BUILDING SMART INFRASTRUCTURE TO SERVE TRAVELERS AND SYSTEM MANAGERS

A critical goal of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is to develop an intelligent transportation infrastructure that will enable intelligent transportation systems (ITS) products and services to work not only as strong individual players, but as a powerful and effective team to save time and lives and improve quality of life. The ITS infrastructure includes the integrated electronics, communications, and hardware and software elements that can support ITS services and products. To meet this challenge, the National ITS Program is pursuing several activities to help states and localities make smart investments in smart infrastructure. These efforts include the development of a deployment strategy to build ITS infrastructure in metropolitan areas, sponsorship of model deployments, the identification of criteria to help localities and regions adopt the national architecture and supporting standards, the development of programs to train and educate new ITS professionals, and continued research and development to advance state-of-the-art ITS.