Thinking Highways Europe/Rest of the World, March 2007

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Volume 2 Issue 1 Q1/2007

OIL ING THE MACHINEThe inner w ork ings of c ooperat i veveh ic le inf rast ruc t ure sys tem s

RICH PICK INGS

Does Ind ia have the c apabi l i t yt o becom e an ITS superpow er?

PAUSE FOR THOUGHTPhi l Tar nof f get s ser iousabout h ighw ay sa fe ty

AGREE TO DISAGREEGNSS: d isc uss in you row n wo rd s

T H IN K IN G

H IG H W A Y SEUROPE/REST o f t h e WORLD EDITION

A d v a n c e d t r a n s p o r t a t i o n m a n a g e m e n t

p o l i c y s t r a t e g y t e c h n o l o g y

f i n a n c e i nnova t i on i m p l e m e n ta t i o n

i n t e g r a t i o n i n t e r o p e r a b i l i t y

PLUSTranspor t a t ion secur i t y Speed measurem ent Green t ranspor t

Economic po l icy Cyprus Czec h Repub l ic Jos Capel Ferrer,

Predrag Balentov ic & Steve More l lo in ter v iew s

NEW COLUMN ISTSthe

INTELLIGENTchoice


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You rea lly didn t think tha t

would be our one and only

iss ue, did you? Shame on

you, oh ye of little faith.If youve tried calling us over

the past few months and beenput through to our recordedselves and thought where are

they, then? and imagined thatwere scrabbling around forarticles and adverts, then weforgive you. Since we launchedThinking Highways at the ITSWorld Congress our feet havebarely touched the ground(literally on one occasion, butthat was my fault for wearinginappropriate shoes for the icyconditions).

Weve spent many a longhour explaining our vision fora multimedia transport futureto a multitude of people andhave so far received nothingbut positive responses andreactions. To us, this is

vindication that we have gotthe angle of approach right.

Theres no need to take ourword for it, either. How aboutthis from a highly satisfiedreader: I actually need toforce myself to get through

many of these somewhat dryindustry publications, its sortof a necessary evil. That is

Editor-in-ChiefKevin [email protected]

Sales and MarketingLuis [email protected]

Design and LayoutPhoebe Bentley,Kevin Bor ras

Guest DesignersThe Design Dell (pages 38-47)www.design-dell.co.uk

Sub-Editor and ProofreaderMaria Vasconcelos

Contributing Editors

Bruce Abernethy, James Joseph,AndrewPickford,Phil Sayeg,Phil Tarnoff, DarryllThomas,Harold Wor rall,Amy Zuckerman

Contributors to this issueAlexis Avgoustis,Barbara Bernadi, IvanFencl,Bern Grush, Alan Hayes,ZeljkoJeftic, Jenny Jones,Paul Kompfner,

T h i n k in g H ig h w a y s is published by H3B M edia Ltd.

ISSN 1753-433X

T h i n k in g H ig h w a y s is published quarterly in two editions North America andEurope/Rest of the World - and is available on subscription at 30/40 (Europe/RoW) andUS$60 (Nor th America).Distr ibuted in t he USA by DSW 75 Aberdeen Road, Emigsville,PA 17318-0437 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Emigsville, PA. POSTMASTER: send addresschanges to Thinking Highways,401 SW Water Street, Suite 201B,Peoria,I llinois 61602,USA.

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Back for goodTh e re s n o th i n g q u i te l i k e f e e l i n g e n t i re ly v in d ic a te d .Ju s t a s k K EVIN B O RR AS. Or b e t t e r s t i l l , l e t h i m t e l l y o u

1T h in k in g H ig h w a y s Vol 2 No 1w w w . h 3 b m e d i a . c o m

Fo re w o rd Th i n k i n g

Managing DirectorLuis Hill

Publishing Dir ectorKevin Borras

www.h3bmedia.com

Kevin Borras ispublishing director

of H3B Media a nd

editor-in-chief of

Thinking Highway s

Europe/ Rest of the

World Edition.

You didnt reallythink that wouldbe our one andonly issue, did

you?

until now of course, and for thatI am most grateful to you.Thanks for making itinteresting for a change!

Or this from an industryexpert: Your first issuecontained some of the mostfascinating and thought-

provoking articles Ive read inyears. We all know that a lot ofthis technology is brilliant, but

correspondence.However, you wont find out if

you dont register! Just go tothe H3B Media TransPortal at

www.h3bmedia.com and itllonly take you a minute. Whileyou are there, Id like to inviteyou to also register for the

online versions of all three ofour titles as well. You read them

just like you would a printedmagazine; they downloadalmost instantly as they openas images in your webbrowser; they are publishedup to two weeks before theprinted versions and you canhave free access to the North

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Other highly innovativefeatures will be and indeed areavailable on the TransPortal soplease take a look.

Finally, another shamelessplug. Pages 38-47 of this issue

were lovingly crafted by TheDesign Dell, a highly creativegroup of people based in Ely,Cambridgeshire, so thanks toDan Donovan and his team.

And if youd like tocontribute something to our

June issue, please give it somethought.T H

[email protected]

the real brilliance is in how youimplement and integrate it.Marvellous stuff!

These were just two ofdozens of congratulatoryemails and calls wevereceived (and we also got alovely hand-written letter fromThailand) and were nowhoping that this next batch ofthree issues (includingThinking Highways North

America and our road pricingtitle,ETC, etc, will illicit suchsimilarly heart-warming

Stefano Mainero, Steve Morello, MalavikaNataraj,Jos Pap,Priti Prajapati, OndrejPribyl, Sybille Rupprecht, Phil Tarnoff,Paul Vorster

Subscriptions and Cir culationPilarin Harvey-Granell

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COLUMNS0 4 Eurocities Mobility Forum0 8 Paul Vorsters ITS South Africa Update

COVER STOR Y

1 2 Is the CVIS project Europes answer to the USAsVII? Paul Kompfner and Zeljko Jeftic explain

THE THOUGHT PR OCESS2 0 Steve Morello, Business Development Manager,

Egis Projects, France

THE THINKER2 2 ITS guru Phil Tarnoffs thoughts on the global

pandemic that is highway fatalities

CHATROOM2 8 Kevin Borras travelled to Croatia to talk lux

intensity, geographical misconceptions andpiano scales with Telefon-Gradnjascharismatic CEO, Predrag Balentovic...

3 5 ... and then had an illuminating audience with

Jos Capel Ferrer, Director of the UnitedNations ECEs Transport Division

THINKING DIFFER ENTLY3 8 Bern Grush looks at how the different schools of

thought at work in the world of GNSS arentreally helping its global take-up. A 10-pagefeature created by The Design Dell

THE N ATIONALS4 8 Priti Prajapati on ERTICOs role in the ground-

breaking EU-India programmes

5 6 Is India just playing a traffic management gameor is it a serious player, asks Malavika Nataraj

6 0 Its said that a country must not build its way outof its transport problems. Try telling that to theCzech Republic, says Ivan Fencl

6 4 Alex Avgoustis reports from his home town of

Nicosia, capital of Cyprus, as it prepares toembark on some much-needed trafficmanagement catch-up

C o n t e n t s

K EVIN AG UIGUI looks at the potent ia l for d igital video fo rs u r v e i l l a n c e a n d h o m e l a n d s e c u r i t y p u r p o s e s a n d w o n d e r s i f w e v e c o m e a s f a r a s w e s h o u l d h a v e d o n e

With an economy (GDP) growing more tha n 8 percent each year, India has divested an increasingamount of investment on infrastructure. This isbeing done through initiatives such as the construc-

tion of National Highways.However,with80,000 deathsannuallyonIndianroads,

existing road safetymeasuresaresaidtobeinsufficientandnot enoughisbeingdonetocounteract thisalarm-ing statistic.Up tonow,IT-based applicationsfor roadtransport havenot beenfullydevelopedordeployedinIndia,yet thereisahugepotential.

ERTICOsfirststephasbeenthroughtheEC-funded

projectsEU-IndiaandSIMBAthat it coordinatestoraiseawarenessof ITSand thestandardsand technologiesavailableinEurope,todefineprioritiesand require-mentsin Indiaand worktowardsareasfor jointcollaborationinresearch.

IndiaandtheEU havebeendescribedasnaturalcooperationpartnersbytheEU Ambassador for India,FranciscodaCamaraGomes,thankstotheir commonidealsandpolitical values,long standingcultural andhistoricallinks,convergent geopoliticalperceptions(particularlyinrelationtomultilateralismand regionalintegration),similarscienceandtechnologypriorities

and associatedethical concerns,aswell asmutual eco-nomicinterest intheoutcomesof researchanditsusebyenterpriseand society.

Establishing links:the EU-India projectTherootsof ERTICOsowncooperationwithIndiagobacktoAugust 2005,whenit participated intheAsia-PacificITSConferenceandExhibitionin NewDelhi.There,it signedacooperationagreement withAITSIndiainthepresenceof Shri Kapil Sibal,Minister for Sci-enceandTechnology.ThishelpedleadtothebeginningoftheEU-IndiaprojectinDecemberofthatsameyear.

EU-Indiaaimstoimproveroad safetyand theefficiencyof transportationsystemsinIndiathroughaclosecoop-erationbetweenEuropeanandIndian stakeholdersdefiningkeyissuesfor ITSdeployment -inparticular,Intelligent IntegratedSafetySystems(eSafety) inIndia.

Essentially,theproject facilitatesEU-Indiacoopera-tiontodefineITSprioritiesinIndiaand identifyfuturecooperationprojects.It achievesthisthroughtheorgan-isationof workshopsand events,aswell asthebuildingof networks of collaboration.Theseservetoraiseaware-nessof ITSand itsbenefitsfor India,aswell asshareinformationonbest practices.Theproject alsohelpscreatemarket opportunitiesfor bothEuropeanandIndianbusinesses,bringingresearcherstogethertoencouragejoint EU-Indiaresearchinitiatives.

Thefirst EU-Indiaevent wasapriorityworkshop inMarch2006 whichserved asagood introductorymeet-ing and insight intothecontext and prioritiesinIndia.ERTICO ledagroup of EuropeanITSexpertstomeetinstitutes involved intransport management and plan-ning inIndia,suchaskeystakeholdersCentral RoadResearchInstituteand Delhi TrafficPolice.TheIndianhostspresented their current activitiesintransportplanning and wereverykeentomeet EU stakeholders.

Establishing a needAt that point intime,Indiawasat thestageof workingtowardstheenablersor pre-conditionstoITS:

Infrastructure:Thefocuswasmainlyontheconstruc-tionof theGoldenQuadrilateral,Indiasexpresshigh-

wayconstructionplanof 5846 kmof four/six lanes,whichlinksfour cornersof thecountry:Delhi,Mumbai,Kolkataand Chennai,thelatter threepreviouslyknownbytheir old,colonial namesof Bombay,CalcuttaandMadras.Availabilityof digital maps:IndiasMap Policywas

announcedin2005,whenOpenSeriesMapsbecametheresponsibilityofSurveyofIndia/Department of Sci-ence.Thepolicystatedthat mapuserscanmakevalue-added additionstothemapsand sharetheinformationunder initiationstotheSurveyof India.Privateagencies

would beallowedtocarryout surveysacrossIndiausingpublicdomaindatum,aslong astheywereregisteredandaccreditedbytheSurveyof India.

Stakeholders:It emerged that manystakeholdersinIndia,such as the Government of India (GoI),ITS India,TrafficPolice,and local transport authoritieswerenotcooperatinginITSdevelopment.AITSIndiahas,since2000,seenoneofitsmainrolesasraisingawarenessofITSanditsbenefitsinIndiaamongst policymakersandrelevant businessandacademia.According toAITSIndia,inorder for ITStoprogress,it would needtobecoordinated withinapublic-privateplatform,whichdidnot yet exist.

Existenceof piecemeal efforts:Despiteindividualefforts,ITSwasnot being coordinated and drivenfromasingleplatformand roadmap.Initiativeshavebeenintroduced mainlybythelocal statetransport corpora-tion,suchasthefirst vehicletracking systemusing GPSfor publictransport buses-aninitiativeof theBangaloreTransportCorporation.TheIndianInstituteofTechnol-

Nationalpride

I n t e r n a t i o n a l C o o p e r a t io n i s a k e ypr ior ity for ERTICO ITS Europe ast h e m o b i l i t y c h a l l e n g e s t h a t E u r o p ef a c e s a r e s h a r e d w o r l d w i d e . A sPRITI PRAJAPATI report s, one regionw h i c h h a s c a u g h t t h e i n t e r e s t o f ERTICO and it s par tners is Ind ia


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TRANSP ORT SECURITY6 8 Is our transport infrastructure as safe as it

should be? Stefano Mainero suspects not7 4 Alan Hayes details the importance of future-

proofing video transmission for ITS

P OLICY P ERSP ECTIVE8 0 Jos Papi, Secretary General of the Interna-

tional Road Federation - Brussels ProgrammeCentre on road transport economics

SPEED ENFORCEMENT

8 4 Ondrej Pribyl discusses how different methodsof speed enforcement affect driver behaviour

CONFERENCE P REVIEW8 8 The IRFs Black Sea and Silk Road 2007

COMMENT

9 2 Jenny Jones, the Mayor of Londons GreenTransport Advisor on why we arent spendingenough on low-tech stuff .. . like road safety

9 6 Advertisers Index

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Nowadays, as our cities

continue to g row, loc al

authorities have to rec oncil e

the goal of providing the

me ans for more people to

travel to and around the city

(with lim ited poss ibilities to

build m ore capacity) with

the overarching nee d of

address ing issues of

conge stion, pollution andclimate change.

This will not be achievedunless we set up a strong,sustainable and innovativetransport sector that bringsabout efficient traffic flows.

Today we find ourselves at adefining moment. Passengerand freight operators shouldstop asking themselves the oldfashioned question what is the

quickest was from getting fromA to B, and rather addressingthe new million Euro question:What is the most sustainable

way from getting from A to B?.

FightingtalkCi t i e s h o l d th e k e y s t o s u s ta i n a b l e m o b i l i ty

4 Vol 2 No 1 T h in k in g H ig h w a y s w w w . h 3 b m e d i a . c o m

Eu ro c i ti e s M o b i li ty Fo r u m

We need a

strong,sustainable andinnovative

transport sector

To answer that question weneed to urgently devise amodel facing challenges suchas growth and development,transport flows and mobility.Most of all, this model mustunderline that access to

health, to leisure and so on, allrequiring more and moremobility, it can be argued that

we are witnessing theemergence of what could becalled a right to mobility, aright that is generic insofaras it is the prerequisite for allof the above.

The importance of urban

mobility in the day-to day livesof individuals and in businessactivities also means thatgreater attention needs to bepaid to the quality of the publicinfrastructure environment. Infact, its growth raises problemsof different kinds ofintermodality and co-modality,of accessibility, of spacerequirements, of safety,environment, and so on.

Resolving these problemsrequire new approaches whichwill analyse the wider policyimplication from a muchbroader perspective.

goods, facilities, services andactivities, and not theirmovement of is thesustainable approach. It is nolonger a question of just being

been able to move around, butof having access to genuineand sustainable urbanmobility. With access to work,to housing, to education, to


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X x x x x

simplyADVANCEDIntroducing Autoscope Terra Technology > High-performancevideo detection employing sophisticated technology to simplify installation, setup

and use. > Streaming digital video via Ethernet for system and traffic monitoring.

> Web browser communications to connect from virtually anywhere. > Highway

and intersection Wizard for easy setup. > Fewer wires for quicker installation.

>All of this results in safer, enhanced traffic flow and improved air quality.

Find out more at autoscope.com/terra

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY THAT MERGES

SIMPLICITY AND SOPHISTICATION

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R o b e r t Ke l ly a n d M a r k Jo h n s o nEu ro c i ti e s M o b i li ty Fo r u m

Bravehe arts req uiredUrban Transport is a crucialfactor in this overall picture,but requires a broaderapproach than its namesuggests. If we were braver, we

would not be scared of findingthe way to join together thedialogue of the Lisbon strategyfor growth and jobs with theSustainable DevelopmentStrategy.

This would help us tosimultaneously answer theother million dollar Euroquestion address, namely: howcan we achieve sustainableeconomic development inorder to seriously address the

environment concernsaffecting the future of theEuropean cities?

To find this answer we willneed to think outside of thebox by developing a broader,more flexible transport policymethodology.

By following the subsidiaryprinciple, cities will be able tofind solutions ranging fromregulations, economicinstruments, soft instruments,and technological integrationto a geographicallydifferentiated approach usingmethod of tailor-madelegislation or enhancedcooperation between cities,metropolitan areas andcountries.

Prepare for battleAt the 2006 Burgos CIVITASmeeting Phil Goodwin from

the Bristol-based Centre forTransport and Society said thatwe need to fight and win themost terrible battle of thecentury: the adolescent loveaffair with the car versus themarriage to the city.

This thought or wish mayengender the need ofescaping the easy trap ofgetting problem solved one byone, implementing solutions to

one problem that exacerbateother problems facing society.For example, in order toreduce congestion we mayeasily be tempted to build a

bigger road, we would haveless traffic but a lot morepollution.

Put differently, morecomprehensive planninghelps identify Win-Win

strategies: solutions to oneproblem that also help solveother problems facing oursociety.

A path of m any le velsEUROCITIES Mobility Forummembers are starting on thischallenging path on severallevels.

The possibility ofintervening in the framework

of the Green Paper on UrbanTransport gives us and all theother stakeholders involved aunique chance to state ourideas and thoughts on the

subject, which can involvevarious European actors. Inthis bi-monthly column, we

would like to illustrate from acitys European perspectivethe rising problems that arecurrently affecting Europeancities.

This issue will be devoted toRoad Safety. because althoughmany cities may be committedto reducing road deaths, theydo not have the resources,experience or know-how toachieve this goal.

Playing it sa feThere is a substantial and

practical potential, therefore,to expand this programme andfacilitate regular exchanges ofideas and experiences to helpcities implement effective,concrete measures to improveroad safety, as illustrated inthe Jenny Joness article onpages 92-94 of this issue. T H

For more inform ation,

please co ntact

Barbara Bernadi, Eurocitiespolicy officer - m ob ility at

[email protected]

or visit the we bsite at

www.eurocities.org

w w w . h 3 b m e d i a . c o m6 Vol 2 No 1 T h in k in g H ig h w a y s

We must win thebattle of the

century: the love

affair with thecar versus themarriage to the

city


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X x x x x

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Barco's network-centric visualization solutions

Come and see Barco's networked visuali-zation solutions for traffic managementat this year's ITS Annual meeting inPalm Springs, CA, USA, from 4 - 6 June.

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Safe investment - mix analogue & digital, deliver to multiple displays and upgrade

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Ease of use - API for control integration

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Forme r Pres ident, Nels on

Mandelas Madiba Magic

helpe d South Africa res um e

its pos ition in the

com m unity of Nations after

1994. The decade that followed

saw the economy beingrestructured and the currentGovernment programme ofaction is focused on

infrastructure development.Getting the mandate to hostthe FIFA Soccer World Cup2010 in South Africa (seeRainbow Rising on pages 52-55

Co n n e c t i n g th e d o t s t o m a k et ra n s p o r t i n So u th Af ri c a m o rei n te l l i g e n t f o r So c c e r Wo rl d Cu p

2 0 1 0 a n d b e y o n d

8 Vol 2 No 1 T h in k in g H ig h w a y s w w w . h 3 b m e d i a . c o m

Africa has the opportunity todeploy so-called IntelligentTransport Systemstechnologies and to connect

the dots to make transportmore intelligent.

There are numerous projectsbeing implemented, many

with a focus on improvingpublic transport. Most of theseprojects include a strong ITSelement.

Its a firmly and widely heldbelief in SA that the way in

which the public and theprivate sectors are joiningforces to deliver on a common

focus of improved transport, is

an example for industrializedand New World Economiesalike.

Gautrain Rapid Rail LinkThe Gauteng ProvincialGovernment has entered into a2.5bn Public PrivatePartnership with the BombelaConcession Company to buildand operate the Gautrain, arapid rail link between

Johannesburg and Pretoria andbetween Sandton and the ORTambo International Airport.

The Bombela ConcessionCompany includes, inter alia,

of the Autumn 2006 issue ofThinking Highways Europe/

Rest of the World Edition ) hascontributed to put its transportnetwork in the spotlight as partof the multi-billion Euro capitalprogramme.

In the absence of legacysystems, South Africa now hasthe opportunity to leapfrog tostate of the art, but appropriate

technologies and make itstransport systems moreintelligent. With severalexciting transport capitalprojects underway, South

Dr Paul Vorster i s CEO of

ITS South Africa

M any projectsare being

implementedwith a focus on

improving publictransport

Kick start

P a u l Vo rs t e r s ITS So u t h Af ri c a Up d a t e


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X x x x x


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R o b e r t Ke l ly a n d M a r k Jo h n s o nP a u l Vo rs t e r s ITS So u t h Af ri c a Up d a t e

of Bombardier (rolling stock),Boygues (tunneling), Murray &Roberts (civils) and SPG(black economic empower-ment partners) while RATPP

will be responsible for railoperations.

Serving as a catalyst fortransport improvements inSouth Africa, Gautrain ispromoting several ITSagendas, ranging fromintegrated ticketing, travelerinformation services, state-of-the-art safety and securitysystems and a new emphasison promoting inter-modallinkages to ensure door-to-door transport services.

MetrorailThe high importance given topublic transport has motivatedMetrorail/SARCC (SA RailCommuter Corporation) toannounce the introduction of aluxury train service betweenSoweto and the CBD of

Johannesburg. The 530-seattrain expected to begin a trialphase in March 2007 and befully operational by April 2007.

It is designed to complementthe Gautrain in areas notincluded on the rapid rail linksplanned route and is aimed atsatisfying the demands ofmiddle-class travelers.

SANRAL Roads Ne tworkAfter dedicated work in thepast decade to improve thenational roads network,SANRAL is engaged in several

exciting initiatives. One is theFreeway Management projectbetween Tshwane and

Johannesburg and obtainingthe cooperation of the Metrosof Johannesburg, Ekurhuleniand Tshwane.

Another project is theplanned 0.5bn upgrade of theGauteng network. A toll studyis underway that is likely toresult in the deployment of

free-flow tolling.

Johanne sburg BRTAnother project that is set totransform public transport is

the planned Johannesburg BusRapid Transit (BRT) system. It

will link various high-densitynodes with each other.Dedicated bus lanes withmodern buses running at highfrequency will provide publictransport options currently notavailable.

Initiated by the Johannes-burg Roads Agency (JRA) theBRT system is expected toimplement several ITSelements such as publictransport vehicle priority atintersections, e-ticketing, real-time traveler information andhigh-tech safety and security

systems.

Airports Com pany SAEqually exciting is theannouncement by the Airports

Company South Africa (Acsa)that it has ramped up its capitalexpenditure commitments to2billion to meet expectedgrowth in passenger trafficbeyond 2010.

The new La Mercy airportnorth of Durban and furtherextensions to the internationalairports in Johannesburg andCape Town figure in the plans.

ACSA anticipates passengernumbers to rise 7 per cent ayear between 2008 and 2012and calculates that its nineairports will handle 31mpassengers in the 12 monthsto March, up from 28.8mpassengers in the previousyear.

Taxi recapitalisation

The 1bn taxi recapitalisationprogramme is also steadilygetting some momentum with

taxi owners applying for ascraping allowance that willsee old and often un-roadworthy vehicles beingremoved from the road infavour of new custom-designed 18- and 35-seater

vehicles.The scrapping agency is

inundated with applicationsand 1000 old vehicles hadbeen scrapped to date. T H

www.itssa.org

w w w . h 3 b m e d i a . c o m10 Vol 2 No 1 T h in k in g H ig h w a y s

SANRA isengaged in

several excitinginitiatives, suchas the FreewayM anagement

Project betweenTshwanbe andJohannesburg

Form er Pres ide nt Nels on Mande la with the FIFA World Cup trophy


13/100

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Vol 2 No 1 T h in k in g H ig h w a y s12 w w w . h 3 b m e d i a . c o m

KEVIN AGUIGUI l o o k s a t t h e p o t e n t ia l fo r d i g i ta l v i d e o f o rs u r v e i l l a n c e a n d h o m e l a n d s e c u r i t y p u r p o s e s a n d w o n d e rs i f w e v e c o m e a s fa r a s w e s h o u l d h a v e d o n e

This year it appears to be the fashion to talk about

cooperative s ystem s, the always c onnected c ar

or vehic le-to-infrastructure com m unica tions.

There seems to be universal agreement that the futureof telematics will be the car that communicates. Indeed,the European Union is putting over 50m of R&D moneyinto a group of large-scale projects that are intended toestablish Europe as the global technology leader in thisdomain. Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eat-ing in this case in what proportion of the roadsideinfrastructure will be equipped to communicate withcars, and likewise how many new cars and other vehi-cles will roll off the production line with a series-fit

embedded communication system.This article, by the management team of the EU CVIS

(Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems) project,takes a sideways glance at cooperative systems, andasks some probing questions about what they are, how

they might work in practice, who needs to play a part in

their operation and what deployment means for coop-erative systems. Lets begin with a visit to the future

A day in the life of coope rative s ys tem sWhat will tomorrows world look like once drivers,pedestrians, vehicles, portable devices, roadside infra-structure and centres can talk to each other? Lets followStephanie on her trip to work and see how the paradigmof driving has changed for her now she can benefit froma wide range of cooperative mobility services.

Its 7.35am on 17 March 2014, and Stephanie is wokenby the alarm on her cooperative mobile phone. The

phone knows her agenda for today, and has just beenalerted that theres been an accident on her preferredroute to work, with an expected delay of 10 minutes. Thealarm wakes her up earlier than usual and tells her shellneed to take a detour. After a shower and breakfast she

Wh a t a r e c o o p e ra t iv e v e h i c l e - i n f ra s tr u c tu r e s y te m s ? Wh a tc a n th e y d o ? W h a t c a n t th e y d o ? Is t h i s Eu r o p e s v e rs i o n o f th eUS Ve h i c l e In fra s t r u c tu re In t e g ra t i o n p ro g ra m ? Al l o f th e s eq u e s t io n s a re a n s w e re d b y P AUL KOM P F NER a n d ZELJKOJEFTIC . . . w h o a s k a g o o d f e w o f th e i r o w n f o r g o o d m e a s u re

Team

talk


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Co v e r St o r y


gets into her cooperative vehicle and leaves for the

office.Throughout her journey the vehicle screen displays a

speed recommendation transmitted from the coopera-tive traffic system, as well as the status of the approach-ing traffic signals. She knows from experience that ifshekeeps to the suggested 65 km/h speed she can passthrough the next few intersections without beingstopped by a red light. At the same time, she might earnextra green points as a cooperative driver, credits thatshe could cash in later for access to environmental con-trolled zones, or to the right to use city-centre bus lanes

whenever there is spare capacity.

Further along her trip she stops before a traffic lightthats blinking red, which is accompanied by an alarmand a message on the display saying an emergency

vehicle is approaching. A few seconds later a fire engineraces across the intersection from her left, riding a blue

wave of synchronised green lights all along its route tothe scene of the fire. The cooperative emergency man-agement system even sends new route advice messagesto the other traffic, diverting drivers away from the inci-dent area. Stephanie follows the updated advice andturns off her usual route for a few blocks, until shes

passed the fire scene and can rejoin the main road.Nearing the end of her journey, Stephanie gets a mes-sage from the vehicle behind her. It happens to be herneighbour Julie, saying hello and asking if she has timefor a coffee she accepts, as her trip was turning out tobe quicker than expected. After a short break, when hercar dispatches a few quick mails she dictated earlier forher office colleagues and clients, Stephanie is guided tothe parking space reserved for her today, and arrives atthe office.

All along the journey, Stephanies car has been con-nected to the roadside data monitoring service and hasdownloaded data on its position, speed and heading,

and extra information about the trip coming from thecars sensors. The cooperative monitoring centre hasprocessed this data with that from the thousands of other

vehicles on the road, and has used the real-time trafficdata to provide routeing recommendations to its servicecustomers. Stephanies entire journey was safer, faster,cheaper and greener thanks to the new cooperativesystems.

So what are Cooperative Sys tem s ?Before they can cooperate, systems must first of all give,take and share information with each other. While sys-

tems individually may hold vast amounts of information,stored in the vehicle, in roadside equipment, in controland management centres and in mobile devices, theseare usually organised vertically, with one organisationrunning the entire chain from data collection andprocessing to data delivery. If this information can beshared with other, cooperative services and applica-tions, then all members of the cooperative mobilitycommunity - driver, passenger, traffic operator, emer-gency agency, fleet manager, pedestrian, etc - can ben-efit from it, and real synergy can occur.

Beyond information sharing, systems can cooperatein the sense of modifying their behaviour in the light of

knowledge of others actions and intentions, even nego-tiating amongst each other. This already happens in alimited way at unsignalised or four-way stop junctions,

when simple rules may apply, such as priority from theright or first-come first-served. Such interaction canbecome much more sophisticated and bring wide-spread benefits if based on collective data collectionand information sharing provided that drivers obeythe rules and follow the advice.

Key building blocksThe essential technology elements that need to be in

place to support cooperative mobility include: wirelesscommunication networks, wireless communication andpositioning units in the vehicle, wireless and fixed com-munication units attached to roadside equipment, man-agement, control and service centres running


16/100

cooperative applications, and the interface to users.For its basic communication technology, the CVIS

project has settled on CALM (Continuous Air-interfaceLong and Medium range communications) architectureand specifications, based on standards developed inISO TC/204, working group 16, as its basic communica-tion technology. In order to maintain a continuous net-

work connection while a vehicle is moving at speed,CALM enables use of all suitable existing communica-

tion channels, e.g. UMTS, and facilitates the integrationof new ones as they are rolled out, e.g. Wi-MAX.The ability to use flexibly different communication

channels should lead to a high quality of service andreduced communication costs. It also means that earlyservices can be rolled out using existingnetworks.

However being able to talk is still not good enough,cooperative systems need to speak the same languagein order to understand each other. The CVIS project isdevising a common language comprising a set of proto-cols and data models for a set of core application mod-ules around which real applications and services can be

developed. These common software modules allowapplications to interact with users in their own language,

while the open application management environmentprovides both a set of basic core services as well as anopen platform for any kind of new collaborative service.

Accurate positioning is a key requirement for coopera-tive systems, and the CVIS core platform includes anadvanced positioning and mapping module. This willuse GPS and Galileo (when available), as well as tech-niques based on the radio communication systemsthemselves, such as triangulation from wireless networknodes and registering the location of nearby transmit-

ters such as Bluetooth. To provide sufficient accuracy,high-precision local maps of key infrastructure need tobe created, that can be linked with real-time data on theposition of the vehicles that happen to be nearby at thatmoment. In this future architecture, probably the great-

est uncertainty concerns just which organisations needto be present and what they need to do. We look into thisquestion in more depth below.

Last but not least, the human being is the most impor-tant element in any cooperative system. The generalapproach in current cooperative system developments

worldwide is based on providing drivers with informa-tion, guidance, advice and even commands (in the caseof traffic control), but never actually taking over control

of the vehicle. Although this would of course be quitepossible even with todays technology.

The driver is the c en tre of atte ntionAlthough one could be forgiven for thinking that thevehicle is at the heart of cooperative systems, with allthe talk of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infra-structure communications, in fact ultimately a humanbeing will be the object of such communications. Whilethe simplest of cooperative systems will simply redis-tribute to the driver as traffic information the data justcollected (with his consent of course) from his probe

vehicle as it circulated in the road network, it is likely

that more complex systems will be developed thatrequire or allow a driver to follow advice or take the ini-tiative.

As an example, a system may send to each driver whohappens to be within a cluster of vehicles approachinga traffic light an individualised recommended speed

which, if he maintains that speed, will allow the cluster topass on green and avoid stopping. To benefit, eachdriver must comply voluntarily with the speed recom-mendation. Success of this idea will depend on driverslearning quickly that they will get real benefits if theyfollow the advice.

The pe rsonal touchIf cooperative systems are a kind of club, we can ask howan individual would become a member. Will this beautomatic once he buys a communicating car? Will his


Co v e r St o r y


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, ,

Harald Klatt, Application Engineer

With t echnical mobilit y,

w e make flexible t raffi c

monitoring more ef fect ive.

MultaRadar is the worlds most successful

mobile and stationary system to monitor traf fic.

The technology is convincing with variable

application options and precise readings, with

unquestionable identification and recording.

MultaRadar is ready for use extremely quicklyand is very easy to operate our service team

offers effective support here.

Visit us at the TRAFFEX 2007, 17th-19th April,

Hall 4, Stand E1.

ROBOT Visual Systems GmbH

Opladener Strasse 202

40789 Monheim, Germany

Tel. +49 (0) 21 73 - 39 40 - 0Fax +49 (0) 21 73 - 39 40 - 169

[email protected]

www.traffipax.com

JENOPTIK Group.


18/100

car talk freely (and free of charge) to any suitablyequipped roadside equipment without further ado? Or

will he need to sign up for specific cooperative services even to pay for them? Will there be a mix of free andpay services?

Following this thread further, we can look at the per-

son at the centre of the cooperative community. Sincethe collection of monitoring data from road users is suchan important element in the cooperative cycle, users

willingness to provide these data will be critical. They will need to be processed anonymously and in com-plete security, to avoid fears of a mass-media hypedBig Brother. Given their value, users who provide datacould be offered credits towards their service subscrip-tion. This leads to the question of how users would buycooperative services, whether singly or in bundles, andfrom whom. City residents might become subscribersto personal travel services provided by their local trafficauthority, such as route assistance or parking services

these might be free of charge to locals but incur a feefor visitors.

Cooperative organis ationProbably the greatest uncertainty surrounds the ques-tion of which are the organisations that will need to beinvolved or even to be set up to make cooperativesystems work. Clearly the vehicle manufacturers have arole, even if only to ensure that new vehicles will havethe appropriate equipment installed. But once they cancommunicate directly with each vehicle they sell and

with each owner - why shouldnt they seek to become a

service provider to their customers, adding vehiclerelationship management to the more traditional cus-tomer relationship management?

Who will operate the backbone mobile communica-tion networks? The cellular mobile network operators

will have a role, at least for providing coverage outside

built-up areas. But they too might see an interest to oper-ate other types of wireless network such as WLAN orWi-MAXTM, that are better able to support the direct,short-range communication requirements of coopera-tive systems. Is there also a need for a separate organi-sation to operate a dedicated cooperative systems

network to handle the rather special needs for securecollection, management and delivery of data and relatedservices, from and to vehicles?

While CVIS is basing its technology around IPv6, thisdoes not mean the world wild web there is still arequirement for a protected network environment, andthis may need to be managed.

The cooperative services model depends on the col-lection of data from vehicles, the road network and theenvironment. Once processed and integrated, thesedata become the source of the information to driversthat propels the cycle of cooperation. Monitoring data

will need to be managed by some organisation, although

in practice it could be the traffic network operator or anexisting service provider, or else a separate entity,either public, private or public-private.

On the ground, there are all the infrastructure and fleetoperators and other bodies that will want to install coop-erative system communication links to their equipmentin order to be able to interact with vehicles. This is cru-cial, since the cooperative system cycle will not beclosed without such deployment. The problem is thatthere are so many different actors who could possiblybe involved. This raises the question whether they needto be organised into some kind of business network in

order that road users find a coherent offer of coopera-tive services rather than an indisciplined jungle?This goes to the heart of the nature of cooperative sys-

tems in practice: will this be nothing more than a newtechnology that anyone can adopt and instantly becomea cooperative service provider? In this case there might

Co v e r St o r y

16 Vol 2 No 1 T h in k in g H ig h w a y s


19/100

Dr. Ondrej Pribyl, Product Manager, Key Account

Our Toll Enforcement

solut ions of fer securedata protect ion.

ROBOT Visual Systems GmbH

Opladener Strasse 202

40789 Monheim, Germany

Tel. +49 (0)2173- 3940 -190Fax +49(0)2173- 3940 -234

info@robot .de

www.robot.de

JENOPTIK Group.

Recording, identifi cation, analysis our modular

electronic systems optimise toll control, provide

maximum transparency and efficiency. To do this,

we combine the latest digital camera technologywith advanced laser triggering technique and

classification systems with individually developed

software solutions such as License Plate Recognition.

Visit us at the TRAFFEX 2007, 17th-19th April,

Hall 4, Stand E1.

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Co v e r St o r y


be no need for any more than a label saying complieswith cooperative systems standards. Otherwise, therewill be a need for a much more structured approach in which the various operators and service providerswould ensure a planned and coordinated deploymentand in which cooperative service operations were also

harmonised and controlled cooperatively.

So what is de ploym ent?What does deployment mean for cooperative systems?Certainly its not a simple matter of installing some loopdetectors, traffic lights and a junction controller unit asfor a basic traffic control installation. The complexity ofcooperative systems and the number of entities anddecision-makers involved means that even coopera-tive system deployment needs to be cooperative!

The main elements to be deployed include the fol-lowing: The vehicle: an onboard unit supporting wireless

communication on the media chosen to deliver coop-erative services, enabling a permanent Internet Proto-col connection; The roadside: a box linked to roadside installations

that provides wireless communication to nearby vehi-cles (on the same media as implemented in the vehicleunit), with interfaces to existing roadside systems andonward to back-office services; he communication system: while existing cellular

(2G, 3G) data services will be one medium used forcooperative systems in order to ensure virtually com-plete coverage, there is a growing consensus that some

kind of wireless local area network (WLAN or Wi-Fi)for vehicles is needed: a (mesh) network of local hot-spots throughout cities and along main highways; inaddition, communication units installed for tolling oraccess control (e.g. DSRC, infra-red) can be used to fillin the network. Also, Wi-MAX (WMAN or wirelessmetropolitan area networks) could be a future carrier ifit should be deployed across urban areas and if themobile version of the standard becomes the norm; Operating and management centres: these are the

elements that will make up the operational servicesrunning in the background and foreground, and thatconstitute the cycle of cooperation. They include data

management centres, traffic management and controlcentres, emergency service centres, public transportand commercial fleet management centres, etc.

As weve seen above, it is not so clear how and in whatorder deployment will take place in practice. Will vehi-cle makers begin installing communication units intheir new cars, trucks and buses as soon as standardsare fixed? Will city traffic authorities be first off the lineto install communication units in equipment for trafficmonitoring and control? Or will motorway operatorstake the lead? When will roadside equipment suppli-ers begin offering products adapted for cooperative

systems?

Takin g offAs the world of cooperative systems involves poten-tially so many different stakeholders it seems likely a

special dedicated effort will be needed to make deploy-ment happen in a suitably coordinated way. We wouldlike to propose that Europe needs its own initiative tolaunch and then steer cooperative system deployment.

The United States has its VII initiative, driven by the USDOT, and a VII Consortium made up of federal and state

highway departments and the automotive industry,established to determine feasibility of widespreaddeployment and to establish an implementation strat-egy. Arguably the stakeholder community in Europe ismore splintered than in America, hence the need isstronger for a European consortium a CooperativeSystem Alliance or CSA to drive implementation.Such a group could work to bring cooperative systemimplementation into the political arena at all levels frommunicipal to national to European Union. Coordinationof public investment will be needed if the potential ben-efits for transport safety and efficiency and for the envi-ronment are to be realised.

The European CSA could support individual stake-holder groups such as traffic management suppliers,mobile network operators, vehicle manufacturers andsuppliers, motorway operators, fleet owners and opera-tors and urban traffic authorities each to adopt a com-mon approach for deployment, and then to coordinatedeployment strategy across all sectors of the commu-nity. Without this common approach it is hard to see who

would be willing to take a first step towards cooperativesystems when there is a risk that necessary comple-mentary investments are not going to materialise.

Unfortunately, until now there is very little of coopera-

tive systems visible to the average citizen and driver, sowe should not expect deployment to be user-driven! Allthe more reason to deepen the experience gainedthrough collaborative R&D projects and then to createpublic awareness through demonstrations and persua-sive publicity for the results of cooperative system eval-uations. Before then, let us have some good debate about

what cooperative systems are, what benefits they canbring, and how to make them happen. T H

CVIS, which is IP coord inated by ERTICO in EU FP6,

started on 1 Feb ruary 2006 and will finish in January

2010. The CVIS project acknowled ge s the suppo rt

provided b y the European Union through a g rant of up to

22m towards the total project budge t of 41m.

The CVIS consortium has 60 me mbers, from se ctors

including automotive manufacturers and supp liers,

traffic system supp liers, public and private road

operators, mob ile network ope rators, mo toring

associations and research institutions.

An ope n workshop on CVIS architectures

will be he ld on 21 June in Aalbo rg, Denm ark and

ERTICO will jointly organise an international workshop

on coope rative systems architectures the following day,also in Aalborg. For more inform ation go to

www.cvisproject.org or email Paul Kom pfner, CVIS IP

Manager or Zeljko Jeftic, Dep uty CVIS IP Manag er, at

[email protected]


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The key is sue in this industry as I se e it hinges on

market-driven initiatives. How can we best harvestthe fruits of ITS deployments to date and in the offing?

Evaluation is l ike the e bb and flows of the tides one

funding period it is in vogue, the next it is on the

wane and then it is at the forefront aga in. What I donot understand is how can evaluation be switched onand off? Justification of public outlays for ITS deploy-ment should always be on the radar screen, in particu-lar, for complicated system deployments. Today we areseeing a dramatic increase in commercially off-the-shelf products and services which require little or no

physical functioning evaluation. For example, in theforeseeable future, we are likely to witness the full-scaledeployment of electronic tolling in specific countriestaking that major step from the now-established nation-

wide tolling systems for heavy goods vehicles. Has any-one in any country with such a system undertaken anin-depth review of the costs and benefits?

Tolling interoperability beyond national bo rders is

not on the horizon in Europe des pite m any claim s to

the contrary . The current situation with a hodge-podge range of discrete national systems for heavygoods vehicles (Austria, Germany, Czech Republic and

Switzerland) is leading to the creation of new marketopportunities for service providers.

Independent tag s ervice providers will in the e nd be

the forbearers of true interoperability of tolling

across different tolled infrastructure (either at a

national level or across se veral c ountries). The basicmarket condition is a platform for additional servicesthat road users want and expect from being slapped

with the users pay principle.

Customer service levels for tolled infrastructure

vary imm ens ely from one region, s tate or country toanother. The sheer fact that motorway concessions insome countries are labelled or perceived as cash cowsthat do not put the customer first is contradictory to thedictum that road users on tolled infrastructure are pay-

Steve MorelloB u s i n e s s D e v e l o p m e n t M a n a g e r, Eg i s P r o je c t s , Fra n c e

Th e Th o u g h t P ro c e s s


ing for access to the road and additional services. There-

fore, toll road operators should feel obliged to be at thevanguard of deploying a range of ITS services for their(paying) customers.

Tolling tec hnology ve rsus market force s. Whenever Imeet someone from a specific tolling technology sector,all they seem focused on is promoting the benefits theirtechnology will have for solving all the worlds trafficcongestion woes. The key to really taking advantage ofthe market potential for electronic tolling systems is toallow client-supplier relations for the technology provi-sion to be separated from the management of trans-

ponders/tags/on-board units to other players. In other words, in the tolling market, Governments should beallowing for and stimulating competition rather than sti-fling it with bureaucratic meddling.

It seems that we are almost at a watershed with

urban c onges tion c harging. Either the number of cit-ies adopting urban congestion charging policies withthe concomitant deployment comes of age, or publicoutcry at paying again and again stymies the way for-

ward to paying for road usage (wherever or whenever)like we pay for catching a plane or high speed train.I believe the tipping point will come from the United

States, where we are witnessing a potential for severalmajor cities to adopt urban congestion charging. If thathappens, the rest of the world will take notice.

After m ore than 15 years in the ITS indus try, I s om e-

times wonder where c ities today would be without

the pas t instrume ntation e fforts of the roads. We arenow reaping those benefits in terms of existing robustsensors and processing facilities which enable manycities around the world to provide real-time traffic andtravel information we are no longer in the dark, butthe light is not shining so bright. Much remains to be

achieved before we can say that people book roadspace and are subsequently assured of getting frompoint A to point B in a pre-determined lapse of time. Itslike I always say, the biggest car park in the world is theM25 Orbital Motorway around London. T H


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What ITS can do issupport policy objectivesand improve knowledge,

information andmanagement

Governments should beallowing for and

stimulating competition,rather than stifling it withbureaucratic meddling

The basic market condition isa platform for additional

services that road users wantand expect from being slapped

with the users pay principle

Inte rview by Kevin Borras


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Th e Th i n k e r


KEVIN AGUIGUI l o o k s a t t h e p o t e n t ia l fo r d i g i ta l v i d e o f o rs u r v e i l l a n c e a n d h o m e l a n d s e c u r i t y p u r p o s e s a n d w o n d e rs i f w e v e c o m e a s fa r a s w e s h o u l d h a v e d o n e CANW

E

NOW

?


25/100

Th e Th i n k e r


On 19 Septem ber 2006, MSNBC reported that a se ri-

ous E. coli outbreak linke d to spinac h had occ urred

in the Unite d States. The report indi cte d that one

(possibly two) deaths were being investigated by

Fede ral officials . Ultimately, three unfortunate s ouls

succ umbe d to the E. coli bacteria, an e vent that was

covered by all of the m ajor m edia outle ts.During the two month period that the spinach prob-lem was receiving elevated attention, approximately7,200 individuals died in automobile accidents withinthe US and 200,000 died worldwide without any mediaattention. Have we become desensitized to automobilefatalities since they are so frequent?

While even a single fatality is not to be taken lightly,the statistics of highway death and destruction defycomparisons with the impacts of E. coli bacteria. In fact,they even defy comparisons with the effects of war andstarvation. As shown in table 1 (reproduced from Refer-ence 1), the World Health Organization (WHO) reports

that over the past ten years the worldwide life shorten-ing consequences of automobile accidents have risenfrom ninth place to third place, ahead of war (eighthplace) and HIV (tenth place). Consider the statistics: In2005, there were more than 43,000 fatalities in the USand nearly 1.2m fatalities worldwide annually. Thenumber of injuries in auto accidents is equally stagger-ing with nearly 40m injured worldwide.

A pandemic is defined as an epidemic over a widegeographic area and affecting a large proportion of thepopulation. Clearly, because of the worldwide deathand injury rates, auto safety can be considered a pan-

demic. Yet the policy and investment emphasis placedon this pandemic by most governments worldwide isdwarfed by the focus on other life threatening concerns

which often pose less serious societal problems.

The pandem ic can be c uredThe most compelling evidence that solutions to thehighway safety pandemic exist, can be found in thesafety initiatives successfully implemented in Victoria,

Australia during the period of 1989 through 2004.Detailed descriptions of the Victoria program exist else-

where, and should be required reading for legislators aswell as the general public since a program such as the

one implemented by the Australians requires compre-hensive policy support.

The success of the Australian program is enviable.Since its inception, the fatality rate in Victoria hasdropped from approximately 22.5 deaths per 100,000population to 9 deaths per 100,000 population; adecrease of 60 per cent to just over half of the US fatalityrate. These impressive results were achieved throughthe combined support of public agency and politicalofficials, with majority (although far from unanimous)public support for a comprehensive program thatspanned the three Es of safety; education, enforcement

and engineering. The success of the program was fur-ther ensured through strong legislative support andultimately, continuous performance measurement. Thisprogram deserves particular attention in the US, since

Australia, like the US is a federation, but mostly because

Hi g h w a y s a fe ty is n e v e r as u b je c t to b e ta k e nl ig h t ly. P HIL TARNOFFs u g g e s t s th a t a u t o m o b i le

fa t a l i t i e s h a v e b e c o m e ap a n d e m i c t h a t w e ju s ta r e n t d o i n g e n o u g h t oe r a d i c a t e


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Th e Th i n k e r

Vol 2 No1 T h in k in g H ig h w a y s20 w w w . h 3 b m e d i a . c o m

invaluable example of the potential benefits of a fully

integrated program with a foundation of strong legisla-tive support. Equally important, rather than expendingresources chasing a large number of safety issues, theprogram focuses the major causes of traffic fatalities;speed and alcohol.

A focus on s pee d and drunk drivingAccording to the National Highway Traffic Safety Admin-istration (NHTSA), speed and drunk driving accountedfor 30 per cent and 40 per cent of fatal crashes annually.Obviously these percentages are not additive, sinceapproximately 40 per cent of the fatal speed relatedcrashes involved drivers with blood alcohol concentra-

tions (BACs) of .08 grams per deciliter (g/dL) orhigher.

Adjusting for this double counting, it can be concludedthat taken together speed and alcohol account forapproximately 58 per cent of the fatal crashes in the US,and significant reductions in these two areas alone, willhave a significant impact on highway fatalities. Obvi-ously there are other potential focus areas for improve-ments can be realized including young drivers andpedestrians. Speed and alcohol also received the great-est emphasis in the Victoria program.

In the US and elsewhere, there is a debate regarding

the relative value of lower speed limits vs. reducedspeed variance (speed differentials among vehiclessharing the same roadway). While there is evidence tosupport the safety benefits of both, it goes without say-ing that the value of existing fixed regulatory signing

it is part of the new world where urban form, regional

development, and road transport developed more orless contemporaneously.Highlights of the Victoria program include: Legislation which increased police powers, increased

penalties and clarified existing regulations. This legis-lation included a zero blood alcohol requirement,increase of the probationary license period from two tothree years, compulsory helmets for bicyclists, andimmediate license loss for second drunk drivingoffenses;

Greatly increased speed enforcement includingextensive use of speed photo enforcement.

Increased random breath testing for detection of

drunk drivers by a factor of five. Statistically, this meansthat one in three drivers in Victoria can expect to bestopped each year.

Introduced a long-term program of public educationin support of specific safety initiatives, in order to main-tain the visibility of traffic safety with the public.

In summary, three overall factors can be identified ashaving contributed to the success in Victoria:

1. A sound and realistic plan (more about this later);2. Political and bureaucratic leadership which recog-

nizes that the enforcement and engineering cannotaccomplish their goals without an underlying legisla-

tive mandate as well as adequate funding;3. Integrated implementation in which the three Es

are used to complement each otherThe Australian program is not alone in its successful

improvement of highway safety. However, it provides an

Excessive speed andalcoholism are major

highway safetyproblems, yet there is

demonstratedevidence that they

are tractable


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vailing traffic and roadway conditions. Here again, thevariable speed limit must be accompanied by an inten-sified enforcement program. This approach is likely toproduce the highest level of public acceptance forincreased enforcement (including the use of automatedtechniques), since the perceived benefits of sensible

speed limits will offset objections to the increasedenforcement. Alternatives 2 and 3 require legislativesupport.

Intensive m eas ures requiredThe common denominator of these three techniques isgreatly increased enforcement, which must be accom-panied by an intense public education program explain-ing the benefits of the selected approach. Asdemonstrated by the Victoria program, whichever alter-native is selected, it must be accompanied by legisla-tive policy support and adequate funding, to ensure itssuccess. In this manner, the three Es of safety are

employed. Any of these three alternatives is superior tothe current sporadic enforcement of unrealistic speedlimits.

The public recognizes the consequences of drunkdriving to a much greater extent than speed, and hassupported increased penalties for those driving whileintoxicated. This may be the result of the efforts ofgroups such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD),or it could be caused by the fact that a relatively smallpercentage of motorists drive under the influence, whileeveryone speeds. Whatever the reason, the penaltiesfor driving under the influence (DUI) have been signifi-

cantly increased during the past 20 years, with approxi-mately 1,600 new DUI laws passed nationwide withinthe US since 1980.

A few examples include the fact that all States haveadopted 21 as the legal drinking age, and two-thirds ofthe states have passed Administrative License Revoca-tion (ALR) laws, which allow the arresting officer to takethe license of drivers who fail or refuse to take a breathtest. In addition, many states have lowered the legalBAC limit from 0.10 to 0.08 percent for adults, and morethan a dozen states have passed Zero Tolerance laws

which prohibit drivers under 21 from having any meas-urable amount of alcohol in their blood system.

But it is too early to declare victory. While these meas-ures along with extensive public education are likely tobe responsible for a nearly 5 per cent reduction in alco-hol related fatalities, this slow progress is unacceptablein view of the fact that more than 14,000 individuals losttheir lives in 2005 due to drunk driving. It is clear thatadditional steps must be taken, again to includeincreased enforcement, expanded public education,and additional funding. A list of measures that haveproven effective is presented on DUI.com, a websitesupported by the State of California. A sample of themeasures listed by this reference, over and above those

that were previously mentioned includes: Alcohol treatment programs Server intervention and education programs House arrest in lieu of jail Lower BAC for repeat offenders

with unrealistic speed limits that are universally ignored

by motorists. In most areas of the US, the 55 mile perhour (mph) speed limit has, for all intents and purposesproduced a nation of law-breakers. On many US road-

ways, it is common for close to 100 per cent of the vehi-cles to be exceeding the speed limit, a fact which callsinto question the value of existing speed limit signage.There are three alternatives to the current situation:

1. Retain the 55 mph speed limits, and greatly increaseenforcement such that speeders are assured of receiv-ing a citation. Photo enforcement or other automatedenforcement techniques are the only way in which anappropriate intensity of enforcement can be practicallyachieved.

2. Increase speed limits to a level that reflects actualhighway speeds. Combine the increased speed limits

with increased concentration of enforcement. Safetyadvocates are likely to (correctly) oppose this measure,since actual highway speeds are variable dependingon time of day, weather conditions, roadway geometrics,percent of familiar drivers, vehicle mix (trucks vs. autos),etc. A higher speed that may be safe for one set of con-ditions could be unsafe under other conditions. How-ever, unless the number of speed violators is significantlybelow 100 per cent (and probably below 10 per cent),manual enforcement techniques are impractical.

3. Take advantage of existing technology to imple-ment a regulatory variable speed system in which speedlimits are automatically displayed at the prevailing 85percentile speeds, on the theory that the majority ofdrivers will automatically select the safe speed for pre-

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Greatly increasing the number of sobriety checkpoints (as per the Victoria program)

Expanded public information and education Effective Vehicle-Based Countermeasures Vehicle impoundment or immobilization Ignition interlock.

The referenced website indicates that measures beingused which have not proven effective include jail orcommunity service and fines, even though theseapproaches continue to be used.

Ignition interlocks are of particular interest, since theyhave been shown to reduce repeat offenses by 50 percent to 90 per cent. These devices operate by requiringthe driver to breath into a device that determines theBAC level. If preset limits are exceeded, the vehicle willnot start. Other forms of interlocks are on the horizon,including one in which the drivers BAC is measured bysteering wheel sensors. These devices, which representthe engineering E, combined with aggressive enforce-

ment and increased education, offer the promise of sig-nificant reductions in alcohol related fatalities.

Traffic s afety i n the United State sThe successes of the Australians and others, the availa-bility of new technologies, an improved understandingof the highway safety problem and its cures, are allcauses for optimism. The US, as a leader in technology,

with a well funded safety research program should be aworld leader in the field of highway safety.

Unfortunately, quite the opposite is true. In 1998, theFederal Highway Administration (FHWA) published a

strategic plan in which it established the goals of a 20per cent reduction in fatalities and a 20 per cent reduc-tion in serious injuries within ten years (by 2008 oneyear from now). As indicated in Table 2, the US is notonly failing to meet these goals, but fatalities have con-

tinued to increase since the plan was published. Asindicated in the table, the fatality rate decreasedbetween 2001 and 2004, but, with the exception of 2003and 2004 the total number of fatalities consistently

increased. The statistics for 2005 are particularly alarm-ing, since both the number of fatalities and the fatalityrate increased over those for 2004.

This lack of progress reduces the FHWA strategic planto little more than a publicity piece, since the resultshave so little relationship to the goals. During the eightyears since the plan was announced, there has been lit-tle tracking of results, and almost no mid-course correc-tions to ensure that the goals are being met. Perhapsmost important there has been little legislative supportfor the use of techniques that will ensure these goals aremet. There is little point in strategic planning without

assurance of the needed underlying support.Reference 2 indicates that to be effective, strategicplans must include the following characteristics:

The traffic safety problems to be addressed shouldbe the major problems and each should be tractable.

The action plan should include interventions for which there is adequate scientific evidence of likelyeffectiveness (or controlled trials of innovations ofunknown effectiveness).

The implementing agencies should have transparentlines of accountability for effective implementation.

The FHWA strategic plan violates many of these guide-lines, in that it makes no attempt to identify the root

causes of roadway injuries and fatalities, and makes noconnection between the strategies and the problem tobe solved.

Cure or be curedSpeed and alcoholism are major highway safety prob-lems. Yet there is demonstrated evidence that they aretractable. Many interventions with proven effectivenessexist, if only the United States and its counterpartsthroughout the world would adopt appropriate plan-ning methodologies, and muster the political will fortheir implementation. Unless the obvious steps are

taken, the auto safety pandemic will continue, with socialconsequences that dwarf the impacts of E. Coli bacteriaon spinach, and for that matter, most major wars. T H

Phil Tarnoff can be contacted via em ail at

[email protected]

Table 1. Rank of 10 LeadingCauses of GlobalBurden of D isease*

1990 2000

Rank/Disease Rank/Disease

1 Lower Respiratory Infections 1 Ischaemic heart disease

2 Diarrheal diseases 2 Unipolar major depression

3 Perinatal conditions 3 Road traffic injuries

4 Unipolar major depression 4 Cerebrovascular disease

5 Ischaemic heart disease 5 Chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease

6 Cerebrovascular disease 6 Lower Respiratory

Infections

7 Tuberculosis 7 Tuberculosis

8 Measles 8 War

9 Road traffic injuries 9 Diarrheal diseases

10 Congenital abnormalities 10 HIV* Rankings measured in terms of Disabilit y Adjusted Life Year

(DALY), which is a measure that ombines information on the

number of years lost from premature death with the loss

of health from disability.

Table 2. H ist ory of U SFatalities

2005 2004 2003 2002 2001

Fatal Crashes 39,189 38,444 38,477 38,491 37,862

Total Fatalities 43,443 42,836 42,884 43,005 42,196

National Fatalit y RatesFatalit ies per 100m Vehicle Miles Traveled

1.47 1.45 1.48 1.51 1.51

Fatalities per 100,000: Population

14.66 14.59 14.74 14.93 14.80

Fatalities per 100,000: Registered Vehicles

- 18.00 18.59 19.06 19.07

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CARE, COMPASSIONAND CONCERN ONTHE FREEWAY

Some of the differences between Samaritania Incorporateds service patrol programs and others:

01 Our patrol vehicle operators have state and

national public safety certifications.

02 We provide a complete turnkey program at

not cost to motorists.

03 Provide Internet based Fleet Management

Systems.

04 Provide public safety grade AVL/GPS incident

recording/reporting systems.

05 Personnel, vehicles, equipment, AVL/GPS,

patrol dispatch centers, and public relation

programs.

06 The most experienced provider. Over

27 years providing service patrol

programs throughout the U.S.

07 Provide the widest variety of quick

clearance, motorist, and public safety

assistance.

08 Provide a variety of different custom service

patrol vehicles with and without tow

capabilities.

09 Endorsed by Departments of Transportation

and State Governments.

10 Endorsed by State Police, Fire/Rescue,

and other public safety agencies.

11 National award winning programs.

12 Consistent media recognition.

13 Rural, remote area, and urban program

applications.

14 All program service costs included in

single patrol hourly billing rate.

15 Operators adhere to detailed conduct

policies

16 Standard Operation Procedure

Development

17 Local office and project management

18 Provide Complete Indemnification and

hold harmless agreements.

19 Provide audited financial resources.

20 Operators have perfect no-fault safety

records. Zero fatalities.

21 Private Sector funding available to

offset costs.

Samaritania Incorporated,

10 Riverside Drive, Lakeville, MA 02347, USA

Tel: +1-508-947-3700

Fax: +1-508-947-5544

www.freewayservicepatrol.com

[email protected]


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KEVIN AGUIGUI l o o k s a t t h e p o t e n t ia l fo r d i g i ta l v i d e o f o rs u r v e i l l a n c e a n d h o m e l a n d s e c u r i t y p u r p o s e s a n d w o n d e rs i f w e v e c o m e a s fa r a s w e s h o u l d h a v e d o n e

A special

intensity


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C h a t r o o m

29T h in k in g H ig h w a y s Vol 2 No 1

Som etim es as a journalis t you find that you have to

coax answe rs out of people in the sam e way that you

would try to coax a ne w kitten out from under your

bed. At other tim es its a ll you c an do to stop them

talking.

A few years ago an interviewee used up both sides ofmy C90 cassette answering my first question, a painfulhour and a half made all the worse by the discovery thatit was the only tape I had brought with me. Every so oftenyou sit down in front of someone who falls perfectlybetween those two extremes. They answer your ques-tion, tell you a little bit more and then hand the emphasisback to you with a satisfied look that says: next questionplease, Im enjoying this. Fortunately, having driven to

Croatia to interview Telefon-Gradnjas CEO, PredragBalentovic, this is exactly what I got.

Telefon-Gradnja, based just to the West of Zagreb in atown whose name translates into English as Holy Sun-day, has been a hugely successful company in Croatias

transport technology sector for more than a decade,but its fair to say that its only in the last two or three

years that the rest of Europe has had to sit up and takenotice of its luminously effective and readable varia-ble message signs and cutting-edge traffic manage-ment system, topXviewTM. What has the company donein that period to become so well known and so highlythought of?

We just finished a big campaign in Croatia, whichgave us an opportunity to raise awareness, saysBalentovic, who turns 39 this Spring. The end of thiscampaign resulted in a newly built highway networkin Croatia, something easily seen by tourists, which isone of the feedback sources indicating how great

these highways look when compared to the rest of theEU. Frankly, we did not think too much about it, but thisfeedback encouraged us to promote our presencethrough regular promotional activities like participat-ing at Intertraffic in Amsterdam, advertising in maga-

KEVIN B OR R AS i n c o n v e rs a t i o n w i th Te l e f o n - Gra d n ja s CEO,P R ED R AG B ALEN TOVIC. M u s i c s l o s s i s p ro v i n g v e r y m u c h t o b et ra f fi c s g a i n


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C h a t r o o m


zines, articles in papers and so on. We then completedcertifying our products, not only in independent andapproved laboratories, but also by meeting specific cli-ent needs through interaction withinfluential state organizations likeBASt in Germany, the DutchRijkswaaterstaat and ASFINAG in

Austria.These positive declarations about

the quality and functionality of ourequipment increased market aware-ness of Telefon-Gradnja, heconcludes.

Jung le tel e graphyOnce the market had woken up to TGs presence, theirfirst contract awards in the EU soon followed, whichadded to further positive rumours of their quality andcapabilities within industry.

We believe that Telefon-Gradnja has become an una-voidable company in this industry now, says Balentovic,when you take into account not only the vast range ofour own products, but also the capability to integrateother key products necessary to control and manage

traffic, our extremely wide area of expertise in develop-ment, manufacturing, design, building and implemen-tation and our expertise with cable infrastructure

implementation and so on ... and notforgetting the fully developed modelsof support in all phases and segmentsof realization of complex traffic man-

agement projects and designs. Breaking into the British, French and

German markets (among others) issomething that Balentovic and hiscompany are working feverishly hardto achieve, but does a company fromCroatia have to work that extra bitharder to make inroads into the British

market, for example, than a Dutch company would?Yes, we do, he replies without hesitation. Realiza-

tion that a company is from Croatia very often creates aneed to further check the product credibility, in particu-

lar because the preconceived, and ill-concieved, idea isthat this country is not recognized for its strong elec-tronics or software industry.

However, the level of knowledge acquired by stu-dents of the Electrotechnical Faculty in Zagreb is tradi-

Realization that a

company is fromCroatia very oftencreates a need tofurther check the

product credibility

Tele fon-Gradnjas topXview traffic m anage me nt syste m in operation at the Mala Kapela TMC in Croatia


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tionally very high and acknowledged worldwide (andwe have employed many of the best students from thisfaculty). The truth is, that the knowledge, as well as thematerials and production equipment, are today equallyaccessible to everybody and this creates the ability tobuild up a top company anywhere. In this case the shape

of the company and types of products really dependonly on traditional factors of influence, such as manage-ment, organization, market conditions and so on. Notgeography.

Balentovic is more than a little pleased that the worldis moving on.

I will never forget the times when in order to build anordinary audio amplifier, you had to travel to Trieste inItaly or Graz in Austria. Today the situation is completelydifferent: everybody in the world sources programs, lit-erature and electronic components from the samesources, thus the competitive advantages are beingbuilt in the spheres of knowledge, innovation, quality,

diversification and cost optimization. For this reason thegeographical position of the company has no real sig-nificance. Nevertheless, we very often have to make asubstantial effort to overcome prejudices and stereo-types. Experienceiindicates that, aftera while, this kind of problem disap-pears completely.

A ques tion of ethicsSpend an time with Balentovic and hisright-hand man, sales engineer Rob-ert Ryslavy, and its not difficult to work

out that Telefon-Gradnja is a companyfounded on some very sound, uncom-plicated ethics. Its VMS signs are eas-ily readable from in bright sunlightand from unusual angles - and in termsof clarity and simplicity, the topXview system is, quitesimply and with no hint of commercial bias whatsoever,peerless. For one company to achieve such high qualitylevels in several areas is remarkable.

When discussing ethics and key values in Telefon-Gradnja the most important notion is excellence. Every-thing within the company is being compared only withthe best there is, and this leads to conclusions on what to

do next, says Balentovic. By implementing a conceptof incremental improvements, advanced time manage-ment, constant intensive education and a developedculture of hard work in order to achieve uncompromisedresults, we also accomplish high staff motivation andefficiency. The experience we gained by building sucha large and complex traffic management system simplycannot be bought. Its a crucial element required toachieve the excellence I referred to earlier.

However, it is indisputable that the greatest treasureand ultimate source of any companys success are itsreally exceptional people and I believe this will be con-

firmed by all who know us.

Strateg ic think ingIve often opined that there is a tendency for local, cityand national authorities to think: Weve never done it

C h a t r o o m

31w w w . h 3 b m e d i a . c o m

like that before so were not interested when faced withinnovative solutions and ideas. As a company that has toovercome a number of barriers in order to compete ona level playing field, Balentovic, who co-owns Telefon-Gradnja, has a strategy to deal with such narrow-mindedthinking.

It is really quite a conservative industry and the issueis that there is almost no connection between the enduser and the equipment manufacturer. As these areinvestments into infrastructure, by default, there is agreat involvement of various state institutions, highwaymanagement companies, concessionaries and similar,as well as prime contractors to whom this equipmentlayer usually represents one concern too many in theprocess of building a completely equipped highway.

My question seems to have touched a nerve, but in agood way. If a mix of designers and consultants is addedto very often complicated and antiquated, but nonethe-less, obligatory to comply with, technical regulations, it

is obvious that the introduction of innovations is noteasy. Balentovic says. Further, these are de facto safetysystems and there is not a great deal of room forexperiments. At the same time, this industry is relatively

young. The best example of thisslowed down innovation process isthe traffic light which has not under-gone any significant change for almost90 years. Therefore there is a set ofobjective circumstances which aredifficultto change and which in their essence

do not favour the application of inno-vations.On the other hand, I believe that the

solutions which provide clear benefitsand are affordable will always find its

way to a client. I am convinced that our topXview trafficmanagement SCADA is such a product a true and com-plete integration of all systems in use on a particularhighway is really an idea that seems obvious to anyone.

And that is a feature of all the best ideas.

Spee d the ploug hBalentovic and Ryslavy show me around the impress-

sive research and development departments of thecompanys facilities and explain that the car park to oneside of the building is about to disappear under a brandnew TG manufacturing plant. How much of the compa-nys annual turnover gets ploughed back into R&D, I

wondered.Traditionally, the company invests almost all of its

revenue into the further development of markets,infrastructure, products, processes, organization, tech-nology and so on. As far as the development of newproducts is concerned, including development of soft-

ware products and services of technology design, the

value of this expenditure in a total revenue is approxi-mately 10 per cent, which is almost the double of indus-try average, comes the reply from a man al

Documents

Thinking Highways Europe/Rest of the World, March 2007