Category:910 Intelligent Transportation Systems

An Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) encompass a broad range of information, control and electronics technologies for managing surface transportation such as roads and bridges. When integrated into the roads and vehicles, these technologies help monitor and manage traffic flow, reduce congestion, provide alternate routes to travelers, enhance productivity and save lives, time and money.

Intelligent transportation systems allow skilled transportation professionals to collect and react to data about the performance of the system. One of ITS’s primary benefits is that much of the data is current, or "real time". Having this real time data enhances traffic operators' ability to respond to incidents, adverse weather or other capacity constricting events.

A Traffic Management Center is one type of ITS. Missouri has three such centers, Scout in Kansas City, Gateway Guide in St. Louis and Ozarks Traffic in Springfield. These centers monitor the roadways, respond to congestion and incidents and deliver information to travelers via a number of means, including web sites, dynamic message signs and highway advisory radio.

An ITS Architecture Package is available to document a framework assisting coordination of future ITS planning, deployment and operations activities for Missouri.

New ITS applications and technologies are being developed every day. MoDOT will continue to apply these where possible to improve driving in Missouri. Traffic incidents and congestion take a heavy toll in lives, lost productivity and wasted energy. ITS enables people and goods to move more safely and efficiently.