CD Compendium: Best of Emergency Transportation Operations, ITS Public Safety

The U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office has released a CD ROM that shares a robust collection of tools and information from the ITS Public Safety Program and the Emergency Transportation Operations (ETO) Initiative.

The ETO Initiative was launched by the ITS Public Safety Program in 2004 to improve the speed and effectiveness of response and management of major incidents. The Initiative has focused on practical tools, procedures, and information that can be used to actively manage and expedite the safe progress of an evacuation. The newly released "Best of Emergency Transportation Operations, ITS Public Safety" CD-ROM contains collaborative input from across the Department's modal offices, and is organized in the following functional areas:

• Public Access to Emergency Services Opportunities to reduce deaths and injuries from emergencies exist through better communications technologies.
• Enhanced Information Sharing Public safety can be improved when information is shared across organizations and jurisdictions.
• Evacuation Management and Operations New tools and processes help agencies plan for and manage evacuations.
• Transportation Operations During Biohazard Situations Comprehensive and actionable understanding of the role of transportation during a biohazard situation allows communities to better plan for, respond to, and recover from such situations.
• Preparedness and Response To safely, efficiently, and effectively manage incidents and emergencies, a wide range of activities, programs, and systems are required to be developed and implemented prior to the event.
• Planned Special Events Local agencies are implementing new approaches to plan, coordinate, and manage traffic, thereby advancing the current practice of planned special events.

Details about the ITS Public Safety Program and ETO initiative, along with downloadable materials on the above topics, are available online at http://www.its.dot.gov/its_publicsafety/index.htm.

The ITS Public Safety Program was initiated in 2000 to increase transportation safety and mobility through new and dynamic partnerships linking the transportation and public safety communities at the Federal, State, regional, local, and tribal levels. This program is a collaborative effort between RITA, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).