San Diego Field Operational Test of Smart Call Boxes: Institutional Issues

Abstract

Important institutional lessons learned in the course of the San Diego smart call box field operational test are presented. These lessons relate both to the conduct of the field test itself and to requirements for deployment of intelligent transportation systems similar to smart call boxes. The institutional issues were identified through review of project documents, interviews with participants, and the experience of the evaluator as a participant in the project. Issues were analyzed by preparing summaries that included a description and discussion of each issue, an assessment of its seriousness, identification of the organizational participants who raised it, a discussion of ways to avoid or mitigate any problems identified, and a list of actions to resolve the issue in the event of system deployment. Major institutional lessons include the potential impact of institutional arrangements on basic system concepts, the importance of involving potential users in the definition of system concepts and detailed design specifications, the need for quantitative market research to establish the potential profitability of intelligent transportation systems, the need for an adequate institutional infrastructure for deployment, and the importance of project organization schemes that minimize the number and complexity of formal agreements among participants.