Maricopa County, Arizona, is one of the fastest growing counties in the United States. One of the visions of the Maricopa County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) is to develop a regionally integrated, multimodal, interoperable transportation management system. A key to achieving this vision is intelligent transportation systems (ITS) mainstreaming. ITS mainstreaming is a multi-phased solution that consists of both a top-down and a bottom-up approach. The first phase is to provide for continued, incremental deployment of ITS infrastructure by considering ITS projects as part of the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The United States Department of Transportation has provided "Top-Down" planning guidance through ITS Strategic Planning and the National ITS Architecture to enable state and local agencies to mainstream ITS into the TIP development process. The second step of ITS mainstreaming is at the project level. MCDOT has developed a "Bottom-Up" ITS mainstreaming process that maps ITS needs identified in the Regional ITS Strategic Plan directly into capital improvement projects for inclusion in the TIP. The ITS mainstreaming process examines a project for the potential to include ITS to meet a specific need or address a desired level of system functionality. This project level mainstreaming incorporates ITS considerations directly into conceptual project plans and detailed designs through the use of ITS design guidelines and functional specifications. It is envisioned that this process, initially used in MCDOT's project planning efforts, has a broader application to encourage ITS mainstreaming at all levels of local agency project development and operations. MCDOT has developed a systematic approach to maintain a consistent level of ITS deployment and in some cases accelerate the deployment of ITS. This ITS mainstreaming process, is being phased into MCDOT's TIP planning and design process. By applying the concept of ITS mainstreaming, MCDOT asks several questions during the development of a TIP project: (1) Is there an opportunity to include ITS components in this construction project? (2) Does the ITS Strategic Plan (or other regional plan) identify specific ITS needs that could be included as part of this project? (3) What types of ITS solutions could be incorporated into this particular project? (4) Would ITS help to improve safety, mobility, or operational characteristics at this project location? (5) Would it be cost-effective to include ITS infrastructure for future use or interconnectivity at this project location? (6) Are the desired ITS components consistent with the regional ITS architecture? As part of their ITS mainstreaming program, MCDOT has developed an ITS assessment process for each stage of the TIP project development. The purpose of this paper is to describe the MCDOT ITS assessment process for including ITS infrastructure in its TIP projects. The current status of the program as well as the development of MCDOT ITS design guidelines and details are also discussed.
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