WASHINGTON, Nov.19 - An executive officer from one of the nation's leading metropolitan transportation agencies today told Congress about the immediate need to implement a Smart Cities and Communities Initiative to effectively address the nation's traffic congestion, safety and environmental problems.

Ann Flemer, Vice Chair of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) and Deputy Executive Director for Policy at the San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission, stressed the importance of using smart technologies to address America's transportation and environmental challenges during a hearing of the U.S. House Technology and Innovation Subcommittee. To download Flemer's verbal testimony, click here. To download a copy of Flemer's written testimony, click here.

"You are all very aware of the challenges facing our nation's transportation system," Flemer told the Subcommittee. "In past decades we focused on building infrastructure to alleviate the increasing traffic in our communities. But today, we need to utilize that infrastructure more effectively and make better use of smart technologies to actively manage our transportation system to reduce congestion and emissions, make our roads safer, and provide the traveling public with better transportation options. But this will not happen if we continue business as usual."

"The key to a sustainable transportation future lies in transitioning to a more performance-based approach to managing our transportation investments, including better use of technology to measure and improve system performance," said Flemer, who provided as an example a list of specific performance measures and targets included in the San Francisco Bay Area's long range plan to address issues such as safety, livable communities, environmental sustainability and economic competiveness.

Flemer said that a top priority for the federal research program should be to address the challenge of collecting the quality data needed to establish baseline performance levels, set meaningful performance targets, and measure changes in performance categories over time.

"Technologies are already being used today to collect real-time data," said Flemer. "But these technologies are not typically deployed consistently on a state-by-state and metro-by-metro basis, and there is no national program for gathering and disseminating this data."

She also noted that "a publicly-accessible database will not only unleash private sector innovation to meet the public's demand for better and more convenient information on traffic, transit and roadway conditions, but will also respond to the increasing demand for more accountability in short and long-range planning and decisions affecting investment priorities."

To advance the national deployment of smart technologies and innovative solutions, Flemer urged Congress to adopt a proposal by ITS America and other public and private sector leaders to conduct a "large-scale operational testing and model deployment program that would install and provide real-world testing of smart infrastructure, connected vehicles, and other intelligent technologies in several model cities and communities."

According to Flemer, the Smart Cities and Communities Initiative "would have the dual purpose of providing the public with tangible safety, mobility and environmental benefits while also generating real-world data on deployment costs, benefits, challenges, and lessons learned."

She explained that each model city and community would establish clear multi-modal performance objectives for reducing traffic accidents, congestion and emissions, and providing real-time multimodal travel information to the public to enable smarter travel decisions and improved transportation options. Participating cities and communities would also perform rigorous data collection and analysis, and report on deployment and operational costs, benefits, lessons learned, and recommendations for future research and deployment strategies that could be used by other cities and communities across the United States.

In conjunction with the Smart Cities and Communities Initiative, Flemer noted that "at least one city or community should include a test of vehicle miles traveled (VMT)-based pricing program that could vary rates by time of day, pricing zone, congestion levels and other factors; and that would be interoperable with other tolling, pricing, and transportation systems."

Participating cities and communities would also have flexibility to pursue other innovation systems like congestion pricing.

The VMT-based pricing project could be integrated with other intelligent transportation systems including the federally-sponsored IntelliDriveSM program, which Flemer said "holds significant promise for reducing traffic accidents by providing high-speed wireless connectivity and sensing capability between moving vehicles, and between vehicles, intersections and other roadside sensors, to help prevent crashes before they happen."

Flemer noted that "a significant co-benefit is that this smart network would provide traffic managers with real-time information to operate their transportation systems more efficiently, give state and local officials comprehensive data to measure system performance, and enable innovative financing options."

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) represents several hundred member organizations including public agencies, private industry leaders, and academic institutions involved in the research, development, and deployment of intelligent transportation systems that improve safety, increase mobility, and sustain the environment. http://www.itsa.org

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is the metropolitan planning organization for the San Francisco Bay Area, which includes the cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland. With a combined population of 7.3 million people residing in 101 cities and 9 counties, the Bay Area ranks as the 6th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. MTC also serves as the Bay Area Toll Authority. http://www.mtc.ca.gov.

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