Skip to main content

ITS awards for Montana university projects

The One-Stop Shop for Traveller Information (OSS), a website that integrates weather and road information from multiple western states, developed at Montana State University’s Western Transportation Institute (WTI), has been awarded an international award from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America). The OSS provides travellers with current road information that does not stop at jurisdictional boundaries. Combined with real-time weather information, the OSS provides motorists with
September 26, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The One-Stop Shop for Traveller Information (OSS), a website that integrates weather and road information from multiple western states, developed at Montana State University’s Western Transportation Institute (WTI), has been awarded an international award from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (560 ITS America).

The OSS provides travellers with current road information that does not stop at jurisdictional boundaries. Combined with real-time weather information, the OSS provides motorists with a seamless decision-making tool for maintaining and enhancing traveller safety and mobility.

One of two WTI projects to be nominated as finalists for the ITS America Best New Innovative Practice awards, OSS won in the Research, Design and Innovation category. The other WTI nominee, the Automated Safety Warning System Controller (ASWSC) project, was a finalist in the Rural ITS Project category.

The ASWSC is a general-purpose system that warns drivers of hazards such as icy curves and high winds. Prior to the ASWSC, warning systems were unique implementations that used one-of-a-kind software for control. Designed from the beginning as an open system, the ASWSC greatly expands the capability of transportation warning systems.

According to Doug Galarus, senior research scientist and manager of WTI’s Systems Engineering, Integration and Development Program, both projects represent the best of what is possible at WTI. A university transportation centre focused on rural transportation issues, WTI is a collaborative research partnership involving MSU’s College of Engineering, the 7318 Montana Department of Transportation and California’s 3879 Caltrans.

“The recognition from ITS on both of these projects is a welcome honour for all the hard work from everyone involved at MSU, as well as all those at the Caltrans Division of Research, Innovation and System Information, Caltrans District 2 and the Western States Rural Transportation Consortium,” Galarus said. “I give full credit for these systems to our partners at Caltrans – they envisioned the ASWSC and OSS and set us up for successful development and implementation. This was critical to making these systems work properly and to ensuring and enhancing the safety of the travelling public.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • StarTraq shortlisted for Transport Supplier of the Year
    July 12, 2013
    Back office solutions provider StarTraq is one of five finalists in the Transport Supplier of the Year category of the National Transport Awards 2013. StarTraq implemented its back office system across the four collaborating forces in Wales to provide efficiencies in the administration of traffic fines, with the direct result of making the roads in Wales safer. Commenting on the company's nomination, StarTraq's CEO Allan Freinkel says, "For StarTraq to be shortlisted in the category 'Transport Supplier of t
  • Does ADAS create as many problems as it solves
    September 23, 2014
    Victoria Banks and Neville Stanton [1] of Southampton University’s Transportation Research Group examine the real impact of creeping driver automation. Safety research suggests that 90% of accidents are thought to be a result of driver inattentiveness to unpredictable or incomplete information and the vision is that highly automated vehicles will lead to accident-free driving in the future.
  • Dynamic charging boosts electric vehicles’ potential
    December 16, 2014
    With an increasing need to use electric vehicles in city centres to reduce pollution, David Crawford looks at various solutions to power delivery. The UN’s September 2014 Climate Summit has added fresh momentum to the drive to increase urban electric vehicle (EV) takeup. It has launched the Urban Electric Mobility Initiative, which wants to see EVs accounting for 30% of all urban travel by 2030, and make cities worldwide more friendly to their use. Encouragingly, the plan is being well supported by commerci
  • New research: to illuminate or not to illuminate
    February 5, 2013
    Researchers from the US Lighting Research Center (LRC) and Penn State University have recently published a paper entitled “To illuminate or not to illuminate: Roadway lighting as it affects traffic safety at intersections”. Published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention the paper describes a parallel approach to lighting safety analysis. Tackling the tricky questions of when and where to install roadway illumination, while at the same reducing municipal costs, is a challenge for transportation a