The Thurston Regional Planning Council ITS Architecture Program

The first major ITS effort for the Thurston Regional Planning Council was development of the Thurston Region ITS Architecture. This provides a common framework for defining, planning and integrating ITS on a region-wide basis. This regional framework defines how to integrate different types of existing and future technology projects so they work seamlessly and cost-effectively. The regional architecture identifies agreements and standards for jurisdictions to use in developing new ITS project proposals. Public Transportation Architecture and Strategic Deployment Plan Because public transportation is a particularly important component of ITS, a detailed deployment strategy was developed to assist Intercity Transit and other public transportation providers to plan for ITS projects. Similar deployment strategies will be developed for incident management and traffic systems. Regional ITS Implementation Strategy As part of the regional ITS architecture, a number of short-term implementation strategies were developed to promote on-going development of the region's ITS goals. These strategies provide the logical 'next step' in deployment of an effective regional system. These regional implementation strategies are described in a separate section.

Electronic fare payment technologies for transit systems have resulted in increased revenues of 3 to 30% due to fewer evasions.