On December 8, 2009, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) released the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Strategic Research Plan, 2010-2014.  This plan defines the strategic direction for the USDOT's ITS research program for the next five years.

The ITS Strategic Research Plan is designed to achieve a vision of a national, multi-modal surface transportation system that features a connected transportation environment among vehicles, the infrastructure and passengers’ portable devices.  This connected environment will leverage technology to maximize safety, mobility and environmental performance.

The component programs of the ITS Strategic Research Plan form a cohesive approach to achieving the vision of a connected transportation environment and demonstrating that transformation of our transportation system is possible.

It is the nature of research that, as answers emerge for these and other questions, new questions will arise. Therefore, this research plan will remain flexible; the ITS Program leadership is committed to tracking progress against milestones and providing programmatic reviews in order to adjust to new needs and changing directions in policy, technology, and the marketplace. However, the focus and vision of the program will remain consistent—to research and facilitate the delivery of a multi-modal surface transportation system that features a connected transportation environment among vehicles, the infrastructure, and portable devices to serve the public good by leveraging technology to maximize safety, mobility, and environmental performance.

Consistent with this administration's commitment to open government, the ITS Program will implement program management processes that assure:

• Transparency to provide citizens with information about what the ITS Program is doing so that it can be held accountable.
• Participation to actively solicit expertise from outside Washington so that it makes policies with the benefit of the best information.
• Collaboration that ensures that agencies work together with one another and with citizens as part of doing their job of solving national problems.

In conclusion, over the next five years, the ITS Program:

• Is committed to ITS research and specifically to connected vehicles. This Plan is intended to frame out a multi-year research process that brings research into implementation.
• Intends to move the state-of-the-art forward with a concerted focus on the Department's highest priority—safety.

This plan harnesses powerful trends in wireless technologies, both DSRC and non-DSRC, to pursue their innovative application to transportation and transform the system as we know it.

• Next-Generation 9-1-1 Fact Sheet [PDF 601KB]
• ITS Strategic Research Plan, 2010 – 2014, Executive Summary
• ITS Strategic Research Plan, 2010-2014, Fact Sheet [PDF 30KB]
• U.S. DOT ITS Strategic Planning Workshop
• ITS Research Activities between RITA and the European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media, Fact sheet [PDF 16KB]
• Five Year ITS Strategic Plan (2010-2014) Presentation [PPT 548KB]
• ITS Strategic Plan (2010-2014) Background and Process Presentation [PPT 3.29MB]