Low-cost, simple solutions to transportation problems.

This paper describes the Rural Outreach Project, performed for the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which identified and described proven, cost effective solutions for rural transportation-related problems or needs. The definition used during the project for these "simple solutions" was that an application need not be currently considered an intelligent transportation system (ITS) as such, but that it should represent a technology-based, effective, practical solution for an existing or impending problem. The paper describes the approach utilized in the study, and describes some of the findings. What was discovered during this study was that numerous low-cost, small-scale, localized implementations of technology are in place across the U.S.