5 june 2000, gallagher estates
Introduction
In this era of technological development of such magnitude that there is talk of a new world economy, it is, indeed, a pleasure for me to deliver the keynote address at this international conference that seeks to create awareness of the vital role that can be played by information and communication technologies as part of the solution and other challenges facing not only south africa but also southern africa.
Vision for south african transport in 2020
We have, in the transport field, formulated an ambitious vision for south africa for the year 2020. The transport vision, as formulated in the aaction agenda" of the amoving south africa" initiative, is that ay by 2020, transport in south africa will meet the needs of freight and passenger customers for accessible, affordable, safe, frequent, high quality, reliable, efficient and seamless transport operations and infrastructure. It will do so in a constantly upgrading, innovative, flexible and economically and environmentally sustainable manner."
ITS will play a significant role in assisting us to achieve our goals.
Definition of ITS
Intelligent transport systems involve the application of information, communication and control technologies for the collection, processing, integration and supply of information to enable authorities and operators to improve the operations of transport systems and to enable individual users of the transport system to make better informed, i.e. More aintelligent", transport decisions.
The overall function of its is, therefore, to improve the operations of transport systems and this, most definitely, supports our objectives of safe, reliable, efficient and seamless transport.
ITS in an international context
Internationally, some of the important services rendered by its technologies are the following:
The collection and transmission of information on traffic conditions and public transport schedules for travellers before and during their trips: armed with information about traffic hazards and delays, travellers can opt for alternative routes or modes of transport to minimise delay and avoid placing additional strain on the transport system.A decrease in congestion is achieved through advanced traffic management and traveller information systems by reducing the number of traffic incidents, clearing them quickly when they occur and rerouting traffic to alternative routes.
The automatic collection of highway tolls through non-stop electronic toll collection has been taken to its ultimate conclusion through the total elimination of traditional toll plazas on the highway 407 toll project near toronto in canada and the melbourne city link toll project in australia.
The productivity of commercial, public transport and emergency vehicle fleets is improved by using automated tracking, dispatch and weigh-in-motion systems.
Drivers are assisted to reach a desired destination with navigation systems enhanced with route guidance.
The total market for its products and services worldwide over the next 20 years has been estimated at us$420 billion with private its markets estimated to exceed us$340 billion.
ITS in transitional countries Many transitional countries, including those countries undergoing basic changes in their economic systems and those experiencing rapid economic development, have begun to invest in ITS. This is happening, since these countries face the same transportation problems, i.e. Decreasing efficiency, safety and environmental quality, that confront the developed countries and that ITS can help to solve. This is also true of the south african situation and this symposium and exhibition is a landmark in the development and deployment of ITS in south africa.
The two most common ITS applications in asia are area traffic control which is installed to reduce traffic accidents and congestion and non-stop electronic toll collection which increases the efficiency of toll collection dramatically. In central and eastern europe, several countries have started to develop reliable traffic information databases which can then be distributed to the travelling public via radio and roadside variable message signs.
In south america, electronic toll collection is currently the most common ITS application, while a few important cities have already deployed centralised traffic control, video surveillance, video speed enforcement and incident management.
The status of ITS in south africa
As far as ITS applications in south africa are concerned, sophisticated area traffic control systems have been operated in our major cities for well over twenty years. The coastal cities of cape town, durban and port elizabeth, however, lead with advanced real-time traffic responsive scoot area traffic control systems.
Furthermore, closed circuit television traffic and cbd safety surveillance systems are operated extensively in the major metropolitan areas of south africa.
The implementation of ITS in south africa to date has been on an ad hoc project basis with very little overall standardisation or sharing of resources.
International experience has made us acutely aware that, while many ITS applications are effective on their own or in combination with other measures, the integration of ITS technologies and applications often achieves significant synergies resulting from shared information and infrastructure. Users also benefit from a wider range of services that are convenient and easy to use.
ITS and government's 5 year main focus areas
We see ITS playing a very important role when assessing ITS value with respect to the 5 year main focus areas of the south african government: The first main focus area of government is: Speeding up delivery of basic needs and developing human resources
At this stage, the south african public transport sector does not have a very good reputation. Objectives like modal integration and safe transport need to be achieved. The implementation of ITS will facilitate the achievement of these objectives b for example, through electronic toll collection and electronic licensing systems the safety issues may be addressed, while through-ticketing will assist with modal integration.
These two aspects alone will not only assist in developing human resources but will also open up public transport to a wider group of customers, thereby making significant efficiency gains possible.
The second main focus area of government is: Building the economy & creating jobs
ITS worldwide is a huge industry of $240 billion in magnitude. We in south africa are now seriously moving into this industry and this will stimulate the ITS industry in south africa, creating new employment and investment opportunities. South africa will heed the lessons learnt elsewhere in the world and i assure the ITS fraternity that the south african government is pro-actively supporting the implementation of ITS in an integrated and planned way.
The third main focus area of government is: The combating of crime and corruption
ITS technology will assist tremendously in combating vehicle crime. The identification of hijacked or stolen vehicles can be addressed not only by an electronic licensing system and electronic toll collection but even by systems that can be used in parking garages.
A stolen vehicle can then be recognized by readers at parking garages, border posts, etc. The same principle applies in respect of vehicles not having valid licenses or even having outstanding traffic fines.
A final focus area of government that i want to refer to is: Building a better africa and a better world
We in south africa are a positive nation and we, therefore, would like to follow positive world trends, of which ITS is one of the most significant in the world of transportation. The positive effects and benefits that are realized through ITS have been demonstrated time and again in many countries.
We are in the fortunate position to be able to learn from the world, and apply ITS in south africa. Obviously we cannot go it alone as we are part of the continent of africa and, more importantly, we need to co-ordinate within the sadc fraternity.
ITS south africa
The national department of transport has, therefore, through the committee of land transport officials (colto), created an aits south africa" structure with the mission, on the public sector side, to lead in the identification and deployment of core intelligent transport infrastructure to meet essential needs and the definition of industry standards, where appropriate, to meet public needs. It should, furthermore, form innovative partnerships with the private sector, where appropriate.
Without going into the details of the ITS south africa structure, i wish to point out the following features of the structure: Standardisation and other important policy decisions take place through the mincom (ministerial committee) and colto structures which are representative of the ministers of transport and top officials respectively of all the national and provincial road authorities in the country and are therefore the legitimate organisations by which these decisions should be taken.
An architecture management team have been established to co-ordinate both the institutional and technical aspects of a strategic framework within which the activities of various ITS stakeholders can be integrated.
Six work groups have been established to focus the ITS activities in south africa in specific areas and these are:
An ITS society, consisting of both public and private sector members, is being created to facilitate interaction on ITS between these sectors and to ensure that the practical realities are taken into consideration in standardisation and other policy decisions.
Urgent activities of ITS south africa work groups
I would now like to share with you the most urgent activities of two of these ITS south africa work groups, namely the advanced public transportation systems and the electronic toll collection work groups.
A. Advanced public transportation systems work group
It is one of the priorities of the national government to speed up delivery of basic needs in the field of transport through the development and promotion of an integrated public transport system.
In the field of public transport, it has become apparent that the implementation of smart card payment systems are being considered by various rail, bus and taxi service providers in south africa. Now, while it may be fashionable and convenient for my wife to have a walletful of credit cards, it will be cumbersome and inconvenient for public transport users to have several smart cards. In addition, it becomes a nightmare, apart from tripling costs, to provide the different readers, scanners and computer equipment to operate the different systems.
The apts work group will, therefore, as ITS first priority, define a standardised smart card payment system to enable the public transport user to use one card to pay for travel by taxi, bus and rail.
Furthermore, we are recapitalising the taxi fleet in south africa by supplying purpose-built 18 and 35 seater taxis. These vehicles will also be fitted with certain ITS equipment like electronic vehicle management systems that will provide log sheets of the performance of the vehicle. Also being considered is the application of global positioning systems (gps) in the taxi industry.
B. Electronic toll collection work group
The national roads agency and ITS predecessor have, over the years, established 11 toll projects through loans procured by the nra and, in recent years, it has awarded three 30 year build-operate-transfer concessions in respect of the n4 maputo corridor, the n3 between heidelberg and pietermaritzburg and the n4 platinum toll road.
Furthermore, the gauteng province has plans to toll existing and new motorways between pretoria and the witwatersrand to raise funds for the construction of the pwv9 motorway between sandton and pretoria west.
All the toll authorities and concessionaires in these existing and potential toll projects want to introduce non-stop electronic toll collection in order to increase the efficiency of toll collection and to eliminate the need for large toll plazas.
In order to put the interests of the road user first, we accept as a point of departure that the user should be able to use all the toll facilities in the country with only one toll account and one toll tag in his/her vehicle, i.e. The need to obtain a different tag and maintain a different toll account for every toll facility should be eliminated. Furthermore, numerous intelligent transport systems (ITS) applications become possible when the communications technology facilitating etc is introduced.
In order to achieve the objective of one tag and one account per user and especially to initially ensure interoperability and achieve economies of scale, it is imperative that common south african standards be developed for etc systems and related ITS applications.
The etc work group has, therefore, been active in comparing various technologies that may facilitate the achievement of, inter alia, the following objectives:
The achievement of interoperability to enable the road users of south africa, each using a single tag and a single toll account, to travel seamlessly throughout the country and interact properly with suitable ITS applications.
To use proven, existing, open standards and proven, existing but current technologies and products, while not closing the door for evolving new technologies.
To avoid a monopolistic procurement situation.
To provide a low cost solution, with particular emphasis on a low cost toll tag.
To provide a migration path to even more capable standards and systems in the future.
In view of the urgency of this matter, especially for certain urban toll collection projects, the etc work group will make ITS recommendations shortly after this conference.
Other attractive ITS applications for the south african situation
A. Electronic licensing systems (ELS)
Another priority of the national government is to combat crime and corruption at all levels of our society. The same technology to be used for non-stop electronic toll collection, namely dedicated short range communications (dsrc), could also be used for vehicle crime prevention and traffic law enforcement.
The ultimate deployment of this technology will be to use the tag as an electronic license. Such an electronic licensing system of all vehicles will allow the roadside readers to obtain specific vehicle and ownership details of an aoffending" vehicle from a remote roadside position without requiring the vehicle to stop. Alternatively, a vehicle not equipped with an electronic license can be pulled over for special law enforcement attention.
An electronic licensing system with a suitable database, linked to natis, roadside read/write equipment at strategic locations and vehicle presence detectors, will make it possible to remotely monitor traffic streams for specific purposes such as:
While there are important privacy issues involved in the deployment of electronic licensing, the benefits for the south african society are significant and the matter will, therefore, be further vigorously pursued.
B. Advanced traffic management systems
The moving south africa action agenda indicates that the financial sustainability of the transport system is threatened by an estimated r3,3 billion annual road system underfunding.
The ITS application area that will facilitate the efficient supply and utilisation of transport capacity and increased transport safety is known as aadvanced traffic management" and include freeway management, ramp metering, rerouting of traffic through variable message signs, incident management, bus prioritisation, integrated urban traffic management and the optimisation of traffic signals.
In this context, a cost-effectiveness assessment of 50 metropolitan areas in the united states is particularly significant. In this assessment, the traditional approach of building highways to meet anticipated traffic demand was compared with the new alternative of combining ITS with highway building to meet the same traffic demand.
The bottom-line conclusion of the assessment is that the life-cycle cost of the aits & build" alternative will be 65% of the life-cycle cost of the abuild only" alternative, i.e. A significant cost saving of 35% will result from the implementation of ITS.
C. Judicial issues
It is estimated that of the thousands of criminal cases which are investigated by the saps in respect of motor vehicle accidents, a law prosecution rate of ? 6 % and conviction rate of ? 1,5 % is achieved as a result of lack of evidence and substansive evidence. As a result of this millions of rands are lost.
The ITS technology in this field can therefore play a vital role in determining by means of a ablack box" concept, exactly the place, date and time of accident, to be submitted into a court of law as irrefutable evidence. It is envisaged that there will be huge cost savings in the legal arena and of course saving in time for courts to deal with these cases. This will also assist in providing a much shorter time duration for such cases proceeding through the courts to reach finality.
Conclusion
It is clear from this last example that south africa has to grasp what ITS has to offer in order to achieve ITS vision in the transport arena. While embracing the significant potential benefits of ITS, sound economic and financial evaluations and the needs of our customers must form the basis of our ITS investment decisions.
We have a unique opportunity to learn from problems already defined and addressed elsewhere in the world, also as reported at this ITS awareness symposium. We may, therefore, leapfrog old technologies and embrace the technologies the new economy has to offer, always remembering that the institutional architecture has to work before the physical/technological architecture can.
Thank you.