The term "Intelligent Transportation Systems" refers to the use of information and communications technology to improve transportation safety, efficiency, and system performance. The organization "ITS America" provides these examples of ITS:
Advanced Traveler Information Systems deliver data directly to travelers, empowering them to make better choices about alternate routes or modes of transportation. When archived, this historical data provides transportation planners with accurate travel pattern information, optimizing the transportation planning process.
Advanced Traffic Management Systems employ a variety of relatively inexpensive detectors, cameras, and communication systems to monitor traffic, optimize signal timings on major arterials, and control the flow of traffic.
Incident Management Systems, for their part, provide traffic operators with the tools to allow quick and efficient response to accidents, hazardous spills, and other emergencies. Redundant communications systems link data collection points, transportation operations centers, and travel information portals into an integrated network that can be operated efficiently and "intelligently."
To insure that these and other ITS applications are implemented in a compatible manner around the country, Congress has required that states and urbanized regions develop "ITS Architectures" to identify the kind of information that is communicated and how it flows to deliver specific ITS services.
ITS Architecture
The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) Region Regional ITS Architecture is a roadmap for transportation systems integration in northern New Jersey over the next 10 to 15 years. The NJTPA Regional ITS Architecture has been developed through a cooperative effort by the region's transportation agencies, covering all modes. The initial statewide and regional ITS architectures were developed from existing documentation and from input gathered during stakeholder workshops. This draft ITS architecture takes into account stakeholder meetings and comments through August 2004. Presentations and minutes from these meetings can be viewed by selecting the link for ITS Architecture.
The Statewide and Regional ITS Architectures represent a shared vision of how each agency’s systems will work together in the future, sharing information and resources to provide a safer, more efficient, and more effective transportation system for travelers in the State.
Prior to the regional workshops, the contractors collected available documentation on existing and future ITS systems as well as documentation and other information on existing ITS deployments. This information was used to begin the process of developing a regional ITS architecture with the stakeholders of the region. The focus of the regional ITS architecture that we will have developed is to identify actual communication information exchange requirements between specific ITS elements in the regions.
The ITS working group first systematically identified the existing and future inventory of stakeholder ITS elements based on existing regional and corridor deployments, existing ITS architecture documentation, and stakeholder articulation of needs in the workshops. Next, it identified generic services through National ITS Architecture Market Packages, and where stakeholders indicate a need, the working group customized those market packages for specific applications (existing, planned (i.e. "programmed") or future) identified by the stakeholders. This customization identified information exchange at the architecture flow level. Finally, the working group rolled-up all information exchange requirements at the architecture flow level for each ITS entity in the region, and reviewed this with the stakeholders in a final 1-day architecture workshop.
Time Horizon and Services
The Statewide and Regional ITS Architectures have a time horizon of up to fifteen years with particular focus on those transportation elements likely to be implemented in the next ten years. The ITS architecture covers the broad spectrum of Intelligent Transportation Systems, including Traffic Management, Transit Management, Traveler Information, Maintenance and Construction, Emergency Management, and Archived Data Management over this time horizon.
What is shown through this web page are the results of the single database, which encompasses all three regions, plus the contents for the NJTPA Regional ITS Architecture derived from the master copy for each of the three regions (see links top right).