Transportation industry challenged by urban congestion, says IBTTA president

Road congestion and lack of infrastructure funding are among the main issues facing the transportation industry, according to the new president of the IBTTA. Chris Tomlinson, who is also interim executive director of the newly created Atlanta-region Transit Link Authority, suggested an absence of technological standards, particularly in the US, is also a potential problem. But along with “continued increases in congestion in our urban areas”, he points to opportunities. “We can see a convergence of t
January 8, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Road congestion and lack of infrastructure funding are among the main issues facing the transportation industry, according to the new president of the 63 IBTTA.

Chris Tomlinson, who is also interim executive director of the newly created Atlanta-region Transit Link Authority, suggested an absence of technological standards, particularly in the US, is also a potential problem.

But along with “continued increases in congestion in our urban areas”, he points to opportunities. “We can see a convergence of technological advancements in the areas of connected and autonomous vehicles; exponential growth in the areas of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications; [and] a resurgence and renewed focus on the role transit will play in meeting our urban mobility needs.”

In the US, he believes the upcoming federal transportation reauthorisation bill will also provide opportunities for the sector. Using the theme of ‘driving the future of mobility’, Tomlinson wants IBTTA to play a more active role “as opposed to the more passive role of ‘passenger’ that merely observes and reacts to these trends”.

Tomlinson is also executive director of the State Road and Tollway Authority and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.

Charging, Tolling & RUC

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Praise for Obama’s FY2016 budget
    February 5, 2015
    US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx joined Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt at the Google Campus in California today where he discussed the budget and unveiled Beyond Traffic, a new US Department of Transportation (DOT) analysis outlining the trends that are likely to shape the needs of our transportation system over the next three decades. Beyond Traffic includes a strong focus on how ITS technologies, including vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicle automation and other new technologies are
    Read More
  • Insights into Mobility as a Service
    March 19, 2018
    Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is one of, if not the, biggest changes in the transport sector for many decades and ITS International’s stand is the place find out everything there is to know about MaaS - from concept to delivery. Having already run two successful MaaS Market conferences in London, the company is at Intertraffic highlighting its first US conference which is being run with the support of City of Atlanta and Georgia’s State Road & Tollway Authority. The US conference will take place in Atlanta
    Read More
  • Four predictions for the automotive and transportation industry
    May 30, 2012
    Frost & Sullivan has released the results from its customer survey with several hundred companies conducted in December 2011, executed to find out the top predictions for 2012 for the global automotive and transportation market. Market growth in all regions except Europe, accelerated introduction of plug in hybrid and battery electric vehicles due to increasing fuel prices, mobility and integrated transportation as well as the integration of the smart phone with dedicated application stores and innovative H
    Read More
  • World Economic Forum: AVs face two big challenges
    July 3, 2019
    Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will not be widely adopted unless tech issues and business cases are sorted out, says an expert at the World Economic Forum (WEF). In an interview with CNBC, Michelle Avary, head of autonomous mobility at the organisation, said: “Really making sure that the technology is working in the areas of perception, which is vision — being able to identify objects and then understand how to move around them. That has yet to be solved.” Speaking at the WEF’s Annual Meeting of the New Ch
    Read More

Highlighted Content