Dot Targets $7 Million To Combine Intelligent Transportion Systems With Amber Alert
A $7 million grant program to help states apply Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to existing or proposed AMBER (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert programs has been announced by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The AMBER Plan is a voluntary partnership between law enforcement agencies and broadcasters to activate an urgent bulletin on child-abduction cases.
This new DOT grant program provides funds to states to plan systems and procedures to incorporate various traveler information applications such as changeable message signs (CMS) into the issuance of AMBER alerts.
Each state, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia are eligible for $125,000 grants for designing systems that support the coordination necessary to issue an AMBER alert and to provide the means to communicate an alert to motorists. The criteria for funding these grant requests are intended to ensure that notifications are well designed and to enable law enforcement and transportation sectors to work together.
In addition, the grants will support automated communication between emergency responders and transportation agencies. The underpinning ITS technologies provide a foundation for electronic exchange of real-time information that can save valuable time in responding to traffic incidents and other emergencies.
To obtain these grants, applicants must submit an acceptable technical approach and financial plan with evidence that their plans can be completed successfully in a timely fashion.
Applications must be received by Aug. 1, 2003. Application instructions as well as details of the AMBER grant program are available at www.its.dot.gov.
