Ken Leonard, the director of the USDOT’s ITS Joint Program Office (ITS JPO), has used his most recent blog post to celebrate the fact that the department he heads up will mark its 30th anniversary this year, as well as highlighting the publication of a new USDOT report on how effectively transportation technology funding has been used to date.
He takes a look back on three decades of researching advanced transportation technologies, including work with connected vehicles and improving safety, as well as setting up schemes to provide grants for the advancement of traffic technology.
He particularly highlights funds contributed to the USDOT Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) Program. “The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act established the ATCMTD Program to make competitive grants for the deployment of advanced transportation technologies,” he writes “The program has awarded numerous grants to a diverse group of both metropolitan and rural transportation agencies across the United States.”
“Last month, the USDOT released its first annual report on the effectiveness of the ATCMTD grantees in meeting their projected deployment plans, as well as findings on the safety, mobility, environmental, operational efficiency, and other impacts of the technology deployments. Program grantees share information on their operational and deployment costs compared to benefits, lessons learned, and innovative solutions.
Some of the ITS technologies being studied and developed to provide transportation benefits are:
- Traffic congestion monitoring to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety
- Automated detection devices to reduce pedestrian-vehicle and bicycle-vehicle accidents
- Autonomous shuttles and curb space for carpool and ridesharing pick-up and drop-off
- New information systems for elderly and disabled individuals
- Real-time, data-driven traffic updates and trip planning for travelers
- Mobility on demand services to help reduce travel time and fuel consumption savings
Other technologies under development include connected vehicle and automated vehicle applications, adaptive signal systems, integrated corridor management, real-time traveler information systems, green technologies, and infrastructure maintenance and monitoring systems.
“Improving the safety and mobility of people and goods is always top of mind at the ITS JPO,” writes Leonard. “We work together with transportation agencies across the United States to speed the transformation of ITS research and prototypes into market-ready technologies and explore new ways to improve transportation safety, mobility, efficiency, and accessibility for all Americans.”
Check out the full ATCMTD report.
