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AWARD
PRESENTATION – ITS CANADA SCHOLARSHIP 2007
In July 2007, ITS Canada’s
Education and Training Committee announced the recipient
of ITS Canada's Michel Van Aerde Memorial Scholarship
for 2007. Mohamed Wahba of the University
of Toronto was the successful winner. The Review Committee
made its selection based on his strong academic record,
clearly stated goals, demonstrated understanding of
ITS and strong letters of recommendation.
On
September 13, 2007, ITS Canada’s Chairman Joseph
Lam presented the award to Mohamed at ITS Canada’s
Board of Directors meeting, held in Markham.
ITS
Canada Chairman Joseph Lam (left) presents to Mohamed
Wahba
The
award of $5,000 is made through a competitive process
to a student registered full-time in a graduate studies
program at a Canadian university related to intelligent
transportation systems.
ITS
Canada extends congratulations to Mohamed and wishes
him every success in his graduate studies.
HOW
THE GTTA WILL CREATE A REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN
By
Rita Scagnetti, Greater Toronto Transportation Authority
The vision of creating a transportation
network that lets people and businesses move quickly
and seamlessly between Oshawa and Hamilton is never
far from Rob MacIsaac’s mind. “Anyone
who commutes any distance to work – whether
by car, by bike or on transit – knows of the
tremendous congestion on our roads and the crowding
on public transit. This city region is one of the
top five most congested cities on the continent,”
says MacIsaac.
What’s
he going to do about it? MacIsaac is the Chair of
the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority, a Crown
agency of the Province of Ontario. The GTTA’s
central mandate is to create a regional transportation
plan that makes the seamless network possible.
That
plan isn’t going to be created in a fusty backroom
by anonymous staff. “Building a regional transportation
plan will be a collaborative effort,” says MacIsaac.
“Anyone and everyone who is interested in getting
to work or school quicker and more efficiently will
be invited to have a say.”
Talk
to the technical experts
The business of collecting input will begin with the
transportation experts. With ten transit systems in
the area of the GTTA’s mandate handling over
518 million annual passenger trips, and more than
two million vehicles on GTA and Hamilton roads, there
are plenty of those. Technical advisory committees
made up of representatives from different levels of
government, transportation providers and other experts
will have their say as six “green papers”
are prepared. The topics that will eventually be combined
to form the regional transportation plan include:
trends and outlooks
mobility hubs
transit
walking, cycling and transportation demand management
roads and highways, and
goods and services movement.
Three
main themes
While those who follow transportation may be familiar
with some or all of the topics, it’s interesting
to note that the plan itself will revolve around three
central themes: people, the environment and the economy.
“Because
the GTTA is the final piece in a three-part approach
to prepare the Greater Toronto and Hamilton region
for growth and sustained prosperity, I thought it
was important to build the regional transportation
plan along the same themes as the Greenbelt Plan and
the Growth Plan,” said MacIsaac. MacIsaac played
a critical role in the first ever GTA Smart Growth
Summit that brought together community leaders from
across the GTA to begin thinking about new ways to
manage growth.
Insights
from opinion leaders
The regional transportation plan will also seek insight
and ideas from an advisory committee. A small committee
of the GTTA board is busy recruiting members for the
committee, people who will best represent the three
central themes of the plan. They will review discussion
papers and drafts of the regional transportation plan,
and provide direct feedback and advice to the Board.
“And
of course, the views and ideas of the general public
will be actively sought and encouraged,” said
MacIsaac. The GTTA is building a new web portal that
will make online consultations easy. Once all the
various components of the plan are rolled up, there
will be opportunities for town hall-style meetings.
“Starting later this fall and culminating with
the final report, members of the public will have
many chances to have a say in the content of the plan,”
said MacIsaac. “I’m looking forward to
hearing all the good ideas I’m sure they will
contribute.” All told, it’s a tall order
and the timelines are tight. The GTTA hopes to have
a draft plan ready by late next spring. “I’m
optimistic that we’ll have a bold transportation
plan that can be implemented quickly and make a real
difference in people’s lives,” said MacIsaac.
For
more details about the GTTA, its board and its priorities,
visit their interim web site at gtta.com.
ITS
STANDARDS FOR INTERNATIONAL INTEROPERABILITY
By
William Johnson, Chair CAC for ISO/TC204
Based on a paper presented at ITS Canada’s Annual
Conference 2007
PART 1: WORLDWIDE REPORT ON ITS STANDARDS
The
ISO Technical Committee 204 for ITS develops international
standards for transportation “information and
control” functions. The domain of application
broadly includes all systems that communicate from
vehicle to roadside and from vehicle to vehicle (in-vehicle
systems are the domain of ISO/TC22).
International
standards are important because the automobile industry
is a global industry and successful deployment of
new vehicle-based systems often requires compatible
infrastructure-based systems. For example, tolling
systems and probe vehicle applications require compatible
communications between vehicles and roadside systems.
In future, these applications will become more common.
APEC
and WRITSS: The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) Transportation Working Group (TPT) fosters
economic development by member countries on the Pacific
Rim. Under the TPT, the Intermodal/ITS Experts Group
has focused on encouraging the adoption of ITS standards
by APEC countries. To this end, the Experts Group
formed a liaison with ISO/TC204 and, in 2005, initiated
a project to survey ITS standards development and
user experience in all APEC and ISO/TC204 countries.
The project, known as the World Report on ITS Standards
(WRITSS), was organized and conducted by the Korean
Standards Association under the direction of the Korean
Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) over the
period 2005-2006. The results were presented and discussed
at a workshop in Busan, Korea, on April 24, 2006.
APEC and ISO will publish WRITSS in 2007.
WRITSS
includes a complete inventory of all the
ITS standards development activities underway worldwide,
including those by international organizations (ISO,
ISO/IEC, ITU), regional organizations (CEN, ETSI,
IEEE) and national organizations (12 countries).
In
all, 662 standards and standardization activities
were documented by WRITSS, including formal standards
developed by standards development organizations (SDOs)
such as ISO and IEEE, and less formal descriptions
of “essential characteristics” of products,
services and systems developed by user groups. The
Canadian contributions to the WRITSS survey generally
fall into the latter category. (For more information,
see the article that follows). This represents a significant
amount of worldwide effort and suggests there may
be benefits in cooperative development strategies.
The
WRITSS report contains fact sheets on 89 ITS standards,
describing their scope and conformance features. It
also contains a list of 100 ITS standards that are
deployed into use worldwide, and documentation of
20 lessons learned from development or deployment
experience of ITS standards.
Adoption
Policies: The survey also revealed that adoption
of international standards as national standards has
been slow, possibly because of the need to adapt them
to local conditions and also because of different
policies with regard to adoption of standards. For
example, the European countries develop ITS standards
collectively through CEN and then automatically adopt
them as national standards. The APEC and non-European
countries, on the other hand, develop ITS standards
nationally and then adopt them selectively. For example,
in North America, ITS and other standards are not
formally adopted as national standards; adoption decisions
are left to the market place.
In
Figure 1 (next page), these two main approaches result
in two main clusters of countries representing, respectively,
the APEC and European countries.
Recommendations:
The report has recommendations to guide future ITS
standards development:
-
SDOs are encouraged to develop standards in a more
user oriented manner.
- Regional bodies like APEC are encouraged to sponsor
outreach activities.
- Stakeholders should identify business case
or cost-benefit for implementation or interoperability
issues.
- SDOs and regional bodies are encouraged to strive
for efficient cooperation and networking to avoid
duplication and secure harmonization by sponsoring
implementation guidelines and conformance requirements;
holding joint meetings and using teleconferencing;
and developing procedures to determine compliance
with a standard.
For
further information, refer to ISO Focus, The Intelligent
Car, March 2007, the ISO home page www.iso.org,
or the APEC home page www.apec.org.
Figure
1: Adoption Policy of ITS Standards
PART
2: CANADIAN INPUT TO WRITSS SURVEY
The
previous article (Part 1) described the World Report
on ITS Standards (WRITSS) that was initiated by the
APEC Transportation, Intermodal/ITS Experts Group,
in cooperation with the ISO Technical Committee 204
for ITS standards. The report conducted a survey of
all APEC and ISO/TC204 countries to document ITS standards
development activities and the experience gained using
ITS standards. Canada responded to the WRITSS survey
as both a member of APEC and of ISO/TC204. This article
briefly summarizes the results of the Canada-wide
survey.
The
request to participate in the WRITSS survey came from
the Korean Standards Association (KSA) and was directed
to ITS Canada as the designated representative on
the APEC/TPT at the time, under the auspices of Transport
Canada, and to the Standards Council of Canada as
the sponsor of Canadian participation in ISO/TC204.
The Canadian Advisory Committee for ISO/TC204, under
the direction of Chair Bill Johnson, volunteered to
organize and prepare the Canadian response.
Methodology:
The survey methodology consisted of compiling a list
of contacts in each province and territory, sending
letters requesting input related to the survey questionnaire,
and compiling the responses from seven provinces into
a single response from Canada. The results were reviewed
by the two sponsor agencies (i.e., Transport Canada
and Standards Council) and then returned to KSA for
inclusion in WRITSS.
Results in Brief: The Canadian survey
results were as follows: five national ITS standards
activities were identified; seven provinces reported
a total of 34 ITS deployments that use ITS standards;
four lessons learned were described to share with
others; one international ITS standard was identified
as initiated and led by Canada in ISO/TC204.
Results
in Detail: The five national ITS standards
activities that fit the WRITSS definition (SDO developed
or guidelines/technical reports) are as follows:
1.
Canadian ITS Architecture
2. Guidelines to Implement ‘511’
3. Road Weather Information System (RWIS) Technical
Guidelines
4. CVO Network Cost-Benefit and Feasibility Studies
5. Guidelines for Integrating Environmental Impact
Evaluation in ITS Deployments.
The
34 ITS deployments that were reported as using ITS
standards makes too long a list to include in this
article. Instead, one from each province is selected
to illustrate the main applications:
1.
Nova Scotia – MacPass toll tag (RFID Amtech)
2. New Brunswick – RWIS (NTCIP and Canadian
technical guidelines)
3. Quebec – Autoroute Dynamic Message Signs
(NTCIP)
4. Ontario – AVION CVO Bypass (ASTM DSRC)
5. Saskatchewan – Virtual Weigh-in-Motion
(ASTM, Canadian ITS Architecture)
6. Alberta – Automated Traffic Recorder (NTCIP,
NEMA, Canadian ITS Architecture)
7. British Columbia – 98 B-Line Bus Rapid
Transit (Vehicle location and schedule, Signal priority,
Dynamic message signs).
Lessons
learned were reported as follows:
For faster implementation – use related systems
already in service nearby (e.g., MacPass)
High data quality – employ independent monitoring
agent to check quality of data collected and use
this information to authorize payments (e.g., Automated
traffic recorder)
Proprietary systems – they work best where
there are no interfaces to external systems in other
jurisdictions (e.g., 98 B-Line)
Use standards – it allows the agency to be
in control of the procurement process.
There
are no examples of ITS standards developed by Canadian-based
SDOs. However, many Canadians have participated as
volunteers in U.S.-based SDOs working on ITS standards
projects. Also, Canada led one international ITS standard
project through to completion in the CAC for ISO/TC204.
This is an international standard for Electronic Monitoring
and Tracking of Dangerous Goods using DSRC technology,
developed in cooperation with six other countries
and published in December 2006. This was done in Working
Group 7 (Fleet Management and Freight Operations)
for which Canada sponsors the international convener,
Dr. Lewis Sabounghi.
Conclusions:
The WRITSS survey shows that the scope and scale of
ITS standards development and deployment experience
in Canada is modest compared to other countries and
to the overall international effort (i.e., 6 out of
662 or ~1%). However, the survey has shown that there
is much work underway across Canada using ITS standards
and the experience being gained is invaluable as stepping
stones to the future when there will certainly be
a greater requirement for interoperability of ITS
services and systems.
For
further information, contact Bill Johnson, chair,
CAC for ISO/TC204 at johnswf@attglobal.net.
ITS
CANADA WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS
CORPORATE
Global Traffic Technologies
Canada Inc.
GarrettCom Inc.
FUTURE
DIRECTION FOR XML ACTIVITIES
ITS
Canada has formed an XML Working Group, Co-Chaired
by Phil Masters of the Ministry of Transportation
of Ontario along with Bruce Zvaniga of the City of
Toronto, that intends to convene (primarily via teleconference)
a team of knowledgeable individuals from across the
country who will brainstorm to determine the information
involved and then, through a subset of technical participants,
begin crafting XML pages, one for the incident information
(planned/unplanned) and one for traffic condition
information (e.g., travel times).
The
results will be circulated to the working group and,
once finalized, the information will be shared with
distributors for their comments.
The
intent is to take the TMDD and build the XML paragraph
with that dictionary and, if there are things that
don't fit, request that TMDD modify it.
The
Co-Chairs are working to determine whether travel
support can be provided for public sector participants
involved, to enable one face-to-face meeting that
is anticipated.
Anyone
interested in participating in this working group
is asked to contact:
Phil
Masters
Ministry of Transportation of Ontario
Email phil.masters@ontario.ca
ITS
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
An
efficient transport infrastructure system is a critical
element in facilitating balanced sustainable development.
Recognising this, Middle Eastern governments have
integrated planned transport decisions into long-term
strategic plans. Multi-billion dollar transport and
infrastructure investments have been allocated to
reform the region’s mass transport system, creating
endless opportunities for those operating in the transport
industry.
Integral
to Dubai’s Strategic Plan 2015 is the construction
of a new interchange on the eighth intersection of
the city’s Sheikh Zayed Road. The contract,
worth US$175 million, will consist of ten bridges
and be completed within 24 months. A recent addition
to Dubai’s extensive infrastructural expansion
program includes the installation of 12 state-of-the-art
pedestrian crossings across the city, at a cost of
US$15.8 million. The Road and Transport Authority
(RTA) recently announced plans to increase the number
of buses from the existing 525 currently on the road
to 1,000 by the end of next year.
The
Abu Dhabi Executive Council disclosed, in the City’s
Policy Agenda 2007-2008, plans to significantly increase
infrastructure investment over the coming years. Transport
developments will be strategically integrated into
the Emirates broader economic plans, ensuring current
and future demands on transport infrastructure are
met. In line with these developments, a ten-lane highway
with six bridges at a cost of US$550 million will
be completed by September 2009.
Governments
across the region have allocated millions of dollars
to develop a smooth, efficient and safe mass transport
system. Supported by the RTA, Gulf Traffic takes place
on December 10 to 12, 2007, at Dubai International
Exhibition Centre and Roadex-Railex takes place on
November 23 to 25, 2008, at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition
Centre. Both exhibitions enable local and international
companies to showcase their products and services
to key regional decision-makers who are actively seeking
solutions to facilitate the current economic boom.
BRIDGE
SAFETY ENHANCED THROUGH ITS
By
Rod Klashinsky, International Road Dynamics (IRD)
A
number of significant events related to bridges have
had a high profile in the news recently, but transportation
specialists know that constant monitoring of bridge
infrastructure is critical. Accurate traffic volume
and vehicle load information are essential for authorities
to optimize their maintenance programs for bridge
infrastructure. Once a bridge is deemed to be in distress,
valuable steps can be implemented using intelligent
transportation systems to ensure that overloads do
not occur, thereby reducing the potential for additional
stress caused by heavily loaded vehicles.
WIM (Weigh-In-Motion) technology can play a vital
role in this respect by monitoring bridge loading.
WIM has been an accepted instrument for traffic data
collection and load monitoring for truck enforcement
screening for more than 25 years. As a first step,
the system can collect data on the traffic that is
traveling across the bridge. From this data, authorities
can determine the loadings on the bridge and take
the appropriate counter-measures to protect the bridge
structure.
A further step is for bridge weight monitoring systems
to be deployed. As vehicles approach the bridge, the
WIM system automatically determines the size and weight
classification of the vehicle and compares this information
with the allowable loads for the upcoming bridge.
If the vehicle exceeds the allowable weight limits,
an advisory sign will be illuminated advising the
driver that the vehicle should not travel across the
bridge. The truck operator can then stop the vehicle
and exit prior to crossing the bridge.
The
WIM can be integrated with a video tracking and monitoring
system to ensure that vehicles obey the signals and
warnings. In the event a driver does not obey the
message, an image of the vehicle, with the corresponding
size and weight information, is generated and stored
and/or communicated to a central office location for
further action. The compliance and enforcement aspect
of the system will deter drivers from purposely driving
overloaded vehicles on a load-sensitive bridge structure.
Over-height vehicle detection can also be incorporated
into this warning system.
NEWS
FROM TRANSPORT CANADA
Anti-theft
Devices
On September 6, 2007, the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure
and Communities announced a regulation that requires
all new cars, vans, light trucks and SUVs to come
equipped with electronic, anti-theft immobilizers.
This amendment to the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations
came into effect on September 1, 2007. Immobilizers
make it difficult for vehicle engines to be started
without the proper disabling device. When armed, the
immobilizer prevents the activation of a vehicle by
blocking out one of the vehicle's control units. To
start the vehicle, the appropriate combination code
or electronic signal from the vehicle key must be
sent to the control unit.
For
details: www.tc.gc.ca/mediaroom/releases/nat/2007/07-h167e.htm.
Canada
Pavilion - 23rd World Road Congress
On September 17, 2007, Brian Jean, Parliamentary Secretary
to the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport,
Infrastructure and Communities, inaugurated the Canada
Pavilion as part of the Canadian Trade Mission to
the 23rd World Road Congress, which will be held from
September 17 to 21, 2007, in Paris, France. The Canada
Pavilion, one of the biggest national pavilions at
the Congress, will showcase the products and services
of 46 Canadian organizations. This exhibition brings
together experts, professionals, and leaders in the
international road community.
For
details: www.tc.gc.ca/mediaroom/releases/nat/2007/07-h175e.htm
.
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Newsletter
published by ITS Canada.
Submissions
or comments can be emailed to askus@itscanada.ca.
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