Transport

The National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) has been unveiled in Washington, US, to help transportation professionals use real-time proactive management techniques to improve safety, combat congestion and better serve the travelling public.

The NOCoE is a collaboration of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America with support from the US Federal Highway Administration.

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials executive director Bud Wright said: "The TRB annual meeting is a fitting backdrop for the launch of this innovative new center.

"Transportation professionals in general and our state department of transportation (DOT) members in particular will benefit from the professional assistance, technical resources and support to be provided by the center."

"It’s our goal to provide support and information about effective operations and management practices."

Covering topics such as integrated corridor management, active traffic management, traffic management centres and incident response, the centre will offer an array of peer exchanges, webinars, assessments, on-call assistance and training.

NOCoE executive director Dennis Motiani said: "We know that by doing an optimal job of managing and operating our highways, we can dramatically improve safety and travel time reliability.

"It’s our goal to provide support and information about effective operations and management practices, so transportation agencies can better utilise taxpayer dollars."

Developed through the second Strategic Highway Research Programme (SHRP2), the center’s website received specific assistance from the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

The website includes case studies, a knowledge centre, links to key sites, discussion forums and a calendar.

ITE executive director and chief executive officer Thomas Brahms said: "Our expectation is that the enter will provide resources to improve the transportation experience of the travelling public to enable them to get where they want to go in a timely, safe and reliable manner."

Image: NOCoE helps transportation professionals use real-time proactive management techniques to combat congestion. Photo: courtesy of Toa55 on FreeDigitalPhotos.net.