Documenting the Value of ITS in Kentucky

Kentucky has been a national leader in the field of ITS for more than a decade, with leading-edge projects in the areas of Commercial Vehide Operations, Traffic Management, Traveler Information, and many others. Kentucky's ITS Business Plan, published in September 2001, listed 21 different ITS projects that were already deployed in Kentucky as of that date. More than 20 additional projects were listed in the Business Plan as recommended for deployment and/or expansion. Kentucky has invested heavily (using both Federal and State funds) to deploy ITS technologies, with the goal of improving the safety and efficiency of the surface transportation system. For the most part, it is unknown just how cost-effective this investment has been. Some evaluations have been performed, mostly for individual projects, but many ITS projects have never been evaluated. To date, there has never been an effort to compile the evaluation data from individual projects and produce a benefit-cost evaluation ofthe entire ITS program.