Western States Rural Transportation Consortium (WSRTC)

OVERVIEW | HISTORY | CONTACTS | WSRTC UPDATE | ARCHIVED WSRTC UPDATES  | WSRTC DOCUMENTS | PROJECTS | ARCHIVED UPDATES | DOCUMENTS | FACT SHEET | IMPACT | STEERING COMMITTEE | EMERITUS

The Western States Rural Transportation Consortium (WSRTC), comprised of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Utah, has been established to facilitate and enhance safe, seamless travel throughout the western United States. The Consortium seeks to promote innovative partnerships, technologies and educational opportunities to meet these objectives. Additionally, the Consortium seeks to provide a collaborative mechanism to leverage research activities in a coordinated manner to respond to rural transportation issues among western states related to technology, operations and safety. Consequently, activities of the Consortium are focused on technology transfer/education (Western States Rural Transportation Technology Implementers Forum) and incubator projects (small scale research projects intended to serve as a “proof of concept” for larger subsequent efforts) centered on the Consortium pillars of technology, operations and safety.

WSRTC: Consortium’s 15th Annual Meeting and NRITS / ITE 2025
Friday, November 21st, 2025

The Western States Rural Transportation Consortium held its 15th Annual Meeting on June 16th, 2025. Four member states and both research institutions participated in the meeting. The meeting’s agenda (pdf), presentation (pdf), and official minutes (pdf) can be reviewed here and on the WSRTC Documents page. The group is pictured below, clockwise from left: Andres Chavez (Caltrans DRISI), Jeremiah Pearce (Caltrans District 2), Jacob Grivette (Nevada DOT), Doug Spencer (Oregon DOT), Tony Leingang (Washington State DOT), Keith Holowecky (Caltrans DRISI), Leann Koon (WTI / MSU).

Photo by Doug Galarus

Leann Koon and Andres Chavez welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order with introductions around the room. Leann reviewed the meeting purpose and planned agenda, recognizing 15 years of the Consortium partnership.

History was made with the 20th Annual Western States Rural Transportation Technology Implementers Forum, June 16-18, 2025! Leann shared a brief history of the event over the years with photos and milestones.

This year, Washington State DOT, Caltrans, and the AHMCT Research Center at UC Davis jointly presented a WSRTC project on the Fotokite tethered drones. Andre and Tony Leingang gave a quick overview of how the project came to be and how the research has progressed. WSDOT also had a presentation on using drones for graffiti removal and other possible applications which Tony briefly discussed. Montana Department of Transportation was presenting for the first time as they discussed building their statewide TMC. Wyoming DOT presented on their roadside network and backhaul upgrade. Jake Grivette gave a quick overview of the Nevada DOT presentation on integrating ITS into the statewide ITS and ATM master plan. Through connections Jeremiah Pearce made at another event, the National Center for Atmospheric Research based in Colorado presented their Pikalert system. Jeremiah explained his connection and gave us a brief description of the project.

The audience was diverse like the speaker line up – nine states representing seven DOTs, including all five Consortium member states, three universities, the Southwest Research Institute and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. While the Schedule of Events was similar, the Forum was held Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (vs. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). In recognition of the 20th annual event, Tuesday’s agenda included a Founders Panel and birthday cake. The panel consisted of Forum Founders Ian Turnbull and Sean Campbell and was moderated by steering committee member Doug Galarus who has attended every Forum. Read more about this milestone event and take a look at the technical presentations on the 2025 Forum page.

Jeremiah Pearce, Doug Spencer, and Doug Galarus spoke about the history of the WSRTC and how it evolved from its beginnings with the COATS project (California Oregon Advanced Transportation Systems) which was a very productive partnership active from 1998 until 2023. Through attendance at the Forum, the WSRTC partnership was established in 2010 with California, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada; Utah joined in 2018. Doug Spencer added to the history noting that Oregon and California worked on several projects together in the early COATS phases including conducting training classes more focused on engineering. He commented that Sean Campbell and Ian Turnbull were at various conferences and recognized a need for more in-depth information sharing with an engineering focus and more details. The concept for the Forum arose from these early experiences and conversations. Given the evolution and changes the Pooled Fund has experienced over the last 15 years, the WSRTC Charter document was updated this year with revised language and signatures/signature lines.

Phase 1 of the WSRTC concluded in 2023 and Phase 2 runs through March of 2027. The group reviewed the status of the Pooled Fund, contributions and obligations, and several associated projects. There were six active task orders and they were reviewed:

• Evaluation of the Fotokite Tethered Unmanned Aerial System for DOT Operations in Network-Deprived Areas (AHMCT, UC Davis)
• Chain-Up Delay Tracking and Estimation (Montana Tech)
• WSRTC Meeting Coordination, Western States Forum, Website Maintenance (WTI)
• WeatherShare Maintenance (Montana Tech)
• CV Highway Grip Factor Reporting for Snowplows, Phase 1 (WTI)
• Vehicle Detection on Rural Roads Using Optical Fiber Sensing Technology (AHMCT, UC Davis)

Principal Investigator Doug Galarus from Montana Tech is shown below reviewing the task orders / projects he is leading. Listening are clockwise from upper right: Jeremiah Pearce, Jacob Grivette, Doug Spencer, Tony Leingang, Keith Holowecky, and Andres Chavez.

Photo by Leann Koon

The annual meeting concluded with the traditional roundtable of ITS project work. You can read more about the many rural ITS projects the member states are working on in the meeting minutes (pdf).

Consortium representatives (Jeremiah Pearce, Andres Chavez, Seth Daniels, Tony Leingang) also attended the 2025 National Rural ITS Conference and ITE Annual Meeting in Orlando in August. The group gathered for an informal meeting during the event. Jeremiah Pearce presented Estimating the Travel Delay Induced by Winter Chain-On Events during the Updates on Rural ITS Applications and Plans for the Future NRITS session and participated in the NRITS rural road safety panel discussion - Getting from Here to There Seamlessly.

To review the minutes from the annual meeting, click here, or go to the Consortium’s Documents page. You can find the meeting presentation on the Consortium’s Documents page too.

Check back later for a report on the 20th Annual Western States Forum!

Consortium Contacts:

OVERVIEW | HISTORY | CONTACTS | WSRTC UPDATE | ARCHIVED WSRTC UPDATES  | WSRTC DOCUMENTS | PROJECTS | ARCHIVED UPDATES | DOCUMENTS | FACT SHEET | IMPACT | STEERING COMMITTEE | EMERITUS

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