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Basic
Policy Proposals for the Diffusion of ITS (Intelligent Transport
Systems)
(December 1, 2003)
Transportation Policy Committee |
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| On
December 1, the Transportation Policy Committee, which had
been analyzing the current problems in the diffusion of ITS
(Intelligent Transport Systems) in Japan, announced a proposal
for policies to promote its diffusion. This proposal and an
accompanying report will be presented to the government and
related industries. At the same time, the JPC-SED intends
to further gather the opinions of relevant parties to compile
a final report and a proposal of necessary policies prior
to the World Congress on ITS scheduled to be held in Nagoya
City in the autumn of 2004. The overview of the proposal is
as follows. |
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| 1.
Factors Preventing the Diffusion of ITS |
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| Despite
the fact that ITS has excellent potential as a social system,
no remarkable progress can be seen in its diffusion due to
the following four reasons. |
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| (1) |
ITS suppliers
place disproportionate emphasis on technological development,
and they tend to underestimate users’ needs. |
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| (2) |
Information concerning
the use, convenience, and benefits of ITS is not sufficiently
provided, and therefore the general public has only limited
understanding of ITS. |
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| (3) |
ITS has various
functions for providing alternatives and interfaces for both
public and personal transportation needs, but these functions
are hardly considered. At present, ITS is only applied in
a small scope, mainly for providing road information. |
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| (4) |
Principles governing
development and operation cost burdens have become obscure,
and little thought is given to users’ convenience. |
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| 2.
Policies Required for the Diffusion and Entrenchment of ITS
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| (1) |
The following
measures are necessary for the issue presented in 1-(1) above. |
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| (a) |
ITS suppliers
in both the private and public sectors must greatly
change their perspective of ITS from the conventional
attitude of “selling the system” to “selling
service.” |
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| (b) |
In order
for ITS to sell and provide useful service, it must
be evaluated not in terms of what it is capable of doing,
but in terms of what merits it can provide users and
also by its performance, including social benefits such
as environmental improvement effects. |
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| (c) |
Relevant
central and local governments must devise appropriate
measures for ensuring reliability in protecting personal
information, transparency of costs and regulations,
and rational order placements in an effort to raise
national demand for ITS. |
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| (2) |
The following
measures are necessary for the issue presented in 1-(2) above. |
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| (a) |
Public and
private sectors must cooperate in developing ITS. Moreover,
the viewpoints of foreign countries should be incorporated
to achieve a global perspective, while the participation
of users and other beneficiaries from the planning stage
is also strongly desired. |
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| (b) |
Users should
not demand overly sophisticated performance from such
equipment as ETC (Electronic Toll Collection System),
but rather, it is important that they understand and
accept performance that is in balance with low cost
and operation efficiency. |
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| (c) |
In order
to promote the diffusion of AHS (Advanced Cruise–Assist
Highway Systems), accident insurance and national safety
standards need to be reviewed. |
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| (3) |
The following
measures are necessary for the issue presented in 1-(3) above. |
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| (a) |
ITS provides
the ideal means of intermodal transportation for people
and things. The government must strongly acknowledge
this point and develop VICS (Vehicle Information and
Communication System) into an information provision
system containing information not only of roads, but
of a wide range of public transportation systems, such
as bus, railway, air, and marine transports. |
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| (b) |
The government
must take bold steps to actively promote the utilization
and diffusion of the ETC system. For example, it is
expected to review transportation fare policies, allow
the versatile utilization of IC cards, reduce the burden
of car-mounted equipment, and remove opening/closing
bars on ticket gates. |
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| (4) |
The following
measures are necessary for the issue presented in 1-(4) above. |
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ITS for pedestrians
should be expanded to accommodate people with disabilities,
and furthermore, to provide foreign language service to non-Japanese
speaking people. The state or local governments should assume
the necessary costs as a social policy. |
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| 3.
Specific Proposals for the Further Development of ITS |
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| (1) |
DSRC (Dedicated
Short Range Communication) should be made available not only
for ETC card payments, but also for use with integrated non-contact
IC cards, a payment means that is expected to gain widespread
attention in various fields. |
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| (2) |
International
technical cooperation should be actively offered for ITS development
and digital roadmap formulation in various foreign countries. |
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| (3) |
Related industries
should strive to provide new, beneficial information by integrating
activity information (information of activities and interests
at various destinations) and transportation information. |
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