Bi-State Regional ITS Architecture

The Bi-State Regional ITS Architecture is a roadmap for transportation systems integration for the Bi-State MPO, which covers portions of Western Arkansas (including Fort Smith, Van Buren, and Greenwood) as well as Eastern Oklahoma, over the next 20 years. The Bi-State Regional ITS Architecture has been developed through a cooperative effort by the Region's transportation agencies, covering all surface transportation modes and all roads in the Region.

The Bi-State Regional ITS Architecture was developed from existing documentation, an existing Turbo database, and information gathered from Regional websites. Additional information for the Bi-State Regional ITS Architecture was reviewed and elaborated on through extensive stakeholder input gathered through a series of stakeholder group workshops (August 17-18, 2005 and October 20, 2005), from review with individual stakeholders, and from comments received during the architecture review period. The Bi-State Regional ITS Architecture represents a shared vision of how each agency's systems will work together in the future, sharing information and resources to provide a safer, more efficient, and more effective transportation system for travelers in the Region.

The architecture is an important new tool that will be used by:

The architecture provides an overarching framework that spans all of these organizations and individual transportation projects.  Using the architecture, each transportation project can be viewed as an element of the overall transportation system, providing visibility into the relationship between individual transportation projects and ways to cost-effectively build an integrated transportation system over time.

Time Horizon and Services

The Bi-State Regional ITS architecture has a time horizon of up to twenty years with particular focus on those systems and interfaces that are likely to be implemented in the next ten years.   The architecture covers the broad spectrum of ITS, including Traffic Management, Transit Management, Traveler Information, Maintenance and Construction, Emergency Management, Commercial Vehicle Operations, and Archived Data Management over this time horizon.

Elements in the architecture are classified as either “existing” or “planned”.  Elements classified as “existing” are those whose interface design is complete, regardless of whether the actual element or interface is implemented.  Elements classified as “planned” are those whose interfaces have not yet been designed.

About this Web Site

The purpose of this Regional ITS Architecture web site is to organize the details of the architecture into a form that is more readily accessible to stakeholders. It will provide a method for stakeholders to access the architecture information in order to encourage the use of the Bi-State Regional ITS Architecture in both transportation planning and project implementation. In addition, this website will be useful in gathering stakeholder feedback so that the architecture is used and continues to reflect the ITS vision for the Region.  The menu bar at left provides access to the stakeholders, the transportation systems in the Region (the "Inventory"), the transportation services that will be provided, transportation-related functions that are envisioned, and the existing and planned interfaces in the Region.

The majority of this web site was generated directly from a Turbo Architecture database which defines the architecture for the Bi-State Region.  The source database in Microsoft Access format is also available for download.