Intelligent Transportation System
In Southern California, there are several Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) architectures that may be applicable to an ITS project, depending on how far reaching the project is. Each County has developed a Regional ITS Architecture. In addition, as the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), SCAG has developed a Southern California Regional ITS Architecture that addresses multi-county issues: those projects, programs, and services that require connectivity across county boundaries or are deployed at a multi-county level. A third "layer" is also in place at the state level: the California ITS Architecture and System Plan addresses those services that are rolled out or managed at a state level or are interregional in nature. Project sponsors are responsible for ensuring that their projects maintain consistency with the regional architectures, regardless of which architecture applies, as a requirement for federally funded projects.
A Regional ITS Architecture provides a framework for ITS planning that promotes interoperability and communication across jurisdictional boundaries. Projects developed under a regional framework extend the usefulness of any single project by making information easily accessible for operators and users of the system.
In the time between 2005, when the Southern California Regional ITS Architecture was developed, and 2011, as it is being updated, there have been several changes. The National ITS Architecture has been updated to reflect new user services, Southern California has continued as a national leader in ITS deployment with extensive ITS investments, and new technology applications have emerged. The 2011 update to the Southern California Regional ITS Architecture will reflect changes since 2005 and position the architecture to guide future ITS deployments as new technologies emerge. Topics covered in this 2011 update include express lanes, positive train control, technologies in support of non-motorized transport, and goods movement in addition to the updates for other cross-county services such as to address traveler information, regional data exchange and archiving of regional data. Additionally, recommendations are made to subregional (county-level) ITS Architecture champions for their consideration in the event that changes are desired to be made at the county level for the associated topic. The Southern California Regional ITS Architecture leverages long standing investments in ITS by fostering coordination and cooperation among public agency stakeholders.