The linked article discusses a study recently released by the Government Accountability Office on the gap between the immense promise of ITS in relieving congestion, and the less impressive actual results we've seen so far. A big problem, the article notes, is that the Feds have succeeded pretty well at setting and realizing deployment goals for intelligent systems, but have largely failed to ensure that systems are effectively operated by state and local operators.

The general tenor of the report seems to be that USDOT could be doing a lot better job ensuring that ITS investments meet their actual goal of easing traffic congestion. And hey, that's fair enough. But the glass is, after all, half full. I'm generally pretty cynical about government's effectiveness, but it's unquestionable that there are a lot more ITS systems out there now than there were a few years ago, and that's no small thing. Hopefully the feds will now turn their attention to getting more bang for the bucks laid out (and maintaining and upgrading systems over time). The GAO report sets the mandate; if it's not met, We the People of the ITS community need to hold the government accountable.