Make use of the National ITS Architecture's Market Packages and associate them with identified needs to streamline the decision-making process for regional ITS plans.

National experience using Market Packages to create regional ITS plans.

Date Posted
09/16/2005
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Identifier
2005-L00089

Best Practices of Rural and Statewide ITS Strategic Planning

Summary Information

This document distills best practices in preparation of rural and statewide ITS deployment plans from 12 in-depth case studies and 18 sites surveyed by written questionnaire. The ultimate goal is to identify factors that should be considered by agencies undertaking such planning projects. The report also documents the benefits of this planning so that these benefits can encourage future ITS strategic planning efforts nationwide.

This document addresses institutional rather than technical issues with emphasis on the complex decision-making process required for ITS strategic planning. This process includes agency interactions, processes and procedures, organizational structures, and the level of institutional involvement.

  • The document uses the case studies/surveys to summarize the following aspects of deployment, and lays out guidance highlights (lessons learned) addressing many of these items:
  • The ITS strategic planning process, including regional ITS architectures
  • Goals and objectives of creating an ITS strategic plan
  • Effective stakeholder participation
  • Best practices for outreach, education, and marketing
  • Funding opportunities and sources, including public/private partnerships
  • Operations, maintenance, and management considerations
  • Costs of planning
  • Potential benefits


The case studies themselves appear in appendices.

This document, along with the Rural Toolbox (FHWA-OP-01-030), forms the rural ITS best practices series.

Lessons Learned

Make use of the National ITS Architecture's "Market Packages" and associate them with identified needs to streamline the decision-making process for regional ITS plans

 

  • The first activity within identifying and screening market packages to create the ITS concept plan is to develop performance criteria or measures-of-effectiveness (MOEs). These are used to assess system performance criteria and evaluate the potential value and feasibility of Market Packages under consideration. It is important that these MOEs are practical in nature and easily quantifiable to allow for subsequent evaluation.

 

  • Planners should make use of the National ITS Architecture's "Market Packages" in order to minimize the work effort and streamline the decision-making process. Stakeholders can screen the Market Packages through a series of assessments and analyses as follows:
    • Environmental Scan: Analyze what Regions/States with similar characteristics selected
    • SWOT Analysis: Consider the Regions'/States' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to deploying ITS
    • Goals Mapping: Analyze each Market Package to determine its ability to meet the identified Region-/Statewide transportation goals, objectives, and problems



    By documenting the results of the screening process, a clear association between Market Packages and the identified needs/problems can be developed. It is important that these associations are recognized early in the concept development process so that ITS Project ideas can be carried forward into the systems development and implementation stages. Planners can then distribute the selected Market Packages by location (e.g., Statewide, Region-wide, Corridor-wide, County-specific, Local, etc.) and prioritize them by short-, medium-, and long-term implementation time frames.

  • These actions can increase the efficiency of the planning process.
Goal Areas
System Engineering Elements

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