A Safe Systems View of IoT/ITS Solutions

Despite various advances and initiatives, road safety continues to be a great concern. Toward realizing smart cities, many solutions based on Internet of Thing (IoT) or Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have been proposed that address aspects of the road safety problem. Such solutions, albeit with great innovations, are sporadic, rarely offering a holistic view of the different road elements, and their interaction with the emerging technology. In this work, we discuss the viability of the Safe System (SS) approach to address this void. SS is a traffic safety policy that originated in Sweden in 1996 and that is now internationally adopted and motivated by the World Health Organization (WHO). We showcase how the approach can be utilized to structure IoT/ITS solutions, as well as highlight added requirements to extend the approach to the emerging connected and cyber elements.