Monday mornings are always rough; if things go sideways, it can set a negative tone for the rest of the work week. Say you wake up late Monday morning, rush out the door, and forego the coffee drive-thru to make it to work on time. About halfway through your commute, you’re catching up, and it looks like you’ll arrive just in time for that morning meeting. Your Monday is looking up! And then you hit the off-ramp, and the rest of your commute becomes like navigating a parking lot.
Advances in intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are linking the physical and digital worlds to manage and monitor transportation networks, making them safer for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. With better data, cities can create a more resilient infrastructure that responds faster in emergencies, reduces emissions, and mitigates extreme weather impacts.
While the hardware needed to build a resilient infrastructure resides in the physical world, its brain lives in the digital realm, providing critical data that drives innovation. However, merging the data from diverse sources like transportation systems requires hardware and software standardization. HardwareITS certifications are a step in that direction.
How ITS Certifications Can Change Monday Mornings
Integrated data provided by trains, buses, and other vehicles could produce an alert system, letting commuters know that, for example, a disabled commuter train is delaying traffic and then providing alternate routes into the city. It’s not a perfect solution to traffic snarls, but it beats sitting in traffic for hours.
Trains
Advanced data analysis and artificial intelligence can perform the following functions to reduce railway equipment failures and downtime:
- Smart sensors placed on railway tracks and surrounding areas can collect volumes of data for infrastructure monitoring.
- Automated rail infrastructure inspections can occur more frequently, alerting operators to potential failures.
- Internet of Things (IoT) data can help predict equipment failure and enable faster response times should a disruption occur.
AI-aided data analysis can synthesize information from multiple systems to detect rail weaknesses and potentially catch derailments before they occur or necessitate repairs that require downtime. The technology can collect information on individual components within the rail system to ensure preventive maintenance is performed on schedule. It can also identify operational anomalies, alerting personnel to possible malfunctions in real time.
For data to flow efficiently, all equipment should adhere to specific standards. For railway operations, these standards include EN 50155 and EN 50121-4. Devices with EN 50155 ITS certification meet the European standards for humidity, shock, temperature, and vibration under extreme weather conditions. The EN 50121-4 ITS certification means that signaling and telecommunications equipment meets the performance criteria necessary to minimize electromagnetic interference with devices inside and outside the rail system. Both standards contribute to infrastructure resiliency.
Buses
Imagine the passengers’ frustration or the driver’s helplessness when a transit bus becomes caught up in the aforementioned off-ramp parking lot. Commuters might have medical appointments to get to, critical financial meetings, or lunch plans with friends that have now become disrupted.
Suppose a bus gets caught up in our hypothetical traffic jam, perhaps due to a late departure. If it had only been on schedule, the bus would have passed the railroad crossing before that commuter train stalled. ITS technology could have kept these buses on schedule and traffic flowing.
For example, New York City uses ITS bus telematics to manage its transit signals. This system prioritizes transit buses, improving operating efficiencies between 5% and 14%. Nordic countries use their ITS data to keep buses on schedule. If these systems notice a bus is behind schedule, it will adjust traffic patterns automatically and get it back on schedule.
Several ITS certifications make secure data exchange possible, especially in systems that cross boundaries. IEC 62443-4-1 and ISO 27001 outline the security requirements for product development. The IEC certification requires a secure development lifecycle incorporating physical and digital designs. An ISO ITS certification means the product was designed and developed using the best practices for securing data against unauthorized access. Municipal transportation infrastructure includes emergency services, controls traffic, and alerts residents to hazardous conditions, so preventing cyberattacks needs to be of the highest priority.
Passenger Vehicles
Many cities have transportation apps that alert residents to traffic disruptions such as accidents, road closures, or weather conditions. However, drivers and passengers are often unaware of how ITS implementations foster more of those positive Monday mornings. For most commuters, traffic congestion is their number one challenge.
Today’s smart traffic management systems use IoT devices to collect data and respond to changes in traffic conditions. If traffic slows, the system can adjust traffic lights to increase flow. It also uses sensors, video, and algorithms to reduce congestion.
In cooperation with the City of Pittsburg, Carnegie-Mellon University deployed smart traffic signals that prioritize buses and emergency vehicles, identify traffic jams before they worsen, and help drivers find better routes. This pilot project reduced vehicle wait time by 40%, travel time by 26%, and vehicle emissions by 21%. Yet, few drivers were even aware that changes were being made to the traffic signals. They surely noticed the improvement in traffic, but the reasons behind that improvement were made invisible and seamless.
Modern passenger vehicles have internal networks that share data to improve performance and enhance safety. If cars could share that data, traffic management systems would have even more real-time data about accidents, traffic conditions, and road hazards. The University of Michigan conducted an 18-month pilot study using GPS data from 6% of vehicles on the road. The system extrapolated the GPS data to recalibrate traffic signals and successfully reduced traffic congestion by between 20 and 30%. It is the first example of a large-scale cloud-based re-timing system and the benefits it can provide.
Better Monday Mornings
Deploying these IoT-heavy solutions without ITS certifications could result in mismatched capabilities. If the devices cannot connect seamlessly to the ITS infrastructure, additional hardware or software may be required to establish connectivity, adding unnecessary complexity.
Using ITS-certified industrial switches ensures network reliability. A power-over-Ethernet (PoE) industrial switch such as Planet’s ISW 808PT delivers ITS-certified solutions and adds to an infrastructure’s resiliency by eliminating the need for external power sources. Planet Technology offers a range of ITS-certified products to provide a reliable and resilient ITS.
