Digital Infrastructure to Share Roadway Transportation Information Team

Description: Digital infrastructure supports information exchange among public and private users and owners and operators of the roadway system. It consists of:

  • Information sensing, communications, processing, and storage used and located within public roads and at associated centers, and
  • The business models, agreements, organizational and institutional arrangements and processes that support operation of those systems
  • Enables management of the transportation system, including the pursuit of safety, efficiency, mobility, equity and other objectives of system operators and users

Cornerstones of Business Case: Societal Outcomes may include: vehicle-roadway public health within a safe system approach; emergency response & military mobility; freight mobility and supply chain resilience; and community accessibility.

Action plan:

  1. Encourage membership engagement in the early 2023 FHWA national charrette to structure a national roadway digital infrastructure strategy.
  2. Lead a joint TRB committees webinar highlighting TRB’s recent involvements and potential role in “Advancing a National Roadway Digital Infrastructure Strategy”.
  3. Ensure representation of the roadway digital infrastructure topic in the 2023 International Symposium and the 2023 TRB Automated Roadway Transportation Symposium.
  4. Coordinate with the Joint VHAC-ITS Subcommittee on “Challenges and Opportunities for Roadway Vehicle Automation” (CORVA) to initiate the following by end of 2023.
    1. Align conceptual terms for roadway connectivity, digital infrastructure, digitalization of transportation, roadway automation, and others.
    2. Identify and prioritize national knowledge and technological needs that may be addressed by collaborative research and development.
    3. Associate high priority collaborative research themes with specific national research partners (e.g. TRB & NCHRP, USDOT, UTC’s, Industry Groups, etc.)
    4. Assess alternatives and recommend an annualized process for sustaining coordination between national research partners
  5. Identify high priority roadway digital infrastructure research needs to propose to the AASHTO Committee on Transportation System Operations (CTSO) as FY25 NCHRP Problem Statements.

Lead: John Corbin, FHWA, Office of Operations (john.corbin@dot.gov)

Volunteers: Jim Misener, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.; Brian Simi, Michael Baker; Deepak Gopalakrishna, ICF; Les Jacobson, WSP; Martha Morecock Eddy, Battelle; Zorica Cvijovic, Trihydro Corporation; Valerie Shumans, Shuman Group, LLC; Shalini Ghosh, WSP.