The Relationship between Transportation and Economic Development - Essay Example

?CRITICAL REVIEW OF INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS 0 Overview If transportation really enhances speed and accessibility, then global economic development cannot see the kind speedy and accessible growth it requires in the absence of a well coordinated and effective transport system. Indeed, the relationship between transportation and economic development cannot be understated, knowing that transportation is very instrumental in all facets of the comprehensive economic progression cycle (Peirce and Curtis, 2008). Through an effective transport system, movement of logistics, services, goods, resources and people is made possible to ignite the economic and business paradigm for growth. 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, 2000). 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 cities 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 that 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 difficult to locate most reliable and convenient means of public transport to execute their day to day transportation roles. 2.2 Efficient time Management Even for those who become privileged to find transport services easily enough and those who eventually find them; no matter how late or difficult it is for them to do so, a seeming need for there to be efficient management of time while on the transport service continues to prevail (Lyon, 2001). This is because most often than not, people, goods and services spend so long a time before getting to their destinations. For West Midland, the cause of this problem has been identified to be poor traffic management, which bring about congestion on the road. Meanwhile, the cost of delays has been investigated to be very high for average economies such as the one of West Midland. In a research by Carisma and Lowder (2008, p. 32), it was established that “severe congestion is known to have an equally severe economic cost, estimated as high as between 1 and 3 percent of GDP in developed and developing countries”. This clearly is an indication of the justification for the people of West Midland to be concerned about the need to have an efficient time management as part of their transport system. Until such a time that an integrated intelligent transport system will be used to bring ease on the road for travellers at West Midlands, the advocacy to use public transport as a means of reducing traffic and delays with journeying would only be an irony. 2.3 Customer Safety The safety and security of transport users remains an important issue of need for travellers of West Midland. Safety and security comes in several forms and affects all groups of travellers including those who use public and private transport. In a recent ethnographic study, it was found that travellers who use the road and other means of transport are more concerned about the guarantee of safety of the vehicles they use, the guarantee of drivers to get them to their destinations safely, the assurance that the road is safe at every point in time for journeying, and the guarantee that they will not fall in the hands of criminal who either get onboard with them in vehicles or pose as transport service providers (Nissenbaum, 2010). All these concerns have led to the need for travellers to seek after their safety when journeying from one place to another. In relation to the public advocacy at West Midlands for people to use public transport as often as it is convenient, this need for customer safety has been identified to be a major hindrance that defeating the advocacy (Metz, 2000). This is because most people are not confident about their security on public transport have often resorted to the use of private transport, arguing that it is safer to use private transport as compared to public transport. There is therefore the urgent need for the proposed system to focus on the need to enhancing and advancing safety and security with the transport system in general and public transportation in specific. 3.0 Proposed ITS and its relevant ITS Applications Based on the needs of travellers identified above, an integrated intelligent transport system to be known as the West Midlands Multimodal Intelligent Transport System (WMMITS) will be proposed. From the name, it will be deduced that the system functions on a high level ITS protocol, which is the multimodal level. In most literature, the multimodal level is regarded as the highest level and divided into two major components known as multimodal integration and multimodal optimised. For this system, the focus will be on multimodal integration. By integration, reference is made to the use of combined state-of-the-art ITS applications into a single domain to bring about expected changes for transport users. There shall be three core itemisations under the application as discussed below. 3.1 Cloud Transport Access Protocol This application component of the ITS is expected to be a leverage for individual travellers to enable them have easy access to public transport service providers. By the power of the internet, a cloud enabled technology that allows for all public transport service providers to be registered onto a cloud database shall be set up. This database shall function based on user specifications including type of transport service (cargo or people), route of service, fare rating, availability of priority services, payment methods, and nature of vehicles. Once such registration is made onto an external system, users shall be allowed to communicate with service providers from the comfort of their homes for transport service. A very critical component of this cloud transport access protocol shall be the ability of service users to actually arrange for advance bookings and reservations. This will ensure that planning is better enhanced at the point of service provision (Margulis, 2003). That is, knowing the number of clients to serve before the start of each day, service providers will be better equipped to deliver efficient service. What is more unique, this is going to be an interactive protocol that ensures that users of various services leave feedback and reviews for various services that they use so that future users shall be guided when making choices. 3.2 Automatic Road Enforcement System This platform, which is the automatic road enforcement system, is directly geared at the provision of user preference need to solve problems with delays on the road. This is because there is sufficient research in existing literature to confirm the fact that most forms of delays that arise on the road are due to abuses with the road traffic rules (Oz, Glass & Behling, 1999). This system will therefore be an automated policing system that enforces the adherence to traffic regulations. In one study, it was established that should traffic offenses be reduced by half, more than 30% improvement in efficient time management on the road will be achieved (Olofsson & Rashid, 2011). The system will thus be made up of technologies that ensure that there are camera systems and vehicle monitoring devices at vantage points to detect and report vehicles involved in various forms of traffic offences and abuses. Using the registered number plate identification system, such offenders will be sent an automatic ticket through a mail. There shall also be public exposure of the identities offending vehicles on public broadcast platforms to serve as deterrent to others. All in all, the system shall possess speed cameras, red light cameras, bus lane cameras, level crossing cameras, vehicle identification cameras, double white line cameras, and automatic email processing machines. 3.3 Emergency Vehicle Notification Systems This component of the integrated system will be focused on the need to meeting safety needs of travellers. Because the safety needs of travellers are multi-variant, the emergency vehicle notification system shall also be made with such multi-variant characterisitics. This will first start with the cloud system that will be designed for travellers to access transport services. This is because only certified service providers under the laws of West Midlands shall be made part of the programme. Secondly, users shall be made aware of the right people who are to be in control of the transport services they will be using so that they can ask for identity check from these people when they come to them for service provision. More into the technological aspects of the emergency vehicle notification system, there shall be in-vehicle eCall systems fused into various vehicles providing public transport service. The eCall is going to be a technology based emergency call that is enabled at the very moment there is an emergency with vehicles such as crash, hijack or fire. This notification system shall be targeted directly at public safety answering points to ensure that voice and data calls will be sent to these points for onward direction to the nearest accident and rescue service for action to take place. The proposed system will work in an integrated manner to ensure that for there to be a guaranteed intelligent transport system in place for West Midlands, all the three core parameters that have been identified must work in a coordinated manner. This idea is illustrated in the diagram below. 4.0 Factors to consider in implementing the system As comprehensive as the recommended system may look, it is important that some key factors be considered when the actual time for implementation of the system comes. Among other thing, the factors that will be considered include the following. A fare management system that ensures that the need for the people of West Midland to have quality transport system does not mean spending all their earnings to attain this. An enhanced customer relationship management programme that ensures that the needs of customers can better be identified from a professional perspective and rightly addressed. Such customer relationship management can also be responsible for public education on the system (Palm, 2007). A traffic regulatory agency that can ensure that the traffic infrastructure situation at West Midland is one that can accommodate the intended changes in the public transport system Improved transport and traffic management programme that ensures that law enforcement is made a core part of the system implementation so that the system will not become a white elephant in the long run. It will be important to have a traveller information and advisory service in place to ensure that as often as possible, there is public education for the traveller on ways of ensuring their personal safety and becoming friends with the law so that the enforcement of the law will be seen as the responsibility of all people and not just the intelligent transport system that has been prepared. It will also be important to have a road user charging fee that will be committed to the maintenance of the system. Finally, evaluation and monitoring has been identified to be a very important part of all modern systems (Pedersen, 1997). To this end, a monitoring and evaluation system must be in place to ensure that there is an enhanced evaluation and monitoring for the system to ensure that it delivers within the means expected. 5.0 Conclusion The aim of this report has been to look into the various needs of travellers of West Midlands and base on these needs to come out with a very comprehensive and workable integrated intelligent transport system that serves as a holistic intervention to solving the identified needs of the people. From every indication, the report has lived up to its aim as the most outstanding needs of travellers have clearly been outlined in the with corresponding works in literature that seek to offer solutions to these needs and problems. More importantly, the integrated system that was proposed was one that can be identified as a SMART one and meeting the needs of the people. By SMART, reference is being made to the fact that the integrated system is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound in its implementation. The fact that the proposed system was not merely based on available knowledge but through the use of realistic behavioural factors that would make the implementation of the system user-based or customer oriented can be said to be one major advantage of the system. This is because in their research, Palm & Hansson (2005) associated the number one cause of failure to most global transport systems to the absence of an integration between the said system and the needs of the people the system is seeking to support. References Carisma, Brian and Sarah Lowder. “Economic Costs of Traffic Congestion: A Literature Review for Multiple Locations.” 2008. http://greenconsumerism.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/the-cost-oftraffic-congestion.pdf Colorni A and Righini G. 2001. Modeling and optimizing dynamic dial-a-ride problems. 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