§517 National Architecture and Standards

Summary

The Secretary must create and keep up a national plan and technical rules for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) under the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995. These rules must use systems engineering and help ITS be part of the nation’s surface transportation. They must, as much as possible, make different ITS technologies work together and run efficiently. The Secretary should work with recognized standards development groups that include people from the transportation and ITS industries. If a nationwide policy needs a single standard (for example, for collecting user fees), the Secretary may set and require that standard after talking with stakeholders. If a formal standard is taking too long and would slow progress, the Secretary can make a temporary standard after consultation, use existing work when possible, and publish it in the Federal Register until a standards group issues a final version. Projects paid for with Highway Trust Fund money must follow the regional ITS plan and the standards and protocols above, unless the Secretary grants an exemption for specific research projects identified in the national ITS program plan or the surface transportation research and development strategic plan under section 508.