AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2008 Awards: Cross-Boundary Collaboration and Partnerships
RECIPIENT:
California - Los Angeles Regional Transportation Management Center
In October of 2007, the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans), the California Highway Patrol (CHP), and the Los Angeles County Metro opened a world-class traffic management complex for Los Angeles and Ventura County freeways. The Los Angeles Regional Transportation Management Center (LARTMC) is a state-of-the-art facility that co-locates the three government entities responsible for the management of nearly 525 miles of freeway.
LARTMC uses innovative information gathering and communication technologies to transform Los Angeles’ freeway system into an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). ITS encompasses a broad range of wireless and wire line communications-based information and electronic technologies. The system is “intelligent” because it generates information that allows freeway management officials in the LARTMC to pinpoint an incident or congestion and receive all relevant data on that congestion. CalTrans engineers, along with CHP dispatch teams, can then determine to either dispatch emergency personnel or alter on-ramp metering to ease the congestion on that specific stretch of freeway. This eases congestion of Los Angeles and Ventura County freeways, decreasing travel time and increasing freeway safety.
The LARTMC and ITS solution also encompasses 109 Changeable Message Signs, which give time estimates to drivers already on the road, 15 Highway Advisory Radio Stations to give traffic updates, and automates the dissemination of real-time traffic information to 20 websites/ISPs. This makes commuters partners in LARTMC traffic relief efforts.
The collaboration of government agencies that makes LARTMC a success extends past the bounds of incident and congestion management and into long-term congestion relief. All data collected by the ITS is sent from the LARTMC to the University of California at Berkeley to be analyzed to determine where valuable and scarce transportation infrastructure money would be best put to use. This means as Los Angeles County continues to grow, and the number of commuters continues to climb, California will be spending its valuable transportation fund in the most impactful ways.
Since its opening in October of 2007, the LARTMC and ITS have realized the anticipated benefits of the project: increasing mainline freeway speeds, decreasing the duration of traffic delays, and reducing incident response times. A cost-benefits analysis of the technologies within the LARTMC/ITS solution has shown that the reduction of oppressive traffic increases economic opportunities in the region and increases the prosperity of the people of Southern California. The effective collaboration of different state and county entities has bettered government operations and serves as an example of best practices in freeway management and cross-boundary collaboration.
....Teri Takai, Chief Information Officer, State of California
FINALISTS:
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Michigan
Michigan Surface Water Information Management System (MiSWIMS)
Tennessee
Tennessee eHealth Exchange Zone: The Nation's First Statewide Health Information Network
OTHER NOMINATIONS:
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Alabama
Partnership to Enhance Network Services to Law Enforcement Agencies in Alabama
Delaware
Delaware's Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Initiative
Kentucky
No Pass No Drive
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services' Virtual Gateway
Minnesota
Minnesota Human Services Shared Master Index
North Carolina
NC Motor Voter Imaging
New York
OneNetNYS
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Department of Public Safety’s Municipal Court Reporting System
Pennsylvania
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: U.S. Animal Health Management System
Utah
e-Warrants
Virginia
Virginia’s Regulation Information System and Town Hall
