This session covered the effects of new information technology on both the supply and demand for transportation and how governments take different approaches to e-planning.

• The talk first discusses how E-Planning is starting to take hold, with many developments over the last ten years in
  • a) transportation planning and management technologies,
  • b) development of telematics and in-car navigation and other New Technologies for Information and Communications (NTICs),
  • c) public and private research programs started.

Then it goes over common problems in transportation planning in developed and developing countries.

• It gives examples of current programs and research such as the CHART program in Maryland, Florida interactive transport planning, the I-95 Corridor Coallition programs, automated highway systems in Japan, Dynamic Traffic Assignment Forecasting, 511, freight coordination centers, etc.,

• It covers New Technologies for Information and Communications (NTICS), including new mobile phone-based services, satellite/GPS and Internet.

• It shows what is happening in France using the agenda for looking ahead in an on-going Ile de France Study.

• It covers the futuristic Cooperative Transport Information System Clearing House that is under development in Hong Kong, and finally end with a summary of Priority Research Areas for the Future.

The talk concludes with suggestions of priority areas for research in e-planning and transportation.

Talk slides [ppt]

PETER COOK

Mr. Cook specializes in innovative, state-of-the-art systems development for infrastructure performance analysis and management. Over the last 30 years, he has managed a range of international and domestic projects in related fields. His areas of expertise include:

• Infrastructure performance measurement (water, transportation, energy, etc.);
• Infrastructure demand, network/systems analysis and economic modeling;
• Information system and GIS implementation analysis, design and implementation;
• Cost-benefit analysis;
• Decision support systems design and implementation; and
• Project management.

Mr. Cook holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard University. In addition he was a Fellow in the Special Program in Urban and Regional Science at MIT and conducted a graduate-level course at MIT (jointly between the Civil Engineering and Urban Studies and Planning Departments) in 1987-88.

While working for major international engineering/economics/planning firms, information technology firms and the World Bank, he has carried out projects and programs ranging from feasibility studies to regional and national infrastructure planning studies, to systems analysis and performance measurement systems, policy analysis and economic sector analyses. He has worked in fifty-two countries around the world, including Europe, Asia, North and South America and Africa.

He is currently working in China (on an investment decision-support system for China Railways), India (on multimodal corridor modeling, terminal modeling and rail line simulation for Indian Railways and Container Corporation of India) and France (for ISIS and Department Regional de lÕIle de France on regional transportation systems) and on a research project for the World Bank (use of performance indicators by water utilities, their customers, and NGOs for decision-making/accountability). He recently taught a graduate level course module in France at the Haute Ecole de Commerce and Ecole des Mines on Decision-Support Systems for Infrastructure Services.

He is also a founding member of a new professional organization called Building and Sharing Partnerships (b-sharp), which has members from around the world who are interested in Information Technology and Development.