thinkinghighways.com46 Vol 9 No 4 North America

OPINION PIECE Smart infrastructure

The transition to smarter infrastructure may seem daunting but much of the groundwork has already been done, says David E. Pickeral

Pulling it all together

As the 21st World Congress on Intelligent Transporta-tion Systems (ITSWC) in Detroit affirmed this past September, ITS has gone mainstream. Citizens, indus-

try and political leaders across a diversity of backgrounds now realize the need to collect, analyze, exchange and above all use the data from anything that rolls, floats, flies – or even walks – from the next street over to around the globe.

As a large number of stakeholders across government and industry begin to join those of us who have been in the ITS community for years in this endeavor, it will become appar-ent that a lot of progress has been made in relative obscurity. For more than two decades the process of digitizing trans-

portation networks from the local to the global level has been ongoing. Automated fare collection (AFC) and electronic toll collection systems (ETC) have been installed around the world. Automated traffic management systems (ATMS) rou-tinely monitor traffic flows and other information on major highway systems. These and other systems have been highly effective in enhancing their own modes through the discrete functionality they provide, in ways vital though often trans-parent to the traveling public.

The task therefore is not one of filling a blank space, even less of ripping and replacing, but of enabling transcendence into a smarter, connected transportation environment that

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Smart infrastructure

“The task therefore is not one of filling a blank space, even less of ripping and replacing, but of enabling transcendence into a smarter, connected transportation environment that offers ever more than the sum its parts”

offers ever more than the sum its parts. The current state of the industry, and the challenge for the future of develop-ing a smarter transportation ecosystem lies rather in pull-ing together once highly separated modal elements into a unified and seamless information architecture – and even more so in ensuring that further development takes place within this connected environment to ensure that no mode (or passenger) is left behind, from pedestrians to planes, to high speed rail. The positive here is that if undertaken with proper planning and a genuine respect for what has been put in place already the need not be, in the traditional use of the term, disruptive.

BUGGIES TO BYTESThe most consistently demonstrated reality of transporta-tion system development is that radical overnight transi-tion is seldom possible – and almost never desirable – from a socio-economic prospective. It should be remembered in this context that in North America even after automobiles became commonplace use of the horse and buggy continued right up until the Second World War due to such factors as cost, reliability and convenience (including the availability of grass and feed as an easily procurable and, after all, renewa-ble resource!). In similar fashion the sail-to-steam transition or the canals-to-railroads evolution was one that spanned a long period of time because the earlier infrastructure and equipment, and skills to operate it remained available and above all valued by and the customers they served.

The transition to ITS systems is distinguishable from these examples, however because it does not represent the outward transition of one mode to the other so much as it does an infusion of ICT technology into what is already there. Nar-rowboaters on Britain’s centuries-old canal network (which incidentally are enjoying a resurgence of popularity there as commercial, recreational and environmental corridors) are a very active community using mobile and social applications to enhance their cruising experience, and even passenger and freight revenues are again possible. Cyclists plan their trips and routing using apps and personal GPS systems in communities of all sizes. Any number of new or enhanced vehicle/ride pooling, renting and sharing schemes allow immediate connectivity between supply and demand – all without any additional physical infrastructure being built.

Based almost entirely on the ability of ICT technology to

share information ubiquitously and in real time there is a gradual shift from individually owned private vehicles that have been the norm for nearly a century to a number of other modes of transportation that have been substantially enhanced if not created outright due to this technology. The government and commercial entities that deliver such services, and indeed the auto industry itself, are engaged in the transformation, and will do so in a way that ensures a measured transition that preserves deeply ingrained US and Canadian travel habits and expectations, not to mention a substantial amount of jobs and other economic benefits surrounding the automobile industry. Unlike the horse and buggy, the idea this time around is not that of promoting one mode over another so much as ensuring all of them work as part of a seamless mosaic of transportation options from everything to daily commutes to one-time trips by visitors.

COMPLIMENTARY CONNECTEDNESSEvery connected vehicle, every mobile device, toll tag and smart card now has to some extent the ability to become both a node and a probe. A node as a user of this network, eve-rything potentially from entertainment to communication, even retail purchases. Likewise there is a growing abundance of sensor data to be aggregated from vehicles, with weather conditions, routes taken, driving hazards, services or goods used or desired along the way only a part of the mosaic of content that will flow to and from vehicle connecting road-side to onboard systems and users.

This concept represents of course the fusion of two very established industries that have grown up alongside but until now distinctly separate from one another: telematics, effectively the development in vehicle systems intelligent transportation systems focused historically on roadside infrastructure; and back office systems. As the two continue to move together they deliver the promise of a truly seamless information environment between vehicles and the world beyond. Ironically the original term that many of us remem-ber for ITS, intelligent vehicle and highway systems or IVHS me once again become the more appropriate term.

In order to ensure this, yet more work continues to be done largely in the background. The International Standards Organization Technical Committee 204 Intelligent transport systems (TC-204) met in the last week of October in Vancou-ver. Such critical global standards issues were presented and

thinkinghighways.com48 Vol 9 No 4 North America

OPINION PIECE Smart infrastructure

“The idea this time around is not that of promoting one mode over another so much as ensuring all of them work as part of a seamless mosaic of transportation options from everything to daily commutes to one-time trips by visitors”

discussed by the various working groups including security, GIS applications, spectrum band compatibility and harmoni-zation, and coordination with other international standards bodies such as ETSI. Their work among other things set the stage for just under a year from now when the World Radio-communication Conference (WRC) will convene in Geneva, Switzerland, under the leadership of the International Telecommunications Union – Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R). More than any other, WRC 2015 will be essential for the ITS-Telematics community as such initiatives as eCall in Europe, the US Department of Transportation Connected Vehicle program in the US, and countless others worldwide. By the time the ITS-WC returns to North America in Mon-tréal three years from now, we can expect an even higher level of technical collaboration and policymaking to make sure that between cars, countries continents open accepted standards ensure that information flows openly and in so doing ensures that our roadways do likewise.

SAFETY FIRSTAs urbanization continues the inescapable fact is the surface streets our cities are getting crowded not just with greater numbers of travelers, but with a diversity of modes: a diver-sity of human-powered options from pedestrians to pedicabs and from to cycles to scooters competes with motor vehicles

these days, and some new form of personal urban transport seems to appear every day.

Of all the areas where analytics technology can enhance transportation networks – including increased efficiency, cost reduction, congestion alleviation, preservation of the environment, and sustainability – none is more important than safety.

Be it Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) or Vehicle to Anything (V2X) including pedestrians, the ability to rapidly collect and process ever larger and more precise data on every element of the transportation network will allow total visibility and the ability to predict events before they happen. For example, IBM’s Digital Video Analytics (DVA) capability is already helping transportation operators around the world identify events, such as a person walking across an active rail line, that require intervention well before anyone is put at risk.

Whether alerting a vehicle to a single pedestrian stepping

The ITS sector needs to engage the use of data-based services around cloud, analytics, mobile and social-based solutions

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Smart infrastructure

“The ability of emerging-generation transportation systems to use big data and analytics will ensure that people and vehicles can avoid occupying the same space at the same time even when operating in close proximity”

below involve little or no modification of the current physi-cal infrastructure. Unfortunately, in much of the world and especially in North America, the process for funding, con-tracting and building transportation infrastructure is indeed still focused tunnels and structures and miles of lanes or rail-way – not procuring solutions as such

Going forward, it will be essential to orient procurements not towards acquiring capital assets, but to engage the use of data-based services around cloud, analytics, mobile, social-based solutions that will replace such assets as roadside gan-tries or servers with the same or better capabilities through services supporting almost every aspect of transportation operations with a substantial reduction in capital costs, and simply put, less infrastructure to build, maintain and retire to achieve the same level of service to the traveling public.

This is one area among many where public-private part-nerships (PPP) can assist, providing as it does the security and public trust of government authority and oversight with the flexibility and responsiveness of private resources. As an alternative (some might even say an evolution) of the Design-Build concept, a PPP model would allow the ability to procure solutions based on clearly established perform-ance criteria, rather than simply adding lanes.

However undertaken, it is essential that results and not physical inventory need to drive what is put in place com-plete the convergence of physical with digital, and to make both equally important in terms of the quality of transporta-tion services provided to the public

CONCLUSIONAlthough North America has in many ways been conserva-tive in adopting many ITS technologies, all the building blocks for positive change are here. Even more than that the ingenuity and creativity in the transportation industry is here and always has been. Now with a little help from new friends made in Detroit and elsewhere during 2014, the transforma-tion is picking up speed.

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| David E Pickeral is Transportation Sector Lead for

the IBM Industry Smarter Solutions Team based in the sustainable community of Reston, Virginia, USA

depicker@us.ibm.com

www.linkedin.com/in/pickeral

in front of it on a dark roadway, or dealing with tens of thou-sands of people walking in the streets at a major sporting event or demonstration, the ability of emerging-generation transportation systems to use big data and analytics will ensure that people and vehicles can avoid occupying the same space at the same time even when operating in close proximity. Such systems moreover overlay existing road-ways, bike and pedestrian paths, etc, making such existing infrastructure safer without the need to re-engineer and replace, making them eminently cost effective for the return on investment in safety and the other benefits they provide

GETTING WHAT’S NEEDEDAs I have observed before (and will continue to bring up at every opportunity) one the most desired and urgent nearer term changes to facilitate ITS development concerns the procurement model. As mentioned many of the capabilities