This newsletter is available online in an Adobe Acrobat Reader pdf file (531k). You can view it using the Reader plugin for your browser and/or download it for viewing offline. Free Reader software is available at the Adobe Systems Incorporated Website. By Keenan Kitasaka As a member of the ITS Canada Board of Directors from British Columbia, I often reflect upon the progress in recent years of ITS deployment compared to other regions in Canada. Certainly, there have been significant efforts over the years in BC and in Greater Vancouver, in particular, to support ITS deployment, which will result this year in the construction of a weigh-in-motion station on the Trans Canada Highway at the 160th Street interchange, a pre-arrival system to support commercial vehicle pre-clearance at the Highway 15 approach to Washington State, and an advanced traveller system at the border crossing. In BC, one issue over the years has been the absence of an ITS strategic plan – a blueprint to provide direction with specific recommendations for deployment, and the organizational structure to support the ITS programs. While many agencies are involved with ITS planning and deployment activities, they were not coordinated regionally or provincially. There is therefore a concern this could result in investment in ITS deployments that may not be interoperable or integrated. Transport Canada recently developed the Canadian ITS architecture to provide a framework to support integration and interoperability. So the question became "How can we plot our ITS path in an integrated manner from A to B with all the agencies involved?" Secondly, the ITS Corporation initiated the development of a Provincial ITS Vision and Strategic Plan to assess our transportation needs, develop a direction or vision for ITS in the province, and provide targeted ITS recommendations. These ITS solutions evolved into a unique structure of "initiative packages" that crossed functional, modal and jurisdictional boundaries to address transportation needs using ITS applications. Each initiative package contains details of the ITS applications, a set of projects (with prospectuses) and an "initiative architecture." The initiative architectures were developed from the Canadian ITS architecture using a software tool called "Turbo Architecture." Since there are common sub-systems between the initiatives, they can be linked to comprise the complete provincial architecture. Thus, these initiative packages can be pulled out, like chapters in a book, and deployed separately with the knowledge that, through the initiative architectures, they are integrated and will encourage interoperability for future system deployments. The plan provides 23 distinct initiatives comprised of 66 projects. Some initiatives are specific to certain agencies whereas others are joint programs. In addition to the ITS initiatives, the plan also examined risks and barriers to deployment, the institutional structure to manage the work, and other issues. This journey began in August 2000 when the plan was scoped and co-funded by federal, provincial and local agencies to kick off the work. Western Economic Diversification Canada generously provided a significant portion of the funding to support ITS development out west. After 14 months, the study was completed in November 2001. Since then, the agencies of the ITS Corporation have been working diligently to obtain endorsements of their respective Boards and Executive Committees. On April 19, 2002, this journey culminated in a presentation to the TransLink Board which endorsed the ITS plan and directed that a workshop be developed to foster a better understanding of ITS and its potential benefits for this region. The plan is now a public document and is available on our web site at www.itsbc.ca. BC’s ITS Vision and Strategic Plan is an important step, not only for this province but also for Canada. Indeed, it is the first provincial plan to utilize the Canadian ITS architecture and, for the first time in Canada, ITS planning and deployment is being initiated by a multi-agency organization with multi-modal interests across the province. These attributes are consistent with the principles embedded in Transport Canada’s ITS plan "En Route to Intelligent Mobility." And now, as the champions for ITS in BC, TransLink and the ITS Corporation finally have the blueprint that poises this region and province to enter a new era of ITS deployment. In next month’s newsletter … how the ITS Corporation will continue to build on this work. AQTR held their annual 37th Annual Conference on April 7 to 9 at the Hilton Hotel in Quebec City, with the theme: Connected Transportation. Oriented around new technologies as well as the present and future needs of transportation users, the conference "connected" with more than 700 participants, mainly from Quebec and the Maritimes. International guests included Michel Parent of INRIA (Institut National de Recherches en Infomatique et en Automatique), a research centre in Paris, France, focussing on new technology to support the "cyber car" – an electric car that drives itself. Keynote speakers included the Minister of Transportation for Quebec, Serge Ménard, who reviewed the considerable investment which will be made by the province in intelligent transportation systems in the coming years to develop a more secure infrastructure with improved mobility and safety. The Ministry will work with AQTR as a partner on matters relating to transportation issues. Much promise is in store for ITS development in Québec, Another keynote speaker was former astronaut Marc Garneau, now president of the Canadian Space Agency. Guests were very attentive as he spoke about his three space missions. Mr. Garneau noted that research conducted to support space exploration has benefited society, especially in the telecommunications sector, infomatics, and in the development of new materials that have benefited infrastructure design. AQTR provided ITS Canada a booth in order to promote ITS, which stirred much interest. Many participants at the conference attended the various ITS-related sessions, such as "Using ITS for Network Utilization", and "Automatic Recognition of Road Signs through Image Processing." Presentations from the event are being made available at www.aqtr.qc.ca (in french). One of ITS Canada’s objectives is stated as "representing Canadian ITS industries abroad through liaisons with foreign governmental agencies and ITS-related associations and industries." In this respect, ITS Canada has adopted an incremental approach and continues to build on activities from previous years. In 2001, for example, market opportunities in Ireland and the UK were identified as a result of a joint mission with Transport Canada. Both the UK and Irish governments have announced major transportation infrastructure projects, giving rise to significant potential for ITS deployments. In 2002, these opportunities will be pursued by working with our Irish and UK counterparts. In the Asia/Pacific region, the economy is improving and the Beijing Olympic Games will stimulate further ITS demands and opportunities. For Asia, with the relationship already developed, we will be conducting more in-depth technical exchanges that will lead to a higher appreciation of Canadian products and adoption of Canadian ITS standards. Traffic conditions in South America are making ITS investments more crucial than ever before. For South America, a bilateral conference is a natural progression from previous contacts. ITS Canada’s proposed activities will provide excellent and timely information to our members, and opportunities to capture an increasing share of export sales. ITS Canada’s activities will: ITS Canada plans the following specific activities in the coming year: Members will be kept apprised of opportunities to participate in these missions as details become available. By William Johnson Background Canada has been involved in ITS standards development since 1994 as a voting member of ISO Technical Committee 204 and as part of U.S. standards development activities. Planning for a national program began in 1999 when the ITS Plan for Canada (November 1999) made ITS standards one of the five pillars for development. This resulted in a Standards Plan for Canada (March 2000), a Standards Framework (March 2001), and an Implementation Plan (September 2001). The ITS Architecture for Canada and associated training workshops were completed in 2001. Strategy The strategy for implementing the ITS standards framework is to establish partnerships at three levels of responsibility to guide and support the required activities. These levels are: Proposed Organization A brief review of the proposed organizational structure for the ITS standards framework follows. ITS Canada’s Board of Directors and Transport Canada approved an action plan and funding to begin implementation of the ITS standards framework beginning in 2002. The steps of the action plan and the accomplishments to date (shown in italics) are as follows. ITS Canada invites all interested stakeholders to join in a partnership to carry out this important work. Please contact Bill Johnson for further information at johnswf@attglobal.net. Transportation Association of Canada The Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) held a workshop on April 18 in Ottawa to discuss with transportation industry stakeholders the industry’s education and training needs. Stakeholders had the opportunity to discuss gaps in training, and ways of addressing concerns. Michel Gravel, Executive Director of TAC, provided an overview of the current situation, noting that it is expected that future growth in the economy, combined with the deterioration of infrastructure and the impending retirement of transportation professionals, may well lead to workforce shortages in the transportation sector. Six other transportation professionals from diverse backgrounds served as panel speakers and provided other valuable perspectives. Copies of presentations are available by contacting TAC at secretariat@tac-atc.ca. ITS Canada’s Chairman Joseph Lam presented the findings of the Academic Capacity on ITS Study completed in August 2000, a study of the capacity of Canadian universities and colleges to produce enough human resources to the Canadian ITS industry. The presentations helped stimulate discussion among participants in four afternoon breakout sessions. The forty professionals in attendance were divided into groups of ten in four separate discussion groups, and wrestled with eight questions concerning priority actions that TAC and its partners should undertake. Participants were asked to group their input under four categories of priorities: recruitment, education, training, and miscellaneous. More than half of participants indicated recruitment issues should be the most important priority that TAC and its partners should address, with other attendees showing a fairly even distribution between education and training issues. Also highlighted was the need for professionals, academia and government to work together to identify the gaps in the provision of transportation education in Canada. Marketing was seen as a key to increasing recruitment opportunities, funding for education and research and support for in-service training to retain employees. TAC has now formed an Education Coalition, which will provide the forum for stakeholders with similar or overlapping interests, including other associations, such as ITS Canada and academic institutions, to collaborate with TAC in identifying and reviewing current courses and in-service training offerings in the transportation field, identifying gaps, and determining the best means of overcoming the gaps. The Coalition will be a consultative forum. TAC staff will provide secretariat support. The Coalition will meet face-to-face or by teleconference on an as-required basis. While still in its formative stages, the Coalition can count on the participation of the following stakeholders who have confirmed their interest as of February, 27 2002, with the inaugural meeting to be held this fall: In addition to the above, the TAC Education Task Force, in developing its Business Plan, has benefited greatly from representation from the University of Waterloo, the University of Calgary and the University of Laval. It is hoped that these academic institutions will play a significant role as members of the Education Coalition for the benefit of the transportation industry in Canada. Telematics Systems 2002 will be held June 26 and 27 at the Svenska Mässan in Gothenburg, Sweden, in conjunction with the VISE and VIBEX automotive show. The conference has been organized by Telematics Update Magazine, with ITS Sweden and Telematics Valley as conference partners. This year’s event focuses on cutting-edge automotive and communication technology, and will review business models for profitable telematics systems. Telematics Update has secured the exclusive "Telematics Pavilion" for a three-day expo which will be held in conjunction with the conference, featuring exhibits from major telematics companies from across Europe. The conference program boasts top level speakers from the major European telematics companies and automobile manufacturers. Topics to be covered include revolutionary speech systems and speech recognition, on-board versus off-board systems, telematics and the end user, real time navigation solutions in the European market, business strategies for profitable partnerships, and more. For more information, visit www.telematicsupdate.com/systems2002/index.shtml. Mark your calendar now... ITS Canada’s next Annual Conference and General Meeting will be held in April 2003 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Newsletter published by ITS Canada. Submissions or comments can be emailed to itscanada@itscanada.ca.
MAY 2002
ITS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
Director, ITS Canada
AQTR ANNUAL CONFERENCE
ITS CANADA’S 2002 EXPORT MARKETING PLANS
ITS STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT
Chair, ITS Canada Standards Committee
It is now urgent to complete and adopt the standards required by the architecture to ensure interoperability, both across Canada and in harmony with North America. ITS Canada, in cooperation with Transport Canada, has made this a high priority task for 2002-2003.
WHAT'S NEW AT TAC
UPCOMING EVENTS
