ERTICO: Can you describe your activities in the ITS field?
Richard Weinstock: I am proud to say that our IBM activities in the ITS field is simply improving Mobility for the 21st Century
Transportation-the movement of people and goods from point A to point B-is the life force of our economy. Cities could not exist if we didn’t have transportation systems to move people and goods in out and around them. It has been a leading driver behind globalization: shrinking distances seeding the emergence of entire new economies and improving the quality of life for millions of people.
It is a rare day that you won’t take some form of transportation. A bus train or car to work a bike to school and plane for a business trip. And even if you don’t leave your home your life is still influenced by the transportation industry: virtually every tangible good-food clothing medicine vehicles and computers-has been transported into your world from somewhere else.
Yet many of our transportation systems are inadequate to serve the needs of the 21st century. By integrating technology and intelligence into the physical transportation infrastructure we can improve capacity enhance the traveler experience and make our transportation systems more efficient safe and secure.
IBM’s main ITS solution offerings are Road user charging (RUC) Integrated Fare Management (IFM) Transport Information Management (TIM) and cross ITS offerings.
Over the past year and a half IBM has been working with cities and nations around the world to improve many kinds of systems and make them smarter- with particular success in transportation.
In doing so we have learned that our transportation system isn’t in fact a system. It’s a collection of related industries operating in close proximity to one another.
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) improves transportation safety and mobility and enhances productivity through the use of advanced communications technologies. ITS encompass a broad range of wireless and wire line communications-based information and electronics technologies. When integrated into the transportation system’s infrastructure and in vehicles themselves these technologies relieve congestion improve safety and enhance productivity. In addition IBM solutions are examples of ‘green solutions’ and are also an important part of the Government portfolio from that perspective as well.
ERTICO: Why have you joined ERTICO?
Richard Weinstock: Having said all that nobody could do everything by himself improving Mobility for the 21st Century!
By exchanging information and learning from each other working on European Standards’ developments and deployment go much quicker.
ITS normally brings people together that were not necessarily used working together. So it was a subsequently move to join ERTICO because as most of the ERTICO Partners coming together knowing the complexity of ITS this brings a lot of value to everybody. Within this partnership we can exchange information create new collaborations and partnerships with other experts. By learning from each other developments go much quicker than doing it all alone.
ERTICO: What are your expectations for this partnership?
Richard Weinstock: As a partner to ERTICO it is easier to work on European standards that will ensure quicker deployment in the years to come. To get there I believe all of the ERTICO partners and our peers across the transportation ecosystem must take a leadership role. The initiatives undertaken by ERTICO are promising. We must establish agreed-upon data standards for transportation. This is long overdue but I am hopeful that it will soon be accomplished. However it is essential that those standards be open. That’s the only way to interconnect processes and data sets across the whole system. On this I believe ERTICO to be an active voice.
ERTICO: Are there any projects activities or sectors that you are particularly interested in?
Richard Weinstock: All of the ITS related initiatives and of course eCall.
Richard Weinstock
Solution Sales Manager Intelligent Transportation Subject Matter Expert”
IBM Czech Republic
Link to original Article
http://www.ertico.com/the-ertico-december-2010-interview/
Original Publication Date: Wed 15 Dec 2010
