Final Northwest Arkansas Regional ITS Architecture

The Northwest Arkansas Regional ITS Architecture is a roadmap for transportation systems integration for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Council, which covers the Fayetteville/ Springdale/ Rogers /Bentonville MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area), over the next 20 years. The Northwest Arkansas Regional ITS Architecture has been developed through a cooperative effort by the Region's transportation, emergency management, and transit agencies covering all surface transportation modes in the Region.

The Northwest Arkansas Regional ITS Architecture was developed from existing documentation, interviews and discussions with individual stakeholder agencies in the Region, and a series of five Regional stakeholder workshops held in Northwest Arkansas in late 2006 and early 2007. The Northwest Arkansas 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 tool that will be used by:

• Planning agencies and organizations to better reflect integration opportunities and operational needs into the transportation planning process.
• Operating and implementing agencies to recognize and plan for transportation integration opportunities in the Region.
• Other organizations and individuals that use the transportation system in the Region.

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 Northwest Arkansas 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 five 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 Northwest Arkansas 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.