ITS Standards: A System Management Perspective

This working paper is part of a larger project examining how the State of California should respond to the National System Architecture (NSA) for Intelligent Transportation Systems. The specific focus of this paper is on the role of standardization in managing and controlling the transportation system. The paper reviews activities and processes used by standards setting organization in transportation. We conclude that national and international standards will continue to address the needs for defining common interfaces for communication with field devices and communication between TMCs. As these standards evolves, transportation agencies will attain greater flexibility in installing systems and sharing information with each other. However, standardization has not addressed the need to develop protocols and procedures for responding to transportation events and managing the transportation system, nor is standardization likely to address this need.