Intelligent Transportation Systems meeting in Canada (CAC/ISO/TC 204)

2004-06-30

The 23rd Plenary and Working Group meetings of ISO Technical Committee 204 Intelligent Transportation Systems were hosted by the Standards Council of Canada from May 17-21, 2004.

Arrangements for the meetings came off without a hitch, attracting a record attendance of 125 delegates. Part of the success was choosing the same hotel that was used by ITS Canada for its Annual Conference in 2001. Located conveniently in Burnaby, British Columbia on the Skytrain rail line, delegates had ready access to the entire region for their leisure pursuits as well as first class accommodation for their meetings. The social evening at the Steamworks Brewing Company also proved to be a great hit.

The SCC/Canadian Advisory Committee for ISO/TC 204, chaired by Bill Johnson, organized the hosting with help from TransLink, Transport Canada, ITS Canada, IBI Group, EIS Inc. and E-Radio Inc. The Canadian delegation of 9 included 5 technical working group experts (Lewis Sabounghi, Peter Burns, Jackson Wang, Mara Bullock and David Tsai), SCC representative Roz Waddell, Head of Delegation Bill Johnson and 2 student staff assistants, Emma and Joey, who helped at the registration desk.

A unique innovation at this meeting was an ITS Transit Standards Workshop open to all delegates and local municipal officials. Jointly organized by TransLink and TC 204, the themes were “needs and opportunities” and “ITS standards development underway” with emphasis on transit priorities. The workshop presentations will be available from the ITS Canada website for downloading beginning in late June.

The ISO meeting was also an opportunity for a Special Presentation on Traffic Signal Research by a consortium of Canadian private and public sector partners. In a project funded by Precarn, the partners including the City of Vancouver, Delcan, EIS and Novax are developing a new generation model for adaptive traffic signal timing. TC 204 Work Group 9 has a strong interest in developing international standards for traffic management and control.

The TC 204 work program resulted in 29 resolutions passed at the 23rd Plenary meeting at the end of the week. They included resolutions to progress work items from one stage to the next, to sort out intellectual property issues and to fend off encroachments by other technical committees making an exciting end to a busy week.¹

For further information on the ISO/TC 204 meeting in Vancouver or to learn more about participating in the Canadian Advisory Committee, contact the SCC Member Program.

¹ ITS Canada Newsletter, June 2004

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