Members of the UK’s Intelligent Transport Systems industry association have benefitted from a session explaining the value of standards and how they are deployed and used across the ITS and wider transport sector.
The event, held jointly with RTIG, the Realtime Information Group, heard from the British Standards Institution, BSI, which explained how standardisation covers technical standards for products, process standards which support businesses to improve their performance and then business potential standards focussing on principles and frameworks to help deliver their full potential.
Delme Stephenson, a Standards Development Manager at BSI, told the meeting who uses standards, the benefits to the UK economy of standardised methods, the process of standardisation and its principles, and how they are agreed. He also explained how British Standards fit in with European and Global specifications, and the tools available through BSI.
ITS (UK) member Jonathan Harrod-Booth, one of the UK’s leading experts on standards in transport technology who has chaired the BSI committee for ITS standards for the past 14 years, told the meeting how standards are a “complex, ever evolving landscape” with “no masterplan”. He commented how there are even different definitions of ITS, and consequently no consistent definition of scope and obvious risks of overlap.
He pointed to successes of standardisation, particularly around Connected and Automated Vehicles, eCall, integration of public and private transport modes, exchange of travel information and electronic fee collection, and the hundreds of projects undertaken to achieve consistency not only in this country but across Europe and the world.
Finally, fellow Member Darren Maher of Journeo gave an introduction to RTIG and its work on specifications for bus ITS around location data, traffic light priority, occupancy and display interfaces. He also underlined good practice guidelines around prediction quality, accessible information, passenger counting and the environmental impact of displays.
“With so much great work being done at such a pace in our industry, it would be easy for people to develop solutions that work brilliantly in silos but then cannot be integrated into wider mobility solutions,” commented ITS (UK) Secretary General Jennie Martin, who chaired the webinar. “This is why ITS (UK) is so committed to its place at the centre of standard making, so we can ensure our members not only are informed about best practice as they deliver new solutions, but also to have a loud voice in deciding what those standards should be. It is great to work with RTIG and BSI, ensuring that our ultimate customer – the travelling public – gets solutions that work out of the box.”
The recording of this important discussion is available to all on the ITS (UK) YouTube Channel.
(Graphic courtesy of BSI)
