Effective road and traffic management

Written evidence from MIRA (ETM 20)

1. Moving people and goods quickly, efficiently and cheaply is central to the future growth of the UK economy.

2. Evidence from the Department of Transport's "The Future of Urban Transport" report shows that the measurable costs of urban transport of congestion, road accidents and poor air quality are each in the region of about £10 billion per annum.

3. Present patterns of transport growth are unsustainable without strategic intervention into the intelligent management of existing infrastructure

4. Optimising urban, sub-urban, national and international transport infrastructures will be required. This can only be achieved through concerted and co-ordinated investment and intervention in existing and new transport infrastructures across all modes of road transport.

5. A high level systems approach by government and local authorities to addressing R&D needs is required in order to deliver Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) that offer high value/payback and competitive advantage to the UK Transport Systems sector.

6. It has been proven that on several occasions inappropriate driver behaviour increases accident frequency, accident severity, reduces capacity, increases atmospheric and noise pollution, and can more generally reduce the quality of a local environment. Therefore, consideration must also be given to influencing driver behaviours for example through the use of advanced driver information systems such as intelligent navigation, speed adaptation and instantaneous emissions models which can encourage safer and greener driver behaviours and increase the efficiency of transport system capacity.

7. ITS technologies to address transport congestion management are relatively mature however targeted actions to address interoperability and fragmented market penetration are required. Areas for attention include

· The optimised use of all forms of transport data

· Data and infrastructure security

· Interoperability of traffic and freight

· Safety

· Vehicle to vehicle Integration

· Vehicle to transport infrastructure

· Autonomy liability issues

· National and international co-operation and co-ordination of ITS

8. Intelligent Transportation systems will undoubtedly play a critical role in solving congestion on both existing and new transport infrastructure. In the short term, by intelligently controlling existing infrastructure such as traffic lights, signage and speed, it will be possible to improve traffic routing and reduce congestion and its effects. For example sections of controlled motorways with variable speed limit signs have shown that co-operating vehicles can improve journey times, accident statistics and emissions at the same time.

9. Co-operative vehicle movement can also be achieved by using vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communications technologies. These systems have low fixed infrastructure requirements and can also be used to modify the behaviour of road users in a co-operative fashion so as to influence the network in a dynamic way and optimise traffic flow.

10. The wide spread implementation of ITS will facilitate real time route planning to ensure the least congested routes are used reducing overall journey time, emissions and improving safety. Ultimately, by convincing users of the benefits of the co-operative use of the transport infrastructure it will be possible to implement systems for optimised selection of the most efficient and cost effect mode of transportation.

11. Government intervention is required on the standardisation of intelligent systems so the plethora of systems already implemented and any future complimentary or competing systems can operate in unison across regional, national and international boundaries.

12. Data acquired from ITS will also have a pivotal role to play in the planning and optimisation of future infrastructure and thus generating a greater return on investment. The availability of both public and private source data is required and Government has a key role to play in making this happen.

13. Legislation on the implementation and liabilities associated with semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicle technologies is required to enable the additional benefits offered through the use of such technologies to be realised.

14. A clear understanding of who benefits from the implementation of traffic management systems is required as this will have an impact on user behaviour. Whilst it is clear that ITS can enable multi-modal transportation systems to be connected, this needs to be done from the user perspective otherwise the public will not question the need for personalised modes of transport and congestion will not be addressed.

15. The business models for investment and revenue generation from ITS are complex and need to be better understood at a systems level to realise full economic advantage. The key is improving the connections between the different sectors and the different technologies involved in ITS, starting with R&D. Government has a key role to play in bringing this about.

January 2011