Working With The IBEC The U'S' Perspective

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Working With The IBECThe U.S. Perspective

• Joseph I. Peters, Ph.D.
• Manager, ITS Program Assessment
• U.S. Department of Transportation

Inaugural Euro-Regional Conference June 11-13,
2003 Düsseldorf, Germany
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IBEC History

• ITS America BEC 1996 to 2002
• 6th ITS World Congress, Toronto, Canada, November
  1999
• All-day seminar prior to World Congress
• 7th ITS World Congress, Turin, Italy, November
  2000
• All-day workshop on final day of World Congress
• 8th ITS World Congress, Sydney, Australia,
  October 2001
• All-day workshop as four Special Sessions during
  World Congress

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IBEC History (cont.)

• 9th ITS World Congress, Chicago, USA, October
  2002
• All-day workshop as four Special Sessions during
  World Congress
• Half-day training course on ITS evaluation prior
  to World Congress
• Official launch of IBEC Working Group at evening
  reception
• During announcement by Eric Sampson, Head,
  Transport Technology Telematics Division,
  Department for Transport (DfT), U.K.

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IBEC Organization

• Full name
• International Benefits, Evaluation and Costs
  (IBEC) Working Group
• Mission
• To provide an international forum for information
  exchange on ITS evaluation techniques, best
  practices and results
• Membership
• FREE and open to all interested persons
• 167 members as of June 1, 2003
• To join, send e-mail to IBEC_at_trl.co.uk

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IBEC Organization (cont.)

• Chair
• Dr. Richard Mudge, Vice President, Delcan, Inc.
• Secretariat
• Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), U.K.
• Current funding provided by the Department for
  Transport (DfT), U.K.

? Website ? http//www.ibec-its.org
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IBEC Organization (cont.)

• First meeting
• January 16, 2003, Washington, D.C., USA
• Attendees
• Gerben Bootsma, AVV ? Richard Mudge, Delcan
• Mark Carter, SAIC ? Joe Peters, U.S. DOT
• R. Harris, Faber Maunsell ? Marcia Pincus, ITS
  America
• Greg Hatcher, Mitretek ? Amy Polk, Jet Propulsion
  Lab
• Jane Lappin, Volpe Center ? Barbara Staples,
  Mitretek
• Steve Morello, ISIS ? Marc Wolfram, Rupprect
  Consult
• Keith Keen, European Commission
• Approved IBEC charter
• Elected Richard Mudge for a two-year term as IBEC
  Chair

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IBEC Organization (cont.)

• Next Meeting
• November 20, 2003, 800am 930am, Madrid, Spain
• Held in conjunction with the 10th World Congress
  on Intelligent Transport Systems
• Agenda
• Agree on IBEC charter
• Update of the PIARC Handbook
• Planning for an international scanning tour on
  ITS evaluation
• Brainstorming of future IBEC activities
• To add your item to the agenda
• Contact IBEC Chair Dick Mudge at
  RMudge_at_delcan.com

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Future IBEC Activities

• 10th ITS World Congress, Madrid, Spain, November
  2003
• All-day workshop as four Special Sessions during
  World Congress
• Session 1 How Do Those Yanks Do It? Overview of
  ITS Evaluation in the U.S.
• Session 2 How Do Those Europeans Do It? Overview
  of ITS Evaluation in Europe
• Session 3 Show Me The Benefits Examples of ITS
  Evaluation Results
• Session 4 Now I Know The Benefits of ITS So
  What? How ITS Evaluation Results Are Used In
  Decision-Making
• Half-day training course on ITS evaluation as two
  Special Sessions during World Congress
• Will include both U.S. and European methodologies
• Breakfast business meeting on final day of World
  Congress

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Future IBEC Activities (cont.)

• International Scanning Tour(s)
• Evaluators serve as conduit to assist policy
  makers and implementers gain the knowledge they
  need
• Gain first-hand knowledge of ITS deployments
• Share lessons learned
• Positive
• Operational lessons often not documented due to
  cost
• In-situ context has unparalleled learning
  advantages
• Negative
• Less threatening to donor due to informal context
• International Dialogue About ITS Implementation
  and Evaluation Policies
• Brief USA examples
• ITS evaluation philosophy/policy

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US Evaluation Philosophy/Policy

• Misperceptions about evaluation
• Evaluation is the last phase of a project
• Independent evaluation requires separation of
  project managers from project evaluators
• Evaluators are a threat to the project livelihood
• US Evaluation Philosophy
• Evaluation is an activity that runs in parallel
  with a projects life cycle
• Independent evaluation requires removal of
  conflict of interest between project manager and
  evaluator
• Evaluators can be an asset to every project
  manager

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US Evaluation Philosophy/Policy (cont.)

• US Evaluation Policy
• National evaluations are awarded either before or
  soon after project awards
• Evaluators quickly identify and assemble
  stakeholders
• Explicitly identify project goals and objectives
• Identify critical success factors and relative
  values of partners
• Each partner assigns 100 points of importance
  across goals
• Distribution of evaluation investment reflects
  partner priorities
• Partners review evaluation strategy and test
  plans
• Partners review and comment on final reports

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US Evaluation Practices

• Evaluation periods must extend 12 to 18 months
  beyond initial operating capability of ITS
  deployments
• Months 0-8 Feedback to project managers for
  shakedown and refinements
• Months 9-12 Data collection for evaluation
  report
• Months 13 18 Report writing and at least 2
  iterations of review and comments
• Reports feed
• ITS Benefit/Cost Database
• Electronic Document Library available to public
• Possible Lessons Learned Data Base

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What Are Some US ITS Outreach Publications?

• Benefits Brochures
• Cross-Cutting Studies
• Case Studies
• Implementation Guides
• Technical Reports

Annotated list available at http//www.its.dot.gov
/guide.html -gt Cross-Cutting Resources -gt
Program Assessment and Evaluation
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U.S. Proposals for the IBEC

• Use of ITS Benefits and Costs Database by IBEC
  membership
• Whats in it for me?
• Central repository of ITS benefits and costs
• Database already developed and operational
• Use is FREE and open to all interested persons

? Database currently supports breakout of
entries by country
http//www.benefitcost.its.dot.gov
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U.S. Proposals for the IBEC (cont.)

• Widespread participation in the ITS Benefits
  2003 Data Needs Survey by IBEC membership
• Whats in it for me?
• Potential to influence future U.S. investments in
  evaluation
• Potential to learn about ITS benefits that are
  new to you

? Potential to incorporate valuable

European ITS evaluation
results into the database
http//itsdeployment2.ornl.gov/its_benefits
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Current Sample from B/C Database
Number of benefits entries in the ITS Benefits
and Unit Cost Database for sample ITS components
by region of origin
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Conclusions

• Momentum for IBEC launch has been building for
  several years.
• Official support provided by U.K. DfT.
• U.S. DOT is an active participant.
• IBEC has a dynamic, expanding, and increasingly
  important agenda.