The main focus of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) has traditionally been on road-infrastructure-based traffic flow management aimed at increasing the travel efficiency of personal, public transport and commercial vehicles thus supporting economic productivity. But the decreasing traffic congestion levels produced by the current economic recession have shifted attention to environmental benefits and transport safety.

“ITS’s new environmental trend was reflected in the programme of the ITS World Congress recently held in Stockholm,” says ABI Research practice director Dominique Bonte. “While ITS Stockholm 2009 aimed at covering all aspects of ITS, there was a clear increase in the number of sessions related to green technology, such as energy efficiency, clean mobility, emission and fuel consumption reduction, climate change/global warming mitigation, air quality improvement, eco-driving and carbon footprint reduction, electrical and hybrid vehicle deployment, sustainable urban transportation systems, green freight, and green flying”.