IUESA: Explaining the challenges facing urban transport infrastructures, Dr. Pourzarandi, the president of Iran Urban Economics Scientific Association (IUESA) said, today, transport and traffic are related with all pillars of urban life and areas such as leisure time, education, business, production, industry require sustainable transport.    

Noting that proper transport is one of the pillars of sustainable development, he added most problems facing cities and quality of urban life are associated with transport as air pollution is main challenge of our metropolises.

Considering waste of resources as one of the other deficiencies of unsustainable transport systems in cities, he further said this amount is so that its impact can be measured on economic growth in the country.

Saying that development of satellite cities near metropolises has made urban transport more important, he said nearly 400 thousand automobiles are added to Tehran streets.  

Stressing that the only solution is intelligent transportation systems (ITS), he added infrastructures of Tehran metropolis are at standard level, but infrastructure development cannot meet challenges of this area alone.

Regarding ITS as one of the main solution to improve urban transport, he said Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are advanced applications aim to provide innovative services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management and enable various users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and 'smarter' use of transport networks. They are considered a part of the Internet of things resulting in cost reduction.

The use of these systems will lead to saving in energy, time, increasing safety, and reducing accidents, he said.