Integrated strategic performance toolkit for cooperative scheme comparisons in inter-urban intelligent transport services

A high level objective for many international governments and local operators is that highways should be managed in a way that is sustainable in terms of a Low Carbon Energy future. Recent initiatives such as the Strategic Transport Technology Plan and the policy and legal framework promoted by the European Commission's ITS Directive and ITS Action Plan may assist with this requirement. However, many levels of complexity are inherent within the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) schemes that are now part of highway management, due to the linkage of various technological components to complex systems and services. Maintaining efficient, sustainable co-operative performance is therefore a major task, with inconsistencies between product suppliers, network managers and operators. It is of great interest to road operators in particular that enhanced policy and technological alignment in the form of an inter-scheme comparison matrix should be created. This paper proposes an integrated strategic performance management framework (ITS-PMF) which can perform inter-technological comparisons of four key performance areas between ITS schemes in order to identify energy and emission hotspots. Appropriate action can then be taken to improve the energy and sustainable management of ICT and transport systems for the benefit of a smarter, sustainable and efficient future.