Lessons in Network Management: Cross-Industry Comparisons and Implications for ITS Development

This report provides an historical and case study analysis of policies aimed toward the management of complex systems, with specific reference to the role of public policy and technology in balancing surface transportation system demand and supply. Three case studies form the crux of the paper energy management, airport management, and Internet growth. Lessons from these case studies are then applied to the circumstance of ITS deployment to manage surface transportation in California. Following an introductory section (1), section 2 provides an historical analysis of the forces with have combined to place the California transportation on the precipice of paradigm change. The historical factors that undermined the continued efficacy of these past infrastructure choices are easily identifiable: three influences -- the withering of roadway construction funds by general price inflation, a locationally footloose economy facilitating accelerated sprawl, and the rise of environmental regulation – effectively killed the post-war paradigm of road-building on demand. Yet traditional transportation planning procedures and capital construction program thinking continued to accent a practice of making capacity decisions on a link-specific basis, rather than devising an overall network approach.