Founded in 1948, the International Road Federation (IRF) is the only world forum advocating better and safer roads through optimum road design and construction. IRF  is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organisation with the mission to promote roads that are safe, economically viable and ecologically friendly.   As a unique global platform bringing together public and private entities, IRF is committed to sound road infrastructure that brings prosperity, fights poverty, furthers education and gives better access to health services.  www.irfnet.org

Clients are increasingly demanding members of the International Road Federation (IRF) for integral solutions to their mobility problems, rather than just a stretch of tarmac. IRF wants to be at the forefront of future developments and strongly believes Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) have a considerable role to play. Despite a growing body of evidence that ITS deployment contributes to  important transport policy objectives such as improving road safety, reducing negative environmental impacts of transport and increasing network efficiency, ITS still suffers from a lack of support from politicians, high level policy makers and the general public. IRF has taken up  this awareness challenge by creating a Policy Committee on ITS, which saw its kick off during the ITS World Congress in New York in 2008.

The mission of the IRF Policy Committee on ITS is to foster the deployment of ITS by supporting the development of national and regional ITS strategies and by encouraging governments to integrate ITS as a major tool to achieve their transport policy objectives.  The Policy Committee  is open to IRF members, national and supranational governments, national and regional authorities, ITS Associations, intergovernmental institutions and other organisations upon invitation by the IRF.

The Policy Committee meets twice a year during working meetings and holds information meetings during the annual ITS World Congress. This year’s world congress will take place in Orlando, Florida in October 2011. By then the Committee is aiming to have produced two deliverables:

• A lobby document containing political arguments to invest in ITS
• An ITS Strategy Toolkit: an online kit containing tools and information to set up an effective ITS strategy

A provisional outline of the deliverable can be found in the Annex.  An editorial team consisting of Committee members is being established for the supervision of the production.

The intern will be asked to:

• Elaborate a structure/outline for the Lobby document;
• Perform background research and establish contacts with  relevant partner organisations to obtain useful inputs, references, case studies, etc.;
• Draft sections of the Lobby document and support the editorial team in delivering and reviewing sections of the Lobby document;
• Support and coordinate with the review team for validation purposes;
• Otherwise assist the ITS Programme Manager in the coordination of the production.

If you have an interest in this assignment, please send a motivation letter and CV to Caroline Visser at cvisser@irfnet.org.

International Road Federation

2 chemin de Blandonnet

1214 Vernier

Switzerland

Tel. +41 22 306 02 60

Fax. +41 22 306 02 70

www.irfnet.ch

Two products are envisaged:

1. A document containing political arguments to invest in ITS (referred to as Lobby document)
2. An online kit containing tools and information to set up an effective ITS strategy (referred to as ITS strategy toolkit)

Target audience: local/national/supra-national politicians and political advisors

Format: attractive, high profile, easy to read (but not void), a “gift”

Tone of voice: positive, promoting ITS from policy point of view

Size: tbd (but compact)

Elements:

• Overview of how ITS contributes to current policy objectives of safety, sustainability and efficiency in transport (source: SubCom A overview, IBEC and 2DECIDE evaluation libraries for illustrative facts)
• Research needs (source: survey)
• Vision 2030, future policy objectives and potential role of ITS (source: workshop)
• Enablers & barriers (source: case studies, survey)
• Position statement IRF

Target audience: local/national transport authorities

Format:  online kit, easy accessible, basic, medium profile, extendible

Tone of voice: factual, based on wide experience

Size: tbd

Elements:

• Generic strategy model (source: SubCom E)
• Strategy library (IRF)
• Examples/showcases (source: survey, strategy library)
• Future possible additions/modules: community of practice, regional focus, policy road map, assessment tool ITS readiness