Kirk Steudle, nationwide transportation advisor with Steudle Government Group and former director of Michigan DOT, advocates for open architectures, information sharing and interoperability throughout ITS
In my final column, I famous my intention this yr of discussing the keys to accelerating the adoption of superior applied sciences and their functions. I’ve advocated right here earlier than for leveraging expertise to make the biggest measurable (and most cost-effective) beneficial properties for optimizing transportation efficiencies. Nevertheless, as infrastructure homeowners and operators (IOOs), we’re sure by the provision of applied sciences and the distributors that provide them. How can we higher navigate the expertise panorama to speed up deployment of the applied sciences which have the best impression for IOOs and their roadway networks? The important thing shall be expertise interoperability that ensures extensibility on the techniques degree.
I’ve beforehand mentioned the significance of IOOs fostering nontraditional partnerships as a part of their processes and planning for present and future transportation and mobility challenges and development. Final December, I additionally talked about the bigger regional successes that may be attained via inter-agency cooperation. These partnerships and dealing relationships type the inspiration for higher figuring out, understanding, and evaluating the applied sciences and functions accessible that handle particular present and future transportation wants and challenges.
This brings me to interoperability. Right here I proceed to name upon distributors and producers to make sure cross-vendor integration, particularly the place software program and information sharing are concerned. We should take the teachings discovered within the early 2000s and keep away from the pitfalls of proprietary options which are incapable of working and speaking with different techniques.
“We should insist on and look to applied sciences and techniques that help open-source architectures”
Within the early days of ITS expertise, the main target was virtually completely on end-user performance, with a granular give attention to fixing a selected downside. Little consideration was given to the bigger image of different or future techniques. Due to this, ITS options and their software program didn’t provide the extensibility or cross-vendor integration wanted for the adoption of rising applied sciences. Whereas these options yielded quick capabilities, they had been discovered to hamper customers with proprietary information interfaces that didn’t permit for interoperability with newer techniques. As IOOs, we should insist on and look to applied sciences and techniques that help open-source architectures to assist speed up the deployment and extensibility of latest ITS options and functions. These techniques are designed to leverage standardized information interfaces and interoperability to assist guarantee options are future proof.
Current deployments of latest related options on our roadways have shed a shiny mild on the significance of expertise inclusion and interoperability at a techniques degree. Broader units of latest use circumstances and functions – lots of that are coated on this version, together with weigh-in movement and susceptible roadway consumer security – are already in use. What’s promising is that these functions are demonstrating the outcomes of their interoperability inside present infrastructure to combination and share information. Till subsequent time, journey protected.
This text first appeared within the Could 2025 version of TTi journal
