John Miles, a founding member of Transport Associates' Network, has recently been elected
an Honorary Member of the World Road Association (PIARC) “In
recognition of an outstanding contribution to the Association”. John has
been active on the PIARC Technical Committees that have been working on ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) since 1996. He is also Technical Editor for a new Road Network Operations ITS Web Resource with Finella McKenzie as Associate Editor. ITS America, on behalf of the ITS Joint Program Office (JPO) of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), is overseeing the development of the ITS content of this resource, which will build on past efforts and draw on contemporary technology innovations to make the resource accessible and relevant.
John has also contributed a chapter on the history of ITS to the Encyclopaedia of Automotive Engineering. This chapter traces the development of Intelligent
Transport Systems (ITS) from its early beginnings through to the present day.
It looks at the structure of ITS applications that has evolved and the
important role that system architecture has played in providing a framework for
these developments. The chapter considers the origins of ITS in Japan, Europe,
and North America, leading to the emergence of ITS as part of mainstream
transportation management. The essential characteristics of ITS are described with
reference to ITS technologies and user services. Different ITS architecture
viewpoints are described and the role of ITS standards is explained. This
chapter concludes with some pointers for the future.