الفهرس 
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Abstract
The term ”intelligent transportation systems (ITS)” refers to information and communication technology applied to transport infrastructure and vehicles, in order to offer intelligent roads and intelligent vehicles; i.e. data moves people. The main idea is to collect real-time data about actual traffic conditions and submit it to a control centre which manages the traffic flow accordingly. ITS submit a variety of modem technologies to meeting the challenges of increasing travel demand that replace the physical construction of additional capacity. The main ITS objectives are to increase the efficiency of the current transportation facilities, improving safety, and to enhance the environment; e.g. optimizing traffic flow, improving level of service, reducing traffic delays, and minimizing congestion. Thus, ITS is expected to play an important role in materializing an advanced information communication society designed to meet the requirements of the 21 si century. The U.S., the European Union, and Japan have taken the lead in developing ITS system architectures. Many other countries both developed and developing countries have created their own national ITS architectures based on these architectures and applications. In addition, The ITS technical committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed an architecture that can help countries to define local ITS standards activities. The purposes of this thesi~ are (a) introducing the applications of Intelligent Transport Systems in various world regions, and to present the potential benefits of these applications, (b) analyzing the relationship between application fields and benefits, and (c) proposing a process for identifying the proper ITS applications and the needed services and requirements to achieve a desired benefit for a specific ITS project in the developing countries. The thesis discusses the ability of developing and transition countries to move rapidly and economically from conventional public transport systems to intelligent systems that combine physical infrastructure with information and communications technologies. In the framework of this process eight application models are depicted, each of which includes an overview of an ITS service and its advantages and disadvantages, as well as implementation requirements (users’ equipment, prerequisite, and service provider), and its technical standards to achieve a desired benefit as a basis for assessing the feasibility of its application. Introducing ITS in developing countries has special challenges and constraints, but also special opportunities which can allow developing countries to jump to an ITS-enabled transportation system more rapidly than developed countries and at lower cost. These include the opportunity to install ITS in the infrastructure at the same time that the physical infrastructure is being built, the opportunity to make use of established ITS applications developed and tested in developed countries. Otherwise, The thesis confirms that a successful jump of developing countries to an ITS application depends on a number of principles (1) the selection of the application should meet the real user needs, (2) the use of appropriate level of technologies with the greatest return on investment according to the experience of other countries, (3) the successive implementation as demand increases and resources permit, and not overbuilding in early stages, (4) the public private partnership.
Keywords: intelligent transportation systems, intelligent roads, intelligent vehicles, ITS standards, developing countries, transition countries