Transportation

The next surface transportation author- ization bill should provide dedicated, performance-based funding of $1 billion for states to implement existing ITS systems and to provide for ongoing operations, maintenance, and training for already- deployed ITS systems at the state and regional levels.

Currently, ITS projects often have to compete with conventional transportation projects for funding, such that ITS projects, which are poised to deliver greater long term benefits, may have to compete with projects that, while they may be immediately pressing, are not positioned to deliver as great long-term benefits, such as road repair or even new road construction. In addition to a lack of funding (which tends to exacerbate focus on more immediate concerns at the expense of a longer-term vision of the benefits of deploying ITS applications), bureaucratic inertia or a lack of interest, technical skill, or knowledge of ITS benefits have made it more difficult for ITS projects to compete with conventional transportation projects out of the same funding pools.

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