Transportation

part because governments are key buyers, and in some countries, such as the United States, they have shown at best mixed signals as reliable purchasers.

The scope of this assessment is limited generally to ITS technologies and applications previously enumerated, focusing more on the application of ITS in the road transportation network and for the benefit of motor- ists. It has not attempted to assess countries’ strengths at electronic freight management or the application of intelligent transportation systems to commercial rail, maritime, or aviation environments.

Our assessment of the world’s ITS leaders was in- formed by consultations with more than two dozen experts in the intelligent transportation systems field who were asked to rank world leaders in ITS. The re- search methodology identified the top ten generally recognized leading countries and assessed those coun- tries’ ITS ecosystems to narrow the field to the world’s top three leaders. The analysis uses presentations given and documentation distributed at the 15^th ITS World Congress in New York City in November 2008. Ad- ditional sources include trade press, market research reports, and the Web sites of the transportation regula- tory agencies of many countries.

Most advanced countries are in some way, shape, or form deploying intelligent transportation systems. Ap-