To date, limited work has been performed examining ICM in a rural context. In light of this, work was performed under the scope of the California Oregon Advanced Transportation Systems (COATS) Phase 3 project to investigate the application of ICM in a rural environment. This work focused on two thrusts. First, it examined what was required to apply ICM to a rural area — specifically in the COATS region. Second, it developed a data-sharing platform to facilitate ICM in a rural area. Finally, the work developed a high-level Concept of Operations (ConOps) for a specific event (winter storm) that could be addressed by ICM in a rural area.
While not expected to address the severe congestion issues that urban ICM is focused on, rural ICM still offers several potential benefits. These benefits include improved goods movement, traveler safety, and traffic management, as well as the provision of improved traveler information.