Evaluation Methodologies for ITS Applications

California’s Transportation Plan [CTP] was designed to set the course for the future of transportation in California.’ At the heart of the plan are three comprehensive policies; promoting the economic vitality of California by assuring mobility and access for people, goods, services and information, provide safe, convenient and reliable transportation and, provide environmental protection and energy efficiency. The Caltrans Strategic Plan in keeping with the CTP creates a vision of a balanced, integrated multimodal transportation network to move people, goods, services and information freely, safely and economically. In order to realize this vision Caltrans has invested in the Advanced Transportation Systems Program [ATS] a multimodal research and development program. This program provides a foundation for the application of advanced technologies to transportation in California. The objective of the program is to accelerate implementation of advanced transportation technology applications. A sub-component of ATS is the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) which was the designation given to the multimodal package of transportation innovations but is more narrowly designating the use of advanced technologies in electronics and information to improve the performance of vehicles, highways and transit systems.