1. thinkinghighways.com46 Vol 9 No 4 North America
OPINION PIECE Smart infrastructure
The transition to smarter infrastructure may seem daunting
but much of the groundwork has already been done, says
David E. Pickeral
Pulling it all together
A
s the 21st World Congress on Intelligent Transporta-
tion Systems (ITSWC) in Detroit affirmed this past
September, ITS has gone mainstream. Citizens, indus-
try and political leaders across a diversity of backgrounds now
realize the need to collect, analyze, exchange and above all use
the data from anything that rolls, floats, flies – or even walks –
from the next street over to around the globe.
As a large number of stakeholders across government and
industry begin to join those of us who have been in the ITS
community for years in this endeavor, it will become appar-
ent that a lot of progress has been made in relative obscurity.
For more than two decades the process of digitizing trans-
portation networks from the local to the global level has been
ongoing. Automated fare collection (AFC) and electronic
toll collection systems (ETC) have been installed around the
world. Automated traffic management systems (ATMS) rou-
tinely monitor traffic flows and other information on major
highway systems. These and other systems have been highly
effective in enhancing their own modes through the discrete
functionality they provide, in ways vital though often trans-
parent to the traveling public.
The task therefore is not one of filling a blank space, even
less of ripping and replacing, but of enabling transcendence
into a smarter, connected transportation environment that

2. thinkinghighways.com 47North America Vol 9 No 4
Smart infrastructure
“The task therefore is not one of filling a blank space, even less of
ripping and replacing, but of enabling transcendence into a smarter,
connected transportation environment that offers ever more than
the sum its parts”
offers ever more than the sum its parts. The current state
of the industry, and the challenge for the future of develop-
ing a smarter transportation ecosystem lies rather in pull-
ing together once highly separated modal elements into a
unified and seamless information architecture – and even
more so in ensuring that further development takes place
within this connected environment to ensure that no mode
(or passenger) is left behind, from pedestrians to planes, to
high speed rail. The positive here is that if undertaken with
proper planning and a genuine respect for what has been put
in place already the need not be, in the traditional use of the
term, disruptive.
BUGGIES TO BYTES
The most consistently demonstrated reality of transporta-
tion system development is that radical overnight transi-
tion is seldom possible – and almost never desirable – from
a socio-economic prospective. It should be remembered in
this context that in North America even after automobiles
became commonplace use of the horse and buggy continued
right up until the Second World War due to such factors as
cost, reliability and convenience (including the availability of
grass and feed as an easily procurable and, after all, renewa-
ble resource!). In similar fashion the sail-to-steam transition
or the canals-to-railroads evolution was one that spanned a
long period of time because the earlier infrastructure and
equipment, and skills to operate it remained available and
above all valued by and the customers they served.
The transition to ITS systems is distinguishable from these
examples, however because it does not represent the outward
transition of one mode to the other so much as it does an
infusion of ICT technology into what is already there. Nar-
rowboaters on Britain’s centuries-old canal network (which
incidentally are enjoying a resurgence of popularity there as
commercial, recreational and environmental corridors) are a
very active community using mobile and social applications
to enhance their cruising experience, and even passenger
and freight revenues are again possible. Cyclists plan their
trips and routing using apps and personal GPS systems in
communities of all sizes. Any number of new or enhanced
vehicle/ride pooling, renting and sharing schemes allow
immediate connectivity between supply and demand – all
without any additional physical infrastructure being built.
Based almost entirely on the ability of ICT technology to
share information ubiquitously and in real time there is a
gradual shift from individually owned private vehicles that
have been the norm for nearly a century to a number of
other modes of transportation that have been substantially
enhanced if not created outright due to this technology.
The government and commercial entities that deliver such
services, and indeed the auto industry itself, are engaged in
the transformation, and will do so in a way that ensures a
measured transition that preserves deeply ingrained US and
Canadian travel habits and expectations, not to mention a
substantial amount of jobs and other economic benefits
surrounding the automobile industry. Unlike the horse and
buggy, the idea this time around is not that of promoting one
mode over another so much as ensuring all of them work
as part of a seamless mosaic of transportation options from
everything to daily commutes to one-time trips by visitors.
COMPLIMENTARY CONNECTEDNESS
Every connected vehicle, every mobile device, toll tag and
smart card now has to some extent the ability to become both
a node and a probe. A node as a user of this network, eve-
rything potentially from entertainment to communication,
even retail purchases. Likewise there is a growing abundance
of sensor data to be aggregated from vehicles, with weather
conditions, routes taken, driving hazards, services or goods
used or desired along the way only a part of the mosaic of
content that will flow to and from vehicle connecting road-
side to onboard systems and users.
This concept represents of course the fusion of two very
established industries that have grown up alongside but
until now distinctly separate from one another: telematics,
effectively the development in vehicle systems intelligent
transportation systems focused historically on roadside
infrastructure; and back office systems. As the two continue
to move together they deliver the promise of a truly seamless
information environment between vehicles and the world
beyond. Ironically the original term that many of us remem-
ber for ITS, intelligent vehicle and highway systems or IVHS
me once again become the more appropriate term.
In order to ensure this, yet more work continues to be
done largely in the background. The International Standards
Organization Technical Committee 204 Intelligent transport
systems (TC-204) met in the last week of October in Vancou-
ver. Such critical global standards issues were presented and

3. thinkinghighways.com48 Vol 9 No 4 North America
OPINION PIECE Smart infrastructure
“The idea this time around is not that of promoting one mode over
another so much as ensuring all of them work as part of a seamless
mosaic of transportation options from everything to daily commutes
to one-time trips by visitors”
discussed by the various working groups including security,
GISapplications,spectrumbandcompatibilityandharmoni-
zation, and coordination with other international standards
bodies such as ETSI. Their work among other things set the
stage for just under a year from now when the World Radio-
communication Conference (WRC) will convene in Geneva,
Switzerland, under the leadership of the International
Telecommunications Union – Radiocommunication Sector
(ITU-R). More than any other, WRC 2015 will be essential
for the ITS-Telematics community as such initiatives as eCall
in Europe, the US Department of Transportation Connected
Vehicle program in the US, and countless others worldwide.
By the time the ITS-WC returns to North America in Mon-
tréal three years from now, we can expect an even higher
level of technical collaboration and policymaking to make
sure that between cars, countries continents open accepted
standards ensure that information flows openly and in so
doing ensures that our roadways do likewise.
SAFETY FIRST
As urbanization continues the inescapable fact is the surface
streets our cities are getting crowded not just with greater
numbers of travelers, but with a diversity of modes: a diver-
sity of human-powered options from pedestrians to pedicabs
and from to cycles to scooters competes with motor vehicles
these days, and some new form of personal urban transport
seems to appear every day.
Of all the areas where analytics technology can enhance
transportation networks – including increased efficiency,
cost reduction, congestion alleviation, preservation of the
environment, and sustainability – none is more important
than safety.
Be it Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle to Infrastructure
(V2I) or Vehicle to Anything (V2X) including pedestrians,
the ability to rapidly collect and process ever larger and
more precise data on every element of the transportation
network will allow total visibility and the ability to predict
events before they happen. For example, IBM’s Digital Video
Analytics (DVA) capability is already helping transportation
operators around the world identify events, such as a person
walking across an active rail line, that require intervention
well before anyone is put at risk.
Whether alerting a vehicle to a single pedestrian stepping
The ITS sector needs to
engage the use of data-
based services around cloud,
analytics, mobile and social-
based solutions

4. thinkinghighways.com 49North America Vol 9 No 4
Smart infrastructure
“The ability of emerging-generation transportation systems to use big
data and analytics will ensure that people and vehicles can avoid
occupying the same space at the same time even when operating in
close proximity”
below involve little or no modification of the current physi-
cal infrastructure. Unfortunately, in much of the world and
especially in North America, the process for funding, con-
tracting and building transportation infrastructure is indeed
still focused tunnels and structures and miles of lanes or rail-
way – not procuring solutions as such
Going forward, it will be essential to orient procurements
not towards acquiring capital assets, but to engage the use of
data-based services around cloud, analytics, mobile, social-
based solutions that will replace such assets as roadside gan-
tries or servers with the same or better capabilities through
services supporting almost every aspect of transportation
operations with a substantial reduction in capital costs, and
simply put, less infrastructure to build, maintain and retire
to achieve the same level of service to the traveling public.
This is one area among many where public-private part-
nerships (PPP) can assist, providing as it does the security
and public trust of government authority and oversight
with the flexibility and responsiveness of private resources.
As an alternative (some might even say an evolution) of the
Design-Build concept, a PPP model would allow the ability
to procure solutions based on clearly established perform-
ance criteria, rather than simply adding lanes.
However undertaken, it is essential that results and not
physical inventory need to drive what is put in place com-
plete the convergence of physical with digital, and to make
both equally important in terms of the quality of transporta-
tion services provided to the public
CONCLUSION
Although North America has in many ways been conserva-
tive in adopting many ITS technologies, all the building
blocks for positive change are here. Even more than that the
ingenuity and creativity in the transportation industry is here
and always has been. Now with a little help from new friends
made in Detroit and elsewhere during 2014, the transforma-
tion is picking up speed.
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 David E Pickeral is Transportation Sector Lead for
the IBM Industry Smarter Solutions Team based in the
sustainable community of Reston, Virginia, USA
 depicker@us.ibm.com
 www.linkedin.com/in/pickeral
in front of it on a dark roadway, or dealing with tens of thou-
sands of people walking in the streets at a major sporting
event or demonstration, the ability of emerging-generation
transportation systems to use big data and analytics will
ensure that people and vehicles can avoid occupying the
same space at the same time even when operating in close
proximity. Such systems moreover overlay existing road-
ways, bike and pedestrian paths, etc, making such existing
infrastructure safer without the need to re-engineer and
replace, making them eminently cost effective for the return
on investment in safety and the other benefits they provide
GETTING WHAT’S NEEDED
As I have observed before (and will continue to bring up at
every opportunity) one the most desired and urgent nearer
term changes to facilitate ITS development concerns the
procurement model. As mentioned many of the capabilities