The primary motivation behind the development and introduction of a wide range of ITS (intelligent transport system) installations is the potential benefit offered to travellers from the real-time provision of information. A second motive is the provision of fare payment or toll collection facilities. A common feature of all these systems is the real-time collection and provision of data. However, once used, these data are frequently discarded rather than being stored. This paper draws attention to the benefits that can be obtained by storing and using these data for traffic modelling, planning and analysis purposes. It also identifies the issues involved with collecting and storing ITS data and shows how they can be tackled, integrating data collection into ITS at the design level so that it can be carried out in a cost-effective manner. This will allow the vast potential provided by ITS installations for the collection of data to be tapped.
Abstract