ITS Timeline

Read the important events for each timeframe.

1960's

  • 1960 - 1969: 
    ITS activities began in the United States as far back as the 1960's in the form of research and development (R&D) primarily in the area of electronic route guidance systems (ERGS). Probably the most visible and robust of these early activities was that of the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) of the Department of Commerce, the predecessor to the current Federal Highway Administration. In this time period BPR's Office of Research undertook a major new research and development initiative to improve the safety and efficiency of highway based travel. At the core of this new effort was the premise that existing and evolving modern electronic communications and control systems could be applied to vehicle/highway operations in ways which would substantially benefit the nation and the user. The 1960's ERGS was functionally designed to have essentially the same basic functional performance as the more recent TRAVTEK operational test performed in Orlando, Florida in the
    early 1990's.

1970's

  • 1970 - 1979:
    ITS related R&D activities were curtailed in the 1970's and most of the 1980's due to the substantial reduction of federal government funding. Also, the gasoline shortage in the early 1970's impacted travel and helped create an environment that did not support the research and development of these advanced transportation systems. During the remaining 1970's the FHWA's Traffic Systems Division did maintain a modest level of research in basic areas such as traffic operations, motorist information and communications, and automated highway systems. The 1970's saw growing international interest in ITS type systems. R&D efforts in Europe and Japan continued to prosper.

1980's

  • Early 1980's:
    It is postulated that the ITS movement in the U.S. was rejuvenated by the state of California. California, facing a myriad transportation problems including severe traffic congestion and air pollution from mobile sources, created an Office of New Technology (ONT) within the Division of Transportation Planning. The ONT was an oversight body for exploring opportunities in applying advanced technologies in mitigating the transportation problems.
     
  • October 1986:
    The Caltrans ONT sponsored a three-day conference to consider the role of advanced vehicle-highway technologies in meeting growing congestion. The conference became a watershed for ITS as it established a new level of national credibility and interest in these systems.
     
  • December 1986:
    FHWA research hosted a small group which laid the foundation for creating the Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) program at the University of California at Berkley which was intended to increase public awareness of using innovative transportation management scheme involving the use of advanced technologies.
     
  • June 1988:
    An ad hoc group involved in the PATH program and consisting of individuals from government, industry and university formed a more permanent body that named itself Mobility 2000. Their primary motive was to mobilize a widespread support for the creation of a national organization that would serve as a clearinghouse for advanced technology applications in mitigating surface transportation. Members of Mobility 2000 envisioned opportunities in improving the surface transportation system performance through the use of advanced technologies.

     
  • February 1989
    The first Mobility 2000 National Workshop was held in San Antonio, Texas. It became the first national event to bring together key decision makers and the core group of those planning an ITS program.

     
  • June 1989
    The House Subcommittee on Transportation, Aviation and Materials of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology and Human Factors Research. This was the first Congressional hearing on IVHS and served to further establish national program credibility; and, in this case, it nourished a developing congressional interest in the program.

     
  • November 1989
    The Highway Users Federation for Safety and Mobility (HUFSAM) proposed that they and the US DOT join as partners in sponsoring a National Leadership Conference on IVHS. The objective was to pull together 100 of the top leaders in industry and government to discuss the potential of IVHS. In a subsequent informal, executive level planning meeting between HUFSAM and the DOT, it was proposed that the primary focus of the conference should be the establishment of a permanent national IVHS organization to follow on the successful path charted by the ad hoc group Mobility 2000.

1990's

  • March 1990
    The Second National Mobility 2000 workshop was held in Dallas, TX. The workshop served to cement the vision and major program features which had been evolving through the many prior meetings and national activities. Thus, there was a strong consensus that Mobility 2000 had established a sound basis justifying the undertaking of a major national IVHS effort. Following the workshop, a written record of the results and recommendations was produced for the May National Leadership Conference. An executive summary was prepared as a glossy 20-page document entitled Mobility 2000 Presents Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems. This document was widely distributed and was one of the most effective succinct descriptions of IVHS that has been prepared.

     
  • May 1990
    The National Leadership conference was held in Orlando, FL. The meeting was successful in settling the stage for actually establishing a formal national organization to work in partnership with the U.S. government to plan and carry out an IVHS program.

     
  • July 1990
    One of the Mandates of the Americans with Disability (ADA) of 1990 requires public transportation agencies to reasonably accommodate the mobility need of persons with disabilities. This includes providing personalized demand response transportation. ITS technologies offer the opportunities to streamline the operation of such specialized type of transportation by way of automated routing and scheduling, remote traveler information, en route traveler information, electronic fare payment, etc.

     
  • August 1990
    The Intelligent Vehicle Highway Society (IVHS) America was incorporated in Washington, DC as a non-profit educational and scientific organization. Dr. James Constantino became the first Executive Director. Dr. Constantino later became the President and CEO until John Collins succeeded him in 1998.

     
  • November 1990
    Title 1 of the Clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA) of 1990 established criteria for attaining and maintaining the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). NAAQS were used to categorize metropolitan areas in the U.S. as moderate, serious, severe, and extreme non-attainment areas for ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), and small particulate matter (PM10). All non-attainment areas were mandated to achieve specific emissions budget (maximum allowable emission levels) for certain air pollutants as a stipulated time frame. State under the non-attainment category see opportunities in leveraging ITS technologies to mitigate traffic congestion and hence reduce mobile emissions for possible compliance with the NAAQS.

     
  • December 1991
    Congess passed the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 which gave state and local governments needed resources to carryout the mandates of CAAA of 1990 and ADA of 1990, and officially recognized ITS as a needed national program. It stated "the Secretary shall conduct a program to research, develop, and operationally test intelligent vehicle-highway systems and promote implementation of such systems as a component of the Nation's surface transportation systems." ISTEA allocated approximately $659 million dollars for ITS related initiatives.
    A significant portion of the money was used to support ITS related R & D activities and experimental projects. As part of ISTEA, the US DOT would establish a formal IVHS program office and recognize IVHS AMERICA as a utilized federal advisory committee.

     
  • 1992
    One early activity of IVHS America was the development of the Strategic Plan of 1992 to guide the development and deployment of national IVHS programs. It was contended that the Strategic Plan was a refinement of the vision developed by Mobility 2000.

     
  • 1994
    ITS World Congress Established by ITS America, ERTICO, and VERTIS, which are the ITS program coordination bodies for the U.S., Europe, and Japan, respectively. Other active members of the World Congress include ITS Australia, Canada, Korea. The Congress has met every year since 1994, as a forum for sharing worldwide ITS related initiatives and research efforts.

    IVHS became ITS to more accurately connote a multi-modal initiative that covers all surface transportation (transit, highway, rail, and water), and not just highway transportation. IVHS America became ITS America in order to reinforce its role in representing multi-modal interest.

     
  • 1995
    The National ITS Plan was published and is a continuous refinement of the vision developed by Mobility 2000.

     
  • June 1998
    Congress passed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) which allocated in excess of $1.2 billion dollars to ITS related programs over its six-year life. ITS is distributed throughout many specific elements of the bill and a general characterization is that TEA-21 mainstreams ITS removing it from the sense of a separate or isolated program. While the ISTEA era experienced a number of experiment ITS programs; TEA-21 emphasizes deployment of the prototype projects developed under ISTEA.
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