One of the USA’s leading suppliers of applied informatics systems for the transportation industry, Iteris Inc., has been selected by the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to assess new technology and enhance intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in Lee County, Florida.
The one-year project is the first of its kind in Florida and supports Lee County’s initiative to keep pace with advancements in connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technologies. The County authorities’ aim is to ensure an efficient transition to future traffic management, including understanding cybersecurity risks, forecasting technology trends, and identifying grant opportunities. Under the terms of the contract, Iteris, with support from the Gannet Fleming consultancy, will provide a CAV technology strategic plan to assist Lee County Department of Transportation staff in understanding how technology companies, automotive manufacturers, infrastructure providers, and others, are advancing their products, and how the County can accommodate future technology to manage congestion, improve safety and enhance CAV readiness.
This project is in line with several CAV deployments Iteris is working on across the USA, including the oversight of pilot deployments, smart work zones, advanced pedestrian detection and automated commercial vehicle inspections. In a similar initiative to the one in Lee County, last month Iteris was selected by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to enhance and upgrade the ITS across five cities in the San Francisco Bay Area of California and prepare them for the widespread adoption of CAVs.
The company also led the development and evolution of the US ITS architecture reference for over three decades, initiating the Connected Vehicle Reference Implementation Architecture in 2012 and continuing to support the evolution of the combined ARC-IT for the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
“Our citizens expect the County to make prudent investments with their tax dollars and we are going to be working alongside Iteris to develop an actionable and cost-feasible plan to accommodate the future of transportation technology,” said Randy Cerchie, director of the Lee County Department of Transportation. “We look forward to using this CAV technology strategic plan to reduce traffic congestion and improve the safety of Lee County road users long into the future.”
Moe Zarean, vice president and assistant general manager of transportation systems at Iteris, commented, “We are proud to support Lee County’s forward-thinking CAV initiative with what will be the first local agency strategic plan of its kind in the state of Florida. Our continued involvement in the growing ‘connectedness’ of multimodal road users positions us well to help communities around the nation be ready for the future and ultimately improve the safety and efficiency of our nation’s transportation networks.”
