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OCR for page 499
A.5 Strategies and Tools
This section discusses: barriers, procurement policy, life cycle costs, measures of effectiveness,
and reliability.
A.5.1 Barriers
The Phase ~ survey of junsdictional users identified perceived barriers as:
Capital funding,
Maintenance funding,
Training funding,
In-house experts to evaluate technology,
In-house design capability,
In-house maintenance capability,
Procurement policies, and
· No llS plan.
Funding was defined in terms of bamers to initial acquisition and funding for maintenance
transition to advanced technology which includes spares and new test equipment, as wed as
funding for ~raining. Based on discussions and reviews avid He NCHRP Project 3-51, FY '94
oversight committee, He consensus was that funding barriers are He results of over bamers
including:
No ITS deployment plan to:
.
Define needs and rRs service requirements,
· Define architecture and technology candidates to meet needs,
· Support wad funding requirements and schedule;
Unfamilianty with processes to obtain federal funding support from venous funding
programs and agencies including FHWA and FTA;
~.;~NCHRP~Ph ~NCHRP3-51 · Phase2F~nalReport A5-1
OCR for page 500
Unf~milianty with approach to acquiring federal funding support for transitional
maintenance and Gaining cost; and
Commitment of local junsdictional agencies to Trs deployment and associated matching
funding. This perhaps is a symptom of local government planning and financial personnel
not understanding the benefits of firs and ~us, a failure of ITS information dissemination to
non-ma~nline traffic transportation management personnel.
Basically, federal funding is available for jurisdictions wig ITS plans and funding will support
not only initial acqu~sidon of new ITS systems but also maintenance and gaining transition
costs. Perhaps even more important is Mat We in-house deficiency in jurisdictional industry of
advanced technology produces a bamer to understanding He Rue cost Impacts of advanced
technology, such as cost benefits of:
High-reliability, fault-tolerant technologies wad built-m test and failure reporting; and
Graphical user interface and associated graphical communicators between advanced
systems and operators, making operations-self-evident decision choices clear, Bus
decreasing operations Gaining requirements.
Added to He confusion of cost is perhaps madcedng "propaganda" armed at distorting He truth
about a new technology in order Hat an older technology is maintained. Lability to separate
facts from marketing propaganda continues to be a major problem, creating false cost barriers
for operations and maintenance.
Two over barriers defined In Phase ~ involved He availability of:
In-house experts to evaluate technology, and
In-house design capability.
These two barriers basically involve junsdicdons having no, or limited, in-house technical skills
to evaluate advanced technology, understand its applicability and benefits, and understand the
differences of alternatives.
L;wagwbase2~pt NC:HRP 3-51 · ~ 2 Few ~-2
OCR for page 501
Traffic operations divisions are generally staffed by civil engineers mained In traffic operations
and management. The maintenance organizations of jur~sdicdons seldom have professionally
trained engineers, proficient in modern communications technology.
Only in the management information systems ~S) group of He associated government
organization is there a reasonable probability of finding an engineer professionally Gained in
communications. The exception to this would be large cides, which may also have a separate
communications organization wad degreed electrical engineers specializing in communications.
While the MIS group may have local area network and metropolitan area network
communications engineers, it is unlikely Cat wireless communications technology engineering
experience win exist in Me MIS group.
One battier to traffic operations borrowing professional skins from the MIS and communications
groups (or departments) generally lies in "terntonal boundary protection." Rawer Han being
technical "advisors," MIS groups may strive to acquire management control of traffic operations
computers, displays, networks), and associated budgeters), leaving traffic operations subject to
management decisions not in He best interest of traffic. The fear of loss of budget and decision
control from one governmental organization to another clearly fonns a banter to achieving
internal technical advancements.
Professional consulting engineering assistance is an alternative to finding internal technical
knowledge and experience. Consulting eng~neenng support does not represent a threat to Chic
operations. Issues involved in selection of professional consulting include:
· Selection of an eng~neenng consultant knowledgeable of bow traffic operations and
communications technology. This requires a team of professional traffic and electronic
communications engineers. The consuming team provides in-depth la~owledge of
technology, operational requirements, and, perhaps equally important, the ability to
communicate with jurisdictional traffic personnel in a manner mutually understood.
· Early contracting for consulting engineers to provide needed technical assistance. The
procurement process is usually lengthy and time consuming to a generally understaffed
. .
Orgamzatlon.
L:wa~rp' NCHRP3-51 · Phase2FmalReport
A5-3
Representative terms from entire chapter:
communications technology
