Vol.3 19th ITS World Congress Vienna

UC-win/Road Exhibited on the Road GIS Data

Through exchanging information from a wide range of viewpoints such as technological development, policies, and market trends, "ITS World Congress" aims to spread ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems), solve traffic problems and create business opportunities. This year, the 19th Congress since its start in 1994, it will be held from 22 to 26 October at Messezentrum Wien Exhibition & Congress Center in Vienna, Austria. The official Website (English) of the Congress is at: http://2012.itsworldcongress.com/content/。

FORUM8 participated for the first time in the 11th ITS World Congress held in Nagoya. It will be the 9th in a row for FORUM8 to take part in the Congress since then. This time, along with introduction of the latest version of UC-Win/Road, FORUM8 is planning to show exhibits on Road GIS Data with cooperation from National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT).

The theme of ITS World Congress this year is "Smarter on the Way". It is organized by ERTICO-ITS jointly with ITS America and ITS Asia-Pacific (ITS Japan), being hosted by Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT), Austria Tech, and ITS Austria.

The Congress is mainly composed of the congress, Exhibition, and demonstration. The organizer's side expects over 300 exhibitors and over 8,000 visitors from over 60 countries.

The Congress includes three plenary sessions that broadly make up opening and closing sessions, executive sessions under 12 themes, 87 special interest sessions under more specialized theme, technical paper sessions where over 800 technical papers are presented in total of technical / scientific sessions and interactive sessions. Each session is based on the following six general topics: (1) Optimizing provision and use of Infrastructure, Traffic and Travel Data and Information (2) Intelligent infrastructure (3) Continuity and Interoperability of Seamless Multimodal Services for Mobility (4) Integrated Safety and Security for All Users (5) Connected Vehicles, Infrastructure and Users for Cooperative Mobility Services (6) Sustainable, Clean and Energy Efficient Mobility.

For information about Japanese speakers of the sessions, exhibitors including FORUM8, or the outline of demonstration under five separate themes, see the Website for the Congress by ITS Japan (http://www.its-jp.org/conference/).

■Introduction of ITS-related Website  ■Website name: National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) ITS (intelligent transport systems)
　 URL：http://www.mlit.go.jp/road/ITS/j-html
Support Formulation of National ITS Policies in Cooperation with Road Administration

The National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management (NILIM) was established within MLIT in April, 2001. Since then, NILIM has been performing surveys, tests, studies, and development in relation with improvement of houses and infrastructure. It says that its mission is technical support for planning and implementing policies of MLIT appropriately and promptly.

ITS Division of Research Center for Advanced Information Technology in NILIM conducts research and development about ITS technologies including
  1. Creation of next generation services in cooperation among industry, government and academia
  2. Verification of ITS Spot services
  3. Data acquisition and use to improve efficiency of road policies
  4. Reduction of environmental load using ITS
  5. Securing of the position in international cooperation / expansion and international standardization.

― It supports formulation of ITS policies in close cooperation with road administration.

While next generation ITS has been examined, one of the things attracting attention in recent years is a system to realize automatic operation on the expressway (an auto-pilot system). As its specific approach, ITS division focuses on congestion of the expressway sag part. The division lays emphasis on study for its facilitation including the use of ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control).

In this special site for ITS division, firstly "Position of ITS" goes back to "Basic Guidelines on the Promotion of an Advanced Information and Telecommunications Society" decided by "The Advanced Information and Telecommunications Society Promotion Headquarters" (established in 1994 headed by the Prime Minister), which positioned ITS promotion. Following this, "Comprehensive Plan for ITS in Japan" was developed jointly by 5 ministries and government offices at that time (Ministry of Construction, National Police Agency, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications). This promotion framework was then succeeded to the cooperative form of industries, governments, and academia including 4 ministries and government offices (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, National Police Agency, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) under "The Strategic Headquarters for the Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society (IT Strategic Headquarters)" that promotes IT innovation in Japan. In addition, the site reviews that ITS have been positioned as a more important national project towards realization of "the safest road traffic society in Japan" through "IT Policy Package 2005" (2005) and "New IT Reformation strategy" (2006) developed by the headquarters.

Next, the page of "Studies on ITS" outlines the development goals for each of 9 development fields of ITS, which is a cross-sectional national project, Smartway and ITS for the second stage, and activities towards them in the ITS Division. Then it mentions some proposals as the backbone including "Making Smartway a Reality" (1999) and "ITS, to the Second Stage" (2004), public-private joint research based on them, and the process to realize Smartway. In particular, regarding applications such as VICS, ETC, SmartIC, AHS, highway management support, and the Express Bus Location System, the background and summary of each study and its effect are listed individually. Moreover, detailed explanation is given as to
  1. Configuration of Smartway that serves as the common ground to realize various ITS services in an integrated way and its approach of construction,
  2. Development of a traffic simulator "SIPA", an integrated traffic simulation system, policy evaluation tools such as the tool for examining ITS introduction scenario, and a method of expansion to regional ITS,
  3. Actions towards international standardization, ITS World Congress, and bilateral conferences.

In addition, papers written and presented by ITS Division since 1996 are put in order by fiscal year. Other than some documents made by the Division, the list of patents obtained in and outside Japan as well as the glossary on ITS can also be viewed.

On the other hand, the "TOPICS" arranged in the middle show the latest information in relation with ITS mainly about NILIM and MLIT. Recently not a few topics are related with ITS Spot services in particular. Regarding ITS Spot services, a link is set to the special page for the services in the website of MLIT Road Bureau, which was introduced in this corner in the previous issue.

Click the image for a larger picture.
Home: National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) ITS (intelligent transport systems) Goals of Smartway Advancement of the digital road map

（Images provided by National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, MLIT）

*The latter part of this article (Introduction of ITS-related Website) is written with permission of National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, MLIT.

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