September 17, 2018
ITS AMERICA TASK FORCES
ITS America relies on our members for policy guidance. One of the ways we do this is through task forces, which are steering groups that can develop draft recommendations – principles, objectives and/or priorities, or other internal or external papers. Each task force has two co-chairs, appointed by the ITS America board of directors.
Four ITS America task forces are tackling critical issues as we look ahead to 2019, so we wanted to take this opportunity to update members on their work.
The Smart Infrastructure Task Force develops policies and advocates for legislation that increases federal investment in intelligent transportation technologies, smart infrastructure, and investments that prioritize improved operations, maintenance and rehabilitation of our nation’s deteriorating and increasingly congested transportation infrastructure system. It led ITSA policy and legislative activities preparing for an infrastructure bill and is now turning its attention to the reauthorization of the nation’s surface transportation law known as Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which expires in 2020. Tina Quigley of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada and John Barton of HNTB are task force co-chairs.
The task force will kick off its FAST Act reauthorization policy development this fall with an in-depth review of the current law and a discussion of the mounting Highway Trust Fund crisis. After an understanding of the current threats to surface transportation programs, the task force will discuss technology and sustainability investments including connect and automated technologies, cybersecurity, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The task force chairs have been tasked to bring FAST Act reauthorization policy recommendations to the Executive Committee and Board by June 2019.
This spring, ITS America launched the Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Task Force to advocate for a national interoperability standard that enables any vehicle to communicate with any other vehicle and with all other users of the transportation system. ITS America was the original petitioner to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish Dedicated Short-Range Communications (“DSRC”) in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Radio Service in the 5.9 GHz band and was active in developing FCC technical and service rules that have allowed industry to use the band and develop V2X standards.
The task force developed a set of principles and is planning to write a paper about next steps on interoperability and spectrum sharing. Also on the horizon: developing a set of best practices to facilitate sharing technical and other information; and reviewing existing FCC licensing procedures to potentially recommend revisions to the FCC about its rules, procedures or other changes deemed necessary to facilitate deployment of V2X. John Kenney of Toyota and Amy Ford of Colorado DOT are the co-chairs.
The mission of the Cybersecurity Task Force is to promote and advocate for policies, best practices, and standards that enhance intelligent mobility cybersecurity. Suzanne Murtha of AECOM and Nick Roethel of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission serve as the co-chairs. Insights gained from the ITS America Executive Forum: Cybersecurity Risk and Future of Mobility will help guide the task force’s work; its first call will be at the end of September.
The Automated Vehicle Task Force develops policies and advocates for legislation that support the safe testing and deployment of highly automated vehicles (HAV) while preserving the authority of states and local governments to regulate the operation of HAVs on public roads. Led by Darran Anderson of the Texas Department of Transportation and Lauren Isaac with Easymile, the task force met regularly last fall as the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation considered the AV START Act. The task force continues to monitor the bill.
Task force membership is open to all Advocacy Trust level members. If you would like more information about the task forces, please email us at membership@itsa.org.
MEMBER CONNECTION : ST CAROL SCHWEIGER, SCHWEIGER CONSULTING
Name: Carol Schweiger
Title: President
Company: Schweiger Consulting
Short Job description/Role Responsibility: Ms. Schweiger has over 38 years of experience in transportation consulting, and is nationally and internationally recognized in the area of ITS and Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS). Ms. Schweiger provides detailed technical assistance, including systems engineering and technology strategy development, to transit and paratransit agencies and state departments of transportation (DOTs) that are deploying ITS technologies, and to the US Department of Transportation and Transportation Research Board. She has provided over 60 agencies with ITS technical assistance. Ms. Schweiger co-developed and was the lead instructor for five transit ITS training courses for the National Transit Institute (NTI). She developed and is the instructor for six USDOT Professional Capacity Building (PCB) courses on Transit Management Standards and Traveler Information Standards. She authored five Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis reports, and authored one and co-authored two full TCRP reports.
Current or previous #ITS Project: USDOT/Federal Transit Administration Mobility Services for All Americans (MSAA) Technical Assistance, and Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT)
Accomplishments:
· Presented her paper about the use of technology to improve mobility at a US Capitol Hill briefing to US Congressional leaders in transportation lawmaking and a senior official of the USDOT with responsibility for technology in transportation in 2012. National Transit Institute Fellow for Advanced Technologies and Innovative Practices from 1995 to 1997.
· Current Advisory Board member of publication Intelligent Transport.
· Current Co-chair of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Emerging and Innovative Public Transport and Technologies (AP020)
· Current member of the TRB Forum on Preparing for Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility
What’s the future of #ITS look like to you? I recently authored an article in the Journal of Public Transportation (Vol. 21, No. 1) in which I discuss my views about the future of ITS in public transportation (http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jpt/vol21/iss1/7/). My vision of the future of ITS is that it will continue to play a critical role in our new and ever-evolving transportation ecosystem in which we strive to improve personal mobility, reduce reliance on single-occupant vehicles and improve the liability of our cities and towns.
Hobbies: Serve as a volunteer on the Stoneham Transportation Advisory Committee, a local group that is improving the mobility of residents and workers.
Favorite place to travel: Almost anywhere in the world!
First car you drove?: 1964 Oldsmobile F85. First car I owned was a 1975 Oldsmobile Omega.
Hidden Talent: Disco dancing!
If you weren’t working in Transportation industry you would: I’d be a speed skater.
Any other fun fact you would like to share? I am definitely a transit geek – I have to ride transit in every location I visit and have been known to snap way too many photos of transit vehicles all over the world.
