A week ago, transportation and emergency service personnel here had a major incident involving a tanker truck carrying 10,000 gallons of gasoline. The successful response is a tribute to all involved, including the U.S. Coast Guard which prevented the gasoline from entering the harbor wetlands. But it could be even easier with ITS and the regional ITS incident response capability that has been proposed. Quick incident response is an easy way to maintain system capacity at its full potential. SmarTraveler was the first federal field operational test, and has fully met its performance goals and become a model for the nation.
Travelers now can call at any time from their home, office or cellular phone for traffic reports.
More than 5 million travelers a year use the service. Boston was one of the first cities to complete an FHWA-sponsored metropolitan area deployment plan for ITS in 1993. My birthplace, the city of Springfield, has completed a similar study. The introduction of high-speed rail service from Boston to New York is another opportunity for ITS integration. All these building blocks toward integration can be applied across your city, your state and your region.