GIS serves three distinct needs of transportation professionals, namely infrastructure management, logistics and fleet management and mass transit management. Specifically, GIS can be used for route planning and analysis, bus dispatch and emergency response, automatic vehicle location and tracking, rail system facility management, accident reporting and analysis, demographic analysis and route restructuring, transportation planning and modeling.
Transportation infrastructure represents one of the largest and most critical investments made by any country, at any stage of development. The movement of people and goods either domestically or internationally is vital to every aspect of that economy. Typically, in any developing country, the road network is associated with various problems, such as inadequate capacity, congested city roads, safety, lack of way side amenities, poor riding quality etc. Moreover, large volumes of data are required, which further needs to be managed. GIS can be used to determine the location of an event/asset and its relationship or proximity to another event/asset, which may be the critical factor leading to decisions with regard to design, construction, or maintenance.
The process of delivering goods and services is changing as corporations restructure distribution channels and re-engineer inefficient practices. To remain competitive, often means slashing wasteful spending and building a capacity for "just-in-time" inventory management. Efficient operations require accurate, timely decision-making. The knowledge of the location of vehicle, pickup, or delivery at any given time leverages assets for optimum deployment and cost savings. GIS helps in providing this critical information.
The customer satisfaction, competitive position, timely response, effective deployment and profitability all stand to gain.
GIS helps in generating reliable information for the benefit of drivers, dispatchers, maintenance workers, route planners, management personnel, and riders. Information on bus routes, current location and schedule adherence, subway stop location, emergency situations and locations, track condition, and neighborhood characteristics are all factors that can be used to improve transit performance.