Volpe Center Highlights
Focus
Director's Notes |
Focus |
Safety |
Mobility |
Human and Natural Environment |
Economic Growth and Trade |
National Security |
Published and Presented
ITS Professional Capacity Building Support (FHWA)
The Volpe Center provides ongoing support for the Professional Capacity Building (PCB) program of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Joint Program Office. Most recently, the Center's PCB team completed the first phase of a comprehensive training and education needs assessment. This effort confirmed that inadequate ITS professional capacity remains the largest non-technical barrier to the widespread deployment of ITS technologies in surface transportation. Moreover, the assessment identified the need to expand the definition of training to include such non-traditional methods as distance learning; technical assistance programs (such as scanning tours and the Peer-to Peer Program); and information dissemination programs. These preliminary results were recently presented to a broad audience which included the Director of the ITS Joint Program Office, Associate Administrators within Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA), senior executives of transportation agencies, and professionals from universities, professional associations, and the private sector. The findings were well received and will be synthesized into a strategy for meeting the ITS related training and education needs of transportation professionals. The first draft of the report will be completed by the end of October.