The Intelligent Transport Society of South Africa (ITSSA) has disbanded, as it has fulfilled its mandate, says CEO Dr Paul Vorster.

An ITSSA annual general meeting in July confirmed a decision taken by the society’s board in June to close the project.

ITSSA was established in 2001 as a project with the strategic objective to create awareness and encourage the use of intelligent transport system (ITS) solutions.

Since then, South Africa has seen the widespread adoption of ITS solutions, to the point where they are now standard elements in all transport planning and operations, explains Vorster.

This includes the roll-out of Europay, Mastercard and Visa ticketing in public transport systems; the Gautrain; bus rapid transit (BRT) systems; several public transport apps; a number of traffic management centres and traffic management systems; weigh-in-motion technology; freeway management systems; drones; Big Data; ride-hailing; artificial intelligence; on-demand transport services; and electric, connected and autonomous vehicles.

In short, ITSSA has achieved its strategic objective of making ITS solutions mainstream, says Vorster.

“After 21 years, it is time for ITSSA to hand the baton over to industry.

“Down the road, a radically new, even more advanced environment will need new approaches and mechanisms to assist and guide industry and government.”

Whilst Vorster is satisfied that ITSSA has achieved its goals, he does lament a number of factors holding back the operations and advancement of transport systems in South Africa.

These include the virtual collapse of Eskom, with significant social and economic impacts; disintegrating service delivery impacting negatively on traffic management; poor road safety; a worsening road maintenance backlog; the collapse of rail and the failure to implement migration strategies; the stalling of BRT deployment (with MyCiTi a positive exception); widespread corruption; scarcity of tenders; virtually bankrupt government coffers; and a constrained South African logistics system.

“If the country can overcome its institutional challenges, smart mobility solutions offer a launching pad to provide better, safer and more efficient transport services to more people,” says Vorster.