ITS America |
Preventing Accidents Before they Happen and Improving Emergency Response – Before the day is over 110 people will die on U.S. roads, the equivalent of a 737 airliner crashing every afternoon. In addition to the tragic human cost, the economic impact of these 40,000 annual fatalities and 2.5 million injuries exceeds $230 billion each year. The public and private sectors have invested billions of dollars in measures to protect drivers and passengers from the impact of crashes and to influence driver behavior. The next giant leap in reducing fatalities and injuries is to jumpstart the widespread deployment of vehicle collision avoidance systems and other smart technologies that can help drivers and operators detect dangerous situations and avoid accidents before they happen. Mark Rosenker, Acting Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), recently posed the question, “How many of you would be willing to take the plane home tomorrow if there were 40,000 aviation fatalities each year in the United States?” He continued, “Personally, I’m concerned, baffled, and shocked because there seems to be little outrage about the tens of thousands of people who die in roadway crashes…it is time for us as a nation to stop accepting the costs of traffic accidents and instead put that money into making cars that can avoid potential accidents.”
In addition, in-vehicle telematics and communications systems like Next Generation 9-1-1 and Emergency Vehicle Preemption are helping emergency personnel respond more effectively when accidents do occur, and ITS-enabled solutions are being used routinely to manage transportation systems more effectively during high-traffic situations such as hurricane evacuations, planned events including the Presidential Inauguration and major sporting activities, and catastrophic events like the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
To ensure accountability for federal transportation funding, performance goals should be established in areas such as traffic-related fatalities, traffic congestion, travel times, and other appropriate measures to encourage state and local agencies to set aggressive, achievable performance targets.
Planning for Performance – To ensure cost-effective investment decisions in the state and metropolitan planning process, a cost-benefit analysis of ITS solutions and operational strategies should be performed by state DOTs and MPOs as part of their annual and long-range statewide and regional plans. These plans should include an evaluation of technologies and strategies that could be adopted to reduce accidents and fatality rates, improve passenger and freight mobility, reduce congestion and emissions, and provide other system performance benefits. Where a cost/benefit analysis shows performance benefits that outweigh other alternatives, ITS technologies and strategies should be integrated into transportation plans and projects and, where appropriate, implemented as standalone solutions for optimizing system performance and return on investment.
Addressing Strategic Challenges – ITS and system operations and management solutions should be eligible for funding and encouraged as part of any congestion reduction, metropolitan mobility, air quality and climate change, highway safety, freight, transit, or other targeted programs or strategic initiatives funded under the new authorization in order to encourage rapid, effective and low-cost performance improvements. In addition, barriers to technology and innovation should be removed within existing programs such as the three-year time limitation on the use of funds under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program, and procurement rules and contracting practices should be streamlined to encourage efficient deployment of technology solutions.
Technology, Operations and Systems Management Program – To provide public agencies and private sector partners with the tools to effectively manage and improve the performance of their intermodal transportation systems, ITS America supports the $3 billion Operations and Management program requested by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Additionally, the authorization bill should provide at least $1 billion each year specifically to support deployment of ITS technologies and intermodal integration. ITS and operational strategies should be funded at 100 percent federal share in order to encourage rapid, effective and low-cost performance improvements and to support high-priority multimodal initiatives in areas such as urban congestion, rural safety, climate change, improved transit operations, and more efficient freight corridors, border crossings, and intermodal connectors.
The combined Technology, Operations and Systems Management program will ensure that adequate funding is available to state and local agencies through existing formulas to actively manage the intermodal transportation network to improve public safety, reduce traffic congestion, minimize emissions and environmental impacts, improve economic productivity, reduce project costs, and optimize the capacity, energy efficiency, and performance of the transportation system. U.S. DOT should provide technical assistance, training and deployment support to agencies as they work to integrate ITS solutions into their planning and operations. Eligible expenditures under the program would include deployment, operation, systems management and integration, training, and evaluation of the following intelligent transportation systems and operational strategies:
- Active traffic management and incident response systems;
- Emergency management systems to improve evacuations and respond more effectively to natural disasters and other crisis situations such as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks;
- Vehicle and intersection collision avoidance technologies;
- Technology to support Safety Service Patrols;
Smart Towns and City Streets Initiative – IntelliDrive [SM], also referred to as Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) system, would enable the Smart Towns and City Streets Initiative and would provide $1.2 billion over the 6-year authorization for the Secretary to make competitive awards to between 4 and 6 cities, towns or regions – to be designated as Smart Cities, Smart Towns, or other appropriate designations – to create model deployment sites for the implementation of a wireless communications network that will dramatically improve highway and vehicle safety, passenger and freight mobility, the environment, and traveler convenience. Each deployment site would be required to perform rigorous data collection and analysis and prepare an annual report to Congress with costs, benefits, lessons learned, and recommendations for future deployment strategies. Each award recipient should have maximum flexibility to adopt innovative financing strategies including public-private partnership arrangements to supplement federal funds, and should partner with automotive manufacturers, technology companies, and stakeholder organizations to design and deploy the most effective system to optimize the public benefit. In addition, the Secretary should establish and publish criteria by which towns, cities and regions can qualify for the “smart” designation on their own initiative.
Mainstreaming Vehicle Collision Avoidance Systems – Each year in the U.S. 40,000 people die and 2.5 million more are injured in traffic accidents, causing untold pain and suffering and costing our economy at least $230 billion each year. Many of these accidents could have been prevented with vehicles collision avoidance systems and other advanced safety technologies that can help drivers and vehicles detect dangerous situations and avoid crashes before they happen.
Acting NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker told participants at the 15th World Congress on ITS in November, “It is our firm belief that advanced technology is a major ingredient in reducing accidents, saving lives, preventing injuries and lessening the immense emotional and monetary toll of these accidents. I am encouraged by the rapid proliferation of new safety technologies over recent years and I would like to encourage both government and industry to work together to find innovative ways to get new technologies into the public faster and at lower costs.”
To help realize the NTSB’s vision, tax incentives should be provided to mainstream the availability of life-saving collision avoidance systems and other advanced safety technologies in cars, trucks, transit vehicles and passenger rail systems. Tax credits should be provided for the adoption of a range of safety technologies including, but not limited to: advance collision warnings, lane and roadway departure warnings, blind spot detection, and IntelliDrive [SM]–enabled systems that can detect dangerous conditions, provide real-time warnings, and even apply the brakes if necessary to avoid a crash.
Focused Federal Research Program – The Federal ITS research program should focus on advancing next generation solutions in areas including, but not limited to: vehicle and intersection collision avoidance technologies, congestion management and emergency response systems, a national VII or IntelliDrive [SM] network, ITS environmental solutions, and effective approaches for collecting and disseminating real-time traffic, transit, road and weather condition, and multimodal traveler information to the public and transportation managers. Other priorities should include performance evaluation; innovative financing systems including a VMT-based user fee; driver distraction and other human factors research; and continued architecture and standards development including harmonization of standards within the U.S., and between the U.S. and other countries, to promote interoperability of technologies and efficient data sharing between jurisdictions.
Completing IntelliDrive [SM] (part of Smart Towns and City Streets Initiative) – The ITS Joint Program Office should complete the technical and policy research necessary for the deployment of a nationwide VII or IntelliDrive [SM] network including identifying estimated deployment and operational costs, recommended business models and governance structure, privacy standards, potential liabilities, spectrum issues, potential private sector incentives, necessary enabling legislation or rulemakings, and any other barriers to deployment.
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Reducing Traffic Gridlock – The average rush-hour commuter spends nearly a full work week stuck in traffic each year, time that could be spent at a ballgame or around the dinner table with family, at a barbeque with friends, or volunteering in your community. Traffic congestion in major metropolitan areas alone costs our economy more than $78 billion each year in lost travel time and fuel, not to mention its harmful impacts on economic productivity, the environment, and its contribution to dangerous and frustrating driving conditions. Allowing traffic to grind our cities to a halt every morning and afternoon is unacceptable when we have tools available to manage our transportation system and utilize our infrastructure more effectively. Active traffic management and incident response systems, intelligent traffic signals, smart transit systems, congestion pricing, weigh-in-motion truck inspections, electronic tolling, ramp metering, real-time traffic information and navigational systems, high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, and Bus Rapid Transit are among the technology-enabled solutions available to help reduce traffic gridlock, provide drivers and operators with more efficient highways and travel options, and improve the reliability of goods and services.
To ensure accountability for federal transportation funding, performance goals should be established in areas such as traffic-related fatalities, traffic congestion, travel times, and other appropriate measures to encourage state and local agencies to set aggressive, achievable performance targets.
Planning for Performance – To ensure cost-effective investment decisions in the state and metropolitan planning process, a cost-benefit analysis of ITS solutions and operational strategies should be performed by state DOTs and MPOs as part of their annual and long-range statewide and regional plans. These plans should include an evaluation of technologies and strategies that could be adopted to reduce accidents and fatality rates, improve passenger and freight mobility, reduce congestion and emissions, and provide other system performance benefits. Where a cost/benefit analysis shows performance benefits that outweigh other alternatives, ITS technologies and strategies should be integrated into transportation plans and projects and, where appropriate, implemented as standalone solutions for optimizing system performance and return on investment.
Addressing Strategic Challenges – ITS and system operations and management solutions should be eligible for funding and encouraged as part of anycongestion reduction, metropolitan mobility, air quality and climate change, highway safety, freight, transit, or other targeted programs or strategic initiatives funded under the new authorization in order to encourage rapid, effective and low-cost performance improvements. In addition, barriers to technology and innovation should be removed within existing programs such as the three-year time limitation on the use of funds under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program, and procurement rules and contracting practices should be streamlined to encourage efficient deployment of technology solutions.
Technology, Operations and Systems Management Program – To provide public agencies and private sector partners with the tools to effectively manage and improve the performance of their intermodal transportation systems, ITS America supports the $3 billion per year Operations and Management program requested by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). From this amount, the authorization bill should provide at least $1 billion per year to support deployment of ITS technologies and intermodal integration. ITS and operational strategies should be funded at 100 percent federal share in order to encourage rapid, effective and low-cost performance improvements and to support high-priority multimodal initiatives in areas such as urban congestion, rural safety, climate change, improved transit operations, and more efficient freight corridors, border crossings, and intermodal connectors.
The combined Technology, Operations and Systems Management program will ensure that adequate funding is available to state and local agencies through existing formulas to actively manage the intermodal transportation network to improve public safety, reduce traffic congestion, minimize emissions and environmental impacts, improve economic productivity, reduce project costs, and optimize the capacity, energy efficiency, and performance of the transportation system. U.S. DOT should provide technical assistance, training and deployment support to agencies as they work to integrate ITS solutions into their planning and operations. Eligible expenditures under the program would include deployment, operation, systems management and integration, training, and evaluation of the following intelligent transportation systems and operational strategies:
- Traffic signal timing and optimization, including transit preferential signals and emergency vehicle preemption;
- Congestion pricing systems, HOT lanes and other variably-priced electronic tolling systems;
- Real-time data collection systems to support state and local performance measurement;
- Smart transit systems including automated vehicle location and computer-aided dispatch;
- GPS-based location and navigational technologies and operational systems to support Bus Rapid Transit and dedicated transit and truck-only lanes;
- Roadway monitoring and detection systems;
- Snow and ice monitoring and management technologies;
- Smart Parking Systems;
- Work Zone Management Systems;
- Highway Ramp Metering;
- Road Weather Information Systems;
- Electronic, integrated reservation and payment systems for transportation services; and
- Real-time traveler information through dynamic message signs, cell phones and handheld devices, 511, and in-vehicle signage that provides the public and transportation managers with real-time information about traffic conditions, safety hazards, transit schedules, parking availability, roadway and weather conditions, and alternative travel routes.
Operations and Management Program ($3 Billion) – To assist state and local agencies in effectively managing their transportation systems and utilizing performance-improving tools and strategies, an Operations and Management program should be established that would make $3 billion per year available through existing formulas for operation, management, training, and maintenance of intelligent transportation systems and operational solutions. Eligible activities would include real-time system management, traveler information, emergency response, incident management, traffic signal synchronization, and other technologies and strategies designed to enhance travel reliability, reduce delay and improve overall system performance.
Smart Towns and City Streets Initiative – IntelliDrive [SM], also referred to as Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII). Would enable the Smart Towns and City Streets Initiative and would provide $1.2 billion over the 6-year authorization for the Secretary to make competitive awards to between 4 and 6 cities, towns or regions – to be designated as Smart Cities, Smart Towns, or other appropriate designations – to create model deployment sites for the implementation of a wireless communications network that will dramatically improve highway and vehicle safety, passenger and freight mobility, the environment, and traveler convenience. Each deployment site would be required to perform rigorous data collection and analysis and prepare an annual report to Congress with costs, benefits, lessons learned, and recommendations for future deployment strategies. Each award recipient should have maximum flexibility to adopt innovative financing strategies including public-private partnership arrangements to supplement federal funds, and should partner with automotive manufacturers, technology companies, and stakeholder organizations to design and deploy the most effective system to optimize the public benefit. In addition, the Secretary should establish and publish criteria by which towns, cities and regions can qualify for the “smart” designation on their own initiative.
Focused Federal Research Program – The Federal ITS research program should focus on advancing next generation solutions in areas including, but not limited to: vehicle and intersection collision avoidance technologies, congestion management and emergency response systems, a national VII or IntelliDrive [SM] network, ITS environmental solutions, and effective approaches for collecting and disseminating real-time traffic, transit, road and weather condition, and multimodal traveler information to the public and transportation managers. Other priorities should include performance evaluation; innovative financing systems including a VMT-based user fee; driver distraction and other human factors research; and continued architecture and standards development including harmonization of standards within the U.S., and between the U.S. and other countries, to promote interoperability of technologies and efficient data sharing between jurisdictions.
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Preserving the Environment – The transportation sector is responsible for almost one third of all U.S. CO2 emissions, while also contributing significantly to our nation’s oil dependence. In addition to alternative fuel solutions, technologies and strategies are available that can improve the fuel efficiency of vehicles, reduce traffic gridlock and other emissions-generating conditions such as poorly timed traffic signals, reduce unnecessary truck idling, facilitate shifts to transit and other transportation modes, and provide real-time information to commuters about the most fuel efficient routes and “green driving” strategies. Transportation has a significant impact on energy and the environment, but smart technologies and strategies can help save fuel, reduce emissions, and preserve our environment for future generations.
Planning for Performance – To ensure cost-effective investment decisions in the state and metropolitan planning process, a cost-benefit analysis of ITS solutions and operational strategies should be performed by state DOTs and MPOs as part of their annual and long-range statewide and regional plans. These plans should include an evaluation of technologies and strategies that could be adopted to reduce accidents and fatality rates, improve passenger and freight mobility, reduce congestion and emissions, and provide other system performance benefits. Where a cost/benefit analysis shows performance benefits that outweigh other alternatives, ITS technologies and strategies should be integrated into transportation plans and projects and, where appropriate, implemented as standalone solutions for optimizing system performance and return on investment.
Addressing Strategic Challenges – ITS and system operations and management solutions should be eligible for funding and encouraged as part of any congestion reduction, metropolitan mobility, air quality and climate change, highway safety, freight, transit, or other targeted programs or strategic initiatives funded under the new authorization in order to encourage rapid, effective and low-cost performance improvements. In addition, barriers to technology and innovation should be removed within existing programs such as the three-year time limitation on the use of funds under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program, and procurement rules and contracting practices should be streamlined to encourage efficient deployment of technology solutions.
Smart Towns and City Streets Initiative IntelliDrive [SM], also referred to as Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII). Would enable the Smart Towns and City Streets Initiative and would provide $1.2 billion over the 6-year authorization for the Secretary to make competitive awards to between 4 and 6 cities, towns or regions – to be designated as Smart Cities, Smart Towns, or other appropriate designations – to create model deployment sites for the implementation of a wireless communications network that will dramatically improve highway and vehicle safety, passenger and freight mobility, the environment, and traveler convenience. Each deployment site would be required to perform rigorous data collection and analysis and prepare an annual report to Congress with costs, benefits, lessons learned, and recommendations for future deployment strategies. Each award recipient should have maximum flexibility to adopt innovative financing strategies including public-private partnership arrangements to supplement federal funds, and should partner with automotive manufacturers, technology companies, and stakeholder organizations to design and deploy the most effective system to optimize the public benefit. In addition, the Secretary should establish and publish criteria by which towns, cities and regions can qualify for the “smart” designation on their own initiative.
Advancing Efficient Transportation Systems through Cap and Trade --At least 10 percent of the cap and trade revenues should be invested in transportation technologies and strategies that are shown to reduce emissions including, but not limited to, traffic signal synchronization, smart transit systems, congestion pricing, electronic tolling systems, active traffic management operations, and real-time travel information and navigational technologies that facilitate shifts to transit and other modes of transportation.
Focused Federal Research Program – The Federal ITS research program should focus on advancing next generation solutions in areas including, but not limited to: vehicle and intersection collision avoidance technologies, congestion management and emergency response systems, a national VII or IntelliDrive [SM] network, ITS environmental solutions, and effective approaches for collecting and disseminating real-time traffic, transit, road and weather condition, and multimodal traveler information to the public and transportation managers. Other priorities should include performance evaluation; innovative financing systems including a VMT-based user fee; driver distraction and other human factors research; and continued architecture and standards development including harmonization of standards within the U.S., and between the U.S. and other countries, to promote interoperability of technologies and efficient data sharing between jurisdictions.
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Financing the Future of Transportation – The estimated cost to modernize and maintain our nation’s infrastructure and provide safe, efficient multimodal transportation services far exceeds the revenues generated by the fuel-tax based financing system. Innovative financing mechanisms including increased private sector investment are needed to maintain our current infrastructure and create a smart transportation system that will be safer, cleaner, more efficient, and more globally competitive. States should be empowered to employ innovative strategies and financing methods that will provide financial sustainability while improving system performance, including improved flexibility to pursue tolling and pricing systems, public-private partnerships, and potentially a vehicle miles traveled (VMT)-based user charge. Open road tolling and VMT user fees can be implemented effectively using ITS solutions including GPS-based systems, electronic toll tags, and real-time traffic data. In addition, a portion of any revenues generated from a cap and trade program should be used to finance efficient transportation projects including ITS and transit.
To ensure accountability for federal transportation funding, performance goals should be established in areas such as traffic-related fatalities, traffic congestion, travel times, and other appropriate measures to encourage state and local agencies to set aggressive, achievable performance targets.
Planning for Performance – To ensure cost-effective investment decisions in the state and metropolitan planning process, a cost-benefit analysis of ITS solutions and operational strategies should be performed by state DOTs and MPOs as part of their annual and long-range statewide and regional plans. These plans should include an evaluation of technologies and strategies that could be adopted to reduce accidents and fatality rates, improve passenger and freight mobility, reduce congestion and emissions, and provide other system performance benefits. Where a cost/benefit analysis shows performance benefits that outweigh other alternatives, ITS technologies and strategies should be integrated into transportation plans and projects and, where appropriate, implemented as standalone solutions for optimizing system performance and return on investment.
Addressing Strategic Challenges – ITS and system operations and management solutions should be eligible for funding and encouraged as part of any congestion reduction, metropolitan mobility, air quality and climate change, highway safety, freight, transit, or other targeted programs or strategic initiatives funded under the new authorization in order to encourage rapid, effective and low-cost performance improvements. In addition, barriers to technology and innovation should be removed within existing programs such as the three-year time limitation on the use of funds under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program, and procurement rules and contracting practices should be streamlined to encourage efficient deployment of technology solutions.
Technology, Operations and Systems Management Program – To provide public agencies and private sector partners with the tools to effectively manage and improve the performance of their intermodal transportation systems, ITS America supports the $3 billion per year Operations and Management program requested by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). From this amount, the authorization bill should provide at least $1 billion per year to support deployment of ITS technologies and intermodal integration. ITS and operational strategies should be funded at 100 percent federal share in order to encourage rapid, effective and low-cost performance improvements and to support high-priority multimodal initiatives in areas such as urban congestion, rural safety, climate change, improved transit operations, and more efficient freight corridors, border crossings, and intermodal connectors.
The combined Technology, Operations and Systems Management program will ensure that adequate funding is available to state and local agencies through existing formulas to actively manage the intermodal transportation network to improve public safety, reduce traffic congestion, minimize emissions and environmental impacts, improve economic productivity, reduce project costs, and optimize the capacity, energy efficiency, and performance of the transportation system. U.S. DOT should provide technical assistance, training and deployment support to agencies as they work to integrate ITS solutions into their planning and operations. Eligible expenditures under the program would include deployment, operation, systems management and integration, training, and evaluation of the following intelligent transportation systems and operational strategies:
- Commercial vehicle operations and information systems;
- Electronic weigh-in-motion truck inspections;
- GPS-based location and navigational technologies and operational systems to support Bus Rapid Transit and dedicated transit and truck-only lanes;
- Electronic Border Crossing Systems;
- Work Zone Management Systems;
- Highway Ramp Metering;
- Road Weather Information Systems;
- Electronic, integrated reservation and payment systems for transportation services; and
- Real-time traveler information through dynamic message signs, cell phones and handheld devices, 511, and in-vehicle signage that provides the public and transportation managers with real-time information about traffic conditions, safety hazards, transit schedules, parking availability, roadway and weather conditions, and alternative travel routes.
Smart Towns and City Streets Initiative – IntelliDrive [SM], also referred to as Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) system, would enable the Smart Towns and City Streets Initiative and would provide $1.2 billion over the 6-year authorization for the Secretary to make competitive awards to between 4 and 6 cities, towns or regions – to be designated as Smart Cities, Smart Towns, or other appropriate designations – to create model deployment sites for the implementation of a wireless communications network that will dramatically improve highway and vehicle safety, passenger and freight mobility, the environment, and traveler convenience. Each deployment site would be required to perform rigorous data collection and analysis and prepare an annual report to Congress with costs, benefits, lessons learned, and recommendations for future deployment strategies. Each award recipient should have maximum flexibility to adopt innovative financing strategies including public-private partnership arrangements to supplement federal funds, and should partner with automotive manufacturers, technology companies, and stakeholder organizations to design and deploy the most effective system to optimize the public benefit. In addition, the Secretary should establish and publish criteria by which towns, cities and regions can qualify for the “smart” designation on their own initiative.
VMT-Based User Fee Demonstrations – The Smart Towns and Cities would provide ideal locations to conduct real-world demonstrations and operational testing of a vehicle miles traveled (VMT)-based user charge demonstration program.
According to the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, a VMT-based system “should be designed to facilitate integration with intelligent transportation systems, such as traveler information systems, and with emerging IT-based safety applications such as vehicle infrastructure integration programs” and “existing vehicle GPS systems.” The Commission further notes that “Pricing technology could be implemented in conjunction with a program such as
IntelliDrive [SM]…” which, as envisioned, “will support secure communication between the vehicle and roadside to support mobility, traffic management, and traveler safety.” The Commission concludes that using technological advances to improve how people pay for their use of the transportation system “will enable the delivery of a host of other benefits, including real-time information to vehicle drivers to help reduce congestion, improve safety, and reduce emissions, to transit operators to improve the convenience and reliability of public transit, and to system managers to better monitor and manage the system and improve the allocation of transportation infrastructure resources.”
Congress should provide towns and cities receiving funding under the Smart Towns and City Streets Initiative with incentives to conduct broad-based demonstration programs of mileage-based user fees that could vary by time of day, pricing zone and other factors; be interoperable with other tolling, pricing, and intelligent transportation systems; and accommodate multiple forms of payment including cash, credit and debit cards, the Internet, and other integrated payment systems.
Focused Federal Research Program – The Federal ITS research program should focus on advancing next generation solutions in areas including, but not limited to: vehicle and intersection collision avoidance technologies, congestion management and emergency response systems, a national VII or IntelliDrive [SM] network, ITS environmental solutions, and effective approaches for collecting and disseminating real-time traffic, transit, road and weather condition, and multimodal traveler information to the public and transportation managers. Other priorities should include performance evaluation; innovative financing systems including a VMT-based user fee; driver distraction and other human factors research; and continued architecture and standards development including harmonization of standards within the U.S., and between the U.S. and other countries, to promote interoperability of technologies and efficient data sharing between jurisdictions.
ITS Costs, Benefits, and Deployment Strategies Report – The U.S. DOT should engage an ITS focused organization to undertake a comprehensive, data-driven study to determine the deployment and operational costs of various ITS applications; measure their quantifiable benefits; identify best deployment and operational practices, and identify data gaps that should be remedied to provide better information. The study should also provide recommendations to state and local agencies on the most effective ITS tools for addressing high-priority transportation challenges, and provide guidance on strategies for deploying and operating ITS solutions to yield optimal results. The U.S. DOT should contract with an organization within three months of enactment and the organization selected should issue a report within two years of contract award. This report should be updated annually and the information contained therein should be provided as part of an online, interactive web-based tool that will enable and encourage collaboration and sharing of research results and best practices between state and local agencies, private sector partners, university experts, and other transportation professionals. The study should be conducted by an ITS-focused organization that represents constituencies across the public sector, private sector and academia. Funding in the amount of $1 million should be provided to conduct the study during each of the first two years, with ongoing annual funding in the amount of $400,000 to be provided thereafter for continued research, data collection, publication of results, and management of the online collaboration resource.
Conducting a VMT User Fee Research, Development and Demonstration Program – The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, in their recently released report, calls for an aggressive research, development and demonstration (RD&D) program to address critical technical and policy challenges associated with the possible deployment of a VMT-based user fee program as a potential future financing mechanism for our nation’s transportation system. |
