Thinking Highways Europe/row June 2008

THIN KING

HIG HW AYS EUROPE/REST of the WORLD EDITION Volume 3 • Issue 2 • June 2008

BURNING ISSUE

Peter Plisner investigates why High Occupancy Toll lanes are such a politically hot potato

OLDER, BUT WISER?

Phil Tarnoff’s guide to recognising Organisational Maturity

LIFE ON THE OPEN ROAD

Paul Vorster on South Africa’s mega-ORT project PLUS:

Electronic Toll Collection • TMC Technology • Road Pricing • International Road Transport • Road User Charging • Green ITS • CityMobil • Switzerland • Australia • Spain • LOGOS • Hermann Meyer the

INTELLIGENT

choice choice

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

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Foreword Thinking

Kevin Borras is publishing director of H3B Media and editor-in-chief of Thinking Highways Europe/Rest of the World and North America editions. [email protected]

Fund, fund, fund... When did it stop being bad manners to talk about money? Is anyone talking about anything else? I had hoped that turning 40 wouldn’t make me feel any different than I did when I turned 28 or 37, but I rather think that it has. I seem to have become obsessed with money. In the space of 25 minutes this week I was twice horrified by the price of something I wanted to buy - horrified largely because I had long since held the view that this was a definite sign of ageing (other than the obvious ones of thinking that policemen look young, which they do, and that the TV personality you find attractive is nearer to your children’s ages than yours, and she most definitely is). Firstly I went to buy a music magazine I’ve been reading for 20 years and discovered that it was now £5 (most likely about €5.50 by the time you read this). I put it back. To recover from the shock I took the unusual step of retiring to the nearest pub. I ordered two pints of beer and fished £6 worth of coins out of my pocket. “That’s £8.20 please,

Editor-in-Chief Kevin Borras

Visualisation Tom Waldschmidt ([email protected])

Sales and Marketing Luis Hill, Tim Guest

Conferences and Events Odile Pignier ([email protected])

Design and Layout Phoebe Bentley, Kevin Borras Sub-Editing and Proofreading Maria Vasconcelos, Joanne Cooden

Administration Jodie Graham ([email protected])

Subscriptions and Circulation Pilarin Harvey-Granell Contributing Editors Website Bruce Abernethy, Richard Bishop, Lee J Code Liquid Nelson, Adrew Pickford, Phil Sayeg, Phil Tarnoff, Harold Worrall, Amy Zuckerman Financial Director Martin Brookstein Contributors to this issue Tom Antonissen, Phil Charles, Steinar EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING Furan, Jean-Michel Henchoz, Suzanne H3B Media Ltd, 15 Onslow Gardens, Hoadley, Keith McCabe, Hermann Meyer, Wallington, Surrey SM6 9QL, UK Michael Nielsen, Margaret Pettit, Andrew Tel +44 (0)208 254 9406 Pickford, Peter Plisner, Paul Vorster, Fax +44 (0)208 647 0045 Max Winck Email [email protected]

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mate” demanded the barman. I tried to stop myself but before I could, I heard myself asking “Why?” “£4 for the lager, £4.20 for the Guinness.” I could hardly put them back so I paid rather grudgingly. £8 for two drinks? I flew to Italy for £9. Then it dawned on me that I had spent that entire day talking about money. In the morning I had had a very interesting and enlightening conversation about the UK’s Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) in an attempt to scotch rumours that one of the authorities was about to pull out, which would have meant only two of the original 11 bidding authorities still maintained an interest. They hadn’t, incidentally. In the afternoon I’d talked to two different Brussels-based organisations about internalising external transport costs. Or was it externalising internal transport costs? Either way, we talked about costs. No sooner had we finished our teleThinking Highways

conference I had a call from the US about “dried-up revenue streams” affecting the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration programme and then ended my working day (my working day in the office, anyway) talking to a manufacturer about how much cheap Chinese imitations of his company’s products were costing him. Maybe it’s not just me, then. The love of money may be the root of all evil, but the pursuit of it? Well, that just comes with the territory, this territory at least. Look at the eight words that appear on every one our covers - how many of them can be achieved without funding? How many of the articles in this issue DON’T mention money? Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to the first announcement, on pages 53 and 55 of our European Congestion Management Think Tank, which will take place in Birmingham on 16 October. A further-reaching, event than last year’s, can you afford not to go? TH

is published by H3B Media Ltd.

ISSN 1753-433X Thinking Highways

Managing Director Luis Hill [email protected]

Publishing Director Kevin Borras [email protected]

www.h3bmedia.com

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, 13705 North Ivy Lake Road, Chillicothe, IL 61523, USA. 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. © 2008 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 The Manson Group

Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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Contents

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COLUMNS The Voice From Brussels

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Prof Phil Charles’ Australian Update

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Dr Paul Vorster’s South African Update

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THE THINKER ITS guru Phil Tarnoff on what constitutes, and how to recognise,organisational maturity The Thinker

Climate Change The Thinker When DAVID SCHONBRUNN read the April/May issue of Thinking Highways he felt compelled to write an article offering his own views on transportation’s impacts onm and solutions for, climate change

Stunted growth Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

A mature performance When is performance good enough? What is Organizational Maturity? Does PHIL TARNOFF have the answers? Naturally enough, yes... 56

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COVER STORY

Is Europe set to take the US’s lead and implement a series of High Occupancy Toll lanes? Peter Plisner reports

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THE THOUGHT PROCESS ERTICO’s new Chief Executive Officer, former Volkswagen head of technology and services, Hermann Meyer

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AUTOMATED TRANSPORT SYSTEMS POLIS’s Suzanne Hoadley charts the progress of the CityMobil project, with testimonials from Valencia, Daventry and Heathrow

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FUTURE SOLUTIONS Steinar Furan on how the past couple of decades have been good news for the customer INTERNATIONAL ROAD TRANSPORT The IRU’s Michael Nielsen explains why the re-opening of the ancient Silk Road, the main trade route from Europe to China 800 years ago, would be good for the road transport industry

ROAD USER CHARGING Andrew Pickford on why some RUC implementation schemes fail and others succeed

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ELECTRONIC TOLL COLLECTION Peter Plisner investigates why the UK’s plans to introduce a nationwide tolling scheme didn’t get off to the greatest of starts

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ITS AND THE ENVIRONMENT What can ITS do to bring about a greener future in transport, asks Keith McCabe

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CONTROL ROOM TECHNOLOGY Max Winck on the latest in large scale TMC display systems

Climate Change Road Pricing

Road Pricing

Charging drivers for the use When DAVID SCHONBRUNN ofread roads has never been the April/May issue of universally popular. Inhe most Thinking Highways felt places charges are made for compelled to write an article those usinghis a ‘premium’ offering own viewspiece on of transportation’s highway, often a new impacts motorway that avoids afor, onm and solutions congested areachange or a bridge climate that cuts both journey time and distance travelled. However, in the UK the government planned to introduce tolls on existing roads and motorway, but as the busy PETER PLISNER has been finding out things haven’t quite gone according to plan. Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

Toll and trouble

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SWITZERLAND The hosts for this year’s ITS Europe event have numerous traffic management plans at various stages, as Jean-Michel Henchoz discovers

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The headlines said it all: “Road pricing scheme stalled” as, like many motorists before them the UK Government was forced to make a hasty u-turn with its highly controversial plans to introduce a national road pricing scheme. In parliament, the British Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly was asked if the Government’s flagship road pricing scheme was dead. The question followed what observers have called a significant change in roads policy, which would see motorway capacity in the UK expanded by opening up the hard shoulder to traffic at the busiest times of the day. The decision effectively buys the Government more time, during which ministers will have to either find the cash to widen motorways or decide whether to reintroduce plans for pricing in the future. In answering the question on the perceived demise of a national road pricing scheme Kelly simply responded by saying “I would describe this as a nifty overtaking manoeuvre to get past stationary traffic.” However, in a reference to the current unpopularity of road pricing schemes, she added “The debate about national road pricing has become increasingly sterile with enthusiasts thinking that road pricing is the answer to all their problems and with people on the other side saying over my dead body.” It had all been going so well. Congestion was getting worse and drivers were once again looking to the Government to act. Previously, the answer was simply to build more roads, but that had been tried and most of the additional capacity had simply filled up with yet more traffic. What was needed was a new approach, www.h3bmedia.com

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FINANCE AND FUNDING Margaret Pettit turns her attention to Spain

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Advertisers’ Index

BEFORE

AFTER

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The Voice from Brussels

A time for action LOGOS’sTOM ANTONISSEN uses his Thinking Highways column to apply for a leading role in Europe’s ITS Action Plan ...

When I read the comment of ITS (UK)’s Secretary General in the March issue that “the ITS industry needs a really good spin doctor or a complete makeover,” I immediately felt compelled to apply for this role. I really felt that my consultancy would be fit for the job, given my particular interest in ITS, and our experience with the EU’s transport policy. Assuming ITS (UK) would agree that this makeover should pertain to the ITS industry spread across the EU, and in light of our excellent relations with ERTICO – ITS Europe, this leads me to dedicate my second column to the recent increase in activities by the European Commission on the subject, with an expected outcome of the presentation of a full-blown “Commission Communication on an ITS Action Plan” by the summer of 2008.

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As this column focuses on “what comes out of Brussels”, please allow me to describe the time-line of this noble EU initiative, which should provide those of you in the real world with an insight in the politically correct way of developing innovative policies at EU level.

Paper trail

According to the Commission, this focus on ITS started in June 2006 when the White Paper on EU Transport Policy (dating from 2001) was reviewed and a mention of ITS was made with regards to “intelligent infrastructure for road transport.” While focusing on its role within the wider EU policies of relieving congestion and combating climate change, it also adhered to the 2010 objective of making the EU the most competitive knowledgebased economy in the world (the Lisbon Agenda).

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To the trained eye it became clear that this focus on ITS should be seen in the context of developing “smart forms of user charging” (connected to the urgent need of finding funds for infrastructure) at EU level, linked to the technological priority of getting the Galileo-system up and running by the middle of the next decade (and finding political justifications for this “made in EU” satellite system). This also takes into account the much-talked about methodology of internalising the external costs of all modes of transport, with a particular focus here again on road transport with the “Eurovignette III” Directive ready to be proposed by the Commission in mid-June (though the text has already leaked and has surprisingly omitted the cost of CO2 – or Climate Change Cost – from this proposal, which might even be renamed to the “Smart www.h3bmedia.com

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Robert Kelly and Mark Johnson and Green Charging Directive”). To continue with the timeline (for the sake of showing that “Brussels” does respect a certain openness and dialogue with all sorts of stakeholders), in April 2007 an “ITS Steering Group” was set up, which groups high-level officials of no less than five different Directorates-General, to ensure co-ordination between different EU policies, as any Brussels insider knows that separate DGs find it occasionally difficult to find out what the other hand is doing.

EU Q&A

Then for the real democratic input: in the beginning of March 2008 a questionnaire was launched on-line, and the general public was asked to provide its views on ITS in road transport, and more particularly asked which “actions and applications” should be considered as priorities, where Brussels should get involved. At this point, only a select group of people knew that prior to this consultation, the Commission had started interviews with “senior experts from major ITS stakeholders”, while tendering out a preparatory study for an Impact Assessment. On 26 March there was an ITS Action Plan Workshop at the Commission (in Brussels), where the above was outlined, and a “Discussion Paper in preparation of an Action Plan” was presented and discussed. Whenever I’ve asked an ITS expert present at this workshop if they were part of the happy few that were consulted beforehand, in the period between the publication of a Roadmap Outline (October 2007, to be found on the mentioned website) and the drafting of the Discussion Paper

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(February 2008), the answer has always been ‘no’. As for the questionnaire itself, one must admit that this particular document leaves somewhat more room for “creative writing” than the usual tick-the-box-or-don’t online consultations that are usually aimed towards a larger audience, which as such is not considered to be made up of experts, though a genuine interest in what the public thinks is always portrayed by Brussels (as part of “Plan D” for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate, or through the Better Regulation Agenda, or within the European Transparency Initiative and so on).

Leading questions?

Now going through the questionnaire in more detail (remember, the consultation was closed at the end of March), there seems to be a

“Only a select group knew that prior to the consultation, the Commission had started interviews with major ITS stakeholders” pattern and a direction in which “Brussels” wanted you to respond, which is also reflected in the Discussion Paper that was only sent by mail to respondents registering for the workshop, as it cannot be found online for the time being. The general direction the EU is taking on this is that it realises the large amount of technology and applications already on the market under the umbrella of ITS, and it is asking you (i.e. both the experts within the ITS sector and the general public) how

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EU actions should concentrate on a limited set of mature, core ITS applications, with the view to their quick deployment, EU-wide. A rather large and encompassing set of applications are then enumerated under six headings and the respondents are asked to tick boxes next to practical examples within each heading, with the option of ticking more than one box and providing some extra specification when one has ticked the “Others” box. These six headings are: invehicle basic safety systems; in-vehicle Autonomous Advanced Drives Assistance Systems (ADAS); co-operative systems; Travel and Driving Support Services; Traffic Management systems and a European Electronic Toll Collection Service.

Heading into trouble?

Naturally, a European ETC is of course one of the main objectives with a clear addedvalue if this is made interoperable at EU level. However, a more striking detail is that these six headings become five under a next series of “questions”, when the focus is shifted from the short term to the mediumto-longer term and it is then left for us to assume that “cooperative systems (based on vehicle-to-vehicle communications and/or vehicle-to-infrastructure communications)” will be automatically considered by Brussels as a short term priority for deployment within the EU. This in itself should be a reason to cheer for our friends of ERTICO and ITS(UK)! Again putting the focus back on the time-line: by the end of April both the Impact Assessment and the Action Plan itself are supposed to have been finalised, and the waiting will be till the middle www.h3bmedia.com

The Voice from Brussels of July 2008 for both documents to be published. From the Discussion Paper we can already see that the Commission will focus its actions around four instruments: • Financial Support (through allocations of budget lines within the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development for the period 2007-2013, the TEN-projects, the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme as well as through the EU’s Structural Funds); • Standardisation (through the European Standardisation Bodies, with a focus on cooperative systems and interoperability); • Legislation (to create an “open in-vehicle platform”, a European ETC related to demand management, digital tachographs based on GNSS, address data security and privacy);

• and Soft Measures (to promote Public-Private Partnerships, create frameworks for ITS deployments on national level by the Member States, ensure best practice guidelines and user awareness at different levels).

Novel approach

An interesting novelty for the ITS community would also be the setting up of a European ITS Committee which would receive regulatory powers to “assist the evolution of the ITS roadmap deployment” by overseeing the development of harmonised road standards for ITS and cooperative systems, as well as having a say in the allocation of European funds and spending approvals for projects, while making recommendations for future research needs. Now as this is all hopeful news for all stakeholders propagating high (public)

Intelligent Solutions for Traffic Surveillance

attention for the ITS sector and its existing solutions to most of our present transport problems, we all should keep in mind that such an Action Plan will only serve as a manual for Brussels policymakers to assess what concrete actions they can pull off at EU level that will satisfy and even motivate the ITS community and the general public, while being careful not to thread on the sensitive toes of national, regional and local politicians. Now that the dice has been thrown, let the whole ITS community (represented through national ITS associations as well as its European umbrella) carefully follow this noteworthy EU initiative and make sure that this time, whatever will come out of Brussels in the follow-up of the ITS Action Plan, will be worth defending. TH [email protected]

VITRONIC product range • PoliScansurveillance Acquisition and identification of vehicles for crime prevention • PoliScanspeed Digital speed measurement - mobile and stationary • PoliScandigital Evaluation of speed and digitally recorded red-light offences • TollChecker Free-flow and multi-lane toll enforcement

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Prof Phil Charles’ Australian Update

Mitigating circumstances

PROF PHIL CHARLES on the challenges of congestion gridlock and quick clearance Mitigating traffic congestion is a major challenge being faced by highways agencies worldwide. A major portion of the congestion is due to major traffic incidents, and dealing with these can provide significant short solutions, but barriers to successful implementation pose major challenges to be overcome. Congestion is a major economic, social and environmental issue in most large urban centres around the world. The inability to build sufficient new infrastructure to meet the demand results in recurring congestion. But significant congestion also occurs from temporary

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reductions in capacity, with an increasing number of major traffic incidents occurring in the high traffic flows, such as vehicle breakdowns, spilled loads and crashes. Major traffic incidents result in significant traffic impacts, closure of traffic lanes and virtual gridlock for extended periods. Of particular concern are incidents on high traffic routes at critical times and locations. Truck crashes block major roads for several hours, while the trucks and their cargo are carefully salvaged to avoid further damage, often after long delays waiting for the right equipment to come to the site or waiting for an owner or

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insurance company to make the necessary arrangements. Major crashes result in roads being closed for long periods while people are rescued and transported to medical facilities and the necessary investigations and evidence gathering are carried out. These incidents result in extensive congestion, delays, missed deadlines for flights, deliveries or business appointments, costs to business, secondary crashes, and expose responders to traffic safety hazards. Traffic incidents are a major contributor to traffic congestion and impose considerable cost to the community. A combination of www.h3bmedia.com

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IT´S ALL ABOUT TRAFFIC SAFETY.

75 years ROBOT Visual Systems

Since 75 years Robot Visual Systems stands for development of modern camera technology. Today we are the market leader in the area of transport surveillance and transport safety technology. Our stationary and mobile systems should contribute to measurably reducing traffic accidents. This is our vision; ROBOT is working on it each day with its highly specialised team.

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

Robert and Mark Johnson Prof PhilKelly Charles’ Australian Update studies and analytical work by the US Federal Highways Administration estimated that roughly 25 per cent of the congestion delay experienced in the US is due to traffic incidents. A study in the UK by the Highways Agency found that incidents similarly account for about 25 per cent of congestion on the major roads. As part of a systematic approach to traffic incident response and management, rapid and quick clearance has the potential to result in major reductions in the duration of closures and blockages and the resulting congestion. However, a major challenge to improving incident response is the fact that there are many different agencies and organisations involved in responding to incidents, each with their own priority and agenda, which makes it difficult to coordinate and focus incident clearance efforts. Many jurisdictions (usually at a state or regional governmental level) have adopted a quick clearance or open road policy as a result, and also enacted supporting legislation. For example in Florida an Open Roads Policy, an agreement between the Highway Patrol and the Department of Transportation, has a stated goal to clear traffic crash scenes and reopen roads within 90 minutes. The policy states that roads will not be restricted or closed any longer than is absolutely necessary and that vehicles and debris will be removed as quickly as possible. Roadways will be cleared of damaged vehicles, spilled cargo and debris as soon as it is practical and safe to do so. Due to the urgency of removing vehicles in a timely

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Photo: Courier Mail Brisbane

Reducing the impact

manner, damage could occur to the vehicles or cargo as a result of clearing the roadway. While reasonable attempts to avoid such damage shall be taken, the highest priority is maintaining safety and restoring traffic to normal conditions.

Clear and present...

Supporting quick clearance legislation authorises the removal of disabled or wrecked vehicles from travel lanes. ‘Hold harmless’ laws furnish immunity to incident responders from civil liability in connection with removing vehicles and spilled cargo involved in a traffic incident and obstructing adjacent traffic flow. Fatal crashes also result in major delays, as detailed investigations are needed and Police have to balance the

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need for evidence and reporting requirements against traffic delays and the threat of secondary incidents. High level (political and top management), aggressive quick clearance policies, similar to the ‘open roads’ policies referred to above, can greatly assist in reducing the duration of major incidents. Strong partnerships and agreed inter-agency operating procedures for key responders are needed to complement the policy. Quick clearance laws and regulations provide the underpinning legal basis. Providing key infrastructure and services, such as incident response units, traffic officers, and heavy vehicle towing equipment on standby, complete the package of initiatives needed. TH [email protected] www.h3bmedia.com

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IT´S ALL ABOUT TRAFFIC SAFETY.

75 years ROBOT Visual Systems

Since 75 years Robot Visual Systems stands for development of modern camera technology. Today we are the market leader in the area of transport surveillance and transport safety technology. Our stationary and mobile systems should contribute to measurably reducing traffic accidents. This is our vision; ROBOT is working on it each day with its highly specialised team.

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

South Africa

Stunted growth Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

DR PAUL VORSTER, CEO of ITS South Africa,on how (and why) the country is gearing up for a mega open road tolling project

Start small, think big

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Vol Vol33No No11 Thinking Thinking Highways Highways

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Climate Change South Africa WhenAirport; DAVID SCHONBRUNN International • read Bus Rapid systems for Cape Town,of JohantheTransit April/May issue nesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Port Elizabeth; Highways hetofelt • Thinking Airport upgrades and extensions improve aviation facilities and to capacity; compelled write an article • Freeway management projects around the metoffering his own views on ropolitan areas of Johannesburg/Pretoria, Cape Town transportation’s impacts and Durban; and • Upgrades and improvement to commuter onm and solutions for, rail and long-distance freight rail services. There is a climate new dynamic change driving force in transport working towards a more balanced transport system. The key concepts are promoting the long-neglected public transport component, improving transport infrastructure, achieving integration between different modes and using ITS to optimise the performance of the system. This ORT to be good

SANRAL with its partners and professional support teams are set to launch a mega project to upgrade and/ or construct approximately 500 km of road to provide a safe and reliable strategic road network and optimise the movement of freight and road-based transport. The project, known as the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) is a partnership with the metro authorities in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and the Provincial Government of Gauteng. The new road network of the GFIP will be tolled utilising an Open Road Tolling (ORT) method with electronic and automated methods of collecting toll fees. It is envisaged that the ORT will commence in the last quarter of 2010. The GFIP will require the turnkey supply, operations and maintenance of ORT road side equipment and back office infrastructure, including electronic systems, for the continuous processing and management of the toll transactions, point of presence customer service, and the operations facilities. It is estimated that approximately three million tags in total will be in circulation by that time.

Getting its houses in order

Prospects for economic growth and optimism in the future of South Africa as evidenced in the growth in the number of vehicles have necessitated a radical expansion and upgrade of the road network. The way in which the SA National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) has embraced this challenge and is incorporating ITS will contribute to a much improved transport system. This is one of several mega-billion Euro project investments in strategic transport infrastructure. Other projects are: • Gautrain Rapid Rail Link between Johannesburg and Pretoria and between Sandton and the OR Tambo www.h3bmedia.com

Simultaneous to the introduction of the ORT scheme for the GFIP, SANRAL intends to procure a national Central Clearing House (CCH). This will consist of both a Transaction Clearing House (TCH) and a Violations Processing Centre (VPC). The purpose of the CCH is to facilitate a central account management and transaction clearing service to all South African subscribers such as the new ORT operator, the Toll Concessionaires of which there are currently three in operation, and other SANRAL appointed toll project operators. SANRAL intends at this early stage that both the ORT scheme specifically be awarded to a Principal or Contractor who would appropriately manage and be responsible for the project (in terms of delivery, operations and performance management), but that the various specialist works packages within each project are made accessible, within the structure, to various and applicaThinking Highways Vol 3 No 12

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ble specialists within their fields of expertise. The ORT scheme’s Main Contractor will be responsible for the provision, integration and maintenance of all tolling and back office systems, including those of the Transaction Clearing House and the Violations Processing Centre. SANRAL wishes to also retain a degree of flexibility in terms of downstream scheme operations packaging, and may therefore also consider, if appropriate, that the Central Clearing and Violations Processing Centre operations functions do not specifically get packaged within a CCH entity, but rather within the ORT scheme. To this end, the prequalification process has been specifically structured to retain this flexibility, by including these functions as specific sub-packages. See figure 1 for an anticipated national ETC interoperability functional relationship schematic

The prequalification process

The prequalification process has been structured as follows: Applications from experienced applicants (companies, joint ventures, consortiums or partnerships) will be evaluated in terms of their meeting the specific prequalification requirements for one or more of the following Packages: Package 1: The turnkey supply and maintenance of the ORT Roadside Equipment (ORT RSE); Package 2: The turnkey supply and maintenance of the ORT Back Office (ORT BO); Package 3: The turnkey supply and maintenance of the national Transaction Clearing House Back Office (TCH BO); Package 4: The turnkey supply and maintenance of the national Violations Processing Centre Back Office (VPC BO); Package 5: The point of presence customer relationship and Toll Operations for the scheme; Package 6: The maintenance of ORT facilities;

Package 7: The VPC operations (optional to the SANRAL); Package 8: The TCH operations (optional to the SANRAL); and Package 9: The complete management and integration of above-mentioned Packages 1 to 8 as a single point potential Main Contractor to assume all subcontracting, where required and applicable, and all associated risks.

“The ORT scheme’s Main Contractor will be responsible for the provision, integration and maintenance of all tolling and back office system”

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Intended procurement process

SANRAL’s intention is to follow a procurement process that includes five primary steps: Step 1: The SANRAL will issue prequalification documentation to the open market, and receive applications from prospective Applicants; Step 2: The SANRAL will distribute a list of all Persons www.h3bmedia.com

PRODUCTS I SYSTEMS I SERVICES I SOLUTIONS FOR ROAD SAFETY & TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

Intertraffic Amsterdam, stands 04.302/04.303

MOVING THE GREEN WAY A sound environmental approach has always been an important motivation for SWARCO and its business activities. Our sustainable solutions show themselves in many ways and are clear expressions of our commitment to reduce CO2 emissions and greenhouse gases. Intelligent traffic management – Our adaptive traffic control systems reduce congestion, harmonise traffic flows and thus reduce vehicle-related emissions. Energy-saving signalling technology – 90% power consumption savings with our LED traffic lights and VMS are a clear signal to minimise emissions and costs for municipalities at the same time. Optimised production processes – Our research and development to improve production technology and processes reduce energy requirements and related emissions.

Glass recycling – We recycle uncontaminated flat glass into highly reflective glass beads which are then added to road marking systems in order to make our roads more visible and safer. Fuel cell-based clean energy concepts – Developing hydrogenbased fuel cell technology for auxiliary power units and uninterruptible power supplies in traffic applications is a breakthrough achievement that underscores our future-oriented and dynamic approach to ecological thinking. Whenever you make the choice for SWARCO road safety and traffic management solutions, you choose to move the green way together with us. www.swarco.com

MANY ATTEMPTS AT MULTIFUNCTIONALITY HAVE FAILED TEMPOCAM is the only radar traffic monitoring system in the world that provides you with all three important fields of application in one and the same system: • Mobile from a tripod • Installed in the motor vehicle • Permanent (pole-mounted system, cabinet system) Furthermore, operation is unbelievably simple and intuitive and the sturdy design is just what you would expect from a system that has been “made in Germany”. For the real art of the engineer lies in thinking as simply as possible. In this way technology is made more reliable, easier to handle and has a greater variety of uses.

FROM A TRIPOD

INSTALLATION IN MOTOR VEHICLE

m ha 2 g n mi and 1 r i 7 B St 00 ll 4, 2 x Ha ffe

PERMANENT INSTALLATION

OPTIONAL INTEGRABLE LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION

Tra

RADARLUX Radar Systems GmbH

RADARLUX Roettgerweg 10Radar Systems GmbH D-513711 Leverkusen 48 Bürgerbuschweg Germany Leverkusen D-51381 Phone +49 (0) 21 71 - 90 93 - 0 Phone (+49) 214 206 494 - 0 Fax (0) 214 21 71 - 90 - 100 Fax +49 (+49) 206 49493 - 100 [email protected] [email protected] www.radarlux.com www.radarlux.com

South Africa

Figure 1: anticipated national ETC interoperability functional relationship schematic

(potential Applicants) who draw Prequalification Documents (PQD) for the Project to all other Persons who draw the same; Step 3: The SANRAL will evaluate all applications, and compile a list of Pre-Qualified Applicants for Packages 1 to 9; Step 4: The SANRAL will submit the aforementioned list to all Pre-Qualified Applicants; and Step 5: The SANRAL intends to enter into one single tender process at that time when the documentation for the purpose of Tenders is available. Pre-Qualified Main Applicants will be required to, at their sole decision and risk, select and set-up competent tender groupings and agreements with their preferred Pre-Qualified SubApplicants (where applicable) in order to prepare and submit Tenders.

Prequalification documentation

The Prequalification Documentation (PQD) will consist of: Volume 1: Prequalification Framework, Instructions and Project Information; Volume 2: Scope and Evaluation Criteria to assume the role as potential Main Contractor, including systems integration, in respect of Package 9; Volume 3: Scope and Evaluation Criteria for systems supply and maintenance, in respect of Package 1 (RSE), Package 2 (RSE BO), Package 3 (TCH BO) and Package 4 www.h3bmedia.com

(VPC BO); and Volume 4: Scope and Evaluation Criteria for operations and maintenance, in respect of Package 5 (Point of presence customer relationship management), Package 6 (ORT facilities maintenance), Package 7 (Violations processing – optional to the SANRAL) and Package 8 (Transaction clearing – optional to the SANRAL).

Relevant scheme information and statistics

The following broad-brush information is applicable to the intended phase 1, and provides insight to magnitude of the scheme: Anticipated Traffic Data: • Approximately 2,400,000 gantry passages per day. Anticipated Toll Revenue: • Rev per Year: €240,000,000; • Revenue per Day: €650,000. Scheme Operating Configuration: • Central Ops Centre: 1; • Route-based Customer Service Centres; • Toll Gantry points: 41. For more information visit the SANRAL website at www.nra.co.za. Paul Vorster can be contacted via email at [email protected] Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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The Thinker

Stunted growth Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

A mature performance 18

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www.h3bmedia.com

Climate Change The Thinker When DAVID SCHONBRUNN read the April/May issue of Thinking Highways he felt compelled to write an article offering his own views on transportation’s impacts onm and solutions for, climate change

When is performance good enough? What is Organizational Maturity? Does PHIL TARNOFF have the answers? Naturally enough, yes... www.h3bmedia.com

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The Thinker Today’s transportation agencies face a dilemma. If they were to accept the impossibility of satisfying 100 per cent of their customers and elected officials, how do they determine when increasing investments in improved services have reached the point of diminishing returns? In other words, when is an agency’s performance good enough? Perhaps the answer to “good enough” lies not with the performance evaluation using measures such as incident clearance times and percent of construction completed within budget, but rather an assessment of the agency’s ability to ensure that its processes are predictable, repeatable, and continuously analyzed for possible improvements. If an agency’s culture is built around these three characteristics (predictability, repeatability and continuous improvement) the question of “good enough” never has to be answered, since the agency will be continuously evaluating and improving as an ongoing activity that is integrated into its business processes.

Perfectly capable

The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) described below might be new to the transportation community, but it has been accepted by many other disciplines. It began with the information technology (IT) community where it has been successfully applied to numerous processes and applications. The CMM process is not another quality management tool such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and ISO9000, but rather an approach to identifying and correcting organizational deficiencies in a manner that provides the assurance of predictability, repeatability and continuous improvement for the organization to which it is being applied. Upon examination of this process, it should be clear that it is readily adaptable to the transportation community. As described here, this adaptation emphasizes transportation operations, and for this reason, it has been designated the Operations Capability Model, or OCM.

The Capability Maturity Model

Predictable and repeatable processes within an organization are the key to effective, “surprise and error free” operation. Achieving predictability and repeatability requires documentation, training and performance measurement, which are also the tools required for continuous improvement of the processes they support. “Organizations that want their processes to be predictable and repeatable, must evolve “through a series of stages of maturity from informal (at the lower end of the scale) to highly routinized and with continuous improvement embedded at the higher end. As each process develops in this way, its capability will improve.” 1 To prevent the representation of maturity from becoming too complicated, the various dimensions of maturity have been integrated into the four stages shown in Table 1. 2 The formal process by which an organization’s maturity is judged includes consideration of people, process, technology and measurement. Definitions exist for

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each of these categories at each level of maturity, as shown in Table 2. Any organization can be categorized into one of these stages, using the rule that its maturity level is the lowest common denominator of the characteristics of that level. While this table has obviously been developed for individual projects rather than a continuous process such as transportation system management and operations, the relationship between the two is evident. In essence, level 2 (which is the most critical level) requires that all processes be documented, that personnel be trained in their use, and that performance measurement be used to evaluate their outcomes. The results of CMM application are impressive. Although it is not possible to define results for of incident management, performance results from other specialities generally showed improvement in all areas as shown in Table 3 overleaf. These results were obtained from a mix of 30 private and public sector organizations. Perhaps equally important, the variation (standard deviation) of these results decreased with increasing maturity levels. In other words, there were fewer surprises.

A measure of success

Because of these successes, evaluation of organizational maturity is currently in widespread use for measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization. It was first introduced by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie Mellon University under contract with the US Department of Defense for the purpose of improving the success rate (in terms of budget, schedule and functionality) of DoD funded software developments. Subsequently, the SEI has expanded the CMM concept to include: • Managing, measuring, and monitoring development processes • Service delivery within organizations and to external customers • Acquisition Leadership The Project Management Institute (PMI) has adopted organizational maturity as a concept known as OPM3, for assessing and improving the performance of an organization’s project management capabilities. The OPM3 model and the British Office of Government Commerce’s Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM) have been adapted to a number of different disciplines in both the public and private sectors

What does this have to do with transport?

The assessment of public agency performance is always a difficult task. The private sector “has it easy”, in that their performance can be readily judged by their bottom line profitability. Profitability in the private sector is a surrogate for customer satisfaction, product pricing policies, marketing effectiveness, and many less tangible measures. Transportation agency performance is relatively difficult to assess, and until now has relied on such things as: www.h3bmedia.com

The Thinker

Table 2. The Relationship Between Organizational Characteristics and Maturity Level 4 Level 1 Performed

Level 2 Managed

Level 3 Established

Level 4 Predictable

People

Success depends on individual heroics. “Fire fighting is a way of life.” Relationships between disciplines are not coordinated, perhaps even adversarial.

Success depends on individuals and management system supports. Commitments are understood and managed. People are trained.

Project groups work together, perhaps as an integrated product team. Training is planned and provided according to roles.

A strong sense of teamwork exists within each project. Everyone is involved in process improvement

Process

Few stable processes exist or are used.

Documented and stable estimating, planning, and commitment processes are at the project level.

Integrated management and engineering processes are used across the organization.

Technology

Technology supports The introduction of new technology is risky. established, stable activities.

Processes are quantitatively understood and stabilized. Improvements are identified and implemented. New technologies are evaluated on a quantitative basis.

Measurement

Data collection and analysis are ad hoc.

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Planning and management data is used by individual projects.

New technologies are evaluated on a qualitative basis. Data is collected and used in all defined processes. Data is systematically shared across projects.

Data definition and collection are standardized across the organization. Data is used to understand the process qualitatively and stabilize it.

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The Thinker • Customer satisfaction surveys • Performance measures such as delays in construction zones, incident clearance times, number of construction projects awarded, number of projects completed on time, miles of pavement constructed, etc. • Correspondence (complimentary and otherwise) received as a result of the agency’s activities. Service patrols often use thank you letters as a measure of the value of their service.

The letter of the law

These techniques suffer from a common deficiency; the absence of a benchmark that can be used to determine whether a given level of customer satisfaction or a given performance measurement is good or bad. If a service patrol driver receives three complementary letters a month, is he doing a good job, or is he ignoring more serious incidents in order to please stranded motorists who will send complementary letters? The absence of benchmarks does not reflect an agency shortcoming, but rather differences between jurisdictions that prevent reliable comparisons. The absence of a benchmark prevents agencies from justifying their performance to the outside world, and also prevents effective staff management. How can an employee be rewarded for doing a good job if it is impossible to define a good job? This dilemma can be resolved by recognizing that the search for the definition of a good job is fruitless. Performance assessment should evaluate whether this year’s performance is an improvement over the previous year. In other words, is a process of continuous improvement in place? It goes without saying that continuous improvement is not possible unless all process are thoroughly defined and measured, and all personnel have a thorough understanding of both the processes and the criteria by which they are being judged (performance measurement). These ingredients are the basis of both the CMM and OCM processes.

A practical example

The benefits of OCM can best be appreciated through a practical example. Suppose that an agency wants to assess the effectiveness of its incident management program. This would be accomplished through the development of a baseline matrix dealing specifically with incident management, such as the one shown in Table 4. This matrix utilizes the same format as the more generalized matrix of Table 2, except that the cells have been replaced by characteristics specific to incident management. In actual practice, the matrix of Table 4 would represent the consensus of all the incident management stakeholders (transportation, fire, police, EMS, coroner, towing, etc.). Once the table has been created, and using the rule that an organization’s level is defined by the level of the weakest characteristic, it is then used as the basis for determining the agency’s OCM level. For example, if the agency uses advanced technology to support its incident management process, yet has not

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Table 3. Capability Maturity Model Impacts for Systems Integration 5 Performance Category Improvement

Median

Cost Schedule Productivity Quality Customer Satisfaction Benefit Cost Ratio

34% 50% 61% 48% 14% 4:1

developed a comprehensive set of documentation to define the manner in which responses to all incidents are to be handled, it is a level 1 organization – even though its technology may be at level 3 or 4.

Rules of engagement

Based on the assessment, the stakeholders then jointly agree on an action plan to move from the existing level, to the next higher level. Another rule of the process is that it is not possible to skip levels. Assuming as before, that the documentation is at level 1, and assuming that the stakeholders have agreed on the desirability of moving to level 2, the next step would be to devise a plan for developing the missing documentation for all types of incidents that might be encountered. The preparation of documentation would then be followed by training, to ensure that all members of the incident response process fully understand its contents and intent. It would also be necessary to institute a measurement process by which the degree to which the documentation is being followed is evaluated. At that point, the organization would be able to claim that it is performing at level 2. A final rule of the OCM process is that an organization must remain at a given level for at least a year prior to aspiring to achieve a higher level. During the year, performance is continuously measured, and adjustments made to the process so that level 2 operation is solidified. At the end of the year, the cycle of moving to the next level is repeated.

Final thoughts

It should be obvious from this brief description that OCM can produce results that are repeatable, and adaptable to a wide variety of situations. In other words reliance on key individuals and unpleasant surprises will be minimized. It should also be clear that the process can be used to establish both near term and short term performance goals, since a short term goal can be defined as moving to the next OCM level. The long term goal can be defined as moving to the highest OCM level. The key to the success of OCM is the involvement of all stakeholders in the process. This powerful process should be considered for use as a management tool that can be applied to the operations activities of today’s transportation agencies. TH www.h3bmedia.com

The Thinker

Table 4. Definition of Incident Management Maturity Levels Level 1 Performed

Level 2 Managed

Level 3 Established

Level 4 Predictable

People

Fire fighting. Uncoordinated ad hoc incident response based on personal experience

Responders are trained. All participants understand the organization’s expectations as expressed through defined performance measures

Responders work as integrated teams, even though they are employed by different organizations

Strong sense of teamwork, in which everyone works to optimize their performance.

Process

Processes are undefined, and as a result, the manner in which an incident is managed depends on the personnel involved.

All incident processes are fully documented. Processes are stable and predictable

Incident response is integrated with other organizational processes, such as emergency management, commercial vehicle operations, and traffic signal timing

Processes are continuously reviewed and systematically improved

Technology

The introduction of new technology is risky since responders will not necessarily use it consistently or appropriately.

Technology is integrated into the incident response process. For example, traffic detector outputs used to support the diversion process.

New technologies are continuously evaluated qualitatively in terms of their ability to enhance the incident management process.

New technologies are evaluated quantitatively using techniques such as simulation to be able to define their costs and benefits prior to their introduction into the incident response process

Measurement

Ad hoc data collection unrelated to the overall objectives of the process.

Performance measured selectively. For example, performance measurement might be restricted to incident clearance times, but ignore other key measures.

Performance is systematically measured for all processes including incident clearance time, accuracy of sign messages, and the effectiveness of diversions.

Data is analyzed through after action reports to identify ways in which the incident response process might be improved.

References

1 “Innovations – Project Management Research 2004, Chapter 13 Measurement of Organizational Maturity”, by Terrence J. Cooke-Davies, http://www.humansystems. net/papers/measuring_organizational_maturity.pdf

www2.slac.stanford.edu/comp/winnt/system-administration/ Organizational%20Maturity%20Levels.doc

2 The CMM model actually contains five stages. This has been reduced to four stages for the transportation community, based on experience with the application of the model to agency processes.

5 “Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Version 1.2 Overview”, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, pg. 27, http://www.sei.cmu. edu/cmmi/adoption/pdf/cmmi-overview07.pdf/

3 From ‘Microsoft Readiness Framework Organizational Readiness”White Paper, website: www.h3bmedia.com

4 Ibid.

Phil Tarnoff can be contacted via email at [email protected] Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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Cover Story

Too HOT to handle? Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

They’ve been dubbed ‘Lexus Lanes’ and one UK newspaper was highly critical, calling them “another potty idea” by a Government wanting to “hammer motorists”. ‘Premium’ lanes are the latest proposal from ministers who are keen to solve the congestion problem without being too controversial. After problems with the popularity of national road pricing, the UK government appears to be trying a different tact by importing a tried and trusted idea from America. There High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes have been in use for many years, but now planners have combined sharing lanes and tolled lanes to create the High Occupancy Tolled (HOT) lane. They provide a fast route for drivers sharing a car. Those that aren’t carrying passengers can still use them but they have to pay a toll instead. According to the British Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, there’s a compelling argument for the same sort of idea here. But the UK doesn’t have many HOV lanes on motorways and here the Government is instead planning to add the HOT

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concept to controversial plans for wide scale use of the hard shoulder of motorways at some of the busiest places. The US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) describes HOT lanes as having limited access, normally with barriers separating them from other highway lanes. They provide free or reduced cost access to those carrying passengers and also provide access to other paying vehicles not meeting passenger occupancy requirements. The FHWA says using price and occupancy restrictions to manage the number of vehicles travelling on them, HOT lanes maintain volumes consistent with uncongested levels of service even during peak travel periods. Like the plan for the UK, most American HOT lanes have been created within existing generalpurpose highway facilities and offer potential users the choice of using general-purpose lanes or paying for premium conditions on the HOT lanes. In America HOT lanes use a sophisticated electronic toll collection system. Coupled with traffic information data the tolls can be varied according to the state of www.h3bmedia.com

Climate Change Cover Story When DAVID SCHONBRUNN read the April/May issue of Thinking Highways he felt compelled to write an article offering his own views on transportation’s impacts onm and solutions for, climate change

The UK Government wants to steal an idea from the US where drivers are allowed to use ‘premium’ lanes to avoid congestion. If they’re sharing a car they’ll be able to use them for free and if not they pay a toll. The idea’s being seen as a way of making road pricing more acceptable. PETER PLISNER has been investigating www.h3bmedia.com

Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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Cover Story congestion in the area. Information on price levels and travel conditions is communicated to drivers via variable message signs (VMS). The information provides potential users with all the facts they need to make the decision whether or not to use the HOT lanes or stay in the parallel general-purpose lanes that may be congested during peak periods. The FHWA maintains that HOT lanes can be created through new capacity construction or conversion of existing lanes. Conversion of existing HOV lanes to HOT operation is the most common approach.

Your starter for $64,000...

The big question is will what works in the US necessarily work in the UK? Ministers have struggled to get the concept of road pricing accepted by the public and have effectively put any proposals for national road pricing on the back burner. However, buoyed by the success of a trial of Active Traffic Management (ATM) on a short section of motorway near Birmingham, ministers now appear to have grand designs. ATM combines several well-established techniques for controlling traffic including ramp metering and reduced mandatory speed limits when traffic builds up. More controversially it also includes the ability to allow drivers to use the hard shoulder of the motorway, again at the busiest times. Last September Ruth Kelly announced a small scale expansion of the scheme in other places around Birmingham, which forms the crossroads of the motorway network. At the same time Kelly ordered a major feasibility study into other applications of the same technology. In the past launching studies has often been a way of delaying a decision, but with ATM it appears to have been the catalyst for a rather rapid expansion and further development of the concept. The study called “Advanced Motorway Signalling and Traffic Management Feasibility Study” was published in March. Researchers looked closely at the whole concept of what’s being termed ‘managed motorways’ and the performance of the Birmingham ATM trial. They also assessed further opportunities for better information and traffic management on UK motorways. The report talked of use of the hard shoulder as a dedicated, or shared-use, bus or HGV lane which it said “could bring benefits by reducing delays caused by slow moving vehicles”. It also looked at lanes reserved for high occupancy vehicles, something that previously had not been seen on UK motorways. HOV lanes, the report maintained “could have potential to provide significant benefits in terms of the number of people moving along a congested corridor”.

the HOV concept in the has shown varying degrees of success. One of the best US examples is in Texas where HOV lanes carry up to 40 per cent of all people in a corridor during peak periods saving between two and 18 minutes of travel time in the morning rush hour. Figures from the US quote a cost benefit ratio ranging from 6:1 to 48:1, demonstrating a cost effectiveness that, according to the report, is greater than if two additional general purpose lanes had been added. Over the last few years many states in North America have opted to convert their HOV lanes into HOT lanes. Guidance from the Federal Highway Authority suggests the conversion has three main advantages. First, it allows real-time monitoring of the prevailing traffic conditions and ability to alter the toll charged to single occupancy vehicles (SOVs) minute by minute, allowing greater control of the use of the lane. Secondly, charging SOVs to use the HOV lanes generates revenue that can be used to pay for transportation improvements. Third, that it improves the efficiency of HOV facilities, which have experienced a decline in use in 90 per cent of the largest metropolitan areas over the past few years.

Perceived value for actual money

Meanwhile, according to information from the FHWA, HOT lanes have the potential to afford a variety of benefits to both motorists and transit users. It’s website states that, “while no strategy can be expected to substantially eliminate congestion, HOT lanes provide an important management tool with the potential to improve travel conditions for a meaningful segment of the driving public”. These include improvements in trip time reliability, travel time savings, reduced vehicle hours travelled, enhanced corridor mobility, environmental advantages and utilisation of excess capacity. The FHWA also suggests that as a result of HOV to HOT conversion there’s been renewed interest in managed lanes and the concept of what it terms “value pricing” and that it’s also provided a remedy for under-performing HOV lanes, something that’s always been an issue with drivers who are forced suffer life in congested lanes, while traffic in neighbouring HOV lanes is often minimal. For the UK Government its HOT approach could provide a win-win situation. The cost of widening a motorway has risen dramatically over the last few years. Increasing construction prices mean that it now costs between £18m and £25m (€22-30m) per kilometre to add an extra lane. Compare that with ATM, which is quoted as costing less than £6m and it’s not difficult to work out why ministers are so keen on the idea. Funds for transport projects, including new roads, are always limited and if there are alternatives that could deliver similar benefits then any government would be mad not to consider it.

“Funds for transport projects are limited. Alternatives that could deliver similar benefits should be considered”

Peak practice

According to the Highways Agency, the government body responsible for delivering better roads in the UK,

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www.h3bmedia.com

Thanks a billion

The Highways Agency has said that it could ultimately save more than £1 billion by abandoning plans to widen parts of the M1, M6 and M62 motorways. The recent report into Active Traffic Management concludes that in the “medium term” most of the benefits of planned motorway widening could be achieved through hard shoulder running at significantly lower cost. Hardly surprising then the just six months after approving limited expansion of the hard shoulder concept the same minister is now proposing a much larger expansion programme taking in motorways all over the country. What’s more the concept looks set replace widening schemes, which have been on the cards for many years, but for one reason or another have never quite made it off the drawing board.

HOT topic

Ultimately, it’ll be up to motorists to decide whether they want to pay for the privilege of using the premium lanes. But Transport Secretary Kelly, doesn’t doubt that they’ll www.h3bmedia.com

be a success. Speaking earlier this year she said “If your journey is absolutely essential, such as when catching a flight or attending a funeral or important business meeting, you will know you are going to get there on time without having to allow an extra half hour in case of gridlock.” The HOT concept appears to provide a decent half way house between blanket road pricing and not charging at all. It’ll give those who want to pay extra the ability to get something in return. Those who don’t can carry on as normal or perhaps even find someone to share their car, helping the environment at the same time. For the Government the latest proposals should help move, what ministers have described as a ‘stale debate’ on road pricing forward, onto a less hysterical footing. And judging by the reception so far from the UK media it seems to be doing just that. TH Peter Plisner is the BBC’s Midlands Transport Correspondent. He can be contacted via email at [email protected] Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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The Thought Process

Hermann Meyer 44, CEO, ERTICO-ITS Europe Cooperative mobility is the key for the transport of the future. In addition to its research and development activities, and current initiatives for awareness-building, ERTICO is also taking steps towards deployment by raising cooperative mobility as a policy concern for governments and administrations across Europe. In February I presented our cooperative mobility vision to the European Parliament’s Transport Committee in a hearing on the Urban Mobility Green Paper and ERTICO is currently developing critical future actions to support the deployment of priority ITS services within the next five years in the framework of its recently launched Partner Topic Groups. ERTICO – ITS Europe strives for a European transport network in which roads, vehicles and users can communicate with one another; in which commuting is more secure, reliable and comfortable; in which businesses know where shipments are and what condition they are in and in which drivers are automatically directed to available parking spaces in urban areas. A cooperative mobility system is the ultimate goal, where the traveler has easy access to all relevant

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information for his/her mobility needs. Thanks to a mix of new communication and information technologies, cooperative mobility systems enable vehicles to interact locally and directly with traffic control equipment, collect and share real-time data, as well as provide increased traveler support and integrated network management. Cooperative mobility is beneficial for citizens and businesses alike.Individual travel will become quicker, safer and cleaner with the help of real-time information systems. In the business world, instant information on the real condition of the transport network helps logistics service providers to adapt the itinerary of delivery trips. As a result, they save costs and improve service quality, which is in turn beneficial for the client. Also in February of this year ERTICO – ITS Europe launched its new Partner Topic Groups, with the aim to accelerate the development and deployment of ITS by defining concrete future actions in the following areas: Mobility of People, Goods Transport, Security and the Environment. This is a very important initiative for us, and for me personally. The objecwww.h3bmedia.com

The Thought Process

tives of the PTGs are to process to move from broad strategic guidelines to detailed objectives and roadmaps, to form an ERTICO consensus view, to create opportunities for activities; to develop project ideas and consortia; to provide information about developments in various programs and to develop contacts to and with business and user communities. Each group will be led by a Partner Convener (nominated by Strategy Committee & approved by Supervisory Board) and an ERTICO Coordinator. I spent 12 years at Volkswagen, working in quite diverse areas such as environmental policy (I trained as an environmental economist), research, external relations and government relations and I was also head of technology and services. In 2000 I was seconded as acting director of environmental policy to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. Whether this experience has stood me in good stead for my new role at ERTICO remains to be seen! One thing that I have brought with me is the desire for research and development to more focused on deployment. R&D for R&D’s sake will get us nowhere. The ITS Action Plan is crucial to this happening. ERTICO advocates rapid deployment of ITS solutions. It is time to move beyond R&D projects, and move forward on the deployment of a wide range of accessible ITS services that deliver value for all stakeholders. The vision of a fully-deployed cooperative mobility system is not beyond our reach provided we all work together. The goal, surely, is optimised travelling by the informed traveller. They can travel safely and securely, efficiently and intelligently and the technology to make this a reality already exists. This is what we mean by cooperative mobility. The Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems (CVIS) integrated project is designing, developing and testing the technologies that will allow vehicles to communicate with each other and cooperate directly with roadside infrastructure. www.h3bmedia.com

The closely related SAFESPOT integrated project is studying how intelligent vehicles and intelligent roads can cooperate to produce a breakthrough for road safety. The aim is to prevent road accidents by giving drivers a “Safety Margin Assistant” that detects in advance potentially dangerous situations and extends, in space and time, drivers´ awareness of the surrounding environment. The message from ERTICO is clear: the deployment of cooperative mobility systems can only take off if plans and activities are harmonised and if the relevant stakeholders work together to raise awareness of the enormous benefits cooperative mobility can bring. To this end, ERTICO is planning a cooperative mobility showcase event in 2010 based on the EU-supported R&D projects CVIS, SAFESPOT and COOPERS, on national R&D programmes such as AKTIV, SIM-TD, IVSS and PREDIT, as well as the Car-to-Car Communication Consortium. The event will feature demonstrations of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications technologies and their applications to create innovative cooperative services for the urban, interurban, commercial and public transport domains. This event will bring together the major current initiatives on cooperative mobility and all the stakeholders worldwide will be invited to participate. Let us show what is possible, let us discuss what is useful! I see one of my roles as being a diplomat for the ITS industry. I am an honest broker and treat everyone as equal, or more accurately I treat people as I wish to be treated by them. I hope I can bring some elements of my character to the role but I won’t be in a position to judge whether or not I have done this successfully. What mark do I want to leave? I won’t answer that - I’ve only just started. TH To find out more about the intiatives and projects mentioned above, please visit www.ertico.com [email protected] Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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Automated Transport Systems Driverless vehicles are no longer confined to scenes from science fiction films; they are becoming a reality on our roads today. More and more transport authorities are taking an interest in automated passenger transport in a bid to tackle today’s car-dominated culture. Many of these authorities are members of the Reference Group of CityMobil, a project co-funded by the EU through the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. CityMobil is the latest in a series of European and national projects that have developed, tested and implemented automated transport technologies and systems. While CityMobil builds on the outcome of these projects, it is quite unique in that it is concerned with deployment; more specifically, identifying and addressing the issues that prevent full scale implementation of automated systems and developing the tools that can assist deployment. It is widely acknowledged that a combination of landuse policies and a shift from the private car to a multimodal approach is required to address the mobility problems facing our cities today. The multi-modal approach recognises the need for both high-capacity, scheduled mass transport (bus, train and metro) and individual on-demand short distance transport. Often, the car is used for these short distance trips but it is the leastThinking efficient in terms Highways’ of space, energy andfinancial safety, espeanalyst MARGARET cially in the densest parts of the city. Advanced translooks at the European portPETTIT systems based on automated technology can offer Territorial a solution in these circumstances. They are clean, quiet Cooperation Programme and finds that like with and more importantly reproduce the feel of the private any other major programme, it’s a matter of car as they are small vehicles offering an on-demand and priorities door-to-door service.

Why the need for automation?

Firstly and most importantly, for a passenger transport system to effectively replace the private car, it needs to be available on demand and provide a door-to-door service. This means that there must be a sufficient number of vehicles on the network to meet user needs. Operating such a fleet of vehicles with drivers would be far too expensive. Secondly, the automation of driving tasks is already happening. Simple driver assistance systems are becoming standard features of new private vehicles and more sophisticated applications (parking assistance, collision avoidance, etc) are nearing market deployment. In the passenger transport sector, driverless metros and shuttle services at airports (connecting terminals for instance) have been operating for many years already.

What do automated vehicles look like?

Broadly speaking, automated transport systems can be broken down into five main concepts, each offering either full automation or a combination of automatic and manual driving. Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) and Cybercars are fully automatic vehicles running on segregated guideways and delivering an on-demand, stop-to-stop service. PRT runs on dedicated infrastructure only (i.e.

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not mixing with other road users) and tend to be small cab-like vehicles providing a personal (as opposed to collective) service for individuals or small groups, such as families. Cybercars can, in theory, operate alongside other vehicles on the road and provide a door-to-door service, but this is not currently possible due to rules requiring all vehicles on public roads to be under the control of a driver. Cybercars can range in size, from small vehicles to higher capacity collective transport vehicles carrying 20 people. Advanced city vehicles (ACV) have advanced driver assistance systems, such as intelligent speed adaptation, parking assistance, collision avoidance etc. to improve safety for occupants and pedestrians. They are electric vehicles, so they are also quiet and do not emit www.h3bmedia.com

ClimateSystems Change Automated Transport

Fast track to the future When DAVID SCHONBRUNN read the April/May issue of Thinking Highways he felt compelled to write an article offering his own views on transportation’s impacts onm and solutions for, climate change

Automated transport systems - essentially driverless vehicles - are often seen as the “public face” of ITS, rightly or wrongly. But what are they? What can they do? And who is using them? SUZANNE HOADLEY investigates the progress of CityMobil CityMobil Testimonial No 1 Daventry District Council, UK

polluting emissions. ACV deployment is more suited to city centre areas (where private car access may be limited) on a car-sharing basis. Dual-mode vehicles are advanced ACVs fitted with cruise control and lane keeping, and are able to support both fully automatic and manual driving. The first application of automatic driving is expected to be for the relocation of shared cars using platooning techniques. In this way many vehicles can be collected up in a platoon at the end of a day and be re-located for the next day by a single driver in a leading vehicle. Finally, high-tech buses are essentially guided buses with additional automated features for driver assistance. They can run automatically on guideways and offer precise docking but require a driver when on a www.h3bmedia.com

The wheels are now in motion for Daventry to have its own pilot Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system following the success of the Daventry Transport Conference and CityMobil showcase. Thanks to CityMobil’s assistance in organising the event, the eyes of the world were focused on Daventry, and it captured the imagination of the whole community, including local schools which were directly involved. Procurement is now underway for our pilot project and we are looking forward to developing our links with CityMobil and remaining at the cutting edge of this developing technology to show how it can work in towns and cities across the world. Simon Bowers Corporate Manager for Development and Property, Daventry District Council

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Automated Transport Systems

Castellón’s TVRCas automated transport system crosses the Rio Seco via this new bridge

road with other vehicles. Depending on its design, an automated system has the potential to accomplish virtually any transport task, from a small-scale to a city-wide system. However, the most promising applications initially are as shuttle services (P&R, business park, airport, event venue) and feeder services to highspeed, high-capacity public transport nodes, within a 2-4 km range at a time and location where transport demand is too low for regular modes, in smaller towns and outside rush hour for instance.

tle service) and in the Spanish town of Castellón (High-tech bus) – all three sites are major demonstrations of CityMobil. The Heathrow PRT system will link the car park to the new Terminal 5 in a first phase (due to open to the public in late 2009) but all being well, is planned to be rolled out to the other car parks and terminals thereafter. When launched, the Heathrow PRT will be the first PRT system of its kind in the world and therefore the stakes are high for the future deployment of PRT. While Heathrow and the Rome exhibition centre can hardly be considered urban environments, much can be learned from the systems that will operate there and more importantly, their successful deployment could act as a trigger. The expanding CityMobil Reference Group is further testimony to the increasing interest among public authorities in automated transport systems. The Group now has 35 members, representing city authorities, small and large, within Europe. These authorities are all interested in innovative transport systems based on

“Possibly the biggest challenge is actually getting the systems out there and up and How far has deployment come? running” In Europe today, there are a number of applications of Cybercar technology in the Netherlands (Capelle) and France (Bitche and Clermont) and the Advanced City Vehicle is in operation in Antibes (France). Current deployment may look rather limited but it is gaining momentum. New systems are currently under construction at Heathrow (PRT), the Rome exhibition centre (Cybercar shut-

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Automated Transport Systems automated technology but are at different stages of deliberation: some have undergone scoping studies and have already secured political commitment to deploy such a system (but not necessarily the funding) whereas others are at the stage of wanting to investigate whether this approach is the right one to address their particular mobility problem. CityMobil is supporting all of them by providing a forum for discussion, the expertise of its partners, and for some members, the opportunity to ‘test’ the concepts on the general public. Five member cities of the Reference Group have been selected to hold a showcase of either Cybercars or Advanced City Vehicles. Additionally, one city will run a small-scale demonstration and a further two will be the subject of studies. The Northamptonshire town of Daventry (United Kingdom) held two weeks of awareness-raising activities in the Autumn of 2007, which saw a number of Cybercars put to service on a 400 metre track for members of the public to experience how an automated transportation system works and what it might look like in their town. Daventry district council intends to implement a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system with the aim of reducing the number of car-based trips in/through the town centre and increasing the public transport modal share, which is currently very low. The next showcases will take place in Autumn this year in La Rochelle and Genoa and will both have Advanced City Vehicles equipped with some automated functions (including automatic parking, driving assistance or platooning) for the public to try out. La Rochelle is considering Advanced City Vehicles for the extension of its car-sharing service and is specifically interested in assisted driving and parking functions to tackle the narrow streets of the city centre area. Genoa is also interested in providing Advanced City Vehicles on a car-sharing basis for driving in the very narrow and hilly streets of the historic city centre.

The future for driverless passenger systems

It is clear that large-scale introduction of automated systems will not happen overnight, but the roll out of smaller systems in Europe’s cities can be expected in the coming years. There are many barriers, of both a technical and non-technical nature, that are holding up wider implementation, including type approval (certification), liability and the multitude of national legislation. CityMobil has identified these barriers and is developing tools to address them. But possibly the biggest challenge is actually getting the systems out there and up and running. The lack of practical evidence of functioning systems is a major reason for the limited take up today. The success of early schemes such as the Heathrow PRT could therefore be vital to the future of automated systems. TH For more information on the CityMobil project, visit: www.citymobil-project.eu/ or contact the project coordinator: Jan van Dijke, Senior Project Manager, TNO Science and Industry, email: [email protected] www.h3bmedia.com

TESTIMONIAL No 2 Valencia, Spain Castellón will have one of the most modern and environmentally friendly models of automated public transport in Europe The “Reserved-lane transport system of Castellón” (TVRCas) is an innovative, agile, economic and reliable automated transportation system.This new model of automated urban transport, which comprises two types of vehicles that will travel around the city, is due to start within the next weeks. One of them is a mechanical and hybrid traction vehicle that will connect the neighbourhood of Jaume I University (UJI) to the harbour of Castellón (Pinar del Grao), and the other a smaller and completely electric and autonomous system that will cover the city centre. The city mayor, Alberto Fabra, (on the left flanked by Mario Flores, Valencian regional minister for Infrastructures and Transport) stated that “Castellón is one of the leading actors in Europe having a transport model that aims at linking not only the city but also the metropolitan area as a whole. With these purposes two lines of trail have been designed.The first one goes from west to east, linking the University of Castellón line with the maritime district of Grao and which will run until the nearby town of Benicassim; a second line will connect the south of the neighbouring municipalities of Almassora,Vila-Real and Burriana.” The TVRCas arises from the CityMobil European initiative which provides solutions to the demands of urban mobility through environmentally friendly systems. Mayor Fabra has also emphasized that “the city has made a good bet on sustainable growth, which means offering the best services to citizens but always with respect for the environment and effectiveness planning.The automated transport model is based on an optical system and uses only catenaries on the farthest track from the city centre, avoiding new barriers in the most inhabited areas of the city, as well as reducing environmental and noise pollution.” The construction of Line 1, currently under execution, has a budget of more than €90m partly co-financed by the EU Sixth Framework Programme and will be around 9km in length.

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Automated Transport Systems Testimonial No 3 Heathrow Airport, UK

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I=G:: HNHI:BH ;DG 6 8DBEA:I: 8DCIGDA HI6G*%% H^c\aZ"iZX]cdad\nVWdkZ" \gdjcYigV[ÒXXdcigdahnhiZb Airports are naturally at the sharp end of technological progress. Aircraft themselves are technically enormously complex and their designers are continually developing new systems and new materials. Passengers rightly expect that the whole experience of flying should be a thoroughly modern and attractive experience, and our airports make every effort to turn the time passengers spend on the ground into an enjoyable experience in its own right. We have always been the first to adopt new technologies where they can aid the passenger and improve the experience. Travelators, transit systems and other dedicated railways, electronic booking and automated baggage handling, and a host of other advanced technologies most passengers never see. That is why at Heathrow British Airports Authority (BAA) is introducing Personal Rapid Transport - to give our customers a better service between their arrival point in the airport and check-in. Passengers will no longer have to wait for shuttle buses but will travel in their own private vehicles quickly and without delays en route. Importantly to BAA, the PRT vehicles will emit no pollutants into the airport environment, they will use less energy and overall emit far less greenhouse gases than other forms of transport, and they will be much quieter, important to the local community. Heathrow is the leader in this field. Once the system is proven with customers, we will expand it to serve not just car parks, but hotels, car hire and other airport activities, and bring the system directly into our buildings for greater customer convenience. Its ultra-modern and stylish appearance will act as an advertisement for the extensive renewal of many parts of the airport which will follow the opening of our new Terminal 5. BAA is delighted to be part of CityMobil in order to share its experience of implementing this advanced transport system. Duncan Garrood Commercial Director, BAA

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Road User Charging

So what have we learned? e w o d What ? t n a w t ’ n o d We w o n k really www.h3bmedia.com

In the second part of this occasional series on the acceptability of Road User Charging ANDREW PICKFORD shares his opinions on why some policies fail and others succeed

The political contexts that introduced congestion charging schemes in London and Stockholm were very different yet these schemes have become embedded in their respective transport policy landscapes. So, in Western Europe it can no longer be claimed that congestion charging was peculiar to a special cocktail of public transport usage, mayoral tenacity and legislation only found in London. The diversity of places that we find traditional toll collection, new HGV charging schemes, restricted access zones may in future be no different to the places where we will find Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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Road User Charging charging for road use, potentially linked to vehicle emissions to meet local clean air targets. Securing sufficient public support is not enough. In this article we look at the other prerequisites for acceptability, including the challenge of unwind previous decisions on transport policy that are no longer valid.

Sowing the seeds

tion in the UK have largely remained unabated. The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) that baselined congestion (measured as average vehicle delay on the slowest 10 per cent of journeys) in March 2005 showed that in the three years to March 2008, congestion had increased by 4.4 per cent. The worst delays were on the M1, M25 and the M60 in the context of increasing vehicle population and a growing economy. These figures do not include the introduction of Advanced Traffic Management (ATM) as one (apparently effective) tool that has general application on the nation’s interurban roads networks, potentially to be followed by the use of High Occupancy Vehicle lanes and an extended version that permits non-compliant traffic to buy-in of High Occupancy and Toll (HOT) lanes already pioneered in the US. Alongside the development of these tools, the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) initiative continues to make progress although some candidate regions have much reduced support following recent local elections. Planning for local charging schemes requires an understanding of local political and public acceptance, ideally to the level of an individual so maybe this is where support needs to be built first.

Stunted growth Photo: Andrew Pickford,TTC

It is often said that a week is a long time in politics. This probably reflects the uncertain outcome of political process rather than the pace of political activity. It is therefore no surprise that the development of Road User Charging (RUC) as an instrument of travel demand management, as a source of revenue to repay the cost of infrastructure development or as a source of seed funds for complimentary measures in the urban environment, are subject to political compromises, centred around coalitions of interest. It is still an anomaly that roads remain the only transport mode that is not directly priced at the point of use. As a valuable, scare resource it also has the honour of being one of the most visible unregulated utilities in modern economies and, as we have heard many times before, this can lead to traffic demand that is in excess of availability capacity. Unravelling historic decisions Where the resulting congestion reduces the efficiency An individual deciding where to live, work or play needs of the road network at locations that are strategic to local to absorb many hundreds of factors, simplified through and Thinking regional economies then there is an economic loss. Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET prioritising what is important. Similarly, a business lookIn the UK, the Eddington Transport study, published in PETTIT looks at European December 2006 suggested thatthe investment in local Territorial ing to better serve its markets will make decisions on demand measures, potentially including pricing, should far to that be from like key suppliers, Cooperation Programme and how finds withlocation of customers be prioritised around these strategically important and availability of key skills to offer an efficient, differany other major programme, it’s a matter of locations. entiated service or product. Local authorities will make priorities Since Eddington, the conditions that create congesland use decisions for housing and commercial use and,

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Climate Change Road User Charging When DAVID SCHONBRUNN Table 1 Attitudes towards Congestion: Final Report (extract) read the April/May issue of • 82% thought that congestion was a serious problem and 40% stated that it was a very serious problem. Thinking Highways he felt • The majority of respondents would use their car less if there were suitable alternative ways to travel . to write an • A quarter of respondents said that any congestion mitigation measurescompelled would not impact their driving behaviour and fiftharticle said it would not affect them (20%). Over half of the respondents from the on-line surveyoffering said that it would cost themown more (56%). his views on • 32 % of respondents accepted the principle of charging and 49% opposed transportation’s the principle of congestion charging. However, 67% of online impacts respondents and 49% of respondents from the roadshow opposed the principle. onm and solutions for, • 59% would support congestion charging assuming that attractive alternatives were available but 24% would oppose charging under this climate change scenario. 66% of the respondents from the road show were most likely to support congestion charging under this scenario compared with 50% of online respondents.

depending on institutional proximity, will align these decisions with provision of transport networks and modes. This is all encapsulated in legislation on tax, trade, responses climate change and on developing national competitive advantages to underpin economic growth. Adding RUC to this mix at each of these levels; the individual, the business, the local authority or the national government appears to force the re-assessment of earlier decisions made in a different political context, including the adequacy of travel demand measures to tackle congestion, the adequacy of public transport and the long-term viability of fuel duty as a link between taxation and road usage. In short, getting RUC onto the policy agenda forces some difficult decisions and potentially the reassessment of many earlier decisions, compromises and bargains reached with stakeholders. For this reason alone, RUC can be said to be a ‘good thing’ even if the only result is recognition that current taxation or demand management measures are likely to be inadequate in the long term. Individual decisions on the optimum location for businesses, based on access to customers and skills are also difficult to unravel quickly if significant changes in transportation policies are proposed whether or not charging is employed. The mental link established between charging and an improved transportation network and travel time savings for those that elect to pay, is often weak. Furthermore, as the University of the West of England points out, car ownership exerts a strong influence on car use. If an individual makes a decision on where to live and this decision depends on car ownership then the likelihood of a modal shift is lower – exemplified by the Cambridge Architectural Research Report (May 2008) on the new settlement in Cambourne, Cambridgeshire. Nevertheless, getting RUC on the political agenda early can be beneficial. For example, the legacy of the failure of New York City to build sufficient New York State Assembly support for a bid to the US DOT for Urban Partnership Funds resulted in detailed statistics on the modal choice made by commuters from outer boroughs, the importance to ensure equity for road users that already travel by public transport and raised questions on whether public authority parking space allocations are excessive. The legacy of previous attempts made in

Stockholm and The Netherlands since the early 1990s may have conditioned the political process to better understand the costs, benefits and risks of charging for road use. In the case of Stockholm, initial scepticism towards pricing changed into marginal acceptance when the nine-month pilot scheme showed visible reductions in congestion. Similarly, cities that have a well-established urban toll network such as Melbourne and Santiago may face the need to add congestion charging to the policy mix. Congestion charging is on the political agenda in Melbourne and dealing with high levels of pollution through charging is on the options list for Santiago. Securing political acceptability and public acceptability in both cities for charges that are not linked to new infrastructure would necessarily require changing embedded expectations in how charges are used.

“Getting RUC on the political agenda early can be beneficial”

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Perception and reality

Linking benefits with the costs faced by road users may be straightforward when paying a toll to cross a bridge (the cost is known and the benefit is local, direct and visible) but as ETC, etc’s November/December issue illustrated in my article ‘Leap of Faith,’ the association is less obvious when the benefit is a forecast travel time saving. The results of the Cambridgeshire County Council public consultation showed that road users’ stated acceptance of a package of benefits associated with a charge was greater than the stated acceptance of a charge alone (Table 1, overleaf). These results from a statistically stratified opinion survey broadly correlated with earlier surveys in London and Stockholm where stated acceptability was assessed with and without alternative viable transport measures. It is no coincidence that debates on integrated transport policies that include a charging element to enhance alternatives became nothing more than debates on paying for road use. This is the consequence of stripping away any understanding of the benefits to users to leave only the costs to users. The ‘leap of faith’ required by the public becomes more difficult, particularly if the benefits are not understood by future scheme stakeholders. Selling the idea may in future require repackaging in new terminology such as those promoted in the US, including ‘Travel Choices’ (Puget Sound Regional ComThinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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Road User Charging

Photo: © Findlay Kemble

mittee) or ‘Value Pricing’. In addition to using the appropriate terminology securing acceptance may also need to be at the level of individual vehicle or road user as the next example highlights. In the Netherlands, the ‘Anders Betalen voor Mobiliteit’ (ABvM) scheme is the latest attempt that the Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat (V&W) has made to introduce national or regional road pricing, this time as the means of fairly charging transit traffic and as the basis of new fiscal policy in vehicle and fuel taxation and from vehicle usage. Individual towns and cities may opt to overlay the national scheme with a local congestion charge. Also, V&W is considering offering a package of information services, potentially provided by private sector information aggregators and distributors, alongside charging. Linking the delivery of these services, known as Mobility Services, to a charging regime may also enhance public acceptability of new transport policies that depend on charging for road use. The Mobility Service study has not yet reported but conceivably could result in a road user being advised of alternative travel routes, alternative travel modes and estimated journey times – when combined with the price this would permit road users to make an informed decisions before and during a journey. Attempts at using in-vehicle equipment designed to measure road usage as a means of providing locationenhanced traveller information for Heavy Good Vehicles services were ruled out in Germany and not yet adopted in Switzerland. So, the Dutch initiative may yet offer another tool to enhance perceived benefits, customised to user needs. So, could these initiatives more closely link the benefits with the cost in the minds of the road user to maintain acceptability once it is secured? This is analogous to having road signs that remind road users of average travel time savings rather than signs that advertise the charges. But, if rebalancing prices and demand across all travel modes reduces the available capacity for private car users or commercial fleets then travel time savings may reduce. So, although traffic has reduced, paradoxically, congestion (as perceived by an individual road user) has increased. Setting expectations has never been easy.

The long road

We should not underestimate the gestation period of a new charging scheme. For example, the development of congestion charging here had its roots in “Road pricing: the Economic and Technical Possibilities” (the Smeed Report) in 1964 before pragmatic solutions that could be implemented in one Mayoral term were identified by the Road Options for London (ROCOL) Report in March 2000. So what have we learned? The same method of measuring congestion has so far shown that the original London Congestion Charging Area has faced worsening performance figures. As suggested above, one of the main reasons for this has been the effect of reduced road space to accommodate more public service vehicles

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and other complimentary measures (ref Impacts Monitoring 5th Annual Report, TfL, July 2007). If the objective of a transport network is to efficiently move people and goods then surely a more accurate measures of network performance is not vehicle delay compared with an early morning trip but instead aggregated delay times for individual and goods across all modes? Difficult to measure, unfortunately. Nevertheless, the apparent increase in congestion in the original charged area does not mean that the principles of congestion charging are failing but may instead highlight the need for more sophisticated measures of travel network performance that are less vehicle-centric and include substitute modes such as mass transit and tramways. Furthermore, the use of price as a signal of the marginal social cost of road use does not reflect the varying ‘elasticities’ at different operating points. Simply speaking, if charging €10 encourages modal shift of 10 per cent of private car users (for example) then logically, remaining private car users will need more than €10 to encourage the same proportionate shift. If we agree that there would always be road users that will pay a charge (at whatever the level) then the application of increased charges up to that point may elicit a declining effect. So, if the willingness to pay depends on the alternatives and variation in the user’s perception of value of his/her time, then each scheme will have its own ‘price point’. This is the level of charges that covers scheme operating costs whilst leaving sufficient revenues to meet investment targets in complementary measures. A future scheme, designed from the perspective of road users will need to reflect differing perceptions and understanding for RUC by these road users, each receiving different package of benefits in return for a different level of charge. The benefits could reflect the specific journey or information on the intended destination and potentially the charges will reflect the vehicle type, emissions class, occupancy, time of day, measured congestion or other variables and combinations of these. Charging for the use of roads as an element in new fiscal probably represents one of the most profound changes in transport policy that we face. Analogies already exist elsewhere though. Applying congestion charges to data delivered over broadband, the allocation of airport landing slots and container port arrivals are all on the 2008 transport agenda in Asia and North America. Securing public acceptability for RUC aims to ensure understanding and an internalised acceptance of benefits in the minds of the stakeholders and this includes the majority of individual and business needs. In addition to this, establishing broad levels of trust, acceptable governance structures, meeting investment targets in complimentary measures, a workable operating business model and meeting network performance targets also need to be added to the list of things to do for policy makers and transport planners worldwide. TH Andrew Pickford can be contacted at Transport Technology Consultants at [email protected] or visit www.iroad.co.uk www.h3bmedia.com

Road Pricing

Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

Toll and trouble

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Climate Change Road Pricing Charging drivers for the use When DAVID SCHONBRUNN ofread roads has never been the April/May issue of universally popular. Inhe most Thinking Highways felt places charges are made for compelled to write an article those usinghis a ‘premium’ offering own viewspiece on of transportation’s highway, often a new impacts motorway that avoids afor, onm and solutions congested areachange or a bridge climate that cuts both journey time and distance travelled. However, in the UK the government planned to introduce tolls on existing roads and motorways, but as the busy PETER PLISNER has been finding out, things haven’t quite gone according to plan

The headlines said it all: “Road pricing scheme stalled” as, like many motorists before them the UK Government was forced to make a hasty u-turn with its highly controversial plans to introduce a national road pricing scheme. In parliament, the British Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly was asked if the Government’s flagship road pricing scheme was dead. The question followed what observers have called a significant change in roads policy, which would see motorway capacity in the UK expanded by opening up the hard shoulder to traffic at the busiest times of the day. The decision effectively buys the Government more time, during which ministers will have to either find the cash to widen motorways or decide whether to reintroduce plans for pricing in the future. In answering the question on the perceived demise of a national road pricing scheme Kelly simply responded by saying “I would describe this as a nifty overtaking manoeuvre to get past stationary traffic.” However, in a reference to the current unpopularity of road pricing schemes, she added “The debate about national road pricing has become increasingly sterile with enthusiasts thinking that road pricing is the answer to all their problems and with people on the other side saying over my dead body.” It had all been going so well. Congestion was getting worse and drivers were once again looking to the Government to act. Previously, the answer was simply to build more roads, but that had been tried and most of the additional capacity had simply filled up with yet more traffic. What was needed was a new approach, www.h3bmedia.com

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Road Pricing something which could not only deal with congestion, but perhaps even halt the growth in traffic. Kelly’s predecessor at the Department for Transport, Alistair Darling thought he had the answer. He’d been buoyed by the perceived success of both London congestion charging and the construction of the M6Toll, a new tolled motorway by-passing the congested West Midlands area of the UK. He started vigorously promoting the idea of introducing road pricing elsewhere across the country. A speech in February 2006 left drivers in no doubt that the government’s sole aim was to push ahead with an idea that previously ministers had viewed as ‘too hot to handle’. In the speech Darling said “Looking ahead we need to make tough choices and that is why I believe road pricing has an essential part to play. Make no mistake, simply building more roads cannot be the answer.”

“Alistair Darling consistently failed to specify what would happen to fuel duty and Vehicle Excise Duty when road pricing was introduced”

Move over, Darling

For Alistair Darling the time appeared to be just right for dipping his toe in water. That year’s ‘RAC Report on Motoring’, one of the UK’s most accurate barometers on the mood of road users, appeared to show that if road pricing could help reduce congestion, then drivers might be prepared to put up with it. The report’s executive summary stated that over twothirds (68 per cent) believe that much tougher measures are needed to resolve the problems of congestion and 40 per cent were in favour of congestion charging. The report also suggested road pricing would be received more positively if there is an associated reduction in the motoring tax burden, with 67 per cent of motorists being prepared to accept road pricing if it heralds a reduction in road tax or fuel duty. However, at the time the government failed to make its position clear on that issue. Darling consistently failed to specify what would happen to fuel duty and Vehicle Excise Duty when road pricing was introduced. References during speeches only mentioned that he didn’t think that it would be possible to put one tax on top of another. But even with some questions still going unanswered ministers continued to push ahead with road pricing. They believed that, because of the worsening congestion problem, public opinion would remain cautious but positive about the plans. In an effort to prove the concept Darling’s next move was to offer substantial amounts of funding to local authorities around the country in an effort to persuade them to launch pilot road pricing schemes.

TIF utter blip

The Department for Transport launched its Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) which it was said would help fund radical schemes from local authorities to tackle congestion, including demand management and particularly road pricing. As a first step the Department offered £18m (€22m) in funding for local authorities to develop their demand management schemes. Bids were received from 11 councils across the UK, including major conurbations like Birmingham and Manchester. The

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Government confidently predicted that the first schemes would be up and running within five years. But in early 2007 something happened, which knocked the Government’s road pricing policy badly off course. Ironically, it could even described as an own goal because the event was in fact petition placed on a website publicising the workings of 10 Downing Street, the home of the British Prime Minister, who at the time was Tony Blair. Officials had come up with the idea of allowing members of the public to post there own petitions on the website. One person who did just that was Peter Roberts, a salesman from Telford in the Midlands. The wording of his petition said: “The idea of tracking every vehicle at all times is sinister and wrong. Road pricing is already here with the high level of taxation on fuel. The more you travel - the more tax you pay. It will be an unfair tax on those who live apart from families and poorer people who will not be able to afford the high monthly costs. Please Mr Blair - forget about road pricing and concentrate on improving our roads to reduce congestion.” (See the April/May 2007 edition of ETC, etc for Mr Blair’s response.)

Touching a nerve

Until that time petitions on the Downing Street website had, at best, attracted just a few thousand signatures. However, when it closed the anti-road pricing petition had received almost 2m signatures, the largest ever for www.h3bmedia.com

Road Pricing

any online petition. It had also attracted much publicity in the media, meaning that even more people had logged on to sign it. An experiment in open government had backfired spectacularly, but worse still it seemed to turn the public against the idea of road pricing. Opinion polls which once showed encouraging signs of acceptance for the idea had changed overnight and were showing widespread opposition of the idea. With Alistair Darling now in a new ministerial position the new Transport Secretary, Douglas Alexander, was left to pick up the pieces. He maintained the petition was just part of the ‘big debate’ on road pricing and that a final decision was still some way off. But just over a year later and with another new Transport Secretary in place, a decision has been taken. The current incumbent, Ruth Kelly, appears to have shelved the idea for now and has instead opted for what she terms “a more immediate and pragmatic focus for the debate” and an approach that targets those parts of the network that are busiest where, as she puts it, “even minor hold ups can turn into major delays.” Her decision must have been helped by the fact that the number of council’s showing an interest in her department’s TIF scheme was dwindling fast. After 18 months of research the majority of the original 11 bidders were either still undecided or have shown reluctance to proceed with schemes to tackle congestion that contain an element of charging. The Government now admits that any pilot schemes www.h3bmedia.com

for national road pricing in the UK are “many years” away.Concerns about privacy,fairness and enforcement can not, for the time being at least, be satisfactorily answered. With fuel prices continuing to rise there are now increased levels of concern amongst the public about any mention of any new taxes, not just those which would affect drivers.

Let the people decide

A general election in the UK is less than two years away and in local areas elections are a regular occurrence. Many see the introduction of road pricing as ‘political suicide’ for any party. For many, the recent change in policy by the UK government, away from road pricing and back to schemes designed to provide more capacity, is not surprising. However, with UK Governments’ periodically looking at road pricing ever since the Smeed report was published in the 1960s, it’s highly likely that this one will too. In fact ministers haven’t exactly close the door to road pricing yet. Former Transport Secretary Alistair Darling, now Chancellor of the Exchequer, used his recent budget speech to set aside funding to develop the technology that could underpin national road pricing, next year it’s expected to invite tenders from interested companies. In the UK the road pricing saga looks set to run and run. TH Peter Plisner is the BBC’s Midlands Transport Correspondent . He can be contacted by email at [email protected] Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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Future Solutions

Stunted growth 0 Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

Good news for anyone planning to introduce an ETC, ERI or any other ITS solution, says STEINAR FURAN.The last 20 years have shown that the customers, the users and common sense have prevailed With the development of microelectronics through the 1980s, a number of different solutions for automatic identification were born. These systems all shared the common property of being able to identify a device over an air interface. This was however, more or less, the only feature shared between the systems. A fierce battle broke out in order to conquer the world of electronic toll collection (among others). Caught in the crossfire were the poor customers who had to choose between infrared, magnetically coupled at 150 kHz, radio on 440, 856, 915 and 2450 MHz. The judging of technical characteristics never has been or ever will be a customer’s prime interest - their focus will always be kept on the solution for their business and most customers responded accordingly by simply not buying anything at all.

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Around 1990, the European Union decided that the only way out of this silly battle and the only way into a well-functioning market was the formation of a standard covering all aspects of vehicle to infrastructure communication, so called Dedicated Short Range Communication, DSRC. The standards were quickly developed and early in the 90s the communication frequency was fixed to 5.8 GHz and by 1997 the complete set of standards were worked out and stable at a level where they were suitable for the purpose of making requirement specifications for public tenders. A number of other countries, among those Australia and Brazil, followed suit and used the European Standard as the platform for defining their national standards for DSRC, securing local requirements and full industrial interoperability. At the time the European standards, the so-called CEN TC278 standards, were established, a number of manuwww.h3bmedia.com

Climate Change Future Solutions When DAVID SCHONBRUNN read the April/May issue of Thinking Highways he felt compelled to write an article offering his own views on transportation’s impacts onm and solutions for, climate change

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facturers supporting their proprietary products were convinced that they had won the battle and that all manufacturers supporting the CEN TC278 standards would rapidly be out of business. With the On-Board Units (OBUs) based on CEN TC278 at a price of around €50 and competitive proprietary products at half that price, these companies were confident that the battle was won. So, what can the last 10 years of history tell us? Well, history brings good news to everyone planning to introduce an ETC, ERI or some other ITS solution. The last 20 years have shown that the customers, the users and just as crucially, common sense, have prevailed.

First and foremost...

What happened to the cost of products within this market? History shows that the proprietary solutions, to the extent the products are still available, are at the same price or higher than 10 years ago. CEN TC278 OBUs however are sold at prices around EUR 20 and can be sourced from a multitude of different manufacturers worldwide. Secondly, what happened to the product range? As all proprietary solutions were hampered by a lack of supwww.h3bmedia.com

port from other actors over open interfaces (quite naturally), the number of products available on such proprietary systems remains more or less unchanged the last decade. The story is completely different if one investigates the faith of products based on CEN TC278. The products based on CEN TC278 have thrived and within the same systems today one may find payment for gasoline, car park payment, access control, travel time information, smart-card payment via the link and even parking on your cell-phone subscription via the OBU. The selection of products based on CEN TC278 is enormous. Finally, the proprietary products were focusing only on the ability to identify the unit. They forgot the very important aspect of securing that the identification was made on the basis of a real and genuine device. Put in simple words, most manufacturers of proprietary products forgot to take security seriously. As security is a vital part of the CEN TC278 DSRC standards, securing real-time security via mutual authentication and transaction verification using Message Authentication Certificates (MACs), the standardized products were superior to all proprietary solutions. Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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Future Solutions Let us have a look into some markets...

Brazil: Here, the authorities rapidly followed suit and decided to use the CEN TC278 DSRC as the foundation for their ETC-systems. Still, the Brazilian authorities allowed for non-standardized products to take part in the competition for the supply of ETC-systems for the state of São Paulo. Following a public tendering process in 1999, where the competition showed that CEN DSRC at that time already was able to compete on price with proprietary solutions, the Brazilian authorities decided to implement CEN DSRC for all ETC-solutions. This has proven to become an immense success. Not only has the country been able to run its extensive network of tolled highways much more efficiently, the country has also established itself as an important source of DSRC-technology. Brazilian manufacturers have sold their DSRC-products to Europe and Chile as well as to Brazil. Sweden, Norway, Denmark: The Nordic Countries have managed to remove all obstacles for real interoperable electronic toll collection. Today, any client of any toll road operator in any of these countries can use every toll collection system in all Nordic Countries as his own system. Interoperability here is reality will the systems fully integrated and the operation flowing smoothly. The electronic toll collection operation in Norway is a substantial operation with its more than 1.2 million OBUs in use. Norway is also considering the introduction of ERI based on the standards available for this. Portugal: Portugal was the forerunner, the one immediately deciding to go for the standardized solution. Choosing 5.8 GHz as their solution, they were able to easily upgrade their system to the standardized solution once this was available a few years later. Portugal today runs one of the world’s largest toll road operations. Other properties that are easily found in Portugal is a very well maintained network of highways, affordable cost for using the highways and the toll road operators being solid and forward looking companies involved in similar operations worldwide. Some advice if you want to find inspiration for ITS-solutions would be: look to Portugal! France: Here, the operators of toll roads have united in a common system solution based on CEN TC278. Again, the customers see considerable improvement of efficiency, improvement of quality of service to their clients and the ability to offer new and attractive services to their clients.

CEN TC278 DSRC will remain an important backbone for operators of ITS-solutions like ETC and ERI, as the cost of operation for this kind of systems is well under 10 percent of the income and steadily decreases as operations become more efficient. GNSS will for sure become an important building block for some toll road operations as well as for fleet management and navigation purposes. In some systems, we will see coexistence between GNSS, CEN DSRC and ISO 7816-4 IC-cards, as the solutions will touch different applications like navigation, secure road toll payment and public transport payment. There probably will be more technologies coexisting in a fruitful synergy, the only precondition for this success being that the system modules will all be based on standardized and open technology.

It’s better to have failed... or is it?

What we definitely can tell for the future is that solutions based on proprietary or patented technology, meaning that a single-source situation exists, will fail. They will fail because there will be only one supplier to provide new solutions rather than an entire industry from the whole world. They will fail because they will be unable to improve the customers’ solutions as their operations mature. They will fail because the lack of competition will cause their functionality to stagnate and their prices to remain unchanged. A few customers will fall into the trap of proprietary technology, but the majority will avoid the trap by relying on open and standardized solutions. The customers will, as always, prevail. TH [email protected]

What about the proprietary solutions...

Looking back to 1997, without exception, all systems based on proprietary technology within the ITS domain are either replaced or working exactly as they did ten years ago with no improvements on functions and with the prices the same or higher than ten years ago. On the basis of the knowledge from the last decade, what can we see in the crystal ball for the coming decade. Being a solution provider rather than a product manufacturer, Q-Free can see that the selection of system solutions based on open architecture and standardized solutions will grow significantly.We can also see that the

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International Road Transport

Stunted growth Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

Back on the map

According to Wikipedia, the Silk Road is a series of trade and cultural transmission routes that were central to cultural interaction through regions of Asia, connecting East and West Asia by linking traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from China to the Mediterranean. MICHAEL NIELSEN heralds its revival 50

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Climate Change International Road Transport Jiaohe, China, on the ancient Silk Road When DAVID SCHONBRUNN read the April/May issue of Thinking Highways he felt compelled to write an article offering his own views on transportation’s impacts onm and solutions for, climate change

In 1996, the road transport industry, under the leadership of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and as called for in Agenda 21 and the UN Millennium Development Goals, signed into affect the “IRU Charter for Sustainable Development”. As a formal commitment to the goal of achieving sustainable development, the charter highlights the IRU’s 3 “i” strategy, based on innovation, incentives and infrastructure.

Road transport, a vital production tool

The first truck was patented by Karl Friedrich Benz in 1897. The new automobile era’s contributions are undisputed in terms of driving trade, tourism, prosperity and social development. In today’s globalised economy, having a cup of coffee at a café in Geneva at the current market price requires the collaborative efforts of 29 companies from 18 countries. If 29 companies are needed to produce a simple cup of coffee, one can easily imagine that it takes some 10,000 suppliers to make an affordable motor car. Road transport, no longer a simple transport mode, www.h3bmedia.com

has become a vital production tool interconnecting all businesses in all countries and regions to every world market. Road transport in a globalised economy links people and ensures a better distribution of wealth worldwide. This in turn drives peace and prosperity. In most countries of the world, 90-95 per cent of all road transport operations are domestic. International transport accounts for around 5-10 per cent. This means that road transport has a role to play in ensuring the mobility of people and goods from local to global markets.

Road transport tonnage distances

Indeed, globalisation does not necessarily mean transport over long distances. Globalisation is, more properly, undertaking all activities at the best place, producing the best products and trading under the best possible economic, social and fiscal conditions. This is done by linking all businesses, communities and regions of the world. In 1991, India, through significant economic reforms, transformed itself into one of the fastest-growing Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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International Road Transport

Contrast and compare: sea containers in ports in 1971 (left) and 2008 (below)

economies in the world. However, India’s global trade today is dependent on maritime transport. In 2001, the unprecedented development of China led this country to become a member of the World Trade Organisation. Due to its major investment in the production sector and successful development, China today is the world’s factory and has become a major hub of sea container traffic in the global transport system. This is not good news since ports used today for shipping goods are increasingly saturated. With the concentration of 80 per cent of world trade in only a few ports, the desertification of the port hinterlands as well as bottlenecks, congestion, delays and above all additional costs, are becoming increasingly prominent. For the past 15 years, the IRU has been working on reopening the Silk Road to offer alternative options and compensate for these problems. The challenges are numerous, however, so are the new opportunities brought about by facilitating relations among trading partners and integrating the various economies along the route to those of other regions.

aries of the Silk Road, that have so far been excluded from the benefits of globalisation. While these common goals are within reach they can only be achieved if political priority is given to removing the numerous barriers to road transport. International road transport along the Silk Road does not need new infrastructure. In 2005, the IRU sent the first truck caravan from Beijing to Brussels (www.bbb-irucaravan.org) that confirmed this. However, it was also made clear that adequate procedures where needed, in particular through the implementation of the appropriate multilateral instruments to facilitate trade and road transport, It should never be forgotten that any penalty on road transport is an even greater penalty on economic development. Rather, in the name of economic development, governments should ratify and strictly implement the abundant multilateral trade and road transport facilitation instruments, including the introduction of multientry annual visas for professional truck drivers. This would lay down the basis for a true multilateral harmonisation of legal, social, technical, infrastructural and procedural conditions, thus ensuring that progress can be driven along the entire Silk Road.

“Road transport in a globalised economy links people and ensures a better distribution of wealth worldwide”

Reviving the great silk road

The Eurasian landmass represents a huge potential of both human and natural resources. Two thirds of the world’s population lives there and works, produces, trades and transports between one another and with the rest of the world. Opening the ancient Silk Road will not only offer an alternative for the transport of goods from Asia to Europe and visa versa, but, above all, it will stymie the current drying up of trade in too many countries, resulting from the concentration of the bulk of world trade in only a few major ports. Furthermore, it will ensure economic and social development, political stability and, ultimately, prosperity and peace. This is not only true for a handful of ports and port hinterlands, but will also be the case for all regions along the 12,000-50,000 kilometres of the various itiner-

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The way forward

The IRU held its 4th Euro-Asian Road Transport Conference in Warsaw on 14 and 15 June 2007. Transport ministers from 26 Euro-Asian countries gathered at the event and signed a declaration underlining their agreement www.h3bmedia.com

MEMO re: CONGESTION MANAGEMENT Derby, UK 23 May 2008 To whom it may concern... What is the future for the Government’s initiative to deliver a step change in the way that we address the problem of growing traffic congestion in our cities? I believe we need to engage in a series of mature discussions about congestion charges and say to people: “Things will get worse, much worse, so ignore the problem at your peril. We have a solution, and it’s NOT the one portrayed in the popular press, but one that will give you a real choice in how you travel, one that will make paying for travel much simpler and fairer, and one which will actually do something to lessen the damage that transport has on the environment.” H3B Media’s UK Road Pricing Think Tank, held last November at Mercedes Benz World, made me realise that intelligent transport systems can play a huge role in making life easier for the motorist and I believe we must investigate the concept of a ‘black box’ in the car allied to a smartcard in the wallet, which together could provide a simple, self-enforcing and cashless way to pay for ‘all your travel needs’. We pay mortgages, council tax and fuel bills on a monthly basis, so why not our travel as well? I look forward to this autumn’s European Congestion Management Think Tank, being held at Villa Park, Birmingham, on Thursday 16 October (see page 55 of this issue for more details) because even if the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF)fails, we have to work with Government and find solutions to the congestion problem. It won’t just go away. I look forward to seeing you there. Pete Price Head of Transportation Derby City Council

International Road Transport

to enhance joint actions aiming at “accession to, development and implementation of the UN conventions on international road transport; adoption of the WTO rules in respect of the freedom of transit, simplification of documents, rationalisation of charges and taxes and construction of missing road connections along the Silk Road, including bypasses in urban areas.” Further facilitation of trade and road transport between countries and regions along the Silk Road should find favour in this important political statement. Road transport from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean is often seen as uncompetitive. However, shippers are increasingly consigning their shipments to air transport to compensate for the undercapacity of sea terminals. It is important to note that reopening the Silk Road does not imply 15,000 km journeys for a single truck. The purpose is to interconnect all businesses involved in one production chain by road, on short distances. Finally, sustainable development is not restricted to environmental concerns: it is the long-term policy goal of balancing economic, social and environmental priorities as defined in Agenda 21, to which the IRU is strongly committed. One single aspect of sustainable development should not prevail above all others. The renaissance of the Silk Road is in line with the UN millen-

nium development goals, namely: economic and social development, political stability and, ultimately, prosperity and peace. In the name of competitiveness, it is already possible to ship Chinese containers by road with shorter delivery times and competitive transport costs, without spending one additional penny on infrastructure, to all the main major markets of the world, according to a feasibility study conducted by the US Chamber of Commerce entitled“Land transport options between Europe and Asia”. The study also confirms that any new road transport activities may still be significantly enhanced by clearing the numerous existing obstacles along the Silk Road. These continue to result from inappropriate procedures rather than, as is commonly believed, a lack of infrastructure. The reopening of the ancient Silk Road to the modern trucking industry has become a reality capable of providing benefits to all who want to drive development, progress and peace in their country and region. TH

“China is the world’s factory and has become a major hub of sea container traffic in the global transport system”

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Michael Nielsen is the International Road Transport Union’s General Delegate based in Brussels. For more information contact [email protected]

H 3 B MEDIA

A TRANSPORT PARADISE? THIN KING HIG HW AYS

European Congestion Management Think Tank An intensive, one-day workshop featuring: • TIF Update • Active Traffic Management • Travel Demand Management • Road Pricing: Where Are We? • HOT/HOV Lanes • Local Transport Bill • City Pricing • Future Vision: The Road to Sustainability Thursday 16 October 2008 Villa Park, Birmingham, UK www.h3bmedia.com/events.cfm Visit www.h3bmedia.com/networx/ruc.cfm for a taste of the Think Tank experience. See video footage of H3B Media’s November 2007 UK Road Pricing Think Tank held at Mercedes Benz World.

Switzerland

Stunted growth Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

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Cwitzerla Switzerland When DAVID SCHONBRUNN As the ITS In Europe Congress 2008read will take place in issue of the April/May Geneva from 3 to 6 June, JEAN-MICHEL HENCHOZ Thinking Highways he felt presents a timely overview of ITS compelled deployment toas write an article well as R&D activities in Switzerland. offering his own views on transportation’s impacts onm and solutions for, climate change

Football fans heading for Euro 2008 could well consider one of the tournament’s co-hosts Switzerland (the other is neighbours Austria) as the goalkeeper of traffic through the Alps. The country is facing the difficult mission of managing 1.2m trucks yearly in a landscape where tunnels are as frequent as holes in Emmental cheese - and these trucks are posing myriad safety challenges and additional bottlenecks. Densely populated, the country also faces the usual rush-hour traffic jams (even if they are comparatively small with the likes of Paris or London), they raise high critics in a population very sensitive to wellfunctioning transport systems/public services as well as environmental issues. With the above situation, the deployment of ITS hasn’t had to wait for the establishment of its-ch (ITS Switzerland) in 2005 to become a reality. (De facto, ITS Switzerland emerged for a good part as an element of the national ITS strategy). The country was the first to implement a nationwide ETC system for Lorries (LSVA) country in 2001. The complex task of designing the system and ensuring smooth operation fell in the hands of the Federal Customs who mandated the engineering consultants Rapp Trans - whose board chairman Matthias Rapp is the president of www.h3bmedia.com

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Switzerland the Swiss organising committee for the Geneva congress - to work on detailed plans. The system that is a combination of GPS, tachograph and DSRC technologies is now operating successfully and is reaping close to €1billion in taxes for only 7 per cent of operating costs. Other schemes deployed in Europe are certainly not as efficient. Before that, regional or city traffic management centres were implemented, easing the traffic in urban centres and major roads or ensuring safety on densely populated roads and tunnels.

Too late, but not too little

These actions were still not sufficient to prevent the tragic loss of 13 lives in the Gotthard tunnel following a truck accident and the subsequent fire which produced lethal toxic fumes. There, both the education on appropriate behaviour as well as better traffic/safety information could have prevented car passengers from being intoxicated by fumes as they stayed in their vehicles instead of heading for the safety exits to the adjacent service tunnel. Now, with the new measures in place following recommendations of the UN Working Group on Tunnel Safety - the number of trucks driving through the tunnel is strictly limited to avoid traffic jams and this subsequently reduces the danger of accidents. Switzerland aims at becoming even safer in the future. In 2005, there were 409 fatalities and 6,000 severely injured persons costing CHF13billion. With its safety program “Via Sicura” to last for the next 15 years, the Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) is aiming at pushing fatalities below 300 and severe injuries below 3,000 in 2010. For this purpose, the administration will spend an average of CHF670m a year, focusing on 10 fields and 56 measures. This includes the preparatory work for the implementation of e-Call.

“The Federal Constitution of Switzerland forbids tolling on roads”

This may take a while

Mobility pricing has also been a hot theme in Switzerland over the last three years. At a federal level, FEDRO ordered a series of national research projects to explore the opportunities and constraints of mobility pricing and local initiatives emerged to analyse the possibilities of implementing such schemes in Zurich and Geneva. However, the implementation of road pricing schemes for passenger vehicles is not going to happen overnight. The Federal Constitution of Switzerland forbids tolling on roads. As each citizen can have their say in Switzerland, it means a national vote, leading to a majority of both cantons and popular vote would have to take place to enable a change of the constitution. Not an easy task. But as the tax on fuel is a fixed number of centimes and not index linked to inflation, revenues to finance construction and maintenance of roads tend to flatten. With cars being more efficient and oil prices peaking the issue of tolling is not about to disappear soon... if ever.

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Switzerland New year, new structure

As of 1 January 2008, an important change took place in the management of the Swiss road network. FEDRO has become fully in charge of the so-called “national road network” – meaning motorways and a limited number of key majors roads and alpine passes. These new responsibilities have triggered the creation of a national traffic management centre – nearby Luzern – to supervise traffic management on the national road network. With the mandate of ensuring free flow on the network, a great deal of coordination with regional and city traffic management centres is taking place. This is a major shift in a country where local states – cantons – used to own and operate portions of motorways leading to the implementation of a multitude of different traffic management systems and interfaces, which were/are relatively costly to operate and interface. With now a centralised approach – logical for a country of this size with this set of problems to solve - it is quite certain suppliers will find the country market significantly changed.

Share issue

Public transport and car sharing need also to be mentioned. All Geneva’s buses are, for example, equipped with GPS and the operation centre follows the progression of each bus and informs passengers at bus stops. The same is happening for taxis in the city. The company which operates the postal buses is also doing so successfully via its call centre in Delémont - an on-demand



  
 


 

 


 





minibus service can be used in rural region besides the official lines. The company Mobility Car Sharing has become famous in the country with its red cars parked next to many train stations in the country. They have developed a unique telematics system to lock/unlock the vehicles, which has proven very reliable. Finally, with the opening of the 35 km long Löstchberg tunnel, the Swiss railways are the first to have implemented the ETCS 2 (European Train Control System) system.

Work in progress

Finally research is moving on. Prof Andre-Gilles Dumont of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) - also chairman of the program committee for Geneva is leading an international team of researchers working on traffic simulation, safety/viability and data fusion issues. The EPFL has recently launched its new Center for Transport Research linking more than 20 laboratories form different departments. Along with Prof Dumont, Prof Michel Bierlaire is leading research on routing algorithms and simulation models, Prof Bertrand Merminod on GPS positioning technologies and Prof Jean-Pierre Hubaux well known for his involvement in Car 2 Car network communication are key partners in the centre. Not to be forgotten are the research activities of the ETH transport institute (IVT) in Zurich with Prof Kay Axhausen and Prof Peter Spacek, and the association in the field of roads and transport VSS and SVI. TH [email protected]

www.truvelo.co.za [email protected] tel +27113141405




 

ITS and the Environment

Stunted growth

A greener future

Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

ITS has traditionally been used to address safety and economic issues (congestion and reliability) by managing the flow of traffic and the behaviour of drivers; almost as a by product it produced improvements in the environment. Today however, ITS is no longer just about making traffic flow more smoothly and safely; it is also about changing travel behaviour and delivering positive impacts on the environment through reduced travel demand and vehicle emissions. In particular, climate change is having a significant impact on the everyday choices that we are now making. The UK Government has pledged a target to cut emis-

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sions by 60 per cent by 2050 – which looks like a very tall order. With this in mind, it is no surprise that companies such as Atkins is becoming increasingly involved in projects which aim to contribute towards these ambitious emission reduction targets through environmenwww.h3bmedia.com

Climate Change ITS and the Environment When DAVID SCHONBRUNN read the April/May issue of Thinking Highways he felt compelled to write an article offering his own views on transportation’s impacts onm and solutions for, climate change

Issues of economic and environmental sustainability have taken on increasing importance in recent times, says KEITH McCABE. As a result of the Stern and IPCC reports, and the Bali Summit, the issues of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon critical design have risen closer to the top of the agenda. In this context what can ITS do to bring about a greener future in transport?

tally friendly, sustainable designs; ground-breaking research and large-scale projects dedicated to reducing congestion and protecting the environment. This article looks specifically at the positive impact that ITS can have on the environment.

Tackling congestion with ITS

“Motorists waste up to 26 minutes for every 10 miles they travel on England’s trunk-road network according to figures from the Department of Transport, which comwww.h3bmedia.com

pare actual journey times with those when traffic is flowing freely. ” Additionally,“urban traffic is responsible for 40 per cent of CO2 emissions and 70 per cent of emissions of other pollutants arising from road transport. ” With this in mind, ITS practitioners need to think of innovative ways to make better use of the existing road network and the technologies now available. There are a range of ideas and technologies that either directly or indirectly tackle congestion. However, as Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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ITS and the Environment environmental issues have become increasingly important and climate change has emerged as a key issue of our time, it has been realised that bi-products of many of these technologies have resulted in localised roadside environmental protection as well as climate change being affected in a positive way. In addition to this, ITS specialists are responsible for a range of research projects aiming to investigate air quality in local areas through ‘data mining’ and then suggest ways in which air quality could be improved in areas likely to exceed the mandatory EU limit values after they come into force in 2010. The ‘data mining’ techniques have assisted in quantifying the impacts of ITS measures such as speed control and ramp metering have on emissions and local air quality. An interesting place to start is with the use of information systems either on-board navigation systems or roadside. Recent developments have meant that providers are now looking to integrate services with the user’s PC and mobile phone, helping to give the user real-time travel information. This will enable the user to select the most appropriate route depending on congestion levels and estimated journey times at a particular point in time. This can be enhanced with the use of road-side information systems such as Variable Message Signs (VMS) that also relay this information to drivers. The aim is to avoid a situation where more and more vehicles travel into an area or along a route that is heavily congested. However, it must be noted that if the relevant information can be transmitted to the user before they make their journey, it is far more likely that they will plan an alternative route should they have advanced warning that congestion levels are high on their original route. Many transport professionals are now focusing on network performance monitoring and then using the information to control traffic flows in a variety of different ways. One way in which this can be achieved is with the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras which look at journey times between a range of locations (although other data sources can also be used). The main objective of the data collection exercise is to identify hotspots and possible causes for congestion on the network. A range of measures can then be taken to improve performance in the relevant areas. This could include the re-design of a junction that has been shown to cause delay, or the implementation of a ‘green travel plan’ at a nearby business park that is causing some of the poor network performance. Additionally, controlling traffic flow on urban routes with signalling, giving route priorities and holding traffic back when necessary have also proved effective in some scenarios. In addition to this, other schemes for reducing congestion on motorway and trunk road networks where journey time reliability is also considered poor have included ramp metering, varying speed limits and hardshoulder running.

Drivers for charge

So let’s move on to the contentious topic of Road User Charging (RUC). Whilst it is a much-debated and controversial issue, it is possible that some kind of road charging system will be introduced in the UK in the future. This can be used to encourage drivers to use alternative routes if charges are placed on routes that are heavily congested and can also help to encourage drivers towards modal shift if they deem the benefit of remaining in their private vehicles does not outweigh the cost. However, for this to happen, the public transport, walking and cycling alternatives must be effective in terms of cost, safety, speed and reliability. A few other countries are already well advanced when it comes to road user charging. This is particularly true when you look at it in terms of having the technology in place both on the road network and within vehicles to accommodate such a scheme. In Japan, Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) has been developed as a way of allowing vehicles to pass through toll plazas without stopping, resulting in a decrease in congestion around toll plazas where traditionally, heavier congestion was often the norm. Vehicles fitted with the on-board ETC device can pass through dedicated lanes with the charge being automatically made to the user’s credit card. With such technology already in place, any future RUC scheme is likely to be much easier (in practical terms) to implement. In the UK there is much debate about how such a scheme would be put into operation. Mobile phone technology could play a pivotal role in allowing a similar system to be implemented, with users receiving their road use bill in the same way as, or in conjunction with their mobile phone bill. Of course, there is then the potential to tie in a range of other services in this way, like for example, route planning and on-board navigational services as discussed above. Parking schemes are another tool that can be used to tackle congestion, especially in city centres.“Differentiated fees can be considered to reflect the limited availability of public space and create incentives (e.g. free parking spaces at the periphery and high fees in the centre). ” Additionally,VMS signs can be used to display

“Motorists waste up to 26 minutes for every 10 miles they travel on England’s trunk road network”

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ITS and the Environment

car parking information in and around the city centre, conveying spaces available, prices and alternative public transport information as is currently the case in many urban areas in the UK. Additionally, there is the potential in the future to make this information available via onboard navigation devices, mobile phones and on the Internet. There are a plethora of ways in which ITS can be used to tackle congestion and demand for travel which, if successful, could result in a reduction in both local and global emissions. It is not just the technology that is used to implement/enforce any scheme but also the associated thinking that maps out how any scheme will work.

ITS for public transport

There are a number of ways in which ITS can be used to radically improve the service provided by public transport, and its image in the minds of potential users – something that is essential if people are to be encouraged out of their cars and onto buses and trains. Good examples of the flexible and multiple use of infrastructure such as flexible loading zones/parking spaces and flexible bus lanes can be seen in European cities such as Barcelona and more increasingly, in the UK. The main aim of this is to reduce the pressure on road space and give public transport the priority in congested traffic, making public transport faster and more reliable. Another example of how ITS can be used to improve public transport services can be seen with the use of Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) on bus and train routes, many of which have been in operation for some time. The accuracy and reliability of the information determines their success; but enabling travellers to know exactly when their bus or train will be arriving results in a reduction in frustration and the traveller being more likely to use the service again. Attractive Park & Ride facilities can encourage car users to incorporate public transport into their journeys if it is easier and cheaper. The schemes do need to be extremely efficient for this to be the case, however combined with the parking schemes discussed in the previous section; they can be extremely successful and in the future, are likely to play a significant role in cutting congestion levels in town and city centres. www.h3bmedia.com

ITS for you and your business

Another important role for ITS practitioners involves making suggestions for, and facilitating schemes that enable individuals to consider the effect that they are having on the environment in their every day lives. Teleworking, flexible working (i.e. starting and leaving at different times), car-sharing and video-conferencing can all contribute to reducing the impact that we have on climate change by reducing the need to travel at all. By setting an example and introducing schemes where financial benefits to the company and to the individuals are evident, other organisations can be encouraged to participate in what is quickly becoming a growing trend. Individuals can also consider their own personal choices such as the type of car they drive and the emissions from that particular make and model. Additionally, the way a car is driven impacts the emissions it produces as accelerating and breaking hard uses more fuel and therefore emits more pollutants; not to mention the cost of the additional fuel. Walking and cycling are also being increasingly encouraged, with travel planning websites often allowing these transportation methods to be incorporated into the specified journeys. ITS can help to influence personal choices by enabling users to measure the impact that they are likely to have on the environment with the help of travel planning websites and other travel planning tools (such as onboard navigation devices). By being able to see the impact that they are likely to have (in terms of CO2 emissions) combined with the ability to incorporate other methods of transport, the transition to incorporating these other methods is likely to be much easier and is therefore much more likely to actually happen. Many of the ways that congestion, air quality and the resulting climate change can be tackled focus on influencing travel behaviour before people actually make their journeys. Using ITS to give better travel information, raising people’s awareness of the issues, encouraging modal shift and tasking everyone to take responsibility for their travel choices will slowly make a difference. TH Keith McCabe is Carbon Agenda Consultant at Atkins and can be contacted via email at [email protected] Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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Control Room Technology

Stunted growth Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

In life you must have vision... Large scale display systems for traffic management and surveillance purposes are a very common sight these days but what constitutes ‘state-of-the-art’ in this industry sector? MAX WINCK presents the results of his screen test 64

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Modular LC diaplay wall at Wakefield traffic management centre in the UK

Climate Change Control Room Technology When DAVID rooms have been installedSCHONBRUNN all around the world. Traffic surveillance itself has shifted from the issue mere watching read the April/May of of camera signals on CRT monitor walls towards the interThinking Highways helarge felt active display of various signal types on video walls in modern control compelled torooms. write an article These large scale video wall systems are the core of offering his own views on today’s traffic control rooms. Software developers have transportation’s produced many useful tools, such asimpacts automatic licence plate recognition, traffic flow measurement, and other onm and solutions for, telematics-related tools. But there is hardly any sense in change deploying allclimate these measures if you cannot display the pertinent information to all operators in the control room. The state-of-this-particular-art

The growing volume of traffic, not only in industrialised countries but also in developing economies, has led to an increasing requirement for traffic management and surveillance. More traffic on our roads, highways and railways require more tunnels, more bridges, more junctions or, in other words, places where accidents are more likely to happen. In order to cope with the problems and dangers rising with this development, new traffic control www.h3bmedia.com

The time when large screen systems were just CRT monitors stacked on top of each other is definitely over. The question of which display technology to choose depends on several decisive criteria. Reliability of the system in long-term operation is a conditio sine qua non for display solutions in control rooms. Other factors that have to be considered are the best possible image quality, ergonomic viewing, economic costs and the type and number of the connected signal sources. Technologies that do not create gaps which disturb the displayed image are therefore preferred. Normal projectors are not suitable for control room applications since the quality of the projected image strongly depends on the lighting conditions. So called “seamless” Plasma monitors are likely to suffer from burn-in effects and ghost-images with static image content. Most modern control room applications rely on DLP™ technology-based rear-projection units, so called “cubes”, for their video walls. This technology has many advantages which makes it the best solution available at the moment. The cubes are available in many different sizes and resolutions. They can be stacked to build up video walls of almost any size.Thanks to their construction there are almost no gaps between adjacent cubes. This allows scaling and positioning of windows independently from the borders of the individual units of a wall. Their main disadvantage is the depth of the cubes and an additional required space behind the video wall which has to remain for maintenance. Some manufacturers have solved this problem with front-maintenance options. Liquid crystal-based video walls were rarely used for large screen systems in the past because of the wide gaps in-between the individual displays of a “tiled” video wall. When putting common LC displays together the resulting gap measured up to ten centimetres. Now providers of control room display solutions have developed professional LC displays which offer the outstanding image characteristics of the technology and at the same time create only minimal gaps in a combined large screen. Thanks to their advantages concerning space requirement,costs and display quality they have become a considerable alternative to DLP™ cubes. Whether you choose rear-projection, which is still the leading technology for control rooms, or LC displays for a control room depends on the money available and the Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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Control Room Technology size of the room, which also determines the viewing distances and angles for the operators.

Diversity of signals

Today’s traffic management centres have to handle many different signal types from a multitude of sources: analogue and digital video camera signals, traffic management software applications, incoming alarms from emergency services, and many more. Most sources in traffic control room are video signals from surveillance cameras. These signals can be transmitted as RGB, DVI or as streaming video signals via IP networks. The inputs for the large screen systems are usually provided by the corresponding graphics controller. Besides the connectivity, the device creates the coherent desktop surface on the large screen elements. These graphics controllers use high-end processors and graphic chips to handle the huge data masses created through the video signals. The controllers, as well as further server units, should be placed in separate server rooms, since the necessary ventilation may create potentially annoying noise emissions. Video streams using IP networks have been a challenge for large screen systems in the past, because there are often different camera types, different encoders, and different stream formats in use, all of which have to be integrated to the system. But using IP networks for transmission of camera signal is a practical and costefficient method, so industry reacted and today there are input boards available for graphic controllers which can handle these various streams. All of these sources named above have to be connected to the large screen system. They have to be displayed, either constantly or on demand, and they have to be controllable. Modern large screen systems provide very helpful software tools to operate the entire system. Incoming

alarm signals or alarm messages from other software applications are automatically displayed in a predefined position and size on the video wall. Even certain automated reactions can be part of these presets. These possibilities increase the efficiency and the working ergonomics of the system tremendously. The operators in the control room do not have to watch the camera signals permanently since they will be alerted as soon as something happens.

Sophisticated planning, complete solutions

Many control rooms in the world suffer from mistakes made during the planning of the installation or refurbishment. There are so many things that have to be considered when equipping a control room that it is worth relying on professional solutions to avoid later failures in operation. The large screen system is only one piece of this puzzle which plays a decisive role being the core of the installation. Its reliable operation is most likely when the complete system comes from one provider, since this reduces problems of incompatibility to a minimum. But for a perfect operation of a control room it is extremely important that all integrated systems and components interact as perfect, and as efficient as possible. The installed furniture and technological hardware has to fulfil certain ergonomic criteria to enable useful deployment of the entire installation. Ambitious control room installations are well coordinated compositions of furniture, large screen systems, hardware and software, and facility related equipment such as room layout, lighting conditions and air conditioning. If these aspects are taken into calculation from the beginning, the control room serves its purpose best, and makes traffic more safe and comfortable. TH Max Winck is contactable via email at [email protected]

“These large scale video wall systems are the core of today’s traffic control rooms”

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Funding and Finance

Stunted Red growth

yellow red gold

Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET PETTIT looks at the European Territorial Cooperation Programme and finds that like with any other major programme, it’s a matter of priorities

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Climate Change Funding and Finance When DAVID SCHONBRUNN read the April/May issue of Thinking Highways’ financial analyst MARGARET Thinking Highways he felt PETTIT looks at the details of Spain’s six-year compelled to write an article transport plan offering his own views on transportation’s impacts onm and solutions for, climate change

The Spanish EU-funded Regional and Multi-Regional Operational Programmes for 2007-2013 have been analysed and a broad picture of their priorities is presented here for the ITS sector.

Knowledge-based Economy Multi-Regional Operational Programme

This subject has its own Multi-Regional Programme even though the Regional Operational Programmes given below have a significant ‘Knowledge-based Economy’ contingent, which seems to be the way EU funding is heading. The total budget of this multi-regional operational programme is approximately €2.1 billion and includes Community investment through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of €1.5 billion. The main strategic objectives of this Programme are to increase investments in Research, Development and Innovation (R&D&I), reshape and strengthen the role of universities, develop central technological infrastructure, improve the transfer of technology and research results and develop the Information Society through content and services. At this stage is has not been possible to speculate on a likely budget for ITS from this multi-regional programme.

Regional Operational Programmes

Details of the Regional Operational Programmes for the eligible regions for EU funding are given by region. The budgets for Transport and Energy are combined in every regional Spanish Programme so it is difficult to make an assumption of the total budget of likely interest for ITS and related fields. However, an analysis of the information available suggests a possible figure in the region of €100m. Comparing the regional programmes, Castile-La Mancha and the Canary Islands may offer the most opportunities.

Asturias

Transport and Energy: EU contribution €71.6m; total cost €110.1m. The aim here is to complete transport infrastructures, particularly railways, ports and regional and local roads. Local and Urban Sustainable Development: EU contriwww.h3bmedia.com

bution €71.6m; total cost €110.1m. The goal is to promote urban areas by addressing existing problems and developing the potential of inner city and suburban areas, to continue the integrated development approach of the Community initiative URBAN. Development of the Knowledge Economy (R&D&I: Information Society and ICTs): EU contribution €41.2m; total cost €51.5m. The primary objective under this priority is to foster public and private investments in R&D projects. Special attention will be paid to the Information Society.

Canary Islands

Transport and Energy: EU contribution €103.6m; Total cost €145.3m. The transport measures will be aimed at improving the safety and quality of the archipelago’s ports and airports, in particular, the airports of Gran Canaria, Tenerife North and Tenerife South and enlarging quays, terminals and cargo handling areas at a number of seaports. Local and urban sustainable development: EU contribution €32.4m; total cost €43.2m. The aim is to implement integrated urban and rural regeneration projects in small and medium-sized municipalities. Development of the knowledge economy: EU contribution €112.4m; total cost €132.2m. The programme will support the R&D capacity of the technology centres and universities in the Canary Islands and the transfer of these technologies to SMEs. Reduction of additional costs hampering the development of the outermost regions (Investment expenditure): EU contribution €245m; total cost €490m. The funding here will be mainly channelled towards transport and communications infrastructures to improve the problem of poor accessibility to be carried out on the “non-capital” islands (the islands of the archipelago other than Tenerife and Gran Canaria). Contact details (Managing authority): María Eulalia Gil Muñiz, “Dirección General de Planificación y Presupuesto”, C/Tomás Miller, nº 38 - Planta 3ª, E-35071 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, España. Thinking Highways Vol 3 No 2

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Funding and Finance

Eligible areas in orange

Castilla y Léon

Transport and Energy: EU contribution €234m; total cost €357m. This priority aims to promote transport infrastructure and improve accessibility between growth centres. Investments will strengthen secondary transport networks by improving links to TEN-T networks, regional railway hubs, airports and multimodal platforms. Local and Urban Sustainable Development: EU contribution €83m; total cost €118m. Promotion of urban areas under this priority is a broad spectrum initiative targeting both existing problems and the potential of inner city and suburban areas, thereby continuing the integrated development approach of the Community initiative URBAN.

Castile–La Mancha

Development of the Knowledge Economy (R&D&I: Information Society and ICTs): EU contribution €144m; total cost €180m. The aim is to promote research, technological development and innovation and the information society. This is based on the regional plans for scientific investigation, technological development and innovation (PRINCET). Here, ERDF will contribute to the promotion of identified regional clusters and new strategic sectors

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through research centre infrastructures and pilot projects, as well as aid for and investment in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) whose activities are directly linked to research and innovation. Transport and energy: EU contribution €533.3m; total cost €820.4m. The transport measures envisaged concern first of all the trans-European rail network (high-speed line Madrid – Castile – La Mancha – Comunidad Valencia – Murcia) and the trans-European road network. Other measures planned involve extending and improving the regional road network; developing multimodal logistic centres and intelligent transport systems; encouraging clean urban means of transport. Local and urban sustainable development: EU contribution €127m; total cost €182m. Up to 70 per cent of resources here will be allocated to integrated projects for the regeneration of districts or municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants and small municipalities or rural areas.

Ceuta

Transport and Energy: EU contribution €11m; total cost €16m. The extension of the city’s harbour and promotion of clean urban transport will be the main priorities of the www.h3bmedia.com

Funding and Finance city in the field of transport for the coming seven-year programming period. Local and Urban Sustainable Development: EU contribution €16m; total cost €22.3m. This priority will target suburbs in the city’s outskirts and the rebuilding of basic infrastructure.

Extremadura

Extremadura remains one of the least developed regions of Spain and will continue to be a priority region for cohesion policy assistance in the coming years. The European Commission has just advised that in future Extramadura will concentrate European investment more on research, development and innovation rather than on infrastructure. Development of the Knowledge Economy (R&D&I: Information Society and ICTs): EU contribution €98m; total cost €122m. One of the main objectives is to increase the level of ICT use and develop ICT as a fundamental axis of the knowledge economy. Transport and Energy: EU contribution €450m; total cost €691m. Here the objectives are to improve transport infrastructure for better traffic flows through the road network and integrate Extremadura into the national communication network; promote and improve the communication network with neighbouring territories; promote accessibility within the region.

Murcia

Development of the Knowledge Economy (R&D&I: Information Society and ICTs): EU contribution €80m; total cost €100m. The main objective will be to encourage public and private investments in research and development infrastructure and projects. Transport and Energy: EU contribution €165.5m; total cost €254m. This aims to complete transport infrastructures, particularly for railways and air transport and clean urban transport. Local and Urban Sustainable Development: EU contribution €32m; total cost €46m. This will promote urban areas by addressing existing problems and developing the potential of inner city and suburban areas. Contact details of the Managing Authority for all of the above Programmes (except the Canary Islands Regional Operational Programme) is: Jorge Orozco Perals, Subdirección General de Administración del FEDER, Dirección General de Fondos Comunitarios, Ministerio de Economía y Hacienda, Paseo de la Castellana, 162, E-28071 Madrid, Spain. Telephone: +34 91 583 52 23 Fax: +34 91 583 52 72 E-mail: [email protected]. Website is http://www.dgfc.sgpg.meh.es/index0.jsp? Lng=en TH Margaret Pettit is principal of Clematis Consulting and can be contacted via email at [email protected]

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Advertisers Index Computer Recognition Systems ............................. 49 ESRI ............................................................................... 34 FAMAS ......................................................................... 37 GMV ............................................................................. 33 H3B Media European Congestion Management Think Tank ................................................. 53 and 55 H3B Media Transportal ............................................. 72 Image Sensing Systems .............................................. 05 ISKRA ................................................ inside back cover Noptel .......................................................................... 49

Q-Free ASA ......................................inside front cover Radarlux....................................................................... 16 ROBOT Visual Systems GmbH................... 09 and 11 Satellic Traffic Management ...................................... 03 Swarco ......................................................................... 15 Tamron ......................................................................... 71 Telegra ............................................ outside back cover Vitronic ........................................................................ 07 Westermo ................................................................... 41 White Willow Consulting......................................... 72

Thinking Highways

For more information on the advertisers in this issue please go to www.h3bmedia.com and click on READER ENQUIRIES 72

Vol 3 No 2 Thinking Highways

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