2004 Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Projects Book, Online Version

Section Four: Public Safety : Introduction

The goal of the ITS Public Safety Program is to enhance the cooperative working relationships between transportation and public safety. The Program is working to demonstrate procedures and technologies to improve traffic safety and efficiency. Projects are underway or planned to address different aspects of incident response and management. These projects will develop and test procedures and technologies to improve incident detection and notification, to speed clearance by secondary responders, to facilitate on-site coordination among all responders, and to enhance the movement of emergency vehicles through traffic. The ITS Public Safety Program supports the U.S. DOT and the FHWA goals of improving safety, mobility and productivity by encouraging more effective operations among transportation, law enforcement, fire, emergency medical operations and towing and recovery.

Public safety and transportation officials recognize that despite great advances in emergency services over the past decades, significant improvements in efficiency and effectiveness can be realized by applying information technologies to incident prevention, detection, response, and management.

The core mission of the public safety community as a whole - on or off the highway - is protection of life, property, and environment. In the context of highway operations, this means rapid response to motor vehicle crashes or other incidents to prevent further loss of life, mitigate the consequences of injuries, minimize ancillary damage to vehicles, infrastructure, or the environment and restore normal operations. Enhanced detection and communications technologies such as wireless E9-1-1 and automatic crash notification will engage public safety resources sooner, provide more appropriate medical care to save lives and minimize injury consequences, and reduce transportation infrastructure disruption. Improved response technologies, such as green light priority for emergency vehicles, will speed the delivery of emergency resources to the scene. Developments in on-scene incident management and coordination will improve the safety of emergency responders and reduce delays in stabilizing, investigating and clearing the crash scene.

The potential is clear, and the opportunities are compelling. Information technologies offer a rapidly expanding range of possibilities for coordinating community public safety and transportation systems. The challenge is to ensure public safety and transportation professionals generate, as well as share, safety information, and coordinate in developing, testing, and implementing system enhancements.

This ITS Public Safety effort links the operations of a number of agencies with concerns in transportation and public safety. Within the U.S. DOT, the program is coordinated among the Federal Highway Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, and the Research and Special Programs Administration. Beyond the U.S. DOT, the program is coordinated closely with the Department of Justice and the Federal Emergency Management Administration.

The projects included in this section were in progress as of September 30, 2003.