Top innovators in transportation system management and operations win national awards

The National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) is today, announcing the winners of its 2021 Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) Awards Competition. Now in its third year, the national contest represents the latest TSMO projects and programs that are increasing the efficiency of America’s existing infrastructure to address air quality and improve the safety and mobility of the traveling public.

The winners and runners-up across this year’s categories are:

Best TSMO Project
Winner: Pennsylvania DOT – TSMO Performance Program and Traffic Operations Analytics Tool (video)
Runner-up: Bellevue, WA – Accelerating Vison Zero with Advanced Video Analytics (video)

Agency Improvement
Winner: North Carolina DOT – TIM Training Track (video)
Runner-up: Florida DOT – District 2 Personnel Development (video)

Work Zones Using TSMO
Winner: Iowa DOT – Comprehensive Work Zone Management Program (video)
Runner-up: Maricopa County DOT, MAG, and Arizona DOT – AZTech Smarter Work Zone (video)

Project Selection and Prioritization
Winner: Pennsylvania DOT – Regional Operations Plans (video)
Runner-up: Nevada DOT – TSMO Investment Prioritization Tool (video)
 
NOCoE released case studies and case study videos for each of the four winners and four runners-up in the 2021 competition. In the coming year, NOCoE will release the case studies for each of the projects entered in the competition. Transportation practitioners and decision makers can access more than a hundred case studies available on NOCoE’s website (https://transportationops.org) to learn about how TSMO practices and programs are benefiting travelers and transportation agencies and practitioners across the country.

Patrick Son, NOCoE managing director said, “The TSMO industry continues to demonstrate that the traveling public benefits when existing infrastructure is operated and managed effectively. These awards and their case studies, are an effort to transfer knowledge of these practices across the industry.”

The focus on Work Zone and Project Selection and Prioritization categories this year corresponded with a previous NOCoE peer exchange and NOCoE Summit addressing these practices in relation to TSMO. “The multi-disciplinary nature of TSMO necessitates that we recognize a wide range of projects to demonstrate how TSMO is being used across the country,” said Son. “For example, TSMO projects are now being incorporated into larger transportation planning efforts to improve work zone safety and efficiency which is saving the lives of highway workers and motorists alike.”

The NOCoE TSMO Awards are open to cities, counties, MPOs (RPO, COG), state DOTs, and private sector organizations.

The winner in each category automatically becomes a nominee for the Overall TSMO Award, to be presented in late Spring. Last year’s Overall TSMO Award Winner was Georgia Department of Transportation for it’s Automated Traffic Signal Performance Measure system.