an average temperature rise of 0.2 degrees per decade. The road sector, however, has nothing to fear from an economic appraisal of its CO2 performance. With an estimated 750m tonnes of CO2 emitted every year, the monetary value of the European road sector can be put at under €15 billion a year (assuming the figure of approximately €20 per tonne of CO2 given by the Stern Report). This may sound high, but it must be counterbal-

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anced by €360 billion generated through road and vehicle taxes in the EU-15 every year. The European Commission’s recently adopted compromise CO2 package, which splits a new 130 g/km target between car manufacturers and other road sector stakeholders, provides for existing measures to be completed by initiatives in the field of road infrastructure, which currently represent an underexploited opportunity for energy efficiency gains. More investment in road infrastructure is needed to remove bottlenecks, avoid city centres and complete missing links which together cost billions every year in lost fuel and undoubtedly contribute to the sector’s environmental footprint. Cases where road authorities and municipalities have deliberately restrained capacity to jugulate demand have been found to be environmentally counterproductive.

Vol 2 No 2 Thinking Highways

Building better roads

Incredible progress in road design has been achieved since the 70s through innovation and regulation, yielding what is now called sound environmental road design and management: a combination of processes and techniques to minimise the impact of road construction and create “ecological corridors” that can both serve the citizenship and preserve the environment. Among these we can find optimising route planning through environmental impact analyses, the use of recycled and environment-friendly construction material, mitigating habitat fragmentation, avoiding water pollution, making the most of Intelligent Transportation Systems and building quieter roads. The common thread between these complementary approaches is that they are based on tried and tested techniques and their impact can accurately be measured. Simulators have recently been developed to estimated CO2 emissions saved in selecting different construction techniques and supply alternatives, including the use of primary or recycled and secondary aggrewww.h3bmedia.com

Green for go gates. A recent study published by the Norwegian research group SINTEF has also outlined that an increase in road capacity will result in lower levels of emissions. The European Union Road Federation (ERF), the Brussels Programme Centre of the International Road Federation (IRF) also recently published a Discussion Paper on “Sustainable Roads”.This document can be accessed at www.erf.be/sections/positionspapers. It is also a fact that more often than not, industry is the main driving forces behind these innovations. This is one of the results of the spreading of motorway concessions and performance-based maintenance contracts which act as incentive to adopt lifecycle approaches to asset management and environmental protection. As a result, motorway operators routinely invest 20-30 per cent of total road construction investment in noise mitigation and environmental protection.

Conclusions

With climate change emerging as a global phenomenon it is of paramount importance to carefully evaluate all human processes to try and achieve a balanced www.h3bmedia.com

Policy Perspective

approach towards the environment. This is especially true of the road transport sector. We must not be distracted, however, from the fact that, in developing countries, access to reliable road networks remains a prerequisite to socio-economic wellbeing, with numerous studies establishing that isolation translates into pockets of poverty.The presence of an efficient and reliable road transport infrastructure is still, according to the World Bank, one of the key elements in the economic development of nations. As a result today more and more roads are being built around the world, with an estimated 70m vehicles entering the market every year.These statistics have to induce a reflection over the ever central role of road transport in today’s economies. This sector, in fact, is very capable of balancing the societal needs for mobility with a positive environmental impact and in this way become truly sustainable. TH For more information on Sustainable Roads please visit the International Road Federation - Brussels Programme Centre’s website at www.irfnet.eu Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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The truck stops here KEVIN AGUIGUI looks at the potential for digital video for surveillance and homeland security purposes and wonders if we’ve come as far as we should have done…

RUTH BRIDGER investigates why satellite navigation systems and heavy goods vehicles do not make for a successful combination … and why this should no longer be the case It was early afternoon and there was moderate traffic on the road. A 38-tonne truck makes it way through a small town in Hampshire and then disaster strikes. The truck hits the overhead barrier of a railway bridge, the cab becomes jammed and partially topples over on to its side. The result was the police having to close the road, cordon off the area and put diversions in place for all road traffic and in addition, a restriction of five miles per hour was imposed on all trains travelling over the bridge until engineers could check for damage caused by the truck striking the bridge. Rail passengers as well as road traffic were inconvenienced for some hours. It took heavy lifting equipment to remove the truck and several hours before the road was re-opened and trains could travel across the bridge at normal speed. Despite height detection warning signs, including additional signage in case the first sign was missed, the truck drove straight on. The reason? The foreign driver was using a satellite navigation (satnav) system to get him around southern England. The problem? Satnav

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systems in the UK are designed for cars and not heavy goods vehicles. For a car to follow the route that the truck took would be no problem at all. No car would get stuck under a railway bridge and car drivers can quite happily ignore the bridge height information signs that they pass approaching the bridge. But this information is vital for certain types of trucks. The growth in sat nav devices means that an estimated 4m or more are in use in the UK, with that number set to double over the next two years. With prices at less than £150, sat nav is no longer an expensive add-on for topof-the-range vehicles. Recent stories in national and local media have highlighted a growing problem with larger vehicles using unsuitable roads, sometimes causing damage and often inconveniencing many other road users for some hours. These include coaches in addition to HGVs, but can also apply to vehicles as small as ambulances and home delivery vehicles, such as those used by the supermarkets for Internet shopping, who cannot always take a route that a car can travel without difficulty. Not all inciwww.h3bmedia.com

Case In Point heights), legal restrictions (eg, truck specific turn restrictions), recommended truck routes, hazardous materials restrictions, truck stops plus other points of interest for truckers and warning information (steep gradients and so on). However, these datasets are for use within truck management systems that fleet managers use. These new datasets, therefore, will be very beneficial for companies who use truck management systems but not for individual truck drivers who are not managed in this way. In the UK, similar truck attribute datasets are being compiled and should be available this year, but will also only be available for truck management systems. The short-term availability of a satnav unit specifically for HGVs is unlikely. The complexity of routing algorithms for vehicles of different sizes, weights and lengths would be difficult and expensive to produce. And if you add in real-time traffic information, a growing market for satnav systems, providing re-routing options to take into account the characteristics of different sized vehicles would be almost impossible to achieve.

Bridging the gap

dents are the result of using satnav, but it appears that some are and no one knows whether this is a growing problem or not.

Mapped to distraction

Currently, there is no comprehensive digital map dataset for trucks in Britain. Ordnance Survey (OS) are surveying about 110,000 bridges for weight, width and height restrictions. But this information is only part of the dataset needed for vehicles that are subject to restrictions when using the roads. In addition to the weight, width and height restrictions, there are also weight per axle, and length restrictions and the far more complicated rules relating to date and time-related access restrictions. Other more general warning information signs may be of more relevance to trucks than cars, like Risk of Grounding, Lateral wind, Steep hill ahead – with gradient information. In Europe Navteq and Teleatlas are producing detailed Truck Attributes datasets for France and Germany. These include physical restrictions (for example, bridge www.h3bmedia.com

As a start, one satnav supplier has produced an additional download of bridge height information that could be incorporated into a standard satnav system. This gives a warning if the vehicle was approaching a bridge (similar to the system of warning drivers of speed cameras ahead). This would give the driver some additional information that could stop a bridge strike, although having to turn round or reverse away from the problem can also cause problems. One route, on the A624 in Derbyshire, has a bridge three miles along the road from the junction where trucks should have turned off. But trying to turn a truck round to get back to that junction has meant that garden walls and vehicles in the car park of the local pub have been frequent victims of trucks carrying out multi-point turns. This bridge height warning system, though, assumes that the driver knows the height of his load and can easily decide whether his truck can go under the bridge or not. In July 2004, a report was produced entitled “Prevention of bridge strikes.”* It quoted bridge strike data for April 2003 to March 2004 when 1,870 bridge strikes had occurred. The historical reasons given to these strikes were: • Load moved 3 per cent • Foreign driver 3 per cent • Arch – truck not in centre of road 11 per cent • Lifting arm left in raised position 26 per cent • Driver did not know height of vehicle 32 per cent If these historical reasons are still valid, then giving satnav information on the height of a bridge on the road ahead may not solve the problem. If a third of drivers did not know the height of the vehicle they were driving, and another quarter had not returned the lifting arm to the correct position then nearly 60 per cent of bridge strikes would still happen – with or without a satnav warning system. Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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“The UK Department for Transport says it has few hard statistics to illustrate the scale of the problem”

Freight expectations

In the UK, many county councils have already produced Advisory Freight Route Maps of designated routes for HGVs as part of the Freight Quality Partnerships they have entered into with the industry. These route maps ensure that trucks keep away from sensitive or impassable roads. They also minimise the impact of heavy goods traffic on local communities. Many councils have this information available on their websites so that anyone can access it. This is also useful information for the digital map makers, but until all councils in the country have produced similar freight route maps, any digital maps would give incomplete and potentially misleading information to truck fleet managers. With more media interest and complaints to local MPs on the increase, the subject of trucks and satnav systems is now being widely debated. ITS UK’s Freight Interest Group is one such forum. The House of Commons is another as, in October 2006, a debate on the problems of trucks and satnav was discussed at length one early evening. One MP also highlighted another problem with trucks using satnav – some weight limit signs are regularly being ignored by truck drivers, but there is nothing to stop them driving along the road. These restrictions are used for traffic management purposes rather than to protect vulnerable bridges, so there is nothing physical like a low bridge to make them turn around. He commented: “It is easy to blame satellite navigation for the problem, but weight restriction signs exist to guide motorists, and being in possession of satellite navigation gives them no excuse to ignore such a sign.”

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Local response

In one of his responses during the debate, Stephen Ladyman MP, Minister of State at the Department for Transport, said that the department had few hard statistics to illustrate the scale of the problem. A Department survey of local authorities earlier in 2006 had found that the majority of authorities had not received any complaints about inappropriate routing within the previous 12 months, but of those that had received complaints they all related to heavy vehicles and the local authorities’ view was that the number of reported incidents was rising. The survey highlighted examples of vehicles being directed to local roads with access restrictions of some kind and many of the vehicles were foreign. There is a need for all stakeholders to work together to provide solutions. This is happening, but some solutions are very low-tech! Reading and obeying roadside signage is vital for drivers of larger vehicles but, as with some car drivers, some seem to switch off their brain when allowing their route to be guided by an unflustered voice from the dashboard. And for drivers who use their satnav on a weekend to take the family to a theme park and then put the same unit in their cab when they take their 38-tonne truck across country on a Monday morning, they need to use the device with caution – and pay attention to the road signs relevant for their vehicle. TH Ruth Bridger is an independent consultant and former motoring cost and petrol price analyst with the AA Motoring Trust. She can be contacted via email at [email protected] *Produced by Network Rail in conjunction with organisations representing the freight and construction plan transport industry. www.h3bmedia.com

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POLIS Bureau

In the first of a new series of articles from POLIS members, BART SWAANS from the Noord Brabant province in the Netherlands reviews the area’s dynamic traffic management measures

In the Dutch province of Noord Brabant, the provincial authority has been piloting different dynamic traffic management solutions to keep this region of 2.4m inhabitants accessible and to improve road safety. The three internationally most recognised projects are the Informative Road (dynamic roadside traffic information), Magic Green (longer green light for lorry traffic) and Mobile Traffic Services (actual traffic information via following travelling mobile phones).Together these projects are helping to deliver reliable door-todoor travelling times, safer road traffic and sustainable mobility in order to meet the province’s strategic goals of accessibility, road safety and liveability.

The Noord Brabant vision

The deployment of these solutions is encapsulated in the provincial dynamic traffic management (DTM) policy, which in turn is guided by the Mobility Memorandum, the national policy document for traffic and transport. Essentially, the deployment of dynamic traffic management is being rolled out in three stages. The first concerns the instrumentalisation of the roads falling under the province’s responsibility (ie, all roads excluding national and local roads) and this will be completed by 2010. The second step, called Network Management, will involve the setting up of a joint operational traffic management system by 2013 covering all roads within Noord Brabant, including local and national roads. The final step will consist of the delivery of real-time, intermodal travel advice to individuals through different interfaces, including Internet, PDA, on-board units and at public transport points. This should be achieved by 2015.

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The Informative Road

The Informative Road project was launched in 2006 in order to inform road users about traffic-related matters. With this information, road users can anticipate the expected traffic situation at an early stage and respond adequately to changes that occur. Information is delivered through dynamic roadside systems that show various recommendations: • Local: speed, time between vehicles, speed advice at traffic lights and extended green lights for lorry traffic. Drawis attention to cyclists, excessive vehicle weight and malfunctioning traffic lights; • Route: signals for approaching emergency service vehicles, for indicating the course of the road, for faciliwww.h3bmedia.com

Three is the magic number tating crossing of the road and for showing regional travelling times; • Central: manual information from the road maintenance authority. The dynamic roadside information is tested on a provincial road (3.5 km) and delivered through a total of 17 signal emitters, which are triggered by means of detection loops. An evaluation of this pilot will be carried out during the course of 2007 from both a traffic engineering and behavioural perspective. The behavioural component will focus on motorised traffic and cyclists and use will be made of written questionnaires, research panels, interviews, video analysis and on-site observations. The www.h3bmedia.com

traffic engineering assessment will draw on data collected by the detection loops which trigger the signal emitters, but also by the additional loops installed to determine the local effect of the signal emitters and the relation between the signal emitters over the whole section of the road. Data from the three sets of traffic lights along the test section will also be logged, eg, times, queues,etc.

Magic Green

The Magic Green is both an ITS project in itself and also an important functionality of the Informative Road initiative. It essentially provides extended green light time at traffic signals to freight vehicles, whose drivers are Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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POLIS Bureau

Intended graphic route information panel with travel time information and congestion indication

informed about this through the specially designed roadside signs. The message displayed shows a truck and a green wave icon, suggesting that trucks will be greeted with green lights on their journey. Non-compliance means the green light is not extended. The objective of Magic Green is three-fold: to improve road safety, to improve traffic control and to facilitate freight driving by: • discouraging dangerous overtaking • encouraging lower travel speeds • avoiding dilemma zones (indecisiveness about stopping or driving through changing traffic signals) • reducing driver irritation (for all vehciles) • ensuring better freight traffic flow • providing better through-flow of other vehicles Although Magic Green was deployed primarily for road safety and traffic management reasons, there are expected positive side effects in terms of noise levels and air pollution. This will be evaluated in the near future, when Magic Green is implemented at more locations.

GPS for instance. The traffic data supports the dynamic management of the road network notably through the delivery of reliable door-to-door travel times to drivers, which is a high priority of Noord Brabant. A validation study of the two-year pilot (2003-4), called ‘Better View on Brabant Roads’, revealed that MTS provided high or good quality information about travel times on most roads but fell short on inner city roads, due to the prevalence of many other types of road users carrying mobile phones, eg, cyclists, pedestrians, etc and problems with map-matching because of the density of alternative roads. Results were also poor on roads with very low traffic volumes, because of a lack of data. These findings pointed to the need for a better filtering of GSM data on inner city roads and for the use of multiple telecom providers to increase the size of probe vehicles (the pilot sourced data from just one telecom provider). However, this latter option would result in higher costs. A great deal of research and development has been carried out to address these two shortcomings and a new test version of MTS was released at the end of 2005. Additional validations were carried out. The first compared MTS data with number plate recognition data on two provincial roads. It showed that congestion is recognised by MTS but travel times for a complete route are underestimated and that over 50 per cent of travel times reported by MTS deviated by less than 15 per cent from the travel times produced with number plate recognition. A cost-benefit analysis was also performed and this made positive recommendations due to the cost-effec-

“The objectives of Magic Green are to improve road safety, to improve traffic control and to facilitate freight driving”

Mobile Traffic Services (MTS)

This project involves the use of GSM-based floating vehicle data (FVD) to gather traffic data on the roads in Noord Brabant. Prior to the launch of the MTS pilot in 2003, little traffic data was provided on secondary roads, in contrast to national roads, due to the high cost of installing monitoring equipment, especially loops. GSM-based FVD was therefore perceived as a costeffective means of gathering traffic data, not least because mobile phones are far more prevalent than

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www.h3bmedia.com

CARE, COMPASSION AND CONCERN ON THE FREEWAY

Some of the differences between Samaritania Incorporated’s service patrol programs and others: 01 Our patrol vehicle operators have state and national public safety certifications. 02 We provide a complete turnkey program at not cost to motorists. 03 Provide Internet based Fleet Management Systems. 04 Provide public safety grade AVL/GPS incident recording/reporting systems. 05 Personnel, vehicles, equipment, AVL/GPS, patrol dispatch centers, and public relation programs. 06 The most experienced provider. Over 27 years providing service patrol programs throughout the U.S.

07 Provide the widest variety of quick clearance, motorist, and public safety assistance. 08 Provide a variety of different custom service patrol vehicles with and without tow capabilities. 09 Endorsed by Departments of Transportation and State Governments. 10 Endorsed by State Police, Fire/Rescue, and other public safety agencies. 11 National award winning programs. 12 Consistent media recognition. 13 Rural, remote area, and urban program applications.

Samaritania Incorporated, 10 Riverside Drive, Lakeville, MA 02347, USA Tel: +1-508-947-3700 Fax: +1-508-947-5544 www.freewayservicepatrol.com [email protected]

14 All program service costs included in single patrol hourly billing rate. 15 Operators adhere to detailed conduct policies 16 Standard Operation Procedure Development 17 Local office and project management 18 Provide Complete Indemnification and hold harmless agreements. 19 Provide audited financial resources. 20 Operators have perfect no-fault safety records. Zero fatalities. 21 Private Sector funding available to offset costs.

Network Management, will involve the setting up of a joint operational traffic management system by 2013 covering all roads within Noord Brabant

tiveness of MTS and the social benefits of providing travel times to drivers. The positive validation reports persuaded the Noord Brabant Provincial Executive to extend the MTS pilot for a further two years. Travel speeds and times are now collected on all roads (national, provincial and municipal). An action plan for the application of MTS data has been devised, the majority of which started before or in 2006. In terms of operational applications, a real-time traffic map was launched in July 2005 (see end note) and Variable Message Signs (called DRIPS) showing graphical and textual information are being rolled out on the provincial roads. These signs show travel times for two alternative routes to a common destination and the presence of congestion. An evaluation of the impact on driver behaviour of the information displayed on the signs is foreseen. From a tactical perspective, the MTS project will support the analysis of traffic patterns, especially bottlenecks and is currently the basis of an evaluation on incident management. Finally, in terms of strategic applications, MTS is being used to improve existing traffic models and in some cases, MTS has been shown to be more reliable than traffic models and so is being used instead. The main conclusion from the MTS project shows that this system offers huge potential for the cost-effective collection and provision of travel times, although there is room for improvement, especially in terms of the amount of data collected, through GSM or through a hybrid form of GSM and GPS (the growth in navigation systems would facilitate this). The business model established has proved to work well (Noord Brabant purchases data from a business partner which is also free to sell this to other parties) and may serve as inspiration for other types of public-private partnership.

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Laser sensors for traffic control The Informative Road technical concept

“Noord Brabant is keen on networking within Europe to learn about the experiences of other local and regional transport authorities” Although the Noord Brabant pilot with MTS ends on 1 July 2007, the system will continue to deliver traffic information, as the navigation information provider, TomTom, has integrated this form of data collection into its product TomTom Mobility Solutions on a national scale.

Noptel's CM30 distance sensor family has been developed for OEM use with products for traffic, industrial or portable applications that require high-speed measurements of poorly reflecting targets. These devices represent a perfect choice for intelligent traffic camera triggering, vehicle profiling or speed measurement. The units are small in size, of low weight and power consumption, and are suitable for outdoor use in harsh environments. They are available in different packagings, and customised operation is possible even with smaller volumes.

From local to Europe

The Noord Brabant province is keen on networking within Europe in order to share its own experiences and to learn about those of other local and regional transport authorities. To this end, Noord Brabant is a member of POLIS, the European network of cities and regions promoting innovation in transport, and is active within its Traffic Efficiency & Mobility Working Group. The province is also supporting the research, development and demonstration of future traffic management systems, through its involvement in several EU co-funded projects, notably the CVIS and Safespots projects dealing with cooperative systems, in which it is acting as a test site for several infrastructure-vehicle solutions. TH The traffic map referred to in the text can be found at http://actueleverkeersinformatie.brabant.nl Bart Swaans is Dynamic Traffic Management Programme Manager, Noord Brabant Province. He can be contacted via email at [email protected] www.h3bmedia.com

Applications • LPR camera triggering • Vehicle profile measurement • Vehicle classification • Speed measurement

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Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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T-Focus

Everything counts When it comes to data collection, says IRA STEINHOFF, mere counting is not enough, as a project in Austria proves Without even an audible click, cars and trucks drive over the induction loops buried under the asphalt of Tyrol’s roads. These traffic sensors constantly collect data on the type of vehicles passing over the loop and their speeds. So how do you handle this large amount of count data? In Austria, the Federal State of Tyrol relies on professional software which allows them to easily manage and analyse count data. Even the State of Oregon in the USA needs a solution that allows transportation planners to easily access and evaluate traffic count data. Professional count data analysis and management provide a better basis for decision-making in the field of traffic and transportation planning. Count data is a vital component in traffic and transportation planning. It is an input for the design of road infrastructure and pavement man-

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agement systems in order to resurface lanes and ramps in time. Additionally, count data helps to analyse the impacts of changes on the road network and supports decisionmaking in the field of urban construction. Automatic traffic counters collect data on traffic volumes and speeds as well as the vehicles’weight and number of axles.

Count data analysis

There are different methods for traffic flow data collection. Your data might be supplied by permanent traffic counters or collected manually. During the summer, drivers sometimes see students manually counting vehicles at junctions or on motorway bridges. Traffic data collected manually only provides temporary results, which means that it can only be extrapolated over a longer period of time under certain statistical condi-

Vol 2 No 2 Thinking Highways

tions. Manual traffic counts provide information about the number and type of vehicles, such as passenger cars, lorries, buses, etc. Many archives also store statistics based on historic key values that cannot be easily used for current issues. Permanent traffic counters constantly collect traffic data at specific junctions any time on any day. Induction loops embedded in the road’s surface are very reliable. An induction-loop trigger is a length of electrical wire buried just under the asphalt and hooked up to an electrical power source and a meter for data transfer. It is also possible to use radar units using microwave frequencies. The data is transmitted to a central computer via GPRS. The traffic counters are solar-powered. Permanent traffic counters provide detailed raw data about the number of vehicles and speeds, including a sophisticated www.h3bmedia.com

T-Focus

Site Manager: for managing Tyrol’s count site master data

vehicle classification scheme with up to nine different vehicle classes. The results from permanent traffic counters do not have to be extrapolated and plausibility checks can be performed immediately. With the cross-section count methods one counts the number of vehicles passing a specific point over a defined period of time. Junction counts are more complex than crosssection counts. The traffic sensors calculate the traffic flows at the junctions, which means the number of vehicles and lane directions. This large amount of data has to be collected centrally.

Data from different sources

Regardless of whether your data are supplied by permanent traffic counters, based on historic key values, or collected manually, traffic data management focuses on collecting, processing and storing count www.h3bmedia.com

data from all kinds of sources. Thus, traffic engineers and transportation officials can quickly access important high-quality key data. Moreover, data and analyses have to be intelligently stored in order to provide useful information about long-term road traffic developments. Do you plan to expand the motorway network or to adjust signal programming at a junction? To make the right decision you will need a detailed analysis of all data and information available. Advanced traffic and transportation planning systems need correct input data.

Tyrol’s uniqueness

Austria’s Federal State of Tyrol has to cope with heavy transit traffic over the Alps. The Brenner and Inntal motorways are the most important routes for freight and passenger transportation. A lot of commuters and travellers take the narrow routes

through the Alpine valleys. This has a major impact on Tyrol’s traffic situation. In July 2003 the state of Tyrol therefore decided to develop and implement a new traffic data collection system. Data collected by some 150 automatic traffic counters is now imported and processed every day. Manual counts and historic key values are added as well. Module-based detectors, which run 24/7, are based on microwave technology and collect data on vehicles by categorising them according to vehicle length and shape. It is thus possible to differentiate between different types of vehicles. All traffic counters were installed in Spring 2005. 45 of the existing traffic counters are loop detectors in the lane. Today Tyrol has well over 130 count cross-sections and 13 traffic counters distributed across its motorway and expressway network covering about 2,300km.

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T-Focus A traffic database

Tyrol’s traffic data is transmitted to a central traffic database every day. Here it is validated, managed and analysed. This complex task is accomplished by PTV’s TrafficCountManagement software. The system automatically transmits the data to a central computer every day. A central database processes, analyses and stores the raw data and key values for each traffic counter, such as ADT (average daily traffic). These common statistics can be instantly used for evaluation purposes. The integrated software also includes an automated plausibility check. It is possible to visualise database information and to correct unplausible count data. Since 2005 Austria’s Federal State of Tyrol has been using the PTV Traf-

ficCountManagement solution. A monthly update of the traffic count analyses is available on Tyrol’s website at www.tirol.gv.at/vde. You can access the major key values per month for Tyrol’s most important traffic counters as well as annual traffic reports.

Saving time and costs

“Thanks to automatic traffic counters it was no longer necessary to perform manual traffic counts over a period of five years,” explains Othmar Knoflach, the Tyrol project manager. It was even possible to observe the impact of Germany’s new motorway toll on Tyrol’s traffic volume by using permanent traffic counters. These results are also available on Tyrol’s website. Knoflach is convinced that the Federal State of Tyrol cannot cope with future road traffic unless it perma-

nently analyses all traffic data, including transit traffic, residents and environmental factors.

ODOT opts in

Accessing and evaluating its traffic count data is one of the main tasks of the State of Oregon. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) therefore also uses PTV’s TrafficCountManagement system which enables the user to manage traffic data from different sources and to create meaningful analyses and reports. The system will be adjusted to the specific requirements in the US, so that it meets US standards, such as the Traffic Monitoring Guidelines. Users will benefit from numerous easy analysis features and improved user guidance through the data validation process. TH [email protected]

: Count Manager: for visualizing and processing traffic count data

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OUR CUSTOMERS DRIVE OUR TECHNOLOGY Transurban’s integrated approach to tolling and customer service means customer needs drive our technology—not the other way around. With the largest electronic tolling customer base in Australia, we’re constantly refining our systems to ensure our three million customers enjoy seamless 24/7 service both on and off our roads.

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and Telstra on a trial to prove that GPS and e-TAG tolling technologies can be interoperable. Transurban technology— Keeping customers moving CRD1072

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Homeland Security

Supply on demand

Real-time driver information to complement advanced traffic management is a priority for Australia’s major cities because of increasing congestion, says PHIL SAYEG. Governments are unable to build sufficient road infrastructure to keep up with the traffic growth With over 90 per cent of Australia’s 20m population living in cities and with almost half of the urban population living in just three cities on the east coast, Melbourne (3m), Sydney (4m) and Brisbane (1.5m), the market for real time information is now at a tipping point. Several firms are about to enter an embryonic market with new real time information services. As congestion is expected to rise in future, timely, accurate real time traffic information can play a valuable role in traffic management and especially for management of incidents. In a report prepared for ITS Australia in 1998 it was estimated that deployment of traveller information systems may produce the following benefits: • 8 per cent reduction in congestion and travel time for cars, public transport and freight users; • 4 per cent reduction in accidents; and

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• 3.5 per cent reduction in air pollution. These benefits were estimated to be several hundred million dollars per year. The focus on this article in real time traffic information but brief coverage of developments in the urban public transport and logistics sectors is provided.

Today

Intelligent transport systems used to manage traffic are focussed on traffic or transport management centres that exist in most of Australia’s capital cities and most tollways. An example of an existing traveller information system for motorists is the Drive Time system operated by VicRoads in Melbourne. Information signs tell drivers how long it will take them to reach various freeway exits. As well as providing estimated travel times, a colour-coded indicator advises where the traffic is light (green), medium (yellow), or heavy (red). www.h3bmedia.com

Driver Information Free call telephone services providing information on road network conditions such as recurrent and nonrecurrent congestion, major planned events and other activities causing significant changes in traffic conditions is provided via the traffic control centres of all State-road traffic agencies. Various media firms have agreements with State-road traffic agencies for access to their traffic management centres from which they provide traffic information to radio and television stations. Current real-time information systems are fairly limited.Yet extensive information on real time traffic conditions is already collected by road agencies and private toll road providers from their traffic control systems. Rapid and continuing advances in technology means tools are now available for processing and value-adding available data and disseminating real time traffic information to provide useful context-specific information for motorists in a pre-trip or en-route situation.

Real potential

Real-time information is an important complement to traffic and incident management and potentially has wider benefits than to individual motorists who, acting on advice received, can avoid undue congestion. Recognising the potential for these wider community benefits most road agencies in Australia will provide their traffic information data at cost to firms wishing to create new forms of traveller information service. Our communities are now conditioned to expect instant communication and up to date information when and where they want it, and it is therefore expected that road agencies will be expected to facilitate the provision of comprehensive, accurate real time information to motorists and other road users in the very near future. From the commercial perspective, motorists are increasingly opting to purchase in-vehicle navigational units as they have become “consumerised”, and appear more likely than in the past to subscribe to updated mapping features and additional information layers which could include real-time information. For public transport, all cities provide information on scheduled public transport routes and service availability, fares, estimated journey times and fares between any origin and destination and expected times of arrival of public transport vehicles at stops in response to telephone and web inquiries. High quality real time passenger information systems (displaying next bus arrival times) for bus services exist in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Several Australian companies have developed proprietary technologies for tracking of buses and taxis and delivery of real time information to bus passengers. These systems also provide active priority for buses at traffic signals through communication of the bus location to the traffic signal control centre. Information systems and technology play a major role in the success of the logistics industry through integrating supply-chain activities on a real-time basis. There are numerous supply-chain service providers and on-

Intelematics’ Brian Smith: “No one has attempted to launch a real-time traffic service of this type in Australia before. Most attempts have failed at the business case stage.”

line access is available to port operations, information and vessel movements.

Tomorrow

Intelematics, a company that was founded to pioneer the development and acceptance of advanced telematics services and is owned by the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria, has started deploying an Australian real time traffic service and plans using RDS-TMC (Radio Data Signal – Traffic Message Channel) as a prime delivery channel. The roll-out of the service in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane is planned to take place in mid-2007. The firm is seeking formal agreement with road agencies to supply real time traffic data as an input to the to its planned urban Suna Electronic Traffic Avoidance (ETA) service. The RDS-TMC traffic standard, the only available International standard for traffic service provision, provides a capability to deliver traffic data into vehicles and this data can be used by navigation systems. Key features of the system are: • Wide availability of receivers (sales of approximately 4m TMC enabled navigation systems in Europe in 2006); • Updated traffic information, delivered in near real time via FM broadcast using the RDS standard (which is also an ISO standard) or GPRS; • Immediate knowledge of accidents, roadworks and traffic jams; • Filtered information only for the immediate route; • Traffic data directly input into Navigation system , high safety factor; • TMC feed will support other services including SMS, i-mode and web; • Based on Intelematics’ award-winning Telematics Services Hub. “No one has attempted to launch a real time traffic service of this type in Australia previously. Most attempts have failed at the business case stage,” says Brian Smith, General Manager Traffic and Content Intelematics Australia. Smith says that to be successful:

“We now expect communication and information when and where we want it”

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Driver Information

The AT Signature project : Part of a cross industry telematics R&D effort, this project tested a number of concepts including traffic. Intelematics have incorporated learning’s from this into their TMC based traffic rollout.

• Navigation systems require a real-time view of congestion and major incidents over the entire arterial network in order to provide appropriate urban guidance. • An affordable urban TMC service in Australia is only possible through the combination of several advanced ITS technologies, in particular Australia’s available advanced traffic signal control systems and specialist traffic flow modelling technology developed by the Australian company Custom Traffic Pty Ltd (first used in a commercial service in Hong Kong). • A most important source of raw traffic flow data is derived from the loop sensor network embedded in the road on the approach to signalised intersections. Agreements with road authorities to access these data and to develop near real-time link-by-link congestion models are required. • In Australia, a high proportion of travel is on urban arterial and secondary roads. A freeway only traffic service cannot provide the level of detail a driver or navigation system needs to make informed choices over which route is best. Intelematics has been working on developing an Australian traffic service for a number of years and due to its strong relationship with Australia’s leading car companies a market channel is provided. On the fringes of the transport sector, advanced mobile information services such as i-mode (mobile Internet and information) developed by Japan’s giant telco NTT under the DoCoMo brand exist. Launched in Japan in 1999, i-mode services have spread to 13 countries, including Australia, and globally has over 45m subscribers. In Australia, Telstra launched its i-mode service with NTT DoCoMo in November 2004. The Eclipse Group, Deloitte’s web development arm, is said to be close to developing a web service to help Sydney drivers avoid traffic jams. The aim is to develop a web-based service using Google Maps that can be integrated into in-vehicle navigation systems. The service is also expected to include a toll road calculator and live video feeds from traffic cameras.

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The future

Smith says there are two basic paths where development will take place, technology and content. There are ongoing developments that will support an increasing range of sophisticated traveller and traffic information services. In particular TMC has an upgrade path to a new standard called TPEG (Transport Protocol Experts Group) which is designed to take advantage of new broadband deliver channels such as DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast). TPEG and associated standards will allow for a range of additional services such as parking, dynamic speed advice, safety information and general traveller information. The combination of low cost computing power – often as part of the car, high bandwidth low cost communications and content availability will create opportunities for increased services. These will range from safety, navigation and traffic services through to entertainment. An example of a new traffic service is is dynamic speed information, this will allow accurate dynamic speed limits to be made available to drivers, this can be directly integrated with the car to provide warnings or other feedback to the driver that they are exceeding the speed limit. Forecast traffic data will also be able to be provided allowing a navigation system to plot a two hour journey taking into account what the traffic will be like in two hours for the last stage of the journey. These are exciting times. From a road agency perspective, while privately provided real time traffic information services can be expected to develop road agencies should expect to take an active role in ensuring that there are no impediments to block the provision of the basic comprehensive raw traffic data to satisfy market needs, and hence maximise overall benefits to the community. TH Phil Sayeg can be contacted via email at : [email protected] www.h3bmedia.com

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How I See It

Quality of life

Serco’s GRAHAM STACEY is a firm believer that reliabilitycentred maintenance is the way forward

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How I See It

Local authorities are faced with an increasing obligation to record and improve the condition of the transport network. A strategic approach to the management of the network must address asset condition, residual life, equipment reliability and importantly timely actions designed to maximize the life and value of the asset. This challenge is often set against a legacy where little or no information regarding the assets exists, whilst the capital and maintenance budgets are increasingly scrutinised for best value. This strategic approach needs to be built into an overall asset management plan taking into account not just the carriageways, footpaths and structures but also vital assets such as street lighting, highway technologies and a lot more besides. For highway technology this would need to focus on improving the reliability of equipment and maximizing the asset life through informed and cost-effective maintenance actions. There is now a growing responsibility on the maintenance provider to assist the customer in the risk management of the asset, through better use and analysis of maintenance information and data. The aim is to maximise the existing network assets by informed and timely maintenance actions,whilst ensuring assets are replaced only when absolutely necessary. By using this model, local authorities will ultimately be able to spend their budgets more wisely and be confident that the contract model is supportive in ensuring the delivery of their required outcomes. Indeed, operators like Serco are already helping to make this a cost-effective reality.

The challenges faced by authorities

Central government has now made it a formal requirement for all councils to look after their highway networks, which are by far the most valuable assets that any local authority owns. All local authorities must also produce a Highway Asset Management Plan (HAMP), which sets out what they want to achieve with their highway network, clearly quantifying the value of the asset, identifying investment needs and priorities based on whole life cost and establishing co-ordinated programmes of work. Furthermore, the local authorities also need to report their progress to central government with regards to the development and operation of the HAMP in the wider context of effective stewardship of the whole range of transport assets in their area. At present in England, the Department for Transport

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expects that as a minimum requirement authorities should aim to ensure no overall deterioration in local road conditions from 2004/05 levels during the second Local Transport Plan period (2006-2010) and that most authorities should achieve significant improvements in overall condition.

The challenges of HAMP

HAMP is throwing up some real challenges – for example local authorities need to establish effective arrangements for dealing with more immediate issues, such as repairing potentially dangerous defects.They also need to specify clear procedures and standards and provide resources and training to ensure that these standards are met. Failure to do so could have serious legal consequences both for the authority and the individual employees or contractors concerned. This means that all relevant local authority members and officers must have a clear understanding of their responsibilities in this area, particularly in the light of Government proposals to strengthen legislation concerning corporate manslaughter. So who is helping local authorities to meet HAMP objectives? The UK Road Liaisons Group (UKRLG) was set up in 2001 to bring together national and local government highways engineers from across the UK to advise on roads infrastructure engineering and operational matters.The UKRLG’s four boards – Bridges, Lighting, Roads and Traffic Management – provide specialist advice and support local authorities by working alongside local highway authorities, central government and engineering professional bodies to promote specific codes of practice on network maintenance management.

The reliability-centred model

To meet the HAMP objectives, local authorities first need to fully understand the value of their assets – vital for linking asset management to financial planning. To do this, they need to analyse the condition of the assets over their particular lifetimes, thereby giving an indication of the investment needed to keep the assets and deliver the required service over their lifecycles. This process also helps authorities to compare planned maintenance costs to those of any change in the condition of the network during a particular year - again, it allows informed choices to be made on the priorities for highway maintenance and just as importantly, how these will be paid for. Serco considers this challenge will be

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How I See It nance by demonstrating value for money in delivering the authority’s social and economic aims over the life of the investment – in basic terms, it is designed to help local authorities to maintain the network as cost effectively as possible. Unfortunately, a number of authorities are still working with partners that may well be meeting agreed service performance measures but are not guaranteeing the outcomes under HAMPs. Why? Simply because the focus on service performance measures is overriding the focus on protection of assets. This means that many local authorities’ assets are not being maintained properly, which is resulting in early degradation and costly replacement. So why are some local authority maintenance providers not changing their ways and advising a reliabilitycentred model? In a good number of cases, they face institutional barriers and face the challenge of transcending the culture of replacement rather than repair. Another major problem is that some providers are not – and do not want to be – responsible for asset management. They believe this issue is firmly in the jurisdiction of the local authority.

A Cornish example

best achieved by the authority and the maintenance provider working within partnering ethos - working closely together to develop an effective asset Risk Register which addresses both the optional and strategic risks to the network asset. The contracting environment needs to be supportive to deliver a shared ‘ownership ethos’ for the management of the asset. As such authorities need to be satisfied that the selected contracting model can deliver this objective. The vast majority of the UK’s local authorities are now well on their way to working towards the codes of practice on network maintenance management, which include over 200 recommendations. That said, many are also very much aware of the fact that the network needs maintaining now, and for this reason many contractors continue to be employed on terms that are far removed from the ethos of HAMP. HAMP’s underpinning principle is to substantiate investment in highway mainte-

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So what options do local authorities have? Serco is able to combine extensive technical and commercial knowhow with a deep-seated public service ethos and has been assisting a number of authorities with their HAMPs. Most recently we have been working with Cornwall County Council in the West of England to develop an asset management model specifically for highway technology. Working closely with the council to develop an asset management plan for traffic signals based around the new model within the Institute of Lighting Engineers’ technical paper TR22 which covers the asset management of lighting columns and signposts. We see the development of this model as the way forward and it will inform and shape our future approach to maintenance activities as well as driving more meaningful performance measures. By also liaising closely with the council’s group engineers, the County Surveyors Society and the UKRLG and fully understanding the lifecycle and depreciation of all relevant infrastructure assets – Serco will be finalising a model that meets the important needs of the maintenance strategy which ultimately could be used as a template by all local authorities in the UK.

What does getting this right look like?

The contracting model needs to support the delivery of the outcomes – namely the cost effective upkeep of the highway network, and in the case of Cornwall County Council all the technology that supports this. The key to succeeding is a change of perspective and mindset. Serco embraces the ‘ownership’ role and works completely in partnership with clients – in this case local authorities.Under the reliability-centred model,responsibilities move away from maintaining assets to helping the employer meet their outcome objectives – a shift www.h3bmedia.com

from asset maintenance to shared responsibility for asset management. In the case of the Cornwall County Council reliabilitycentred model, Serco is the service architect - designing and managing the service whilst analysing maintenance and operational data to drive service improvements. Through a partnering approach we are able to harmonise the service performance measures to ensure we deliver and support the clients outcomes, which on top of asset management includes such things as CO2 emission reductions and congestion impacts. It is vital that the technology systems to monitor and measure asset information are effectiveness are robust. One determining factor for Cornwall County Council has been the success of Serco’s appointment in 2006 to a five year traffic signals and ancillary equipment maintenance contract with near-neighbours Somerset County Council. Serco has developed an interface between its bespoke Technology Maintenance Management System (TMMS) with Somerset’s Urban Traffic Control (UTC) and Remote Management System (RMS), enabling automatic fault reporting and performance management. The TMMS captures and manages a range of information including asset condition, productivity, contract performance and fault trend analysis, enabling Somerset County Council to better forecast budgets for renewals works and make adjustments to maintenance regimes or investments in capital renewals works. Engineers working on the contract receive and clear faults and capture PI information remotely via GPRS mobile data devices. The TMMS provides greater ownership and accountability for the performance of the network. Through it, Serco works with Somerset County Council to plan a programme of asset renewals and modification works which will utilise the optimum performance and life expectancy from their equipment to deliver best value. Using analysis, technical and management expertise to maximise asset performance, the partner is measured against outcome performance indicators. Importantly, the partner is network-focused and not equipment-biased.

What do these outcomes look like?

Everything a local authority wants and needs: improved service predictability, robust asset management, known residual asset life, informed capital works, improved efficiencies both within the local authority and the partner’s team and finally service performance directly linked to central government’s desired outcomes for highway networks. Key to the success of a reliability-centred model is the ability to work in partnership with local authorities to identify the business drivers which lead to a strong maintenance strategy, accurate assessment of asset condition and then link this to the fundamental objective of the inspection and maintenance policy. It is important to remember outcome objectives will not be the same today as they will be in five years, so partners and local authorities must constantly assess www.h3bmedia.com

Traffic signals in a state of disrepair and malfunction could become a thing of the past....

and set new goals to meet them. After preparing basic asset management plans,annual programmes of improvements will be carried out and systems and processes will be markedly improved. The highway network is the largest and most valuable community asset for which local authorities are responsible. Inadequate maintenance only stores up even greater problems for the future. Whilst recent increases in investment have been welcomed by central government and councils alike, a sustained long term programme of investment in maintenance of the highway network is absolutely vital – and this needs to be planned, efficiently managed and supported by effective technical and management experts. TH Graham Stacey is Director of Highway Technology Services for Serco and can be contacted via email at [email protected] Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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Along the right lines KEVIN AGUIGUI looks at the potential for digital video for surveillance and homeland security purposes and wonders if we’ve come as far as we should have done…

Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, once said that anybody seen on a bus over the age of 30 had been a failure in life. It reinforced the fact that the bus had an image problem - one that had not noticeably improved by 2007. However, as PETER PLISNER has been finding out, new concepts and greater use of technology is helping to change things

Bus Rapid Transit

York, UK: A StreetCar wends its way past York Minster. StreetCar is a collaboration between bus company First Group and bus manufacturer Wright Group

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Bus Rapid Transit

Bradford’s kerb-guided busway

Often the first image that comes to mind when most people think of a bus is a run down, dirty and uncomfortable vehicle which would be better placed in a museum than on the streets carrying passengers to and from work. It’s true that in many parts of Europe buses are being replaced with more modern vehicles that have cleaner engines and passengers find them easier to get into. But for many transport users and indeed professionals working within the public transport field there’s still a wide gulf between the service offered by trams and other light rail vehicles and the humble bus.While trams have an image that makes people want to travel on them, buses just don’t have the same attraction. However, a concept pioneered in America is now being widely talked about on this side of the Atlantic. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) promises to reduce the cost of mobility in many European countries by providing a cheaper alternative to expensive light rail lines, while at the same time helping to improve the image of the bus. So what is Bus Rapid Transit? The best description comes from US. Already a common fixture in many cities including Las Vegas and Los Angeles, it’s been defined as “a flexible, rubber-tired rapid transit mode that combines stations, vehicles, services, busways and intelligent transportation systems into an integrated package with a strong positive identity that evokes a unique image.”

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In Europe one council that’s hoping to install such a system simplified the description further by stating that: “it’s a bus that thinks it’s a tram.” The integrated package referred to in the States includes some or all of a range of improvements which mostly involve the implementation of new technology to varying degrees.

Different strokes

When it comes to the use of new technology, cities across Europe certainly do vary. In the UK most BRT planners appear to have opted for the simple approach using tried and tested low-tech solutions. In continental Europe they’ve taken a different approach preferring hi-tech solutions, some of which have only recently been developed. Part of the reason is the differing ways in which bus services are funded. In the UK, buses have been deregulated and most services (and the investment needed to keep them running) come from private companies. In other parts of Europe large subsidies are available from both central and local government. One of the biggest expenses comes with the design and purchase of new vehicles which help to create the right image. Several manufacturers have already designed buses specifically for BRT operations and many are already in service throughout Europe. One of the most talked about is Phileas, which has been running in Eindhoven in the Netherlands and Douai in www.h3bmedia.com

Bus Rapid Transit France. In addition to its ultra-modern look it has a hybrid drive system with an LPG or diesel powered engine that drives a generator. The generator supplies power to an electric motor on each of the rear wheels. The body of the bus is made from lightweight materials including plastics and aluminium which helps to reduce the vehicle’s power consumption. While moving, the engine, which operates at a constant speed, produces more power than is necessary. The excess energy and the energy released during braking is converted into electric power and stored in the batteries. It’s claimed that by using the stored power, Phileas can travel 3km without producing any exhaust gases, making it ideal for use in a city centre. It’s claimed that it uses 30 per cent less fuel than an LPG bus of the same size. Another futuristic vehicle has recently been developed for use in the UK. The StreetCar is a collaboration between bus firm First Group and bus manufacturer Wright Group. It’s upped the ante as far as how modern buses look in the UK. The StreetCar was designed for a specific project in the city of York called ‘ftr’, short for future. It’s evidence that, as far as vehicles are concerned the gap between the UK and elsewhere is now narrowing.

Looking for guidance

After the vehicle the next consideration for any local authority or operator installing a BRT system is the priority given to the vehicles running along the route. In many countries bus lanes are a common sight. However, in some places they’ve gone a step further by providing dedicated lanes for buses commonly known as ‘busways’. If busways are being used the next key decision is whether to provide guidance systems. Guidance technology is by no means essential to a fully operational BRT system. Some of the most successful schemes haven’t adopted any kind of guidance technology. In Amsterdam the Zuidtangent system operates along a dedicated busway without any form of guidance. It’s often held up as an example of what can be achieved when you provide dedicated routes for buses. In other parts of Europe guidance is seen as important, particularly in ensuring the buses ‘dock’ with stops allowing easy access both on and off vehicles. Across Europe several different systems have been adopted. In the UK bus companies have again preferred a low-tech approach by using kerb guidance. Experts maintain that it’s cheaper and represents a tried and trusted technology, unlike some of the more hi-tech systems in use. Guidance is provided by kerbs on either side of the bus lane and the vehicles are fitted

(photo courtesy of Bombarider)

Nancy’s Guided Light Transit system

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Bus Rapid Transit

Photo courtesy of Siemens

loops under sections of the road. Here there’s a large degree of harmonisation across Europe within similar systems operating in many cities. The use of vehicle detection techniques means that traffic lights go to green before buses arrive. It allows fast clearance through congested junctions. Buses can also be given longer green phases than other vehicles. In many places buses have their own lanes on the approaches to junctions. But where there isn’t enough road space, traffic lights are phased in such a way to allow all traffic ahead of a bus to be given a green light so that the junction is clear when the bus arrives. According to many the use of bus detection has dramatically improved the reliability of services all over Europe. While loops detection is still preferred in most places, some areas are now developing similar systems using global positioning systems or GPS. Optical guidance - road markings at a junction

with special guide-wheels. Successful kerb guidance schemes operate in the UK cities of Leeds and Bradford and some parts of continental Europe.

Line of sight

Another popular system involves the use of cameras fitted to vehicles and special lines painted on the road. Optical guidance is a key feature of the TEOR rapid transit scheme which runs through the streets of Rouen in France. Optical guidance is either used across a whole route or often just at stops to allow precision docking with platforms. The Rouen system is provided by Siemens which is planning on rolling it out in other cities, including some in the UK. Another guidance system is provided using magnetic technology. It works by running electricity through cables embedded into the road surface which create a magnetic field. Data about the vehicles position relative to the magnetic field is fed to an on-board computer, which steers the vehicle. One of the only systems to adopt electrical guidance is the Phileas in the Netherlands where by all accounts it has proved to be reliable. One of the only drawbacks is that if a cable fails, replacing it can be expensive and time-consuming. The final type of guidance system called ‘Guided Light Transit’ or GLT has been developed by transport group Bombardier. It’s used in the French cities of Nancy and Caen and is the closest thing to creating a bus that really does look and feel like a tram.Vehicles again run on rubber tyres, but also follow a central rail embedded in the middle of the carriageway. It’s the most expensive form of guidance being used, although it’s still cheaper to install than conventional light rail.

Pulling out all the stops

Stops or ‘stations’ as they’re called within the realm of BRT are also an important factor in helping to create the right image. Sleek designs are turning what used to be a pole, a sign, or a basic bus shelter into an ultra modern, distinctive and recognisable departure point. Like the vehicles they are crucial in helping to achieve system identity. Designs range from much enhanced bus shelters to sophisticated interchanges and most include facilities to buy tickets before boarding the vehicle. Moving fare collection off the bus means faster boarding times and more reliable services. Although there may be different standards across Europe, when it comes to the use of new technology on the buses, the good news is that it is bringing about huge improvements in the quality of services and that’s not just good news for passengers but also the operators who are seeing increased patronage levels and rising profits. Bus Rapid Transit concepts are helping to turn the Cinderella of the public transport market into a beautiful princess. TH Peter Plisner is a Transport Correspondent for the BBC and can be emailed at [email protected]

Modal shift

Where buses interact with other vehicles other priority measures are often used, particularly at traffic lights. These systems have the capability to offer priority for buses as they approach traffic lights. Most operate using either Automatic Vehicle Detection (AVL) with induction

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Driver’s view from one of Rouen’s TEOR fleet

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Italy

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KEVIN AGUIGUI looks at the potential for digital video for surveillance and homeland security purposes and wonders if we’ve come as far as we should have done…

OLGA LANDOLFI on Italy’s attempts to keep pace, at the very least, with the rapidly evolving European ITS market

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Italy The increasing mobility needs, which characterised the Italian transport system during the last decades, lead to an exacerbation of traffic congestion phenomena with negative impacts on the environment, quality of life and transport security. As a consequence, the daily collective costs related to high traffic levels are becoming unsustainable, especially in terms of quality of life, security and pollution - and this also leads to a lack of economic competitiveness of “the National System”.

Out with the old

These experiences demonstrate that, in order to face traffic problems, which are worldwide realities, it is important to improve and update the existing infrastructures before focusing on the newest. It becomes necessary to adopt a different strategic approach, which means thinking of transport as an “integrated system” in which information, management and control can operate in synergy to improve the use of infrastructures, vehicles and logistics platforms, through the use of new technologies, namely Intelligent Transport Systems. Italy started to develop ITS applications in the second half of the 1980s but successful results only started to appear a decade later when local administrations, companies, research centres and universities took part in every European Commission Research and Development Framework Programme. Italy’s results were comparable to the growth of the ITS market in other European countries.

Cities on the move

Italy is one of the European countries with a very high traffic flow, involving 956,475m passengers and freight transport traffic on distances of over 50 km of 210,982m tons km/per year. With regard to modal transport, the latest statistics about national traffic, underline the absolute prominence of road transport for both passengers (92.38 per cent) and freight (65.6 per cent) on distances of over 50 km. Forecasts show that these percentages are going to increase within the next few years. www.h3bmedia.com

Today, ITS solutions and services related to traffic management and mobility are being used by several Italian cities such as Rome, Turin, Milan, Florence, Genova, Perugia, Naples, Bologna, Brescia, Salerno. Almost 80 per cent of Local Public Transport Companies have localisation and fleet monitoring systems which aim to improve service supply. Furthermore, an important contribution to ITS solutions deployment is represented by the use of the Telepass System, a road tolling system developed by Autostrade Group,which is now present in all the national territories and has become an example for other European countries. Very significant results have also been achieved by on-board systems development with the aim to increase vehicle security levels, while freight transport strategic companies and authorities have promoted several projects in order to foster intermodality and integrated logistics development.

Promoting the arts

As the ITS market has been growing faster and faster, the promotion and deployment of ITS applications in Italy require a specific definition of a framework on all ITS applications, systems and services which can be integrated and interoperable. For this reason, in 2001 the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, as part of the National Plan for Thinking Highways Vol 2 No 2

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Italy Transport, promoted ARTIST, the project developed to define the Italian ITS Architecture. ARTIST’s aim is to provide public authorities, standardisation bodies, transport operators, infrastructure managers and private companies with general guidelines for steering ITS projects towards interoperable solutions in compliance with National and European policies. ARTIST, which represents the main Italian project to foster ITS systems and services in Italy, is compatible with the European Architecture KAREN through the use of FRAME-NET network, allowing ARTIST’s schemes to be interoperable with other ITS solutions developed in other European countries.

Bridging the economic gap

Even though international statistics declare that ITS applications represent a very important business opportunity, as confirmed by the €1.2 billion European ITS systems markets in 2001, unfortunately the market in Italy at that time still suffered from a lack of real and updated economic information at national level. In order to fill this gap, in 2004 the Italian Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport, in collaboration with TTS Italia (the Italian ITS Association) promoted a national survey aiming to outline a general structure of the ITS market in Italy concerning the years 2001/2002/2003 and future trends. The aim of this survey was to reveal an ITS market structure involving Italian companies, which deal with ITS applications. In particular, the aim of the research was to reveal information about company foundation year, starting ITS activity year, expertise area, number of employees, working ITS employees, total turnover, ITS total turnover, sales forecasts, customers, imports/ exports and investments on ITS research. The survey, which involved 160 companies, underlines a constantly growing market with €550m sales in 2003 and an estimated €1100m sales in 2009, as the graph below shows.

ITS on the increase

ITS turnover (estimate in €m)

Furthermore, from the employment point of view, ITS is a sector able to generate employment, in comparison to the ICT market which has decreasing trends both for total sales and employees.

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Traffic management centre, Rome

The survey also involved university transport departments in order to know the funding of ITS research received and the actors (such as the transport department of local administrations, public transport companies, highways operators and so on) in order to know the investments made in ITS. The survey underlined a growing trend both for research funding and technologies investments, demonstrating that ITS applications now represent a solid reality at national level. As ITS applications are assuming a very important role in the national transport system and as they are part of the national economic growth, it is important and necessary to define a strategic plan as a reference point which is able to reach the main goals and priorities for ITS deployment in Italy in the short and long terms, but also the necessary actions to achieve results and have benefits through the use of the National Architecture. For this reason, TTS Italia is working in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Transport to create an ITS Strategic Plan, which will be completed at the end of this year. th Visit www.ttsitalia.it for more information

Italian ITS market

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Drivers for change KEVIN AGUIGUI looks at the potential for digital video for surveillance and homeland security purposes and wonders if we’ve come as far as we should have done…

It’s all change for Europe’s cities and towns as details of the EU’s funding programmes for 2007-2013 were announced. Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT was on hand to select the highlights With the new tranche of EU funding under the legislation package for the new Cohesion Policy 20072013 comes a significant change in policy towards cities and other urban areas. Finally, it has been realised that cities and towns are the engines for economic growth within a region and that regional development may not be enough in itself to improve a region’s economy. This stems from the Lisbon Strategy to promote growth and employment, drawn up in 2000. The new ‘Community Lisbon Programme’, incorporating this Strategy, supports urban regeneration, as well as innovation as a main feature, especially increasing investment in research and technological development and information technology. Over the last decade cities have mainly received funding from a special initiative, the URBAN Programme. Mainstreaming urban projects into the Structural Funds

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was planned back in the late 1990s and is finally being integrated into ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), the Cohesion Fund and the Social Fund. A new urban environment strategy was proposed by the European Commission in January 2006. With the startling statistic that four out of five people in Europe live in urban areas, one of the principal measures in the strategy is the implementation of sustainable urban transport plans. Community Strategic Guidelines of the Cohesion Policy were given to national authorities by the European Commission in 2006 to use for drawing up their priorities, programmes and projects in all sectors. There are three priorities in these guidelines. Of possible interest for ITS are the first two: improving the attractiveness of regions and cities through accessibility and preserving the environment; and innovation – to include new information and communication technologies. www.h3bmedia.com

Funding and Finance Driven by environmental and ‘energy for transport’ concerns, sustainable urban transport (involving mobility, accessibility and innovation) is regarded as one of the four key urban issues for dealing with the huge urban problems. Relieving traffic congestion to improve the attractiveness of cities is obviously necessary to deal with the problems of mobility and access. The guidelines for action given to the Member States for sustainable urban transport include the following aspects relevant to the ITS sector, with ‘innovation’ being a particular requirement: • Coordination between various transport modes to increase urban mobility and the promotion of the least polluting modes; • Good links to major airports and to the major axes of the Trans-European Networks for cities in peripheral locations; • New projects should form part of an integrated transport strategy for an urban area to include road safety and security and improvement of air quality; • Management of congestion, transport demand and public transport networks to improve air quality and reduce noise

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One of the important features of this new wave of funding is to greatly improve the prospect of public and private sector partnerships. To this effect City Authorities should now be significantly engaged in the design and implementation of EU-funded urban actions, rather than be managed at national level, as previously. Setting up such partnerships will be the challenge. However, City Authorities are well-placed to bring together public and private sector partnerships to get projects of the ground. Under the new regulations for ERDF infrastructure investment related to European networks, links between cities and towns and rural areas and towns will retain a vital rôle. From the ERDF, the figure for the transport sector could be in the region of 40-50 billion euros over the seven years. Another important aspect relates to the Cohesion Fund, which is split 50% for transport and 50% for environment, which will now include urban transport in addition to the TENs (Trans-European Transport Networks). The Cohesion Fund covers all ten of the new Member States, as well as Greece, Portugal and Spain. Over the period 2007-2013, the Cohesion Fund will total around 30 billion euros for the transport sector to include

EU Funding for Poland 2007-13 (€m) Intelligent transport systems 294 Information and telecom technologies 672 Information and communication technologies for Trans-European Networks (Transport) 200 Infrastructure connected to R&D technologies 1,600

the TENs, intermodal, urban and collective transport. A new cohesion policy instrument, JESSICA (Joint Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas), is aimed at promoting sustainable investment in urban areas designed to assist the financing of urban renovation and innovation projects through grants and loans. It is an initiative linking the European Commission with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Council of Europe Development Bank and will encourage public and private sector partnerships. Two other financial instruments have been set up, JASPERS and JEREMIE. Of possible interest to the ITS sector is JASPERS (Joint Assistance in Supporting Projects in European Regions) linking the European Commission with the EIB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in preparing major projects. JASPERS will assist the authorities in Member States who can potentially benefit from the Cohesion Fund support to identify major infrastructure projects for submission to the European Commission for approval. Finally, at this stage, it is too early to assess the sevenyear budget of ERDF and the Cohesion Fund for urban transport projects for all Member States. Assistance for sustainable urban transport could be in the region of 15 billion euros that may provide around 1.5 billion euros for intelligent transport systems. However, there seems to be considerable leeway for innovation in information and communication technologies in this sector, so these estimates could well be conservative. To give some indication of the size of the market, the following example of the budget breakdown over 2007-2013 for Poland, being the largest recipient Member State, shows some aspects of interest to the ITS sector. Further details of funding for the transport sector in Poland will follow shortly and will be reported in the Summer issue of Thinking Highways’ Europe/Rest of the World. TH Margaret Pettit is principal of CLEMATIS Consulting and can be contacted via email at [email protected]

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