The Use of Information Systems in Improving Transportation Systems - Report Example

THE USE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN IMPROVING TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER 2012 LONDON OLYMPIC GAMES   By (Student’s Name):   Course Title: Instructor’s Name: University: Location: Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Overview of Olympic Games 3 Previous Challenges in Olympic Games 4 2012 London Olympic Games 5 Preparation Before Olympic 6 Ticket Selling Online System 6 Tube Guru Services 6 During Olympic Games 7 Paralympic Route Network (PRN) and Olympic Route Network (ORN) 7 Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) 8 After Olympic Games 9 CSC and Transport 9 Conclusion 9 References 11 Introduction Overview of Olympic Games The history of Olympic Games is traced back to the Ancient Greek where it was founded a son of Zeus, Heracles. Although the games had been going on for quite some time, most of the documented history about it goes extends up to 776BC. Since then, the games have continued to grow and as a tradition they are played at intervals of four years for almost 1200 years now. However, it is around 393 CE when Theodosius I, a Roman Emperor, abolished the games because of his Christianity beliefs that they were introducing pagan influences. As a result of this, it was not until 1500 years late, 8that a Pierre de Coubertin, a Frenchman, initiated the revival of the games. In 1894, Coubertin convened a delegates' conference representing nine countries so as to discuss revival of Olympic Games and it was unanimously approved that the games be revived. Besides, an international committee chaired by Coubertin was formed to organize Olympic Games. It was later to be named International Olympic Committee headed by a Demetrious Vikelas as its first president. The headquarters of IOC was by then chosen to be Athens, Greece (Durant, 1973). In order for a country to host Olympic Games, it makes bid stating its capabilities to provide necessary infrastructure as required by the International Olympic Committee. The process of selecting the host country is rigorous and to the ever changing environment, various challenges for instance transport problems (traffic jams and inadequate public transport) have been faced in previous Olympic Games. A case in point is 2008 Beijing Olympics. In this regard, strict requirements for instance the capacity to integrated Information Systems into the necessary infrastructure such as transportation and ticketing are observed. Previous Challenges in Olympic Games According to Franklin (n.d.), transport problems were the most outstanding challenge encountered in 1996 summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. The ever-growing size of spectators as well as athletes and officials attended the sporting event in large numbers. It is estimated that in these the population size of those who attended the games exceeded that of Barcelona and Seoul games combined. In regard to transport problem, agencies mandated to transport management were overwhelmed in handling the exceeding surge of people inn provision of economic, efficient and safe public transport services. A case in point was failure to absorb Olympic transportation fleet into the then existing Atlanta transit system, the capacity to develop far-reaching consensus in respect to congestion mitigation plans and incident management, as well as the establishment of capacity to effectively manage increased level of traffic. All these myriad of issues posed serious challenges to those who had been mandated to arrange the Olympic Games. The behind-the-scenes transportation problems aggravated others which were being encountered in the ICT aspect of the Games. In this respect, Associated Press, (1996), in an article identifies how the Olympics’ information system used is real-time delivery of scores and results suffered a great deal of failures. This was as a result of hitches in ACOG-IBM computer thereby causing delays in transmission of results to the general public and news organizations. As a result the officials resorted into manually giving results to news agencies by employing the messenger services. In summary, 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta are regarded as the most embarrassing event to have faced transport failure in the history of history of Modern Olympic Games. The games left no legacy on urban and transport development with having had poorly planned and managed transport systems as well as inadequately trained staff. On the other hand, the city had unreliable and insufficient transport services that failed to cope with program changes and event peaks. 2012 London Olympic Games As a result of such challenges that have been faced in past Olympic Games, the Olympic Committee continues to heavily invest in Transfer of Knowledge (TOK) in order to improve the competencies of local organizers and games survive quality. As this TOK requires host cities to start making bids in a period of 9 years prior year when the games will he held. This is due to complexity of retro-fitting the Olympic transport in each new host City. London 2012 Olympic games will have at least 202 participating countries, 300 sporting events and an estimated 10, 600 athletes (Railway Technology, 2011). Upon winning the bid to host these games, the UK parliament instituted “Olympic Law” which led to the establishment of Transport plan for London 2012 Olympics. On the other hand, in East London was identified as the place where a new Urban Olympic Park would be built. Besides, 6 billion Euros was set aside for upgrading, rehabilitating and extending the railway systems. In this regard, transport systems especially near Stratford Olympic park and Stadium have been greatly improved in order to deliver reliable and frequent transport services. Nevertheless, integration of Information Systems one of the milestones that has been done in preparing London for 2102 Olympic Games as explained in the below section (Ibid, 2011). Preparation Before Olympic Ticket Selling Online System The Olympic Games management has facilitated the design and implementation of tickets selling website that not only sells the tickets but also gives the ticket buyer direction regarding the transport means that the buyer will use to get to the Olympic venue. In addition, the sites give all information required for a spectator to be familiarized with the games occurrence such as accommodation, games schedule, and means of transport as well as the actual position to get the defined means of transport as well as the departure time. The site is created to work on behalf of ticket selling management, thus the website is designed with all kind of users in mind, to provide good interface between it and the user so as to ensure efficient services. On the other hand, a the database of both Visit London and Transport for London are synchronized and it as well employs a geo-spacial engine which is designed and built to facilitate return of various listings in a particular radius of tube station (London2012.com, 2012a). Tube Guru Services The creation and lunching of tube guru in 2005, a Visit London and Transport for London (TFL) joint project is another information system technology that will highly enhance London transport system during Olympic Games occasion. The technology allows its users to choose a stop and gets an interesting point within a specific distance from the terminal on the London Underground. The system permits the clients to browse London Underground System and select a station where they should view interesting points near the station. The system contains both TFL and Visit London databases and thus covering an extended area of service. This will be of great use to all foreign spectators who would wish to be engaged in other tourist activities other than Olympic Games for they can find their way around London underground systems easily (Double eye, 2011). During Olympic Games Paralympic Route Network (PRN) and Olympic Route Network (ORN) The PRN and ORN are roads networks connecting all chief non-competition and the competition venues for Paralympic and Olympic games. This will facilitate chief participants, for instance officials as well as athletes to travel efficiently, securely and safely between their place of accommodation and venues while also allowing other movements in London and other parts of UK. The PRN and ORN are important measures to assist in management of essential demands which will be forced on entire transport network in games’ period. The PRN, ORN and the related measures will ensure the flow of traffic is temporary balanced, and will work only where and when needed. Some of these measures will involve modification of restricted turns and traffic signals. The traffic signals is an information technology automation technique that is used to control the flow of traffic where applied. While obeyed by all road users, this technology will effectively facilitate the control of traffic along London roads during Olympic thus elimination situations of traffic deadlock that would course unbearable delays and/or vehicles collision (London2012.com, 2012b). To ensure the Games run successfully and to maintain movements in rest of UK and London, it is important that illegal driving and parking do not obstruct flow of traffic on the PRN and ORN. The chief objective is not to cure but to prevent. To achieve this, the PNR and ORN will enhance widespread communication and publicity in advance, so as to ensure the purpose as well as the importance of RN P and ORN to the success of the game are well understood. This will involve intensive engagement and consultation with people working and living on the route as well as drivers’ information on how PRN and ORN will operate; elaborate on street signs, the use of CCTV in detecting traffic offenses and use of instant messaging signal to alert rapid response service providers to remove abandoned, damaged, broken down or illegally parked vehicle. This communication will be aired in all ORN websites, international and national TVs as well as in newspaper publication (London2012.com, 2012b). Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) The Olympic delivery authority in conjunction with local highway authority and delivery partners will improve on the traffic measures along the roads that will be commonly used for the Olympic occasion. Among the design aspect that will be altered is the signaling time of the traffic light. The adjustment will be done to fit a heavy traffic regulation so as avoid imbalance on the time allowed on the route that are less busy to the most busy route at the junctions. The measures of traffic management will be highly restricted on motorways outer parts of London. The ODA is setting up CCTV reporting at areas expected to be congested as well as instant messaging signals to give network traffic updates. The two technologies will be very reliable in monitoring of transport network system in all roads of London during the event and allow quick response to any part of the road with a problem. The greatest advantage using the two technologies is that they allow on site supervision of traffic while the controller is located on a centralized position. The entire road network system can be monitored by a few individuals without putting the whole traffic force on the actual site (London2012.com, 2012b). After Olympic Games CSC and Transport On April year 2012, the Transport for London and CSC signed a new outsourcing Information Technology (IT) agreement worth $33 million, extending the current contract by 27 months. CSC is an international leader in provision of technology-enabled commerce services and solutions. It offers IT services in support of transportation and travel companies all over the world. Under the signed contract, a number of TFL information technology services will continue to be managed by CSC. This will include desktop support, service desk as well as delivery of instant customer information in several London underground railway stations. The involvement of CSC in the transportation system will ensure efficient integration of Information system with transport system before, during and after Olympic Games in London. Having CSC as information technology service provider for TFL transport system is a measure taken to ensure that all integrated information systems to aid in controlling traffic during Olympic work smoothly without any interruption (Business Wire, 2012). Conclusion As discussed in the above essay, previous Olympic Games have made The International Olympics Committee to learn lessons in organization other such sporting events in the future. A case in point is the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games in which traffic congestion and failure of Information Systems were witnessed. In this respect, IOC has over the years invested heavily in Transfer of Knowledge (TOK) in order to improve the competencies of local organizers and games survive quality in future events. This is the basis upon which London 2012 Olympic Games are being organized. To make use of enhanced Information Systems, the organizing committee has designed an online tickets selling system that will enable easier ticket buying. On the other hand, a joint project by Visit London and TfL introduced a tube guru in order to enhance use of technology in transport. Other systems are for instance PRN and ORN that comes in handy in reduction of traffic jams as well as ODA’s use of CCTV to release real-time reports in respect to update of traffic flow on roads and railways. Besides, to ensure that the best ICT infrastructure in place, CSC has been contracted by IOC to provide network and online transmission of results from the event places. In this regard, London 2012 Olympic Games have been highly prepared. References Associated Press, 1996. Glitches: Technology, transportation fail in first few days of Summer Games. Los Angeles Times. [online] 22 July. Available at: [Accessed 27 April 2012]. Business Wire, 2012. CSC and transport for London extend outsourcing agreement valued at $33 million. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 27 April 2012]. Double Eye. (2011). Case studies: transport for London. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 27 April 2012]. Durant, J., 1973. Highlights of the Olympics: From Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Hastings House Publishers. Franklin, R. B., n.d. Intelligent Transport Systems at the Atlanta Olympic Games - How did we get there? [Online] Available at: [Accessed 27 April 2012]. London2012.com, 2012a. Ticket. [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 April 2012]. London2012.com, 2012b. How will the ORN and PRN work? [Online] Available at: [Accessed 27 April 2012]. Railway Technology, 2011. London Olympics Transport Upgrade, United Kingdom. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 27 April 2012]. Read More