Contact: Ernie Blazar 202.224.7627 Shana Stribling 202.224.0309
Friday, June 6, 2003

WASHINGTON, DC –– U.S. Senator Kit Bond today announced that the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will send Missouri more than $3 million in funds for Intelligent Transportation System improvements.

"Information technology will boost safety on Missouri's roads and highways, which is a key priority," said Bond. "This state-of-the-art technology will make a real difference in people's every day lives – from emergency response, weather-to-road or collision-avoidance technologies.

Missouri will receive $3,036,589 in ITS funds for the following programs:

* $1,788,676 - Missouri Statewide Rural ITS. Missouri has three major corridors (I-29/I-35, I-70 and I-44), which are used to ship freight within and across the State. Missouri is currently integrating the automation process between the four regulating state agencies through software and hardware development. This integration process along with the statewide communication system is needed to communicate with each weigh station and between agencies to provide a more automated commercial vehicle system in Missouri. This system is being developed to provide better freight mobility to the commercial vehicle industry through a more automated and efficient sharing of information. Specifically in rural areas the widespread use of Mayday emergency notification devices could reduce the time its takes to discover a rural crash from an average of 9.6 minutes to one minute. Advanced lane-keeping and collision-avoidance technologies could prevent 19,000 crashes in rural areas every year due to vehicles running off the road.

* $1,247,913 - Kansas City Scout Advance Traffic Management System. The KC project targets the heaviest traveled freeways in the Kansas City metropolitan area, which include the downtown loop and critical portions of I-35, I-70, I-435 and I-670. The KC Scout project includes the development and deployment of a traffic operation center, and the installation of video cameras, dynamic message signs, vehicle detection stations, communication infrastructure, links to private information providers as well as operating the Motorist Assist program. In connection with KC Scout, a regional traffic signal management plan for the major arterial routes of the region (Operation Greenlight) is also under development.

The ITS program began in an effort to revolutionize the nation's aging transportation system. These technologies include the latest in computers, electronics, communications and safety systems and they can be applied to the transportation infrastructure of highways, streets, and bridges, as well as to a growing number of vehicles, including cars, buses, trucks, and trains. The ITS helps better manage and improve how transportation providers such as governments, transit agencies and truckers offer services to the public.

Kit Bond is Missouri’s senior Senator and is now in his third term after having served the state previously during two terms as Governor.