Skip to main content

More cooperation, fewer barriers

Increasing cooperation between the public and private sector and a less rigid approach to standards formulation are the keys to transportation’s future, according to Chris Vein, the Deputy White House Chief Technology Officer.
May 21, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Increasing cooperation between the public and private sector and a less rigid approach to standards formulation are the keys to transportation’s future, according to Chris Vein, the Deputy White House Chief Technology Officer.

Vein was speaking yesterday during a roundtable panel on innovation and transportation which also included ITS America’s President and CEO Scott Belcher, 1984 Verizon’s Vice President – Telematics Martin T. Thall and Robert Brown, Vice President Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering with 278 Ford Motor Company.

Expanding on the theme of Open Innovation, Vein talked about efforts to make data held by federal government more readily available to entrepreneurs in order to facilitate the solving of the issues which currently bedevil our transportation networks. He also touched on the concept of consensus standards definition as a faster means of development than the more traditional, bureaucratic, government-led processes. However, he warned, any such efforts have to be done with intelligence “so that we don’t have too many people doing too many things”.

Government has to recognise that the private sector often knows best what the solutions to a problem may be, he continued, adding that public-private cooperation offers increased opportunities to solve issues such as distracted driving and improve safety.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ITS in Taiwan
    February 6, 2012
    In June, ITS Taiwan will host the 11th ITS Asia Pacific Forum and Exhibition. Dr. Bert J. Lim, president of the World Economics Society and a member of the local organising committee, provides an insight to ITS development in the country. Many of the thought-provoking issues he raises could be applied equally to most countries around the world
  • Politicisation of US transportation funding
    October 13, 2015
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at how a political stalemate and a series of short-term fixes is undermining America’s highway funding and curtailing long-term planning. It was a week before the deadline to renew funding for the Highway Trust Fund, and the clock was ticking.
  • USDoT embraces Vision Zero
    January 31, 2022
    'We cannot tolerate the continuing crisis of roadway deaths,' says transport sec Pete Buttigieg
  • Mileage based charging offers secure future for funding
    August 10, 2016
    HNTB’s Matthew Click sets out why a move to mileage-based pricing is inevitable. Infrastructure is the most neglected yet the most critical engine of our society, and our continued indifference could lead to a dystopian future. Our roads, bridges and highways have been largely passed by in the digital age—marginalised in an era when funding is limited and stewardship of physical assets has given way to our preoccupation with technological innovation and data—the stuff of the virtual realm.