Skip to main content

Local DOTs hold court

The heads of the Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia departments of transportation met with a group of technology and transportation professionals at the ITS America annual meeting in National Harbor to discuss local challenges and up-coming projects in the area.
May 21, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Putting heads together: Terry Bellamy, Director of DDOT, Beverley Swain-Staley, Secretary Maryland DOT and Sean Connaughton, Virginia DOT Secretary of Transportation who partcipated at the transportation leaders breakfast.
The heads of the Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia departments of transportation met with a group of technology and transportation professionals at the 560 ITS America annual meeting in National Harbor to discuss local challenges and up-coming projects in the area.

Citing a need to coordinate their state’s transportation priorities to meet the needs of D.C. motorists, the officials called on the industry to continue the integration push and create solutions that will help them manage traffic across state borders.

“We need to be ready for the next century, and we cannot build our way out. We have to look at technology to pave the way,” said Director of the 2134 District Department of Transportation Terry Bellamy.

Sean Connaughton, the Secretary of the 1747 Virginia Department of Transportation, went on to say that the industry is good at collecting traffic data and disseminating that information to drivers, but more work needs to be done to turn traffic information into suggested courses of action.

The discussion was moderated by Mort Downey, a senior advisor with 4983 Parsons Brinckerhoff, and sponsored by 81 Kapsch.

Related Content

  • News from transportation associations around the world
    February 6, 2012
    Why is the International Road Federation (IRF) moving into the ITS sector? Caroline Visser, road finance specialist from the IRF's Geneva Programme Centre explains
  • Europe’s road safety record suffers as austerity bites hard, traffic police chiefs are told at TISPOL 2017
    March 7, 2018
    Europe’s leading traffic police chiefs are struggling with the challenge of how best to manage the region’s road network in an era of austerity. Things are changing fast, and not for the better, reports Geoff Hadwick. Europe’s road safety record is under threat. Police budgets are being slashed, staff numbers are falling and a long-term trend towards ever-fewer road deaths has ground to a halt. The line on the graph has flat-lined. Does Europe’s road network face a far more dangerous future? Lower and
  • Cellular communications drive the way forward for tolling
    January 18, 2012
    For more than 20 years prior to joining the ITS industry, Mike Payne of Idris, part of Federal Signal Technologies, worked for Vodafone - the world's biggest mobile operator. Here, he considers how the road tolling sector can grow and learn from the cellular industry. The global cellphone has been one of the most successful collaborative technology projects in the last 30 years. Mobile phone technology developed throughout the 20th century with the first public service in the early 70s. This was followed by
  • E-tolling is the new normal
    April 29, 2020
    Electronic tolling has become a cornerstone for the next wave of innovation, says IBTTA’s Bill Cramer. So is this the end of the road for toll plazas?