Action
Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM); request for comments.
Summary
The FHWA proposes to implement section 5206(e) of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), enacted on June 9, 1998, requiring Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) projects funded through the highway trust fund to conform to the National ITS Architecture and applicable standards. Because it is highly unlikely that the entire National ITS Architecture would be fully implemented by any single metropolitan area or State, the FHWA proposes in this NPRM (the ITS Architecture NPRM) that the National ITS Architecture be used to develop a local implementation of the National ITS Architecture, which is referred to as an "ITS regional architecture." Therefore, conformance with the National ITS Architecture is defined under this proposal as development of an ITS regional architecture based on the National ITS Architecture, and the subsequent adherence of ITS projects to the ITS regional architecture. The ITS regional architecture would consist of a concept of operations and a conceptual design, which would draw from the National ITS Architecture, but would be tailored to address the local situation and ITS investment needs. The ITS regional architecture follows from the ITS integration strategy developed in another NPRM entitled "Statewide Transportation Planning; Metropolitan Transportation Planning" also published in today's Federal Register. In this NPRM, the FHWA proposes the use of the system engineering process and applicable standards and interoperability tests adopted by the DOT.