Transport Scotland (TS) has unveiled its 10-year ITS strategy with a new framework to ensure that the systems which help keep the country’s trunk road and motorway network moving are geared-up for the technological advances to come.
The document, Future Intelligent Transport Systems Strategy, outlines how TS will make the best use of its resources to keep pace in a rapidly evolving field that is seeing increasing in-car technology and developments in data management.
As well as evaluating TS’s existing ITS and communications technologies, the new strategy also takes into account the growing field of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), which are expected to have significant benefits for road safety and in transforming how real-time traffic monitoring and analysis can be carried out.
The strategy outlines three key needs:
To ensure it has a distinctly Scottish context, aligned with the Scottish government’s purpose, national priorities and reflecting the diverse nature of the strategic road network and the geographic and socio-economic landscape of the country;
To ensure it is customer-focused and investments contribute to a safe and efficient road network and are informed and driven by user needs;
To ensure that decisions on investments in future ITS provision and operation align with TS’s established investment hierarchy and are objective-led.
The four specific objectives for the strategy are:
Innovation and Horizon Scanning – On-going engagement with relevant governmental, national and international organizations to inform wider understanding of how innovative and beneficial ITS can be deployed;
Customer Focus – Through various methods, regular engagement with users of both network and data and information services TS provides, inform prioritization of resources, systems and services that will have most effective benefits to users;
Planning and Adaptability – Working collaboratively to set out how TS and its partners will adapt to technological changes such as the growth in intelligent mobility, CAVs, big data and the Internet of Things;
Asset Management and Delivery – Present an informed context for annual reviews of investment priorities that will deliver effective services aligned with Investment Hierarchy and TS’s Road Asset Management Plan (RAMP).
“ITS is a rapidly evolving field, with developments taking place in a wide range of areas, and we want to be ready to take advantage of these,” said Scotland’s Transport Minister, Humza Yousaf.
“Our ITS strategy will help guide our services for the next 10 years and beyond, building upon our successes, and guided by the views of the public, as well as transportation professionals.”
