The Western States Forum is an annual event where implementers of ITS technologies have the opportunity to share technical information on best practices and field deployment experiences with fellow professionals from across the western United States. It can best be described as an engineering practitioner’s conference with the goal of providing a forum for high-quality exchange of technical information that can help to support better ITS deployment in rural areas.
The concept of WSRTTIF originated through the rural California/Oregon Advanced Transportation Systems (COATS) partnership. This partnership, initiated in 1998 by the California and Oregon Departments of Transportation (Caltrans and ODOT, respectively) with support from the Western Transportation Institute (WTI), has sought to advance the implementation of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) to meet transportation challenges in rural areas.
The general goal of this project is to facilitate preparation and outreach efforts related to the 2011 Western States Forum, to be held June 14th – 16th in Yreka, California. The primary outcome of the project is the Forum itself, along with associated documentation including the Forum website, which serves as marketing for future Forums and documentation of past Forums.