Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater went to a lot of trouble to identify 17 standards critical to developing an intelligent transportation system that is truly national in scope.
 | ITS Standards for Trucking |
| The following are the standards, from the list of 17, that hold the greatest interest for trucking:
- Advanced Traveler Information System Message Set: For sending information to mobile users.
- Advanced Traffic Management Systems: Used by traveler information networks to provide roadway conditions and by traffic management
ystems that collect, interpret and present traffic information. - Commercial Vehicle Safety and Credentials Information Exchange: Enables truck and bus companies to communicate electronically with state transportation agencies and state and national databases.
- Commercial Vehicle Safety Reports: Enables commercial carriers to communicate with state transportation agencies and relevant databases electronically.
- Message Sets for Dedicated Short-Range Communications (electronic toll collection, traffic management and commercial vehicle operations): Provides content and order of information transmitted in messages.
- Standard Communications Specification at 5.9 GHz: Radio band for dedicated short-range communications between vehicle transponders and roadside readers.
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| DOT's full report to Congress is available on the Internet at www.ITS.dot.gov. |
The Department of Transportation is under a congressional mandate to come up with a list of protocols for building such a network by 2001. These 17 standards are considered essential in ensuring that the computer-based systems and the equipment that uses them are “interoperable” — that can be interconnected no matter where they are or who runs them (7-12, p. 3).
Why did Slater identify 17 standards when more than 85 are being developed to promote national systems, and what impact will this action have on trucking?
Slater’s agency sent the standards report to Congress and media outlets earlier in July. Although his action won’t change DOT’s ongoing interoperability efforts — “I see no major impact; this has been in preparation for months,” said Bill Jones, director of the ITS Joint Program Office at DOT — it does turn the spotlight on one of the fundamental ITS issues. For example, Richard Weiland, chairman of the Critical Standards Advisory Committee at the department, believes the report will raise public awareness of what it will take to achieve interoperable systems.
The results of the ongoing effort will have a significant effect on how truckers travel in this country as well as how vehicles will be weighed, tracked and checked for safety measures.
Gary Carver, who manages an ITS standards program for Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and who helped develop the report to Congress, said the 17 standards “will define products and equipment that state and federal departments will have to purchase to qualify for federal funding. Standards for things like traffic signal control, highway monitoring and emergency management systems are all being developed under the national ITS architecture.”
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