Cross-cutting Issues

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) is deploying a statewide Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) network as part of their regional Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) architecture, the Alaska Iways Architecture Implementation (AI2). In Phase I, ADOT&PF installed 8 RWIS sites in the Anchorage area as a prototype to establish the type of equipment, site construction standards, and operational issues for future RWIS installations. Phase II calls for up to 31 additional RWIS in some of Alaska’s most remote and extreme weather prone areas of the surface transportation network.

Alaska DOT

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, May 19-22, 2003 Minneapolis, Minnesota

In order to understand how ITS is affecting rural economies, interviews with representatives from firms in the recreational transportation equipment industry in northwest Minnesota were conducted. The primary goal of this research is to analyze ITS use from the industry cluster perspective developed by Michael Porter rather than at the individual firm level. It is hoped that this analysis will lead to recognition of regional transportation, communication, and technology concerns and reveal avenues of further ITS development and implementation to keep rural economies competitive. This report has three primary objectives: 1. Assess current ITS use in a rural industry cluster 2. Analyze ITS use to determine if there is an effect on the rural industry cluster 3. Explore future potential roles of ITS in a rural industry cluster or rural economy.

University of Minnesota

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, May 19-22, 2003 Minneapolis, Minnesota

As history has shown, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) deployments are extremely vulnerable to budget cuts, which can result in crippling effects on mission success. Unexpected reductions in budgets can cause an ITS deployment to delay planned expansion. This delay may impact downstream decisions, since technology and market shifts may occur which cause equipment to become end-of life, leaving the deployment in further financial distress. This paper describes several concepts that can mitigate the risk of technical obsolescence at not only the initial design phase but also throughout the lifecycle of the infrastructure. It also illustrates the financial and political leverage gained by applying these concepts regionally across agency boundaries. Published by the Southwest Research Institute.

This paper presents an application of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) to road pricing. Two possible ITS technologies applying Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are examined. A case study of electronic road pricing for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) is described, showing the potential benefits to be achieved with its introduction. The paper also presents the estimated costs to implement the proposed ITS technologies. It concludes showing that ITS applications to road pricing can decrease possible equity distortions among HGVs operators.

DIW - German Institute for Economic Research

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, May 19-22, 2003 Minneapolis, Minnesota

As part of the AZTech ITS initiatives, the Maricopa County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) distributed WAP phones in the fall of 2000 to selected individuals working in transportation agencies in the Phoenix, AZ metropolitan area. These phones offered the recipients both local and long distance telephone service, along with use of the Internet and the ability to access real-time traffic information over the WAP phone, all free of charge. Traffic Station was the Independent Service Provider for the traffic information, and they offered this wireless service from the time the phones were distributed until they terminated their service in August 2001. In order to assess the benefits and future potential for this new technology and its utility as a tool for obtaining traffic information, MCDOT requested Battelle to conduct a survey of the WAP phone users. Battelle recommended telephone interviews with each user and developed an interview protocol to carry out the evaluation. This report documents the results of interviews with 13 out of 14 users, conducted between October 5 and 19, 2001. MCDOT commissioned this evaluation to document the various ways WAP technology could be used in the Phoenix metropolitan area and to understand how the users perceived the benefits and drawbacks of this technology. This information could be of interest outside of the Phoenix area, as well as for considering a possible expansion of this program in Phoenix in the future. While quantitative data were collected from the 13 users in these interviews, as presented in this report, the very small sample makes it difficult to generalize the findings. Nevertheless, the results, coupled with discussions with each of the users, provide a rich qualitative overview of this technology experiment.

Battelle Memorial Institute 

Maricopa County DOT

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, May 19-22, 2003 Minneapolis, Minnesota