CONDUITS - Coordination of Network Descriptors for Urban Intelligent Transportation Systems
Overview
Background & policy context:
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are increasingly being deployed in urban areas as part of the response to the transport issues they face. The services offered range from traffic control through public transport information to travel demand management.
However, as each urban area tends to be autonomous and act in response to its own political pressures, it is very difficult to build a picture across Europe and beyond of how ITS is being used to provide solutions, the scale of deployment and the comparative effectiveness of the implemented solutions. It is important to have this wide picture because it can inform where future investment is needed in research, training and deployment. This information can show where the market is effective, where barriers need to be removed and where the effectiveness of investment can be improved.
Objectives:
The main objectives of CONDUITS were to:
- establish a coherent set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to indicate ITS good practice. The KPIs will:
- help understanding in which areas the transport network of a city is performing well;
- address all areas in which ITS applications can improve performance, i.e. safety, efficiency of individual modes, sustainable transport and environmental issues;
- identify potential improvements in providing transport for disadvantaged population groups (disadvantaged by location, disabilities or poverty);
- assess whether recent investments in the transportation network have brought improvements in these areas;
- assist transport planners and engineers to make business cases for future ITS investments;
- understand European cities future ITS plans and to compare this to ITS worldwide. This comparison will:
- help transport policy formation in European cities to understand where they stand in comparison to other cities worldwide and to set intermediate goals;
- assist politicians, as well as transport engineers to build the case for investment in appropriate urban ITS systems;
- provide an insight into how far the investment plans of European cities reflect the key theme of integrated mobility;
- clarify the market for specific ITS applications and to understand the barriers to implementation. This will:
- enable the further identification of possible markets for ITS applications (e.g. showing that the recent investments in new traffic management and control systems in Tel Aviv or Berlin have led to significant improvements could stimulate interest in several other cities);
- facilitate investigating the potential for implementing recent technological advances through targeted case studies that are of interest to the city partners (based on findings from a 2007 city comparison project funded by Transport for London (TfL), possible topics for case studies of interest to all city partners would include the potential for designing a decision support system, data Framework and ITS architecture and effective presentation of travel conditions to the public;
- establish a basis to understand the interest of cities in innovative ITS research ideas (e.g. a framework for an informed discussion with several cities regarding future priorities for innovations in traffic signal control having understood the particular context these cities ar
Methodology:
The CONDUITS project had a strong city involvement which intended to develop a number of tools to assist local authorities in making investment decisions on ITS. The project's objectives will be achieved through the coordination of research and development activities, so as to gather information on the programmes of cities and research teams, to improve communication, and to define the mutual needs and develop better reciprocal knowledge. In addition, the results are expected to benefit a wider range of ITS stakeholders, including the research community and the ITS industry by:
- showing the most promising areas for urban ITS where research efforts should be directed;
- achieving an internationally-recognised standard measure for quantifying benefits, enabling better and faster decision making by policy makers;
- stimulating more private high-tech investment by lowering the risk and uncertainty associated with intelligent transport systems.
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