165The Future of Intelligent Transport Systems. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818281-9.00015-2
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Chapter 15
ITS programs and strategies
worldwide
15.1 International strategies for ITS
The interest of global markets in smart technologies for traffic management in
large cities, and the increasing interest for sustainable intelligent transport sys-
tem (ITS) solutions that combine ICT with transport engineering for delivering
faster, safer, and secure transport systems, has led to a projected global market
for ITS (for 2024) that surpasses US$ 40 billion. On the other side, the yearly
cost from road congestion, due to transportation network inefficiencies, is at the
scale of billions of dollars in gross GDP for US cities. Similarly, since Asia-
Pacific is becoming increasingly urban, with an expected 64% of the population
living in large cities by 2050, the demand for efficient public and individual
transport increases. It is indicative that car ownership in China surpasses 154
million, with raised negative environmental, social and economic impacts. A
study in India revealed that the operational inefficiencies at toll stations result
in a total cost for freight transportation industry of nearly USD 5.4 billion, with
almost 90% of the cost being the extra fuel that vehicles spend for stopping
or decelerating at the tolls, and only 10% being on waiting time (Vanajakshi,
Ramadurai & Anand, 2010).
For this reason, governments and local administration (e.g., large cities)
across the globe invest in innovative solutions concerning intelligent transporta-
tion networks. In the same line, international organizations, experts groups, and
think tanks launch ITS development programs and design strategies that will
take ITS to the next level.
The US ITS Strategic Plan for 2015–19 (Barbaresso, et al., 2014) aimed to
connect each individual citizen (e.g., drivers, passengers, cyclists, pedestrians,
etc.) to the community, taking advantage of advances in the “Internet of Things”
movement and defined the priorities and the mission of ITS. This connected
and collaborative approach aimed to provide safer and more efficient transpor-
tation, location-aware information to individuals and predictive analytics and
collective knowledge to the transportation community (which includes public
agencies and private organizations). The vision of a “connected society” was
based on three technology pillars: Connected vehicles, emerging capabilities,
and automation, which are complemented by several horizontal building blocks