Exploring the Underlying Barriers to the Adoption of Intelligent Highway Transportation Systems: A Study from Ghana

Abstract

Adoption of intelligent highway transportation systems (ITS) is increasingly gaining wide acceptance among many countries due to their contribution to decongesting cities, combating climate change, and promoting quality of life, among others. However, the level of ITS adoption cannot be said to be the same in Ghana, and there is a dearth of studies that empirically investigated the barriers to ITS adoption in Ghana. This current study aimed to establish the critical barriers to the adoption of intelligent highway transportation systems (ITS) in Ghana. Structured questionnaire aided data collection from 182 respondents. Thirty-nine (39) barriers were identified and principal component analysis further organized the barriers into five (5): economic and institutional capacity barriers (0.8006); energy and system reliability barriers (0.8001); resource barriers (0.7813); facilitation condition barriers (0.7783); and social barriers (0.7194), with economic and institutional capacity barriers and energy and system reliability barriers being unique to the study in Ghana. Empirically, the study unravelled five main coherent barriers to ITS adoption in Ghana, which hither to was largely absent in existing literature. This will guide transport authorities, academics, policymakers, and industry stakeholders in eliminating the barriers to ITS adoption in Ghana from multi-stakeholders’ approach. Effectively eliminating the identified barriers can lead to the successful adoption of ITS in Ghana, which has potentials to reduce traffic congestion and reduce fuel consumption, contributing to attaining Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)11: sustainable cities and communities, and combating climate change, SDG 13: Climate Action.

Keywords: Air Quality, Carbon Emission, Ghana, Smart Cities, and Sustainability

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007216