APEC ECONOMY REPORT

Australian National Strategy for Intelligent Transport Systems

Australia, in common with many other APEC Economies, recognises the significant social, economic, environmental and commercial potential of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), through their capacity to improve the transport system and transport operations. In April 1998, Australia’s Transport Ministers from the Commonwealth, States and Territories therefore called for the development of a National Strategy for ITS. A draft Strategy has now been developed and will be considered by Transport Ministers at their meeting in mid-November 1999.

This paper outlines some of the processes involved in developing the National Strategy, and proposed major themes and areas of action. As Ministers have yet to consider the proposed Strategy, it is not possible to comment on the specifics.

Processes

Transport Ministers requested Austroads (the association of Australian and New Zealand road and traffic authorities) to develop the National Strategy, in consultation with other transport modes. Austroads subsequently commissioned ITS Australia to undertake development of the Strategy. ITS Australia brings together representatives of industry, government, transport users and researchers, who are interested in developing and using advanced technologies to improve Australia’s transport operations.

Development of the National Strategy has involved an extensive process of consultation. Seven workshops were convened around Australia in the National, State and Territory capital cities, to encourage broad participation. There was also an invitation for written submissions, and around 55 were received. In addition, development of the draft National Reference Architecture has involved its own extensive consultative process.

Themes

Several major themes have emerged during development of the draft National Strategy. In part, they mirror widespread experiences that many Economies have gone through, however, they also reflect the particular circumstances of Australia.

Cooperation

The success of the National Strategy for ITS, and achieving the objectives of interoperability and improved modal integration, will depend on improving levels of cooperation between the many stakeholders: including governments, industry, users, agencies and research organisations. Under the Australian federal system, for example, States and Territories have significant responsibilities for land transport, traffic management and public transport, while the Commonwealth is responsible for communications (an essential ingredient to ITS) - close cooperation will be essential to ensure jurisdictional impediments to nationally-interoperable systems are successfully removed. Another important area of cooperation is pre-competitive work on a National Architecture and standards, and includes international cooperation.

Longer-Term Focus

There is recognition that achieving the potential of ITS will come, not from isolated projects, but from a framework that encourages the integrated development and deployment of ITS into the future. Support for open architectures, broadly accepted standards, cooperation and participation, is critical to a successful long-term Strategy.

Urban/Regional

Australia is highly urbanised and has diverse regional and remote areas that have specific transport needs. ITS can help meet these needs. Many urban areas suffer from congestion and its implications (such as vehicle emissions), and regional areas need improvements to road safety, traveller and tourist information, transport accessibility, freight logistics, and transport infrastructure monitoring and management. Road safety is a key issue across urban and regional areas, but its characteristics differ, for example fatigue is a significant issue in country driving due to long distances. Australia’s ITS National Strategy recognises the importance of tackling the transport problems of regional Australia, as well as urban problems.

Certainty and Flexibility

It is important to provide the community and industry with as much certainty as possible about the future direction of the National Strategy, while at the same time remaining flexible, facilitating the dynamic technological change associated with ITS. In common with the national strategies of many APEC Economies, development of the Australian National Strategy has therefore focused on meeting outcomes for users, for example, through identifying outcome-oriented goals. During development of the Strategy, the importance of guiding principles for the Strategy’s evolution and implementation was identified as a means to balance flexibility and certainty.

Pro-Competitive

One of the best ways of facilitating growth in use of ITS is to ensure continued development of a competitive ITS market. This will keep costs down and help ensure ITS tools meet consumer needs. The importance of a competitive industry framework is promoted in the National Strategy.

Areas of Action

Several broad areas where specific actions are expected to yield substantial benefits from use of ITS have been identified.

Achieving Interoperability

Without interoperability, there is a limited future for ITS. Action is needed to continue to build on the draft National Reference Architecture which has been developed as part of the National Strategy and to participate in international standards-making fora in efforts to achieve consistent standards.

Creating a National Institutional Framework

Necessary cooperation between the numerous stakeholders to deliver a successful Strategy will require a national institutional framework. Such a framework is proposed in the National Strategy.

Raising Awareness and Skills

Poor public and industry awareness are impeding the take-up of ITS. ITS are often considered to be more ‘risky’ than traditional approaches. The need to raise awareness of ITS, including the skills awareness of user industries, is addressed in the proposed National Strategy.

Fostering a Competitive Australian-based ITS Industry

The Australian-based industry has a number of strengths and is well-advanced in various areas, such as: telecommunications technologies, advanced real-time traffic management (eg Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic Control System [SCATS]), navigation database development and logistics applications. These strengths will be encouraged through improved R & D and skills-development. The 8th ITS World Congress in 2001, to be held in Sydney, will provide an opportunity to showcase the successes of the Australian ITS industry.

Encouraging International Cooperation

The global ITS community is engaged in much positive cooperation on ITS issues, and Australia already participates in this. The benefits from involvement in relevant international fora should, however, be promoted.

Establishing and Monitoring Demonstration Projects

The value of demonstration projects has been proven in many ITS strategies around the world. In Australia, where there is already much installed ITS capacity, there are likely to be significant lessons from monitoring projects already under way, as well as embarking on new trials in areas of significant ITS benefit and innovation.

Conclusion

The proposed ITS National Strategy aims to set the right policy directions to enable Australia to benefit from use of ITS into the future. Its focus is on national priority actions to ensure ITS can make a significant contribution to tackling the major transport problems Australia faces over the coming decade and beyond.

October 1999

This page was last updated on 1 Feb, 2008