Middle East to take the lead on Intelligent Transport Systems

As a young boy in the 70’s there wasn’t much else to do apart from play football and read, both of which I did constantly.  I read a book, ‘Time for the Stars’ which told a story of fantastic technology called ‘Torch ships’ able to travel at the speed of light to distant stars.  It envisaged communication between the ships and earth by telepathy using twins, with one twin going on the space ship whilst the other stayed on earth. The launch place for the ships was in a far flung empty desert at a place called Abu Dhabi…

So when I arrived recently to host the Middle East ‘Intelligent Transport Systems Conference’ the story came rushing back.

Abu Dhabi’s combination of a centralised economy, burning ambition, bright thinkers already managing a number of innovative R&D projects, and importantly their access to funds to deploy these systems has allowed a number of leading edge projects and concepts to develop in the Emirate. 

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) refers to computing and communications technology used in transport.  It covers anything from traffic signals to motorway signalling, to the sat nav in your car to driverless trains. The problem that many consultants and suppliers have is due to such a wide interest area, and parts of it have become very specialised, when in fact what is needed is more interoperability and more open systems.

The theme for the conference was ‘integrating ITS with infrastructure networks to meet international standards of road safety’.  I luckily have a track record of successfully leading some pretty important ITS projects. I’m also the Communications Director for ITS-UK, a joint public and private sector representative group which lead and advise on thinking in this area.  I was asked to chair the first day of the conference and provide the opening presentation.

The key themes to emerge from the conference was that ultimately every ITS project or strategy has to put the human being first, and should not be led by what the technology can do (you would probably not be surprised that most technology led projects overrun on time and cost). 

I have been invited back in January to talk to clients about ITS and Asset Management, I better make sure I have read that book again by then!