ATAC UpdatesThe past six months have been both challenging and rewarding. The greatest challenge perhaps stems from funding uncertainty as our local, state, and federal transportation partners continue to await reauthorization of the transportation bill. Nonetheless, we are very excited about several new initiatives which have taken off at ATAC. First, on the national picture, is the delay in Congress in approving a new transportation bill, which has created havoc among transportation agencies operating on continuing resolutions. We, in turn, are directly affected by these uncertainties since our funding comes from a variety of federal, state, and local sources. The good news is that most observers agree that transportation funding levels in the new transportation bill will significantly exceed current TEA21 levels. More importantly, the new bill is expected to increase funding for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The federal ITS program has been somewhat revised with the announcement of the U.S. Department of Transportation's core ITS initiatives. Vehicle Infrastructure Integration is one of these exciting initiatives currently being explored at ATAC. There has been a renewed focus on perhaps the simplest of traffic management tools, the traffic signal. The National Traffic Signal Report Card is the product of an extensive self-assessment effort on traffic signal operations. Results from the survey indicate a generally low score. Traffic signal detection and proactive management received the lowest scores. With strong support from the North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) and the North Dakota Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), we were able to develop a new ATAC work plan for the period covering October 1, 2004 through March 31, 2006. Major activities developed in the work plan include:
Last December, we embarked on a new initiative by forming North Dakota's Traffic Operations Roundtable. The roundtable currently consists of 23 members from the NDDOT, MnDOT, FHWA ND Division, and the cities of Bismarck, Dickinson, Fargo, Grand Forks, Mandan, Minot, West Fargo, and Williston. The roundtable will allow traffic operations peers to share ideas, identify critical issues, provide experiences, and guide ATAC's traffic operations activities. We hope to expand this effort into a national focal point for addressing traffic operations needs in the smaller cities through partnerships with the FHWA and national transportation organizations, such as the Institute of Transportation Engineers, the Transportation Research Board, and the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations. See article on page 1 for more information on the roundtable. Regional ITS architectures in all four regions covered by the FHWA's Architecture Conformity Rule are now fully operational. ATAC worked diligently to develop ITS architectures that fi t the unique needs of the state and its metropolitan areas while meeting the federal requirements and doing it all ahead of the federally imposed deadline. See the related article on page 6. Those of you who visit the www.atacenter.org website will notice some major changes. Through this ongoing process of updating the web page, we hope to provide you with better organization for the various program areas and better access to our research reports. ATAC is well-positioned to address the many issues facing our state, metropolitan, and local partners. We also believe that through these strong partnerships in the state, we have built enough expertise to reach out to other rural and small urban communities. By doing so, we hope to establish a national dialogue for effectively addressing mobility needs in these communities through better planning, enhanced operations, and deployment of ITS. |
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