ITS programs and strategies worldwide Chapter | 15 171Intelligent Transportation Technology Integration Application Demonstration”
program focused on creating a large-scale and integrated traffic management
service and introduced key technologies for traffic management and road safety.
15.3 Socio and technoeconomic aspects of ITS
ITS are exploited by policymakers at a national level for increasing safety, effi-
ciency, and sustainability in transport. The services are provided at three levels.
First, the technology is provided and controlled by the central and local govern-
ments (e.g., air traffic control systems, dynamic road signs in autoroutes, traf-
fic management systems, etc.). Then, private companies and local governments
develop services in which the central government has limited control (e.g., navi-
gation and car safety systems, advanced car control systems, etc.). Finally, part
of the data that are created with this process is shared anonymously as open
data, in order to support more services to be developed.
In order to guarantee the longevity and sustainability of ITS solutions is
important to study all the social and technological aspects that can be affected.
A technoeconomic study on the technical and financial ability of ITS [more
specifically of driver assistance systems (DAS), automated highway systems
(AHS), and commercial vehicle operations (CVO) for freight traffic] to reduce
CO 2 emissions (Psaraki, Pagoni & Schafer, 2012) concluded that: (1) the Euro-
pean wide highways can accommodate AHS by devoting one lane for vehicle
platooning, (2) CVO systems can have only indirect capacity benefits by reduc-
ing the travel time via proper commercial fleet management, (3 the social accep-
tance for DAS technologies can be negatively influenced from the fear of drivers
to lose vehicles’ control or the fear of pedestrians and passengers to ride driver-
less cars, the stress that emerges from the short distances between platooning
vehicles and the fear for data privacy breaches.
Further studies introduce more uncertainties and challenges to the sustain-
ability of ITS, such as intelligent transportation cost, the indirect environmental
impact, the possible lack of data, and the varying goals and subjective opin-
ions of the multiple stakeholders (Kolosz & Grant-Muller, 2016; Moradi &
Vagnoni, 2018). They also defined several tools for exploring the landscape for
ITS, including cost-benefit and effectiveness analysis, environmental risk and
impact assessment and cost analysis of the whole ITS life cycle. The combined
use of such tools is expected to identify the dynamics of smart mobility and
ITSs and define how transport managers can early detect the risks of their sys-
tems, act, and improve their performance.
References
Austrade. (2019). Future transport and mobility, Australian capabilities and opportunities. The
Australian Trade and Investment Commission. https://www.austrade.gov.au/future-transport/.
Barbaresso, J., Cordahi, G., Garcia, D., Hill, C., Jendzejec, A., Wright, K., & Hamilton, B. A.
(2014). USDOT’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) ITS strategic plan, 2015-2019