Western States Rural Transportation Consortium (WSRTC)

OVERVIEW | HISTORY | CONTACTS | WSRTC UPDATE | ARCHIVED WSRTC UPDATES  | WSRTC DOCUMENTS | PROJECTS | ARCHIVED UPDATES | DOCUMENTS | FACT SHEET | IMPACT | STEERING COMMITTEE | EMERITUS

The Western States Rural Transportation Consortium (WSRTC), comprised of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Utah, has been established to facilitate and enhance safe, seamless travel throughout the western United States. The Consortium seeks to promote innovative partnerships, technologies and educational opportunities to meet these objectives. Additionally, the Consortium seeks to provide a collaborative mechanism to leverage research activities in a coordinated manner to respond to rural transportation issues among western states related to technology, operations and safety. Consequently, activities of the Consortium are focused on technology transfer/education (Western States Rural Transportation Technology Implementers Forum) and incubator projects (small scale research projects intended to serve as a “proof of concept” for larger subsequent efforts) centered on the Consortium pillars of technology, operations and safety.

WSRTC: The Consortium’s Latest!
Wednesday, October 26th, 2022

The Western States Rural Transportation Consortium (WSRTC) and its members have been busy since our last post! We’ve held three meetings, two Western States Rural Transportation Technology Implementers Forums, participated in several conferences and events, completed work on two task orders, and opened a new pooled fund for Phase 2 of the WSRTC.

The 2022 Annual WSRTC Steering Committee meeting was held just before the start of the 17th annual Western States Forum, June 14th, 2022, in Yreka, California. The first agenda item was the Forum with a quick synopsis of the technical presentations, expected attendance, and an overview of the schedule of events.

Sean Campbell spoke briefly about the history of the WSRTC and how it has evolved from its beginnings with the COATS project. He noted that the current phase of the California Oregon Advanced Transportation Systems project (COATS Phase 8) will be the last from California. The WSRTC has received good feedback and met its goals. Transportation Pooled Fund (TPF) 5-(241) will now end on March 31, 2023. There are still two active Task Orders in TPF-5(241).

• WTI Task Order 14 provides funding to coordinate and run the Western States Forum, as well as providing travel support for Consortium members to participate in meetings such as the National Rural ITS Conference, the Northwest Transportation Conference, ITE, ITS America, etc. It also supports the maintenance of the WSRTC and Western States Forum websites.
• Task Order Montana Tech 1 is covering maintenance for the One-Stop-Shop (OSS), Automated Safety Warning System Controller, and the WeatherShare system. For OSS, data feeds have been added and fixed and a number of bug fixes completed. Doug conducted some public outreach for OSS with a press release at Montana Tech. Subsequent TV interviews were conducted with local news affiliates from FOX, ABC, CBS, and NBC. Project Manager Sean Campbell (Caltrans DRISI) and Keith Koeppen (Caltrans District 2) also participated in an interview and the news piece aired statewide. The publicity increased traffic and usage for OSS.

Here’s the group at the 2022 annual meeting. Participants were there in person and virtually. Clockwise from top middle: Jim Whalen (Nevada DOT), screen with virtual participants, Sean Campbell (Caltrans DRISI, Project Manager), Jeremiah Pearce (Caltrans District 2), Tony Leingang (Washington State DOT), Doug Spencer (Oregon DOT).

Photo by: Doug Galarus

Clockwise from top: Sean Campbell (Caltrans DRISI, Project Manager), Jeremiah Pearce (Caltrans District 2), Tony Leingang (Washington State DOT), Doug Spencer (Oregon DOT), Troy Torgersen (Utah DOT), Jim Whalen (Nevada DOT).

Photo by: Doug Galarus

TPF-5(494), Western States Rural Transportation Consortium Phase 2, is open and accepting commitments. The new TPF will run for four years through March 2027.

In addition to attending the Western States Forum, the WSRTC provided travel support for six participants to attend the 2022 National Rural ITS Conference and ITE annual meeting this past summer. The Consortium also supported four participants at the ITS World Congress held last month and one speaker at ITS America. Last summer, the WSRTC covered the registration costs for 98 individuals representing the member states to participate in the virtual ITE annual meeting and NRITS conference.

Western States Rural Transportation Consortium Meetings

For quick reference, here are the meeting documents. Be sure to check out the meeting minutes to read what the member states are working on relative to rural ITS technology implementation.

June 14, 2022 – Annual Meeting, Western States Forum

Meeting Agenda 6/14/2022 (pdf)
Meeting Presentation 6/14/2022 (pdf)
Meeting Minutes 6/14/2022 (pdf)

April 7, 2022 – Virtual

Meeting Agenda 4/07/2022 (pdf)
Meeting Presentation 4/07/2022 (pdf)
Meeting Minutes 4/07/2022 (pdf)

October 5, 2021 – Annual Meeting, Western States Forum

Meeting Agenda 10/05/2021 (pdf)
Meeting Presentation 10/05/2021 (pdf)
Meeting Minutes 10/05/2021 (pdf)

Clockwise from front left: Jim Whalen (Nevada DOT), Sean Campbell (Caltrans DRISI, Project Manager), Tyler Laing (Utah DOT), Jeremiah Pearce (Caltrans District 2), Karthik Murthy (Washington State DOT), Tony Leingang (Washington State DOT), Leann Koon (WTI).

Photo by: Doug Galarus

Clockwise from top center: Leann Koon (WTI), Jim Whalen (Nevada DOT), Sean Campbell (Caltrans DRISI, Project Manager), Tyler Laing (Utah DOT), Jeremiah Pearce (Caltrans District 2), Karthik Murthy (Washington State DOT), Tony Leingang (Washington State DOT).

Photo by: Doug Galarus

Consortium Contacts:

OVERVIEW | HISTORY | CONTACTS | WSRTC UPDATE | ARCHIVED WSRTC UPDATES  | WSRTC DOCUMENTS | PROJECTS | ARCHIVED UPDATES | DOCUMENTS | FACT SHEET | IMPACT | STEERING COMMITTEE | EMERITUS

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