Creating a Foundation
for 21st Century Operations
![A crash in Washington State required detouring traffic for several hours. Rerouting traffic, cleaning up a fuel spill, and clearing the incident required coordination between the Washington State Patrol and Washington State Department of Transportation's (WSDOT) Incident Response Team, among others. Photo: WSDOT](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20161031213210im_/http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/images/ops_images/wsdot_incident_1.jpg)
As we move further into the 21st Century, realizing beneficial outcomes
to our society and our economy of good system performance, means operating
our transportation system better by having the various aspects of the
system work in harmony with each other. This can be accomplished through
the development of a foundation for 21st Century operations that consists
of the diligent application of intelligent transportation systems (ITS)
technologies, better planning for operations, and performance measures
to chart success. Creating the foundation for 21st Century Operations
starts with collaborative activities in transportation operations that
bring together jurisdictions and agencies such as State DOTs, Departments
of Public Works, Transit Authorities, Metropolitan Planning Organizations
(MPOs), and Public Safety/Security Agencies to plan for operations.
The collaboration leads to the deployment of ITS technologies that support
the need for systems to work better by working together. Performance
measures indicate the efforts to plan and to deploy technology are indeed
working to achieve the intended results - a safe, reliable, and secure
transportation system.
The Foundations for 21st Century Operations
Resources