Vancouver Area Smart Trek

The VAST Program has been managed by RTC since 2001 and is one of RTC’s ongoing programs. VAST program activities include regional collaboration on transportation system management and operations (TSMO) and on intelligent transportation systems (ITS).

TSMO strategies focus on lower cost operational projects that are regionally coordinated and better utilize existing transportation facilities without expanding roadway capacity. The operational projects include a wide range of projects such as traveler information, freeway management, arterial management, coordinated incident management, and transit signal priority. The availability of traveler information in the region has expanded significantly over the last several years and supports improved travel reliability, travel choices, and informed commuters.

The Regional ITS Architecture is an important element of planning for operations and the development and implementation of operational and transportation technology projects. The architecture defines the technical and informational interfaces between the ITS systems and devices to ensure they are interoperable and integrated. The ITS architecture benefits agencies to ensure cost efficiency and better effectiveness of operational projects.

The ITS element of the VAST program provides coordination and management for the deployment of ITS projects, infrastructure, and equipment to ensure integration and interoperability of operational projects.

The VAST Program was established in 2001 and is a coalition of state, regional and local agencies which have been working actively together for decades to implement ITS and operations solutions to address the region’s transportation needs. The VAST Program has been a successful and beneficial collaboration for the VAST partner agencies. RTC implements the program in coordination with the: City of Vancouver, WSDOT, Clark County, C-TRAN, and City of Camas. The partnership has been an effective way for the agencies to coordinate project delivery, joint project funding, monitoring project development, and project integration to improve transportation operations.

As part of the operations program, RTC and the VAST agencies have partnered with Portland State University and Portland area transportation agencies to maintain and improve the Portal Data Archive hosted by the ITS Lab at PSU. It contains historical and real-time transportation data from agencies in the Vancouver Portland region in a single location. This transportation information warehouse can be used by researchers, planners, traffic engineers, and the public to look at transportation performance.