Editors Page APRIL – MAY 2017

Has the word ‘smart’ been overused? Is it time to move on? Apparently not. Greenfield smart cities will be in the making for many years and the best option perhaps is to get deeper into the concept which is a smart combination of various independent & self decisive components connected through technology. TrafficInfraTech spoke to different smart city consultants to understand the process of connecting the transport/ mobility part to other vital components. A consultant is the link between the various stakeholders balancing the connected elements to achieve a workable theme.

Smarter roads are round the corner, says Lee Street- Director and Head of Technology Services, AECOM, EMIA. The driving factors include growing city living, connected and autonomous vehicles, MaaS etc. CAVs will need a higher standard of roads which means having properly maintained road surfaces. And the chain becomes bigger.

In an exclusive lengthy interview, NHAI Chairman Yudhvir Singh Malik talks about his vision for putting in place technology-backed O&M systems for highways. Getting all the lanes equipped with FASTags, software for toll plaza management, user-friendly apps for highway grievances are top priorities. The other articles look at diverse topics like having web parking portal for the parking industry, the challenges in evaluating the impact of cooperative ITS, or using street poles with advanced networked devices that warn vehicles about the ones approaching from the opposite side.

India’s current mobility system demands transformative solutions. Digitalization, system integration, connected and shared infrastructure, collaboration of different transport modes… The three day conference during the forthcoming TrafficInfraTech Expo and Parking InfraTech Expo in Hyderabad will address most of the transformative mobility solutions. There will be a specially designed workshop on Transport data collection and analysis. Very often a bad data becomes the biggest challenge for transport authorities.