Mr. Chair, ITS is an integrative bundle of technologies, if you will. One of the really exciting things it permits is integration of information from many different sources.
Some of the applications that are actually bearing fruit right now are allowing us, through our gateway initiatives—particularly the Asia-Pacific gateway initiative—to integrate the transportation management systems of a number of the metropolitan and urban governments of the Lower Mainland of B.C. Over time, we will be working with the province and TransLink, the transportation entity that offers transportation services to commuters and others in B.C., so that a growing number of municipal governments will all integrate their transportation information systems.
There is already a traveller information system there, so individual travellers will be able to check—either through their cellphones, eventually, or through web-based technologies—whether a bus is coming or whether they should choose between one option or another. It will also facilitate the flow of trucks from Port Metro Vancouver through the Lower Mainland, hopefully reducing congestion and increasing mobility for both cars and freight operations.