A short writeup on the ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) Industry
In accordance to market analysis reports [1], the global intelligent transportation systems market size was valued at USD 26.58 billion in 2019 and is projected to register a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.8% from 2020 to 2027.
This is due to an increased need for active traffic management strategies, driving increased expenditures for infrastructural development in the present and near future. This trend is likely to persist with further advances in traffic mobility.
The necessity for presenting real-time traffic information of different regions to passengers and drivers is one of many significant factors driving demand for intelligent transportation systems across the world.
When considering Singapore’s density as an urbanized nation-state, the need to enhance traffic flow across highways and corridors is of a similar priority, that has led to the rising need for the alternative technologies by various stakeholders arising to better manage traffic.
Traffic Signal Control is a classic example of cyber-physical systems in today’s context of technologically empowered instrumentation, featuring tight interactions of the cyber components in a network of traffic systems and controllers, merging with the physical aspects of the localized traffic system.
It is an important element in traffic management that affects the efficiency of urban transportation. With growing traffic congestion in many urban areas, improving traffic signal control to optimize the efficiency of road networks becomes increasingly important.
An ever-growing number of vehicles on the road, ageing infrastructure, and lack of active enough traffic data management, amongst others, are some factors anticipated to drive the overall growth in the field of ITS through further upgrades in the works.
It is common for transportation authorities across the world to pivot in addressing the growing traffic issues faced, by adopting ITS technologies, to allow for more speedy analysis in computation and network communication, to innovate and analyse the data collected that is ever more sophisticated in nature, such as that produced by self-driving vehicles, the advent of V2X [2], internet of things (IoT) [3] and more to come.
Present-day visual mediums like Geospatial Visualisations (QGIS, ArcGIS), Traffic Modelling and Simulation (PTV Vissim, Visum) along with AI and algorithms for traffic signal control and routings helps traffic planners better implement fast and efficient decisions that serve the traffic networks of the present day and future. Open-source APIs and datasets such as that of LTA DataMall shared by traffic authorities allow for collaborative co-creation of transport solutions that can impact the community positively.
[1] https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/intelligent-transportation-systems-industry
[2] Kawser, Mohammad & Sajjad, Syed & Fahad, Saymon & Ahmed, Sakib & Rafi, Hasib. (2019). The Perspective of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Communication towards 5G. 19. 146-155.
[3] Zuo, Y., Wu, Y., Min, G., & Cui, L. (2019). Learning-based network path planning for traffic engineering. Future Generation Computer Systems, 92, 59-67.