Integrating ITS with Legacy Systems
BUSRide spoke with key transit thought leaders about integrating new Intelligent Transportation
Systems (ITS) with legacy technology. Their in-depth discussion explored the risks associated
with poor integration; unique challenges faced by early adopters; fi rst steps toward integrating
disparate systems; and the value of data warehousing.
The panelists:
David Mugica
Director of Business
Development
Avail Technologies
What problems do “disconnected” systems pose for agencies?
David Mugica: Ineffi ciencies, redundancies, elevated costs and
inaccurate reporting are all common in “disconnected” transit
systems. Agencies will see defi ciencies in gathering reports and
data, or in going from one subsystem to another and trying to fi nd a
common ground.
Importantly, many agencies are spending money on extra licensing
they do not need, or missing opportunities for streamlined systems.
Perhaps some subsystems share functionality, for example, but lack
of communication between departments prevents the agency from
seeing it. That lack of communication regarding technology can be
very detrimental to an agency.
Integrating legacy systems with new ITS can seriously enhance
previous technology investments by an agency, ensuring longer
usefulness for those older systems and the data within.
Integration also provides further vision into overlaps or
redundancies in technology, which can help reduce costs on
unnecessary subsystems.
It also gives greater insight into the agency’s overall technology
vison. By keeping systems separate, agencies often “miss the forest for
the trees” when analyzing data.
20 | BUSRIDE.COM | MAY / JUNE 2020
Fred Fakkema
Vice President, Safety
and Compliance
Zonar Systems
Fred Fakkema: Disconnected systems are often the result of
disparate technology with closed systems. Technology vendors need
to provide, and transit agencies should demand that there is some
level of standardization of interoperability and openness of APIs that
are readily available to allow their systems to integrate and talk to
one another.
For example, a connected metro bus may have many benefi ts to
the transit org in terms of diagnostic information, passenger count,
GPS locations and much more, but, if those systems aren’t able to
integrate into the larger infrastructure, or what is often referred to as
a “smart city,” the buck stops there. The potential for ITS is great, but
it takes interoperability standards and accessible APIs for different
organizations to communicate with another’s systems.
What unique challenges do ITS adopters face in
system integration?
Fakkema: Currently, the lack of interoperability and standardization
is limiting the growth of ITS adoption. Additionally, metro areas
need funding to implement such integrations. ITS implementations
and integrations can also have many different goals including how to
direct traffi c volumes, how to improve the enforcement of traffi c laws,
compliance with other regulations or improving maintenance.