Federal ITS Program

The ITS Joint Program Office (ITS JPO), within the Office of the Assistance Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R), is charged with executing Subtitle C- Intelligent Transportation System Research of Public Law 109-59 Safe Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, enacted August 10, 2005, which requires the Department to:

Conduct an ongoing intelligent transportation system program to research, develop, and operationally test intelligent transportation systems and to provide technical assistance in the nationwide application of those systems as a component of the surface transportation systems of the United States.

• Learn more about the ITS JPO’s current 2015-2019 research program.
• Download fact sheets about ITS JPO’s current research programs:
  • Accelerating Deployment
  • Automation
  • Connected Vehicles
  • Emerging Capabilities
  • Enterprise Data
  • Interoperability
• View additional ITS research Fact Shteets

Also available in PDF

The ITS JPO performs this role in conjunction with other surface transportation modal Administrations across the Department, including the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Federal Railroad Administration, Federal Transit Administration, Maritime Administration, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.   Together these agencies plan, program, and execute the ITS Research Program with oversight by the ITS Management Council, composed of the Administrators of each agency.

The current ITS Research Program is described in the ITS Strategic Research Plan, 2015-2019.  The focus of the program is substantially on vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity through the application of advanced wireless technologies to enable transformative changes in the surface transportation system. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, V2V and V2I applications have the potential to address 80% of unimpaired crashes. These capabilities may also have significant potential for congestion and air quality improvements.  The ITS Research Program develops and tests the underlying technology and applications and conducts policy research aimed at enabling  V2V and V2I capabilities. The ITS JPO also runs active programs for technology transfer, ITS professional capacity building and ITS evaluation, aimed at providing valuable resources for state and local agencies and other ITS stakeholders.

Modal Partners

Other Modal Administrations are involved in all aspects of the ITS research to ensure the research meets stakeholder needs. As research initiatives move from development and testing into technology transfer and longer term implementation support, the Modal Administrations take a more active role, often assuming responsibility for long term deployment support.  In some cases, Modal Administrations also conduct independent ITS research on mode-specific issues.

More information about mode specific ITS programs are available on the Administration’s websites.

• Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
• Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)
• Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
• Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
• Maritime Administration (MARAD)
• St. Lawrence Seaway