April 2, 2024
Phoenix Mayor Gallego Announced as Newest Keynote Speaker as Excitement for ITS America Annual Conference & Expo Continues to Build
We are less than a month away from the biggest event of the year for ITS practitioners in the Americas, the ITS America 2024 Conference & Expo in Phoenix, Arizona. We have a robust program of events throughout the week, but we want to highlight a few sessions and encourage you to look over the event program in full at www.itsamericaevents.com. No matter what your focus, we will have a session that applies to your goals for 2024.
Keynotes
We are excited to announce that on Wednesday, April, 24th, we will be joined by Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. The mayor, who is a national leader in advancing innovative transportation and also serves as the Chair of USDOT’s Transforming Transportation Advisory Committee (TTAC), will welcome our attendees at our opening keynote session and discuss the city of Phoenix’s 2024 goals to improve mobility by investing in both physical and digital infrastructure.
The first keynote session, sponsored by AECOM, “Rethinking Infrastructure in the New Digital Era”, will include a fireside chat between U.S. DOT ITS JPO Director Brian Cronin and ITS America President & CEO Laura Chace focusing on the priorities of the JPO to advance ITS technologies nationwide. It will also feature industry leaders discussing how to bring a balanced approach to supporting infrastructure, merging physical assets with digital layers to create a unifies solution for better outcomes in safety, sustainability, equity, and efficiency in the future. The U.S. transportation system is in the midst of an urgently needed transformation. That transformation would be incomplete without embracing the digital layer of sensors, data, software, and connected systems.
Our second keynote session: “Artificial Intelligence – Unlocking the Next Frontier in Transportation”, will feature a fireside chat between USDOT’s Dr. Robert Hampshire and FTA’s Veronica Vanterpool, moderated by ITS America’s President & CEO Laura Chace. This session will include a keynote presentation from keynote sponsor Amazon Web Services, Adam Raymer and a panel discussion on artificial intelligence focusing on how we ensure AI applications are being developed through a holistic, human lens that prioritizes the human user?
Program Highlights
Beyond our plenary sessions, we have a number of other workshops, trainings, and sessions in our program focused on topics including automated vehicles, climate resilience & sustainability, multi-modal equitable mobility, emerging technologies, V2X, digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence.
Some sessions include:
- State DOT Roundtable – Tuesday, April 23 at 10am: Hear from State DOT leaders who will share their best practices, lessons learned, and successful strategies on how to enhance our physical infrastructure with proven digital solutions.
- City DOT Roundtable – Wednesday, April 24 at 8am: This session will discuss the application of digital twins to improve public safety, traffic operations, autonomous vehicle support, and more.
- Autonomous Shuttles – Transforming Mobility for All – Wednesday, April 24 at 8am: Learn about the enormous benefits in mobility access for all, sustainability, workforce development, and job creation and lessons learned around autonomous vehicle technology and how it will benefit communities and enhance the quality of life for all.
- Insights from the First Cohort of SMART Grant Awardees – Wednesday, April 24 at 1pm: In this session the Director of the SMART Grants Program will provide an overview of the program, and representatives from four SMART grantees will provide updates on their projects and lessons learned.
- U.S. DOT Intersection Safety Challenge: Insights, Progress, Connections, and Next Steps – Thursday, April 25at 8am: This panel session will discuss the objectives, structure, and progress to date concerning the U.S. DOT Intersection Safety Challenge, including insights on data collection efforts for Stage 1B Virtual Testing
- Gender Equity Workshop – Thursday, April 25 at 8am: This discussion will focus on the United Nations theme for International Women’s Day, “Invest in Women – Accelerate Progress.” The goal of this year’s discussion is to share and advance concrete strategies for investing in women to progress towards an equitable future.
Take some time and review the full program and list of speakers to plan your time at the conference and build out your own robust calendar to meet your professional and organizational goals.
Technical Tours
This year’s technical tours provide a comprehensive experience of digital monitoring and physical testing facilities that highlight local innovation during the Conference & Expo. This year two outstanding tours are available:
- Maricopa County Department of Transportation (MCDOT), Arizona DOT (ADOT), and the University of Arizona have joined together to spearhead the testing of Connected Vehicle technology in Anthem, Arizona. This tech tour will bring you to Anthem, Arizona to tour the 5.3-mile test bed where operational field tests of connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies occur.
- Arizona Department of Transportation Traffic Operations Center and the Maricopa County Department of Transportation’s Traffic Management Center (TMC). These Centers serve as critical communications hubs, providing increased speed for accident response, roadway incident reporting, coordination between government agencies as well as helping to address problems with traffic signals and flagging pothole issues.
Demonstrations
This year we feature two demonstrations focused around Automated Vehicles and V2X technologies:
- Partners for Automated Vehicle Education and May Mobility will be hosting demonstrations of autonomous vehicle demo rides on April 23 and 24. You can sign up today. https://pavecampaign.org/its-2024
- Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise and IntelliRoad will be demonstrating real-time detection of incidents and audible alerting in-vehicle to motorists. These tools assist motorists to make informed driving decisions while also supporting traffic management professionals. Attendees will see demonstrations of critical safety applications like wrong way, queue, disabled vehicle, emergency electronic brake light warning, and SPaT. https://intelliroad.io/floridas-turnpike-intelliroad-demo-at-its-america-2024-sign-up-sheet/
We look forward to welcoming you to the show and be sure to stop by the ITS America Booth #856 to learn about all of the incredible things we have been working on. We also welcome all ITS America members to join us on Thursday, April 25th at 1:30pm for the Annual ITS America member meeting. You will be able to talk to ITSA Staff about your benefits and other questions you have while enjoying coffee and treats.
