Martin Leak recently attended the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress. He is personally very interested and excited by the direction ITS is taking and the leaps it has made in the last few years.

The theme of this year’s Congress was, ‘Reinventing transportation in our connected world,’ and the conference supported the theme by having a wide range of technologies on display including connected and autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, robotics, sensor technology, and real-time weather and road conditions data analysis.

Appropriately, many sessions focussed on the challenges of adopting ITS, such as technical, human and legislative factors, and the need for accurate and complex data sharing. Its application for freight and public transportation was also examined, as well as safety issues, sustainability and traffic management.

The conference made clear that we are on the cusp of a transformation, where technology offers realistic solutions to our global mobility, safety, and environmental challenges. However, technologies alone won’t bring about solutions. We need to take an integrated approach, combining state of the art technologies with social innovations. We need coordinated interaction between people and technologies, bringing synergy between modes of transport to offer mobility in a way that is environmentally friendly, safe and efficient. It’s an exciting time to be in the industry, but a time of great responsibility also, as we put in place the fundamental methodologies and infrastructure from which these technologies will be deployed.

A ride-and-drive experience that demonstrated V2X technology.

A ride-and-drive experience that demonstrated V2X technology.

The New Zealand Tourism 2025 Plan (Tourism 2025) sets out the vision for tourism in New Zealand in the future. An outcome of the Plan is to deliver a world-class visitor experience. This will be enhanced by ensuring that appropriate road signs are provided to support the visitor experience at all stages of a journey.

Resolve Group has been working with NZTA and other stakeholders to create the three-part Tourism Sign Strategy, a strategy needed because the Traffic Control Devices Manual (TCD) is progressively replacing the Manual of Traffic Signs and Markings (MOTSAM) and the TCD rule encourages regional tourism strategies by road controlling authorities. This has resulted in a need to provide best practice guidance and instruction to the transport industry and practitioners on implementing an overarching national strategy for providing and installing tourism signs on state highways, including motorways and expressways.

The document produced is a regional Auckland/ Northland tourism strategy document, but it is designed as a template for other road controlling authorities to use. While the Strategy is currently in draft form, it is expected to be implemented soon.

Examples of Existing Tourist Route Logos

Examples of Existing Tourist Route Logos