Cross-cutting Issues

ITS investments can be “profit centers” for DOTs -- that not only pay for themselves but for other DOT needs. We must start managing our systems. Once we accept this philosophy, ITS investments become even more important, not only as management tools, but also as “profit centers.”

I propose that “equity partnerships” between the public and private sectors can yield better transportation systems for and a profit to the public. The “E-Zpass” system offers an opportunity for an “equity partnership”. However, it was approached in a typical landlord way, in that we went and contracted out the clearinghouse services for a period of time.

Besides the “equity partnerships” the ITS infrastructure can also be used to yield returns. There is the opportunity to use overhead variable message signs as a platform for commercial advertisements. These potential revenues would permit a state to finance those operation centers without having to increase taxes or other transportation costs. I do recognize, however, that this approach is not without controversy.

Rhode Island Department of Transportation

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida

This paper aims to understand the dynamics of the Traffic Management Center operator workplace. Currently we can observe an expansion of tools, tasks and traffic volumes the operator has to handle. Using expert interviews and Mayring's Qualitative Content Analysis 20 interviews were made and analyzed. Experts come from four dierent ITS working elds in Germany: Research, operation, engineering, administration. Results indicate that ex-erts expect a massive change in job characteristics mainly due to technical and organizational influences. Conclusions are drawn for today's selection and training procedures.

Institute of Transportation Systems

Presented at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

This paper provides an overview of the Virginia/Google Transit Initiative, which successfully
launched nineteen of Virginia’s 25 fixed-route transit operators on Google Transit by
December 2008. The initiative was spearheaded by the Virginia Department of Rail and
Public Transportation (DRPT), which provided coordination and technical support to transit
operators throughout the process. The vision behind the Virginia/Google Transit Initiative
was to provide comprehensive trip itinerary information via the internet for transit customers
throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.

AECOM Transportation

Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation

Paper submitted for publication and presentation at the ITS America’s 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition

Access to high quality information is a prerequisite for efficient transport systems. Current
architectures are mainly based on public authority service providers engaged in the full chain
of the service; from data collection to distribution of information to end users. As transport
demand becomes more complex, information needs become more complex. The paper discuss
the use of third party information brokers/data warehouse operators for data collection and
data fusion, and further distribution to end service providers. All operations will be made on
commercial conditions, and examples are provided where this is operational. Such
organisations will also be natural hosts for standards, a role that is not suitable for public
authorities.

SWECO ITS

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

Clarus, which means “Clear” in Latin, is the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) ESSdata management system. The Clarus System uses state of the art algorithms to quality checkatmospheric and pavement observations from both fixed and mobile platforms. Data contributorscan receive information on the health of their ESS networks as well as the calibration of theirsensors. Data users can receive a full suite of observations, quality checking flags and metadatainformation.As part of the developmental process of the Clarus System, the USDOT began a multi-phasedregional demonstration in 2007. The first phase included having teams of State and ProvincialDepartments of Transportation (DOT) provide concepts for new products and services whichwould use Clarus data to support and enhance DOT operations. The second phase involvedrecruiting public transportation agencies to join the Clarus community.The third phase began during the summer of 2008. At that time, a request for proposals (RFP)was issued to the weather enterprise. Using ideas which originated within the first regionaldemonstration phase, five different use cases were presented to foster new products, algorithms, decision support tools and innovations that use Clarus data and support transportation operations. This paper will provide details about both the original regional demonstration use cases as well as those innovations that will be implemented as a result of awards from the RFUSDOT Federal Highway Administration

Noblis, Inc.

USDOT Federal Highway Administration

USDOT Research and Innovative Technology Administration