Abstracts - Posters

Adaptation Options in Transportation: Building Community Capacity Through Investments in ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems)

Robert Hicks
McMaster University
rhicks3@cogeco.ca

Moving traffic as efficiently a possible is an everyday goal in every community for economic, pollution reduction and quality of life reasons. A communities improved capacity to adapt to occurrences of extreme weather through greater investments in ITS needs to be examined more closely. Extreme weather events put additional stresses on every communities ability to move traffic efficiently. Better use of technology can help communities reduce their vulnerability to the increased frequency and severity of rainstorms, snowstorms and ice conditions that are expected in the future due to global warming. This project looks at the efforts that some communities are making to reduce traffic congestion and costly delays via traffic control improvements that are now possible from ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) advancements. This adaptation measure will add further weight to the need for governments of every level to work together and invest more in technology now. This project will examine the economic payback in technology investments that we suspect will be high enough to support immediate investments by communities of every size. As an additional benefit the accompanying significant reduction in CO2 production that can help Canada achieve the Kyoto targets will be highlighted.

2005-04-06