ROLE OF INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

In the process of urban life and subsequent developments, transportation programming plays two important key roles in affecting and being affected by the whole system. Forms of new mega cities and their infrastructure have been specially influenced by road and rail transportation systems. On the other hand, the structure and formation of cities is now interrelated with employing Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), urban traffic management and their efficiency in the manner the tasks assigned within such systems is implemented. In recent years augmentation and complications of challenges such as consumption of energy, deterioration of air and sound pollutions, weakness in planning and management, time wasted in traffic and delays due to traffic congestion and above all severity of increase in accidents and reduction of safety in urban transportation has all changed the conception of sustainable transportation viewpoint in most of countries worldwide. This article, therefore, focuses on sustainable conceptions from economic, social and environmental viewpoints for finding ways to tackle the existing hurdles with the primary definitions of these conceptions in addition to presenting some matrixes for evaluation. In continuation, the article delineates some very important strategies for reaching these goals, namely, implementation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), efficient and opportune traffic management and practical policies in order to embody them.