This was the eighth and final phase of the 25-year California and Oregon Advanced Transportation Systems partnership. COATS Phase VIII focused on technology transfer to build on the success of earlier COATS phases and preserve and expand the COATS region as an innovator in rural ITS technology implementation. To help the partnership achieve the COATS vision and mission, initiatives that were undertaken include technology transfer through the Western States Forum, a Handbook for the Forum, and maintaining and expanding the COATS web presence for the technology transfer of results of this effort. This phase included complementary tasks that advanced the vision of appropriate use of ITS technology to address rural transportation challenges within and beyond the COATS region boundaries. These included:
- Semi-annual COATS PTAP meetings, where local stakeholders met to coordinate ITS deployment and operations efforts, as well as identified areas of concern where research is warranted.
- The annual Forum, a nationally significant, unique gathering of ITS practitioners for networking and information exchange.
- Updating the Forum handbook, a collection of best practices for the planning and execution of the annual Forum.
- Updating and modernizing the COATS web presence, which promotes technology transfer to other DOTs.
Western States Rural Transportation Technology Implementers Forum (WSRTTIF)
The Western States Forum is an engineering practitioners’ meeting focused on providing technology transfer and networking opportunities for professionals working in design, implementation, and maintenance of ITS technologies in rural environments. Technical content from previous Forums can be reviewed on the Forum’s website.
COATS Phase 8 provided support for organizing and conducting the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Western States Forums and a portion of the 2023 event. As the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th events, they were significant milestones in the history of the Forum and the COATS and WSRTC partnerships.
Go to the Forum website’s Past Forums page to review the agendas, technical content, and photos from these and previous events.
The first annual Forum was held in 2006 in Mount Shasta, California, and 15 engineers and technicians from 3 states attended.
Thirty-eight (38) individuals from six states participated in the 5th annual Forum in Yreka, California.
The 10th annual Forum was also in Yreka, CA. Thirty-nine (39) practitioners from 8 different states attended.
The 14th Forum in Yreka saw a record 53 participants from 8 different western and central states.
The 2023 Forum, the 18th Annual, had a full house, with 49 participants representing eight states (AZ, CA, MT, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA), and six DOTs, including all five of the Western States Rural Transportation Consortium (WSRTC) member states (CA, OR, NV, UT, WA).
Western States Forum Handbook
The Western States Forum Handbook was updated during this project phase. Originally developed in COATS Phase 7, the Handbook details Forum planning, development, organization, and operations. It is intended to provide thorough guidance to any individual or group tasked with organizing and facilitating the Western States Forum. Because the Forum changes year to year, this document is dynamic. Under this task, the Handbook was updated to keep the guidelines current and applicable.
Project Technical Advisory Panel (PTAP) Meetings
COATS/WSRTC PTAP meetings and ITS related conferences also provided tech transfer opportunities with discussion of current and future ITS activities in the region. Stakeholders also met and guided planning and decision-making related to the COATS project.
Five meetings were held involving the entire PTAP – Northwest Transportation Conference 2020, Corvallis, OR (March 10, 2020); March 2021 virtual meeting (March 9, 2021); Annual Meeting 2021 at the Western States Forum (October 5, 2021); April 2022 virtual meeting (April 7, 2022); Annual Meeting 2022 at the Western States Forum (June 14, 2022). WSRTC members also attended the ITE Annual Meeting + Exhibit and National Rural ITS Conferences in summer of 2020, 2021, and 2022. The 2020 (August 4 – 13, 2020) and 2021 (July 20 – 29, 2021) events were held virtually while the 2022 event (July 31 – August 3, 2022, New Orleans, LA) was held in person. In addition, WSRTC members participated in ITS America (December 7-10, 2021, Charlotte, NC) and ITS World Congress (September 18 – 22, 2022, Los Angeles, CA).
Aside from the organization and conduct of these meetings, associated deliverables included meeting presentations, meeting minutes, and related website updates. Meeting documents can be found at http://www.westernstates.org/Documents/WSRTC/Default.html. Website updates are on the Consortium’s website at http://www.westernstates.org/Projects/Updates/Default.html.
The final report for COATS Phase VIII can be reviewed here. The report can also be found on the COATS Phase VIII documents page and on the COATS documents page along with other project-related work.
The work of the COATS program continues through the Western States Rural Transportation Consortium (WSRTC). Check the Consortium website for regular updates.