Report: Intelligent transportation spending to rise sharply
Market opportunity will be driven by dedicated short-range communications, like e-toll collection, and homeland security initiatives for logistical management and tracking and control.
State and local government spending on emerging technologies associated with intelligent transportation systems will elevate the market opportunity substantially over the next five years, according to a report released today.
Input Inc., a Reston, Va., market research firm, reported that state and local spending on intelligent transportation system technologies would increase from $1.8 billion in 2004 to $2.5 billion in 2009.
The state and local transportation IT market will grow conservatively between fiscal 2005 and 2006 but then will accelerate sharply, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent through fiscal 2009, Input said.
Despite early market dominance by small, specialized companies, Input projects that large contractors with the resources to compete for large systems integration contracts and intelligent communications systems will be well positioned to capitalize on the growing market.
Spending will center on dedicated short-range communications, which support applications for so-called smart-highway initiatives such as real-time traffic and weather updates, comprehensive automobile tracking and universal electronic toll collection.
Used today primarily for automated toll collection, dedicated short-range communications is a combination of wireless and radio frequency identification technologies that support a wide range of roadside-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle public safety applications.
The market opportunity also will be driven by homeland security initiatives for logistical management and tracking and control.
Following relatively flat growth over the last couple of years, the market has rebounded with considerable growth in all categories, said James Krouse, manager of Input's state and local market analysis.
"A steady influx of federal funding, driven by the need to address our nation's crowded highways, will ensure that the market has a continual infusion of capital to help drive key initiatives across state and local jurisdictions," he said.
To download a summary of the report, go to http://statetransportation.input.com.