ITS: LOOKING BACKWARDS FOR A MIDCOURSE CORRECTION

The development of intelligent transport systems (ITS) since 1994 is discussed. The results obtained by assessing the success of the ITS programme in the USA in three different ways are presented. These involved output and outcome analysis and community consensus analysis. The outputs demonstrated impressive levels of implementation, whilst the outcomes were discouraging. This was probably due to the fact that ITS is not being used to its full potential. The opportunity for a midcourse correction to the current direction of ITS implementation is discussed. Four ways of improving ITS implementation are recommended: soliciting community consensus, decomposing the problem to be solved into its component pieces and addressing them by priority, placing less emphasis on local demonstrations of technology and more on national solutions, and emphasizing the evaluation of outcomes rather than outputs.