Intelligent Transport Systems: The technology and why it matters

As urban transportation complexity increases, ITS is more crucial now than ever. Whether you’re commuting to work, running errands, or traveling across the city, ITS plays a vital role in ensuring a smooth journey. By connecting vehicles with infrastructure elements like road signs and traffic signals—all linked to a central control system—ITS enhances urban mobility. Its primary objectives are to improve traffic flow, reduce congestion, prevent accidents, and provide drivers with real-time information on road conditions. With rapid growth predicted for cities and continuing the need for expansion, these intelligent systems will be essential in overcoming the challenges of modern urban life and creating more efficient, safer transportation networks.

Australia has utilised ITS in various applications for decades, such as dynamic speed zones, active lane management, ramp metering, and e-tolling. Traditionally, this infrastructure relies on field devices and fibre optic networks to collect comprehensive data, which is processed by traffic management centres to extract patterns and other elements affecting the road network. This approach, however, comes with significant installation, maintenance, and upgrade costs.

Figure 1. Current ITS Infrastructure

Connected Vehicles and V2X: Improving the industry norm

The CV-Based ITS Infrastructure represents a quantum leap in ITS development. By leveraging real-time data from connected vehicles, the technology departs from traditional, reactive traffic management methods. Connected vehicle technology allows vehicles to communicate with one another and infrastructure elements, such as traffic lights and road signs, create a proactive, predictive, and more efficient process. This drastically enhances road safety, efficiency, and sustainability (StartUs Insights, 2024).

Figure 2. CV-Based ITS Infrastructure

One of the most significant improvements brought by Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) technologies is their ability to generate and utilise vast amounts of data, providing unparalleled insights into traffic patterns, road conditions, and driver behaviours. The combination of real-time vehicle data, with the advancement in Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communication, allows for dynamic, adaptable traffic management that far outperforms the static, often outdated information used in conventional ITS systems.

Unlike traditional systems that rely on fixed sensors like loop detectors, radar, or CCTV, the proposed CV-based ITS infrastructure gathers real-time traffic data—such as speed, flow, and density—directly from connected vehicles on the road. This direct data collection not only enhances the accuracy of traffic management but also reduces the need for extensive sensor infrastructure.

CV-based ITS platform is ideal for the evolving needs of modern cities due to their scalability and integration potential.