Spanish ITS industry excels in niche areas

摘要

Francisco Palazon Rubio is a quiet spoken man and with a calmness that belies his ambitions for Spain's traffic technology industry. For he believes Spain, with a relatively well developed ITS sector, is missing out on the future, the development of sophisticated travel information systems. His convictions have strengthened in recent years following the creation of his own independent ITS consultancy and participation in a three-year long government research programme into added-value information systems. The outcome he says, somewhat resignedly, is at present 'almost result-less', in terms of concrete developments at least. He blames what he calls the 'Spanish mentality'. 'We don't invest enough in research and development' he says. 'We tend to respond rather than take the initiative. Exploratory work is seen as a loss of time.