ITS and economic growth: investment, stakeholders, and relations Chapter | 8 101
• The ability to support free-transportation operations among neighboring ar-
eas.
• The frequency of natural disasters in specific areas.
• The size and capacity of the national road-network operator, if it is a single
one, or the ability of multiple operators to collaborate and coordinate ac-
tions.
• The existence of widely accepted standards and frameworks for the design,
development, and operation of ITS.
8.5 Barriers
The biggest problem that one has to face when they want to develop their own
model for assessing the social and economic impacts of the implementation of
the ITS in a society, it is that every society and every region has its own unique
economic and physical characteristics. This implies that any bibliographical
references have been using financial models that depend on the particular char-
acteristics of each region. In addition, such surveys are usually conducted at a
national level and this means that each country uses its own software and finan-
cial models that are not available to the general public for investigation.
Moreover, as new ITS technologies often open completely new markets in
the transport sector, ITS has the potential to have great impact, as discussed
earlier, in a number of areas. However, in order to achieve these impacts on a
Pan-European level, the regulatory, market and cultural/attitudinal barriers need
to be overcome, such as:
- The regulatory and financial (e.g., insurance) boundary conditions for higher
levels of automation that are often associated with next generation ITS are
under strong discussion and evolution, presenting a big fragmentation at
Member State level, and will naturally impact the market for the enabling
technology. - ITS technologies will be successful on the market only with appropriate
customer acceptance and trust. - The identified risk for achieving the public-cost savings in maintenance con-
tracting, road inspections, and surveillance are strongly connected to con-
tract terms set by each of the bodies executing procurement.
8.6 Conclusions
The analysis above indicates the importance of exploring the impact of invest-
ment on ITS in an economy. It becomes clear that the differentiation of the
search methods according to the application area and the data available is cru-
cial for the results to which a researcher can be led.
It also recognizes the importance of quantifying the impact on the economy
from the ITS implementation viewpoint. Evaluating such investments is a tool
in the hands of the leadership of each country as a decision-maker, they cost a
lot, but will yield in the long run.