ITS Professional Capacity Building Program

Local ITS PCB

The ITS PCB Program recognizes that a Federal, centralized program can meet only so many needs for ITS practitioners. To encourage more professional development in ITS, the ITS PCB Program has monitored and fostered the development of local ITS PCB Programs that can provide training and resources at the regional level. The structure of the Local ITS PCB varies across the county depending on the region's needs and composition of transportation agencies.

In 2006, the ITS PCB Program will document the models that have been successful and sustainable, and provide them as a set of case studies for other areas to replicate. Initial findings have shown that a successful local ITS program requires the presence of local champions, a core group of agencies willing to share resources, and collaboration among transportation agencies and educational institutions. Case studies are being written on:

• The Southern California Transit Training Regional Consortium (SCTTRC), a consortium of transit agencies and community colleges in Southern California that has formed to better coordinate training for its existing transit staff as well as to formulate curriculum for students interested in careers in the transit field.
• The Transportation Learning Network (TLN) is a network of state DOTs (Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming) and the Mountain-Plains Consortium of universities. The TLN provides ITS related educational resources for its member agencies.
• A new local PCB effort — the ITS Academy — is under development at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The ITS Academy started with the ITS PCB Program's needs assessment instruments and tailored them for the New England states. Once the needs assessment is completed, the ITS PCB Program materials will be tailored for local audiences throughout New England, and delivered in partnership with the Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP).

An expected outcome of establishing local PCB Programs is the expansion of the customer base to include state and local decision makers legislators, elected officials, agency senior managers, and those professionals at all levels of government who are indirectly involved in technology and transportation.