Already, intelligent transportation systems or ITS are seeing deployment in many countries and cities across Europe and North America. Yet the growth potential of ITS in Asia is not to be ignored, as countries across the region are faced with various transportation issues and challenges. Statistically speaking, a re
Already, intelligent transportation systems or ITS are seeing deployment in many countries and cities across Europe and North America. Yet the growth potential of ITS in Asia is not to be ignored, as countries across the region are faced with various transportation issues and challenges.
Statistically speaking, a recent report by Grand View Research cites that the Asia Pacific intelligent transportation system market is expected to exhibit the highest compound annual growth rate from 2016 to 2024. “This growth can be attributed to increase in deployment of ITS in countries such as India, China, and Australia,” the research paper said. “For instance, the Chinese government is focusing on deployment of innovative transportation with emphasis on intelligent vehicles and intelligent transportation throughout the forecast period.”
Indeed, ITS can be used to address various transportation issues that countries are facing. One of them is combating traffic congestion. “ITS is helping detect congestion and consequently shortening of travel time. GPS tracking of vehicles with help of cellular or other communication technologies are fueling detection of congestion or fatalities in real time. As an example, the Republic of Korea has reduced the travel time by 15 to 20 percent,” said Abhijit Roy, Associate Director at Happiest Minds Technologies.
Meanwhile, transportation authorities are also turning to ITS for smart parking and toll collection purposes. “Parking in urban areas has become a challenge with increase in vehicles and leading to traffic congestion due to parking at unauthorized places. Parking sensors are now enabling easy navigation to a vacant spot for drivers. Drivers can use is to easily reserve a parking space much before they arrive at the spot with no hassle,” said Roy. “Payment technology on toll plazas have improved by using more ubiquitous and secure method of approving payments. For example, the mobile phone's sound frequency is being used by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) Toll Plaza in Bangalore, India to authenticate and approve payments.”
According to Andrew Chow, President of Intelligent Transport Society of Singapore, different markets in Asia have different transportation issues and needs, and they can all be helped by ITS. “In many developing cities in Asia, in particular cities that experience rapid urbanization and economic growth, the traditional transportation infrastructure is failing to fulfill the emerging needs of transportation due to the rapid population growth. These countries are starting to turn to ITS to help solve their transport issues, in particular the worsening traffic congestion problem. Road fatalities are also high in some of these cities, the need to reduce road accidents and improve traffic management capability will be major driving forces for the growing adoption of ITS in these cities,” he said.
For developed nations, they have a different set of demands, Chow said. “For these nations, the adoption of ITS has been gearing toward solving emerging mobility challenges and needs, namely ageing population, changing demography and need of the diverse population, as well as improvement of personal safety. The emerging trend in ITS applications in these cities, among others, include the following area of focus: big data and IoT, vehicle telematics, mobile apps/devices and autonomous vehicle,” he said.