Generic Advice

Introduction

This section provides advice on specific factors to be considered when selecting ITS tools for inclusion in scheme options.  It supports the existing DfT Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG) on transport assessment. This toolkit should be used in conjunction with the most up to date DfT Guidance on seeking funding which currently includes:

The readers attention is drawn to the National Transport Goals which as at December 2009 are:

Goal Support Economic Growth

Cross network challenge (national policy)

  • Ensure a competitive transport industry by simplifying and improving regulation to benefit transport users and providers and maximising the value for money from transport spending

Additional Cities and Regional Networks challenges

  • Reduce lost productive time including by maintaining or improving the reliability and predictability of journey times on key local routes for business, commuting and freight
  • Improve the connectivity and access to labour markets of key business centres
  • Deliver the transport improvements required to support the sustainable provision of housing, and in particular the PSA target of increasing supply to 240,000 net additional dwellings per annum 2016
  • Ensure local transport networks are resistant and adaptable to shocks and impacts such as economic shocks adverse weather, accidents, terrorist attacks and impacts of climate change

Goal Reduce Carbon Emissions

Cross network challenge

  • Deliver quantified reductions in greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the Climate Change Bill and EU targets.

Cities and Regional Networks Challenge

  • Deliver quantified reductions in greenhouse gas emissions within cities and regional networks, taking account of crossnetwork policy measures.
    • Goal – Promote Equality of Opportunity Cross network challenge
  • Enhance social inclusion by enabling disadvantaged people to connect with employment opportunities, key services, social networks and goods through improving accessibility, availability, affordability and acceptability.
    • Cities and Regional Networks challenges –
  • Enhance social inclusion and the regeneration of deprived or remote areas by enabling disadvantaged people to connect with employment opportunities, key local services, social networks and goods through improving accessibility, availability, affordability and acceptability.
  • Contribute to the reduction in the gap between economic growth rates for different English regions.

Goal Contribute to Better Safety, Security and Health

Cross network challenges

  • Reduce the risk of death, security or injury due to transport accidents.
  • Reduce social and economic costs of transport to public health, including air quality impacts in line with the UK’s European obligations.
  • Improve the health of individuals by encouraging and enabling more physically active travel.
  • Reduce the vulnerability of transport networks to terrorist attack.

Additional Cities and Regional Networks challenges

  • Reduce crime, fear of crime and anti‑social behaviour on city and regional transport networks.

Goal Improve Quality of Life and a Healthy Natural Environment

Cross network challenges

  • Manage transport‑related noise in a way that is consistent with the emerging national noise strategy and other wider Government goals.
  • Minimise the impacts of transport on the natural environment, heritage and landscape and seek solutions that deliver long‑term environmental benefits.
  • Improve the experience of end‑to‑end journeys for transport users.
  • Sustain and improve transport’s contribution to the quality of people’s lives by enabling them to enjoy access to a range of goods, services, people and places.

Additional Cities and Regional Networks challenges

  • Reduce the number of people and dwellings exposed to high levels of noise from road and rail networks consistent with implementation of Action Plans prepared under the Environmental Noise Directive.
  • Support urban and rural communities by improving the integration of transport into streetscapes and enabling better connections between neighbourhoods and better access to the natural environment.
  • Improve the journey experience of transport users of urban, regional and local networks, including at the interfaces with national networks and international networks.

Fundamental Principles

This section presents information on the key issues to be considered when deploying ITS tools. Fundamental differences exist between conventional measures and ITS-based solutions, such as equipment obsolescence, ongoing revenue costs and data management and these need to be taken account of in the assessment process. Many of these factors stem from the way ITS are used to provide seamless services to the travelling public, spanning several geographic and institution boundaries. This implies the involvement of several different stakeholders in the deployment and operation of the ITS tool and appropriate time should be spent looking, learning and capturing stakeholders' requirements prior to the development of any scheme.

In Stoke-on-Trent a User Requirements Specification was developed, for each area of the project, in the initial design phase of their 'SUMIT'- System for Urban Management and Information Transmission - scheme. This outlined the functionality and facilities required deliberately without much consideration of the technical capabilities of existing systems. This created a wish list of functionality and facilities.

This process is aided by thinking of ITS as a service not as a technology. End users require services that provide them with what they need at the location and time that they need it. How this is technically achieved is not important to them. Also, although the additional partners that may, inevitably, be involved in an ITS-based solution can bring complications to a project, they can also bring many benefits including economies of scale and sources of funding. As with any proposed transport investment, when identifying appropriate scheme options, each must help deliver the local transport goals and should be assessed for their contribution to an overall 'vision' and common purpose for the wider area. Therefore, scheme options should be assessed in their ability to:

  • address local problems;
  • meet national policy goals; and
  • meet city and regional network challenges;
  • assist the policies and developments of neighbouring authorities.

Again this is of particular relevance for ITS deployed and operated over a dispersed transport network.

Private Sector involvement in projects

It may be that an ITS tool is being developed in partnership with private sector partners. For such systems, the aims and objectives may include business orientated goals. These objectives may not be directly addressed within the ITS planning guide. Where such goals are identified and agreed to be appropriate by the project team, they should become an integral part of the system design and assessment process. For example, if a freight and fleet management system is being introduced to improve fuel efficiency then the scheme should be designed to achieve this and measures put in place to demonstrate this. It is recognised that certain information may not be able to be disclosed within any evaluation and reporting of results outside of the project team.

Key Issues in System Design

There are a number of decisions regarding system design, which will impact on the ability of local authorities to solve local transport issues in a cost effective way. Typically, authorities will need to be mindful of the following issues:

System Architecture

  • How will interfaces be created and maintained between systems?
  • Is there a common communications infrastructure available to link systems?

Data Management Framework

  • What data will need to be exchanged?
  • How will the data be shared and stored?

Communications

  • Over which medium will data be transport (e.g. analogue phone lines, mobile phone communications such as GPRS, Private Network Radio)?
  • In which format will data be transported?

Systems Acquisition Plan

  • How does the current systems portfolio fit with political objectives?
  • How will future procurements enhance the current offering?

Longer term Operation and Management

  • Who will fund ongoing costs of the system?
  • Who will manage the ongoing operation of the system?
  • How will high quality data inputs be maintained?

Whilst substantial benefits are offered by more integrated systems, most local authorities have a substantial quantity of older, stand-alone systems that continue to provide significant benefits. In considering the migration path the following questions will need to be addressed:

  • What timescale is envisaged for improvements in integration, and what budget is available to achieve this?
  • In what order should systems be integrated - for instance, should new systems be integrated at procurement and others connected in, or should priority go to integrating existing systems?
  • How will the migration occur - is it sensible to adopt a gradual migration path as part of an existing procurement cycle or is initial investment in infrastructure followed by connection of integrated systems preferred?

Designing an integrated system architecture and a suitable implementation/migration strategy is a specific skill, to be treated separately from the implementation of individual systems. The benefits of good design include:

  • The ability to meet a complex set of traffic policies relatively simply, cheaply and quickly;
  • Reducing the cost of implementing a particular set of applications and policies - for example, by sharing telecommunications links between applications
  • Improving flexibility for the future, by providing a 'baseline' onto which additional components can readily be attached.

Building a Team

When planning to implement an intelligent transport system or service it is, in most cases, sensible to set up a steering group to oversee the project. The steering group should represent stakeholders and ensure that the project has clear goals. The Steering group's roll is to ensure that the project is delivered in such a way as to meet its original goals. The Steering group should meet regularly to confirm members are happy with the progress and direction of the project. The group should review management of the project at each stage in the process from scheme design, through procurement, implementation to operation, maintenance and evaluation. The steering group should also consider any appropriate marketing of the tool, both internally within organisations and externally to the wider world.

Deploying ITS individually and as integrated systems

For some years now, individual ITS applications have been deployed on a stand-alone basis. These applications have delivered significant benefits in their own right. However, in the same way that general information technology (IT) systems now share information, so the opportunity has emerged for ITS applications to similarly share data and information using common standards for information exchange.

York City Council have taken measures towards consolidating communication links between different systems, so as to cut down on implementation and maintenance costs. For example, a single Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and router connects to a real time passenger information (RTPI) terminal, two car park counters and multiple air quality monitors. A single General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) link is used by both VMS and car park counters, along with a common aerial GPRS modem and router. Car park counters and RTPI terminals additionally share a router and DSL.

What are the benefits of this information sharing?

The ITS City Pioneers project identified some examples of the benefits of integrated systems and information sharing which included:

  • better co-ordination from area wide strategies;
  • lower equipment and operating costs;
  • better communication between organisations;
  • partnerships which can help cut costs;
  • new and more accessible services for users.

Following the end of the DfT's Urban Traffic Management and Control research project many authorities have now implemented integrated UTMC systems.  The latest information on those authorities that have adopted UTMC can be found in the UTMC Flyer on the UTMC Website This trend is expected to continue, for several reasons including:

  • The Traffic Management Act and supporting guidance will require more efficient management of traffic, with increasing coordination between systems and strategies for their use;
  • Best Value reviews will require ever more detailed information on provision of service levels, which can be derived readily from UTMC common databases;
  • Networks are becoming more congested and require enhanced management to deliver the same level of service to users.

Integrated UTMC applications enable greater flexibility and greater pro-activity in traffic and wider transport management.

Key cost drivers

When developing ITS scheme options, it is important to consider key cost drivers, which can affect the most appropriate approach to:

  • system design;
  • procurement; and
  • Ongoing operation and management.

Generic key cost drivers include:

Capital Costs

  • system design costs;
  • hardware costs;
  • equipment installation costs including traffic management costs;
  • utilities connection costs;
  • costs of recompensing utilities companies when installations under roads require diverting due to road improvements;
  • costs of obtaining relevant permissions etc;
  • additional costs associated with specific geography, environments or townscapes;
  • software licence costs;
  • software development costs;
  • system integration and configuration costs;
  • training costs;
  • system testing and commissioning; and
  • project management costs.

Operational (Revenue) Costs ITS systems can have significant revenue cost implications. It is important to identify these ongoing costs 'up front'. These costs include:

  • day-to-day staff costs;
  • energy costs;
  • database maintenance costs;
  • equipment maintenance and fault management costs;
  • communication costs;
  • monitoring and evaluation costs; and
  • re-configuration costs.

The consequences of not identifying these revenue costs and ensuring that they can be met could include:

  • systems with erroneous or out of date information displayed; or
  • non functioning systems through an inability to replace components when they fail.

It should be noted that the DfT require a contingency for optimism bias to be built into all major scheme applications for funding.

Key risks

ITS technologies are becoming more mature, with similar techniques being employed in multiple locations. This means less innovation is required for each implementation, thus reducing the risks inherent to any particular project. However, it is imperative that potential risks are identified and minimised as part of the system design process. Some of the key risks, of relevance to ITS include:

  • Poor stakeholder support can undermine project viability and delivery, where systems are to operate across geographic and institutional boundaries;
  • Difficulty in recruiting and retaining trained staff can increase delivery times on 'specialised' projects;
  • Uncertainty in revenue funding required to maintain services in the future can be a de-stabilising factor;
  • Longer than expected lead times for obtaining power supplies especially to remote sites;
  • Delayed signing of Inter-party agreements and delayed contract signatures, especially where multiple suppliers are involved in system delivery.
  • Delays and cost overruns in projects where significant research and development effort is required;
  • Where several manufacturers are involved in a project it is important to ensure that a comprehensive fault diagnosis methodology is in place as part of the system, so failures can be identified uniquely and appropriate action taken;
  • Continuously evolving standards can result in inoperability or expensive retrospective upgrades;

Minimising costs / maximising benefits

Some useful techniques for minimising costs and maximising benefits are documented below:

  1. Consider your data communications requirements carefully, looking at both volume and frequency of data interchange.

It is important to tailor your communications system to the applications, which will transmit and receive data. In a small system it may be that reducing the amount of data interchange can result in significant revenue cost reductions where a third party network is used. Conversely, in a large system, by identifying the data transmission requirements for a number of applications in the same area, a higher bandwidth communications network can be used with consequent reduction in the cost per unit of data communicated.

Milton Keynes - Joined up traffic management using an optical fibre network In 1999, Milton Keynes Council was planning to modernise its traffic signals and develop plans for a Variable Message Sign system. These plans were brought together and matured to include an Urban Traffic Control system to manage the network and parking capacity. Implementation plans included a complete upgrade of all existing traffic signal equipment, the provision of LED traffic signal heads and an extensive fibre-optic communications network. This communications network links the on-street equipment back to the central processor in Milton Keynes Council offices. In the design process, a number of options were considered. The use of leased lines would create a heavy burden of maintenance payments and the plethora of radio traffic already in Central Milton Keynes militated against a wireless option. A private fibre-optic network was chosen as it offered the benefits of low ongoing costs, integrity and easier future expansion opportunities. Installation costs were lowered by making use of existing ducted network in Milton Keynes used by the Police for CCTV. This created the added benefit of providing a large capacity network for future growth in data transmissions.

Consider data transmission reliability requirements and if appropriate, seek to enshrine these within contractual service level agreements.  This is especially important if the network is carrying system critical information which would need to be protected (under major incident conditions).

  1. Carefully consider how data collected can be used now and in the future.

By developing a data management framework, relevant data can be stored and used, and archived or discarded when its value decays. Some data will retain its value and some will lose it. Data related to traffic counts may, for example retain its value, while the time of the next bus at a bus stop will decay in value very quickly.

  1. Consider the procurement method.

There are a number of possible procurement routes, for example it may be possible to procure all applications together or alternatively procure the components separately. It may be possible to lease rather than purchase systems. There is usually a trade off between the cost of options and the level of risk borne by project partners. The correct choice as to the procurement route will depend partly on the skill base within the Authority or other Public body. If a project has a number of partners, in some instances they may be able to procure parts of a system independently. This reduces the financial risk on the lead partner, but can increase overall project cost and can result in increased technical risk in the project.

  1. Carefully consider project phasing in order to minimise costs.

Significant additional expense can be incurred if project phasing is not optimised. This is especially true with works on the highway requiring traffic management.

  1. When procuring the system assess the whole life cost of the system

Assessing the whole life cost of the system will enable the correct choice to be made on the most cost effective solution for an Authority.

  1. Where possible use tried and tested technology

Using proven technology, where possible, reduces the risk of delays in testing and integrating new technology. It should also mean that development costs are not incurred.

Requirements for Monitoring

When planning an ITS implementation it is appropriate to consider monitoring requirements.

Monitoring is required to:

  • optimise day-to-day system operation;
  • provide proven benefits of the system;
  • demonstrate whether or not anticipated benefits have been achieved.

Reporting of project outcomes provides valuable lessons for future ITS development and deployment. Guidance provided on monitoring and evaluation and on the reporting of results will enable the costs and benefits associated with ITS deployment and lessons learnt to be incorporated in future issues of the ITS Planning Guide. It is suggested that benefits be assessed and reported under the following headings.

  • Technical Performance;
  • User Acceptance;
  • Impact Assessment;
    • Accessibility;
    • Economy/Efficiency;
    • Environment;
    • Integration;
    • Safety.
  • Financial performance.

If possible, the results of all post-implementation studies should be widely publicised and fed back to the DfT. Further advice on evaluation is provided in the Feeding Back Results section of the ITS Planning Guide.

Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Deployment

When developing scheme options it is necessary to determine the anticipated costs and benefits of deployment of systems. This assessment should adhere to the DfT requirements within WebTag (where appropriate).

It is prudent to build robust assessments in which the costs, benefits and impacts are assumed based on similar types of implementation elsewhere and up to date information from suppliers.

This guidance provides examples of the likely costs and likely associated benefits of a range of ITS applications. This guidance is intended to help authorities dimension the likely costs and benefits of ITS applications.

A checklist approach can be used to ensure that the relevant costs and benefits have been identified. This checklist can be derived from the tool specific key cost drivers and key characteristics section, within the tool directory.

Presenting results for Decision Makers

When presenting results for decision makers clarity is all important. Where possible, short reports should be produced clearly outlining:

  • the nature of the proposed ITS deployment;
  • the way in which the use of ITS meets the needs of National, Regional and Local Transport goals and addresses local problems;
  • the anticipated benefits of the scheme;
  • the anticipated costs of the scheme;
  • experiences from elsewhere using similar applications;
  • the alternatives considered, including conventional measures and why ITS was adopted; and
  • how this scheme would fit within a wider Authority vision.

Frameworks are advocated for the presentation of the salient points, particularly when comparing options. Further guidance on this is presented within the feeding back results section. Where appropriate a useful consensus building exercise is to arrange a presentation or seminar with key stakeholders and potential partners to present ITS options and ideas. Stakeholder buy-in is a vital ingredient in achieving the benefits anticipated from the investment to be made.

Last updated: 06/01/10