State of the ITS Industry

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U.S. Department of Transportation

Research and Innovative Technology Administration

□Determine a mission and goals for the program

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□Establish appropriate good governance principles for the program. Examples include:

–Participation / Voice – Those who will be impacted by the system will be part of the decision making process

–Accountability – Clearly defined process for how to address disputes

–Representation – Recognized stakeholder participation and interests

–Transparency – Clarity on how and why decisions were made

–Efficiency – Recognize that there are trade-offs with participation

–Flexibility – Don’t lock into decisions that may lead to stalled innovation

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□Evaluate and prioritize the list of defined principles and identify potential trade-offs

□Identify areas where market failures may impact the governance model – how much will failure be tolerated? Answer will help identify where the Federal government is needed most.

▪Note that the less tolerant of failure, the less tolerant of innovation and the more centralized control and limited access is required. Evaluating failure will determine levels of tolerance and drive the regulatory structure.

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Step 1: Determine Mission and Goals


		AN interesting outside perspective: Experts asked if the mission was to create a platform upon which others can innovate, or was the mission to create a closed system where information is only exchanged through trusted entities? As we discussed the mission, experts noted a divide between the mission for safety and the one for mobility and environmental performance, and asked if we thought we should keep those two separate. This will come up as we go through these slides and through our exercises today. Importantly, experts stressed that we not lose sight of the mission once it is established and gave us a good example. They said, remember that it is not about adopting technology; instead it’s about what you want to do with the technology. For example, the electronic medical records initiative is not about the technology for collecting records, but about improving health. The performance measures or goals developed for this initiative should be based on improving heath in this case. Records are only the technological tool.

		Using the mission as a guide, establish the principles that form the basis for establishing Governance. Some principles to consider are:
				Participation / Voice – Those who will be impacted by the system will need to be part of the decision making process
				Accountability – How do you deal with disputes?
				Representation – Recognize stakeholder participation and interests
				Transparency – Need to be clear on how and why decisions were made
				Efficiency – Recognize that there are trade-offs with participation
				Flexibility – Don’t lock into decisions that may lead to stalled innovation

		With the list of principles, we can conduct two further analyses:
		Evaluate and prioritize these (and other) principles so that we can look at the vulnerabilities and risks and decide where flexibility is desired. Note, also, that there may be important trade-offs in this principles. For instance, transparency and efficiency are usually in conflict.

		And, Identify best practices to use as models when developing principles. As questions such as “What are models for accountability? Dispute resolution? Transparency? Participation? Voice? Efficiency and effectiveness?”

		Finally, define the level of failure that is acceptable and /or the tolerance of failure. This will help define where government roles are needed most.

		Experts noted that our processes will likely result in a blend of models to create the program best suited to meet mission and goals. Also, they said to separate goals from regulatory tools.