UPDATE: Monday, December 13th, 2010
The Western States Rural Transportation Consortium recently held its annual Steering Committee meeting in Yreka, California. Representatives from California, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington state departments of transportation participated, along with researchers from the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University and the University of Washington, a California Highway Patrol chief, and a Federal Highways Administration representative.
Photo by Doug Galarus
The meeting opened with a roundtable discussion highlighting ITS projects each of the member organizations are working on or recently deployed.
Sean Campbell and Doug Galarus announced the FHWA award for the Western States One-Stop Shop for Rural Traveler Information – Research on Clarus System Data. Sean gave an overview of the proposal and award process and Doug explained the concept, tasks, and deliverables for the project. To review this presentation, click here.
Photo by Leann Koon
Leann Koon gave a brief overview of the 2010 Western States Forum, including attendance, geographic representation of the audience, and presentation topics. The 2011 Forum is scheduled for June 14-16, 2011, in Yreka, California, at the Holiday Inn Express. She also reviewed and demonstrated the purposes, design, and content of the Consortium websiteand Western States Forum website.
Photo by Doug Galarus
David Veneziano updated the group on the status of the ongoing projects in COATS Phase 4, including the Radar Speed Sign Warrants, evaluation of the Fredonyer Summit Icy Curve Warning System (ICWS), and the Deployment Assistance task.
Photo by Doug Galarus
The Steering Committee chose One Stop Shop (OSS) Phase 2 to be the first post-incubator project to go forward through the Consortium. As a cutting edge project, it is viewed as an opportunity with great potential to promote the WSRTC. Check back soon to read more about this new project.
Incubator projects for the 2011 calendar year were also discussed. Regional Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Planning and Survey of Western State Safety Warning Devices were given the go-ahead for 2011 with a scope/focus change for the Regional ICM project being made and presented by January, 2011. These projects represent the operations and safety foci of the Consortium’s mission. The WeatherShare expansion incubator project was deferred pending the outcome of the One Stop Shop efforts since there is overlap with those projects.
A number of Year 2 (calendar year 2012) projects were discussed by the group. After discussions on several topics, the group felt that a super-incubator project consisting of the “Determining rural travel times with Bluetooth technology” topic and the “Feasibility and general approaches for providing point to point travel time for rural areas” topic was of interest to the group and would encompass both the technology and operations categories.
To review the meeting minutes, click here. A list of potential incubator projects can be reviewed here.