Critical review of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) Essay

Critical review of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) - Essay Example Knowing this, world leaders continue to put so much premium on the need to improve the transport systems that exists in their countries. Commonly, world leaders are only channels and instruments for change, such as changes in the transport system without really having the technique knowhow to effect such changes. To make their change dreams realistic, they fall on professionals and experts to make to translate dreams into realities. It is out of such need for there to be a change in the transport system of West Midlands that the current report has been necessitated to propose a workable transport system for the city. As modernity and technological advancement takes the best part of everyday engagement, the transport system that is to be proposed is fused in the model of intelligent transport system, which generally refers to the application of information and communication technologies in the area of road transport and its interface with other modes of transport (Dusan and Gordana, 2 000). A holistic approach shall be taken to the proposal by first identifying needs of travellers and then going ahead to review existing systems before laying bare the proposed system as is reflected in the needs and existing systems. 2.0 Review of Travellers’ Needs Travellers of West Midlands have travelling needs that is manifested in their day to day travelling experience and the common forms of challenges that come out of them. There are a number of specific behavioural studies that have been conducted to identify most of these needs, based on which any workable intelligent transport system must revolve. Some of the core needs of travellers as reflected in behavioural studies are analysed below. Generally, the needs are based on an integrated model, which means that the needs are integrated in such a way that to solve them in a holistic way, an integrated system that attempts to deal with all the problems at a time must be used. 2.1 Easy Access to Services Different citi es have their peculiar transport needs and for West Midlands, one of the worse forms of transport challenge that the city has been found to be faced with the problem of access to transport services (Jean-Francois and Laporte, 2007). Studies have showed that there are a number of reasons that makes this problem, and thus the need for service users to have easy access to transport services emergent. In the first place, the city has been found to be highly dependent on public transport as compared to private transport (Handwerk, 2008). This means that a lot of the people would want to join public bus, train, or use public cargo as against the use of private means of transport. As part of the behavioural or ethnographic characteristics of the people, it has been found that the preference for public transport is generally due to the need on being conservative and economical on the cost of transport (Colorni and Righini, 2001). There have also been a number of public advocacy programs tha t have been aimed at convincing people to choose public transport over private transport as public transport helps in reducing traffic congestion and the rate of carbon emission (Luca, Raffaele and Ukovich, 2006). However as dependence on public transport increased, there seem to have been an imbalance in demand and supply ratio for transport services, as many people and companies find it