Advanced Traveler Information Systems September 1998

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ESOLUTIONS
ATIS has a wide and varied set of institutional
challenges. The most fundamental issues
revolve around the public-private partnerships
and the dissemination of data among them. The
business models workshops and other forums
that bring together regional ATIS initiatives
articulate the most progressive issues and the
successes to date in deployment, but there are
some significant lessons learned in the FOTs.
ITS projects have fostered many new
institutional relationships and ways of doing
business for transportation agencies and private
sector partners. Institutional issues addressed
here include legal issues, business processes,
and public-private partnerships.
Legal Issues
Legal issues unique to pre-trip traveler
information systems were not required to be
addressed in the evaluation reports, yet common
problems within various tests included copyright
and proprietary information issues, licensing
agreements, and confidentiality agreements.
Two other legal issues that continue to arise are
safety in using systems while driving and the
proper use of publicly collected traffic
information when distributed by private
interests. These issues have been prevalent in
other types of ITS projects as well.
One significant legal issue being faced is the
potential tort liability for distributed information
that is either false, inaccurate, or unreliable and
may be blamed for a particular accident or
damages of some kind. TravInfo realized
possible tort liability regarding use of the
content of the database by registered
participants. The question was whether
registered participants that access the database
might attempt to hold the project liable in the
event of erroneous, unreliable or lost data.
TravInfo protected itself by including
disclaimers of liability and a warranty in the
terms and conditions of the Registered