The USA’s National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) has announced the winners of its inaugural Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) Awards for creative and cutting-edge initiatives that have saved lives, time and money.
Born of a partnership of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) with support from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the mission of the NOCoE is to empower the TSMO community to succeed by building its knowledge, skills and abilities.
The NOCoE’s new awards celebrate the creativity and commitment of industry practitioners in the expanding discipline of TSMO, which aims to maximize roadways for efficiency and safety through management and operations ingenuity.
The NOCoE TSMO Awards were open to cities, counties, MPOs (Metropolitan Planning Organizations), state DOTs and private sector organizations. Winners in each of the four categories highlighted a successful TSMO project undertaken in the last five years that provided a clear benefit to the traveling public. The categories, winners, and the runners up were:
Major incident or special event planning and response – Recognizing an agency or organization’s response to a specific incident or special event using TSMO.
• Winner – North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) for its Hurricane Florence Preparation and Response;
• Runner Up – Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC), Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), and Information Logistics Inc. (ILOG) for its 511PAConnect system, which is a two-way direct emergency communication between the agency and a stranded traveler’s smartphone;
Improving an agency’s TSMO capabilities – Recognizing an agency or organization that has successfully integrated CMM/CMF into its structure and the TSMO benefit that came from it.
• Winner – ITS Heartland Chapter of ITS America and HDR for its TSMO University Educational Program;
• Runner Up – Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for its Truck Parking Availability System (TPAS);
Best TSMO project (creative solution) – Recognizing a successful ‘on the ground’ project that demonstrates the solution(s) of improved system management and operations compared with traditional capacity-based approaches.
• Winner – Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) for its US-60 Restripe Project, which transformed road safety using a full suite of TSMO capabilities, reducing crashes by 70% at an interstate merge;
• Runner Up – Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) for its Wrong-Way Vehicle Detection System and State Trooper Co-Location;
Public Communications – Recognizing an agency for successfully increasing public or specific audience awareness of TSMO solutions and benefits.
• Winner – Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) for its @OregonTIMResponders system that used of social media to engage responders across disciplines and promotes responder safety laws and practices;
• Runner Up – Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) for the development and maintenance of its TSMO implementation and strategic plan.
“We were overwhelmed by the more than 60 submissions from across the country, far more than we’d anticipated for an inaugural contest,” commented Patrick Son, NOCoE’s managing director.
“Each entry showed creativity and highlighted the fantastic TSMO work going on around the country to address everything from hurricane preparedness to connected and autonomous vehicles. These awards showcase the very best in innovative thinking in the transportation industry and it’s becoming more clear every day that TSMO is the foundation for our future mobility.”
