United States Department of Transportation
i
Telecommunications in Transportation: A Summary of Key Issues
-
1997-02-01
[PDF-543.35 KB]
Details:
-
Corporate Creators:
-
Corporate Contributors:
-
Subject/TRT Terms:
-
Publication/ Report Number:
-
Resource Type:
-
Geographical Coverage:
-
Corporate Publisher:
-
Abstract:Over the past several years, many states and local communities have been dealing with the need to substantially increase their usage of telecommunications for transportation. This is a result of the need to obtain more information on the status of traffic on the roadways, including video, to enable a response to those conditions. In addition, more and more data gathered from the transportation network will be made available to the traveling public in one form or another. Thus, the deployment of these and other Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies, has required the development of sophisticated telecommunications networks to gather and distribute the data. While the needs have been growing, the telecommunications industry has also been undergoing major changes in both technology and the marketplace. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (TCA) has added new impetus to the change process. The days of a single telecommunications provider serving an area based on specific tariffs have disappeared, and have been replaced by a variety of companies that can serve the needs of the community, including public agencies, in a competitive environment. Further, because of this new competitive market, service providers are offering new levels of service at ever more attractive prices. In other words, the whole telecommunications business has changed dramatically. These changes can produce a major opportunity for public agencies that coincidentally are seeking to expand their telecommunications capability. Other changes in the regulatory environment have been occurring in the same time frame. Several years ago, FHW A changed its policy on the use of Right Of Way (ROW) for utilities, and now AASHTO is in the process of altering its ROW policy. (The new AASHTO "Guidance on Sharing Freeway and Highway Rights-of-Way for Telecommunications" is attached as Reference 6.) Public-private partnerships are encouraged by the U.S. DOT, and Federal aid can now be utilized for operating expenses, including capital leases, as indicated in the FHWA Policy guidance of Reference 7; "Policy Guidance on Section 301 of the National Highway System Designation Act of 1996". All of these changes have also created new challenges as government agencies have tried to work in this new environment. It is the purpose of this Telecommunications Resource Guide to provide an overview of the approaches that have been successfully employed by a number of state and local governments to deal with this new environment and to provide practical guidance on how to implement these approaches. This summary will identify the issues and present a guide to using the supplemental documentation. To this end, three current topics that have proved to be difficult or contentious will be addressed: Designing a telecommunications network; Leasing vs. Owning a network; Using public ROW to obtain telecommunications
-
Format:
-
Collection(s):
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type:
