Technology’s role in the Road to Zero

This story first appeared in the August issue of EvTalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

The Government has announced a strategy to adopt a Vision Zero road safety strategy, making its case for this change with some grim statistics and disturbing trends.

In the first week of August we were pleased to host the Ministry of Transport’s Brent Johnston, manager safety and mobility, to learn about the new strategy consultation document and in particular, to hear how new technology will play a part.

“Last year, 377 people were killed on our roads, and thousands more were seriously injured.

Over the past six years we have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of deaths and serious injuries.

“The number of deaths and serious injuries are increasing at a much faster rate than can be explained by simple traffic growth. About half the people who were harmed did not contribute to the crash. They were harmed by other people’s errors in judgment, and were let down by a system that failed to protect them from those mistakes.”

As a core objective ITSNZ supports the development and adoption of solutions that make our transport network safer.

Therefore, we support an increased focus and target based approach to safety.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a recent survey of those who attended T-Tech earlier in the year found significant interest from the industry, with numerous respondents already implementing their own safety initiatives, research and trials.

At the presentations it was encouraging to hear that technology is considered key across numerous parts of the new strategy.

In-vehicle technology and enforcement, another key area, while seeking evidence-based solutions should encourage trials of emerging technologies to prove efficacy in a New Zealand environment.

The ministry has clearly identified Scandinavian countries, Sweden and Norway being global leaders in Vision Zero and with similarities in topography and dispersed population, it is encouraging to see that these countries also place significant emphasis on technological solutions in vehicles and ITS.

As ITS NZ prepares to make a submission on the strategy out for consultation, we will be referencing the strategies put in place by these countries over the past 10-15 years.

We will be encouraging trials of new solutions too with advances in AI, 5G and GPS creating exciting possibilities.

Summary from the ITSNZ AGMA larger membership, an increase in activities and value for members and a healthy bottom line were reported at the AGM in August as ITS New Zealand enters its 15th year.

It’s two years since the new membership structure was implemented and the impact of this consistent support has been dramatic.

Driven by a business plan and supported by increased admin capacity and improvements in governance, we’re now able to deliver and demonstrate the values for members.

T-Tech, our major conference, continues to grow – it’s now more twice the size of the annual ITS summits it replaced, and the calibre of events throughout the year continues to increase.

Being connected to a global network of ITS communities is also a key value and as an example our investment in the ITS World Congress this year creates cost-effective promotional opportunities to promote New Zealand innovation, expertise and investment opportunities to a massive global audience at an exciting time when transport innovations and disruptions are rapidly emerging.

The AGM also saw two key long-time directors step down from the board of directors.

HMI Technologies and Ohmio Automotion founder Mohammed Hikmet and Deryk Whyte of DWG Consulting have made immense personal and financial contributions to ITS NZ over the past 10 years.

They leave ITS NZ in very good shape.

Both were recognised with ITS NZ Lifetime Membership.