Tri-State Area May Be Choice for U.S. Smart Highway Program
An unofficial and as yet unsubstantiated report says that the U.S. DOT has selected the metropolitan area as one of a small number of urban regions to receive priority infusions of technology, training and funds under Transportation Secretary Pena's Intelligent Transportation Systems Model Deployment program. "Intelligent Transportation Systems" (ITS) refers to information technology to better manage road and transit systems. If true, inclusion of the Tri-State region in the Model Deployment Program would mean discretionary federal transportation funds, to be matched locally by agencies and the private sector, would flow to the region for ITS applications. Critics of the federal ITS program contend it has overwhelmingly emphasized highways over transit, and that a number of its highway capacity-expanding measures will have the same local traffic, land use and environmental impacts as road-widening and other policies that increase car dependence.
