Washington, DC – Today, ITS America welcomes the introduction of the ITS Integration Act. We are deeply grateful for the leadership of the bill sponsors, Representatives Garret Graves (R-LA) and Salud Carbajal (D-CA), in pushing forward this crucial bipartisan effort.

“The implementation of this bill will help save lives, manage congestion, reduce emissions, improve freight and supply chain efficiencies, integrate traffic management systems, provide better travel information, support emergency response and public safety, and promote a safe systems approach, all while increasing American competitiveness on the global stage,” said Laura Chace, President and CEO of ITS America. “I look forward to this bill becoming law so we can work with DOT to implement its provisions.”

The bill is supported by public and private sectors alike and directs the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to establish a national program that will allow the use of anonymized, aggregated, secure data to inform both planning decisions and real-time traffic flow management decisions on the federal highway system. The bill calls out numerous potential uses for this data, including: increased safety, congestion reduction, improved freight efficiency, swifter emergency response, and others.

The bill requires the Secretary to implement security practices to maintain accuracy of the data and ensures the data will remain anonymized by: prohibiting re-identification of user data after it is anonymized; prohibiting the collection of biometric and other identifying data; and directly prohibiting government use of the data for any reason other than those expressly legislated.

ITS America members engage in these practices at the state level in communities across the country, and the establishment of a national program in this area will bring us closer to ITS America’s vision of a safer, greener, smarter transportation system for all.

A previous version passed the House of Representatives in HR 2 during the 117th Congress.

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About ITS America

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America advances the research and deployment of intelligent transportation technologies to save lives, improve mobility, promote sustainability, and increase efficiency and productivity. Our vision is a better future transformed by transportation technology and innovation: Safer, Greener, Smarter. For All. For more information, please visit www.itsa.org.