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Committee weighs adding digital‑infrastructure focus and tightens scope for active‑transportation technologies
Summary
Staff proposed adding a 'digital infrastructure and data systems' focus area and consolidating several narrow categories into broader groupings; the committee asked for scoping documents and feedback and will revisit recommendations at the July meeting.
The Transportation Technology Committee discussed Focus Area 2—active transportation—and proposed refinements to TTC focus-area typologies on April 28.
Hillary (staff) said Alexandria submitted 24 projects and recommended creating a new digital‑infrastructure category to house work such as digital twins, asset scanning and asset‑management systems. "I had proposed that we create this new category so that those had a place to live," Hillary said, explaining some projects did not fit existing categories and were being listed as "other."
Staff also suggested consolidating overlapping categories into broader groupings (for example, combining automated enforcement with safety technology or grouping automation and AI under an "emerging technologies" umbrella). Committee members debated whether to capture failed projects as lessons learned—several said documenting evaluations would be valuable to prevent repeating mistakes, while others said technology evolves rapidly and not all past failures are relevant.
Members emphasized that active‑transportation technology often overlaps with broader safety and multimodal work. "A lot of what we do is based on safety," one committee member said, suggesting prioritization criteria (top‑tier vs. lower‑tier) could help avoid overloading the map with routine items such as widely used leading pedestrian intervals.
Staff said they will circulate scoping documents for Focus Areas 1 and 2 in the coming days, request feedback over several weeks, and return with a distilled set of recommended adjustments at the TTC’s July 28 meeting.
