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

  • App informs drivers of delays during Long Beach bridge replacement
    June 6, 2014
    David Crawford previews a work zone travel breakthrough. In February 2014, the Port of Long Beach in California launched what it claims is a groundbreaking construction zone navigation aid - LB Bridge mobile app. The app is designed to help drivers during the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement programme by keeping them up to date on activity and the ensuing traffic diversions when construction starts in summer 2014. The unusually content-rich app is designed to convey current project news (enlivened by phot
  • ITS Australia celebrates 2021 Awards winners 
    February 21, 2022
    Winners include Lexus, Aimsun, Bosch - and Peter Bentley wins lifetime achievement trophy
  • McCain appoints Fedrico Hormozi director of ITS solutions group
    November 9, 2018
    McCain has appointed Fedrico Hormozi, a former senior manager for California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), director of its ITS solutions group. The firm says Hormozi’s team will deploy equipment, and carry out hardware and software systems integration as well as troubleshooting. Also, the team will provide input on new product design, development and functionality. During his 20-year career at Caltrans, Hormozi served in several senior management roles including chief of the ITS engineering a
  • Four expansions added to Virginia’s Smart Road to test AVs in urban, rural and residential environments
    November 27, 2017
    The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDoT) has unveiled four expansions to the Virginia Smart Road to accelerate advanced-vehicle testing and explore how automated and autonomous vehicles (AVs) will function on U.S. roadways including edge-and-corner environments. Two new facilities have opened for testing: The Surface Street Expansion, an urban test bed, and the Live Roadway Connector, which connects the Smart road to the U.S. Route 460-Business,