Iowa's i235.com tells the citizenry of Iowa about the rebuilding of I-235 through West Des Moines and Des Moines. E-mail alerts are available to push information to travellers. The site also includes a nicely designed map/calendar of construction events. There is also a good assortment of map eyecandy for the viewer. Lots of information is there, but sometimes you have to dig for it. This flow map for example was very difficult to find.

The Chicago Tribune seems to be getting progressively better at their recurring overviews of ITS. The good thing is that each article they've ran has a slightly different focus. It might be nice for them to go into depth at some point and review how these technologies are working and what hinders them from working better. Nonetheless, this article does raise awareness about ITS and about the GCM real-time traffic site.

The GCM site has always be unique in displaying a lot of information in a small map. Now they just need to make it section 508 compliant.

Of course, this article also interviews Iteris' Greg McKahn, who shows up in about a third of the ITS articles lately. Being first to market with their lane departure warning system has given them some excellent media exposure.

This article from the Indian paper, The Declan Herald, gives a good general overview of when various transportation technologies can be applied. The article doesn't really draw any conclusions, though.

My money's always been on the data providers over the application providers in telematics. Inrix, which I'm sure means something other than a crucifix inscription with a crucifix at the end, has taken Microsoft traffic prediction algorithms and run with them. Their first application I saw a while back in the lobby of the Gates Foundation. Their beta wasn't too slick, the newer versions look a lot nicer, though.

I thought we'd already blogged this when the original release came out directly from FTA. This GovTech article embellishes a bit though. Periodically, FTA funds a study to give an overview of ITS and TRMS state-of-the-art. These documents are good exposure for tech providers and a centralized resource for transit agencies, many of whom are still just entering the world of transportation technology.

Or you can skip directly to this no-frills form from Palisades Group provides a way to make submissions. It's a bit long for a on-line HTML form. Next time we recommend they go with a form-ready PDF or a smarter ASP / PHP page.

The Oregonian gives Bob Morast a bit of print to talk about the new regional ATMS improvements around Washignton County.

Well, okay, not just ITS. Anyway, CalTrans has announced the most recent batch of winners of its "Excellence in Transportation" awards. And me without a tuxedo for the ceremony...

The Trib has an excellent article about the flip side of funding sunset dates. Many types of state and federal funding comes with sunset dates. Here, the Illinois state legislature is angling to impose sunset dates on funding that was not there at the time of granting.

Recently, I've seen a series of purchases by local governments that were rushed due to sunset dates. This has led to some unfortunate purchasing decisions. In essence, having to rush the purchase decision led to buying something that was unusable.

From the grantor side, sunset dates ensure that the money will actually be used and not languish. However, unreasonable dates can lead to catestrophic results.

This example in Chicago is a bad precedent. In essence, there was no initial sunset date -- now there is. This is tantamount to merely killing the appropriation after it has been awarded.

The Lodi News-Sentinel reports on call boxes in Southern California. Declining use of the call box system due to cell phone ownership, combined with ADA requirements, are changing the cost benefit numbers for call boxes. This report does a good job of noting the changes in costs against the need for this vital service.

LAX's BRT is coming. This article provides a fairly good explanation of the BRT concept and why it's necessary for LAX. The article says that currently vehicles in the corridor can crawl along as slow as 6 mph.

BRT, it goes on to say, would provide a 30% speed improvement. I'm sure they don't really mean their goal is to get up to 9 mph!

The folks at Big Blue Bus have a very pretty interactive Flash system map. It's not likely Section 508 compliant, but it looks awfully neat. It could also use some stop information, destination information, identification of transfer points and links to schedules.

Ken Thompson's ancestral home of New Brunswick is receiving nearly a half million dollars (CDN) for ITS infrastructure, specifically geared towards the trucking industry. NB's highway system is often thin and congested, which has caused shipment delays in the past.

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FCW has an excellent overview of eGovernment and how ITS is a part of a larger, healthy strategy of streamlining. The only thing I would add in this high-level view is that when we add ITS elements to a roadway, the maintenance costs are likely lower per VMT vs new hard infrastructure. Eggers does an excellent safety to capacity segway.

Ozarkstraffic.info now provides a bit more information for Springfield and Greene County, MO. The site apparently continues to experience some system instability. When trying to get information from the site, I had to try a few times to get the site to respond. There's good information there when you get through, though.

The thing I like is that MoDOT is conducting a logical phased rollout of the system. Rather than waiting for all elements to be completed, functionality is available to the public as it becomes available.

The University of Maryland has recently completed construction of the Jeong H. Kim Building, an engineering research facility that includes a state-of-the-art Intelligent Transportation Systems lab. The lab "will allow researchers to monitor ground and air transportation anywhere in the state. Students can monitor traffic, for example, from remote cameras at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Interstate 495." Classroom study is rarely equivalent to real-world experience, but a lab like this should help students get a pretty good feel for the issues and needs of traffic control workers.