Chapter 38: Implementing Intelligent Transportation Systems

Intelligent transportation systems, or ITS, are the application to surface transportation of information technologies – sensors, computers, and telecommunications (Taylor, 2001). Examples include new and sophisticated traffic signals, electronic toll collection, use of Global Positioning System technology to keep track of fleets of trucks and buses, and use of acoustic and infrared sensors and video cameras to monitor traffic conditions.

Information technologies are of course used extensively in aviation and the maritime industries, for example in air traffic control, passenger and baggage screening, scheduling and reservations, fare calculations, and tracking of freight movement, but in neither of these industries is there a national policy to promote the use of information technologies.