Intelligent transportation system, notably as what we know as ITS, is the development direction of the future transportation system; it is a combination and integration of advanced information technology, data communication technology, electronic sensing technology, control technology and data transmission technology, electronic sensing technology, control technology and computer technology; all these are effectively integrated and applied to the whole ground traffic management system to deliver real-time, accurate, and comprehensive transportation management.
Intelligent transportation is a transportation-oriented service system based on modern electronic information technology. Its outstanding feature is to provide diversified services for traffic participants via the collection, processing, release, exchange, analysis and utilization of information.
Intelligent transportation systems consist of a number of modern high-tech projects designed to strengthen the connection between roads, vehicles, drivers and the environment. With the help of the intelligent transportation system, the driver is well aware of the real-time traffic conditions, and the management personnel are clearly aware of the driving conditions of the vehicle, thereby improving the safety of the road, the work efficiency of the system and the quality of the traffic environment.
The intelligent transportation system could be widely applied in airport, station passenger flow diversion system, urban traffic intelligent dispatching system, expressway intelligent dispatching system, operating vehicle dispatching and management system, motor vehicle automatic control system, etc.
The role of the intelligent transportation system is to improves the efficiency of transportation, to relieve traffic congestion, to improves the capacity of the road network, to reduce traffic accidents, to reduce energy consumption, and to reduce environmental pollution through the harmony and close cooperation of people, vehicles and roads.
The intelligent transportation system is mainly the integration of three major systems: the traffic information collection system, the information processing and analysis system and the information release system. The traffic information collection system includes : manual input, GPS vehicle navigation equipment, GPS navigation mobile phone, vehicle traffic electronic information card, CCTV camera, infrared radar detector, coil detector, optical detector and so on. The information processing and analysis system includes information server, expert system, GIS application system, artificial decision-making, etc. The Information release system includes Internet, mobile phone, vehicle terminal, broadcasting, roadside broadcasting, electronic information board, telephone service desk, etc.
The intelligent transportation system is to focus on the wide application and service of traffic information, and meanwhile to improve the operation efficiency of existing traffic facilities. Compared with general technical systems, the overall requirements in the construction of intelligent transportation systems are more stringent. This integrity lies in different aspects as it is quite complicated in terms of the integration of different systems.
The construction of intelligent transportation system involves many industries and is quite a complex and huge system engineering with extensive participation of the society, which could result in complex inter-industry coordination problems. The Intelligent transportation system integrates the achievements of many scientific fields such as traffic engineering, information engineering, control engineering, communication technology, computer technology, etc.,which requires the cooperation of technical personnel in many fields. The intelligent transportation system will be mainly supported by the new generation of information technology such as mobile communication, broadband network, RFID, sensor, cloud computing, etc., which will be more in line with the application needs of people, and the degree of trust will be improved.