‘At the helm’ - article on the future of traffic management and cooperative systems

Date: 29/1/2010

Source: Intertraffic World (Issue 1, p.50)

In this article Frans op de Beek, a senior ITS consultant in the Netherlands, discusses the future of ITS and co-operative systems in transport and how policy can aid and guide their development.

Increased usage of smartphones will in future enable a typical user to both receive real-time information, and collect and distribute it from the phone. Intelligent vehicles and infrastructure are now being developed and by 2030, are expected to be with us. Vehicles and road infrastructure will benefit from more, newer Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), allowing for the communication between intelligent vehicles, as well as intelligent vehicle and the intelligent road.

The Dutch Ministry of Transport’s policy framework defines four areas for influencing traffic by:

• Inform (e.g. travel times, weather , road works)
• Warn and advise (e.g. traffic conditions, speeds, routes)
• Guide and instruct (e.g. lane change, safety)
• Intervene (e.g. lane departure warning assistance).

These areas apply to the four major “actors” in the transport system: User/Driver, Intelligent infrastructure, Intelligent vehicles, Network manager/operator. At the moment, a strong link exists only between two of those, the User and the Network operator. The goal of a co-operative system should be to establish clear links between all four parties that work together to inform, warn and advise, guide and instruct, and intervene if necessary.

By 2030 all four major parties should have clear links between each other; this will enable each one of them to take on the leading role during different parts of a journey and depending on the situation. However, in order for this to happen, organisational, commercial and technical architecture needs to be put in place that will guide the development and implementation of such co-operative systems.

Key words: Communications, Cooperative vehicle systems, Policy, Traffic information