The status of ITS in south africa As far as ITS applications in south africa are concerned, sophisticated area traffic control systems have been operated in our major cities for well over twenty years. The coastal cities of cape town, durban and port elizabeth, however, lead with advanced real-time traffic responsive scoot area traffic control systems. Furthermore, closed circuit television traffic and cbd safety surveillance systems are operated extensively in the major metropolitan areas of south africa. The implementation of ITS in south africa to date has been on an ad hoc project basis with very little overall standardisation or sharing of resources. International experience has made us acutely aware that, while many ITS applications are effective on their own or in combination with other measures, the integration of ITS technologies and applications often achieves significant synergies resulting from shared information and infrastructure.
Users also benefit from a wider range of services that are convenient and easy to use.
Speeding up delivery of basic needs and developing human resources At this stage, the south african public transport sector does not have a very good reputation. Objectives like modal integration and safe transport need to be achieved. The implementation of ITS will facilitate the achievement of these objectives b for example, through electronic toll collection and electronic licensing systems the safety issues may be addressed, while through-ticketing will assist with modal integration. These two aspects alone will not only assist in developing human resources but will also open up public transport to a wider group of customers, thereby making significant efficiency gains possible. We in south africa are now seriously moving into this industry and this will stimulate the ITS industry in south africa, creating new employment and investment opportunities.