Improving a corridor's safety, mobility, or any other dimension requires first a solid understanding of the facts on the ground. If an ICM project is to be successful and relevant, it must be founded on a complete, accurate, and detailed picture of the corridor:
- What are the corridor's attributes?
- What monitoring and control technologies are in place? Are they working properly?
- What are the corridor's operational conditions and challenges?
- What are the needs of corridor users?
Answering these questions involves:
- Gathering and analyzing a wide range of information about the corridor
- Assessing the condition of its monitoring and control systems
- Understanding its operational characteristics
- Identifying user needs for the project
In the Connected Corridors project timeline, these activities fall under the tasks of:
- Concept Exploration & User Needs (evaluating current operations and problems to resolve)
- Corridor Preparation (ensuring that monitoring and control systems are operating adequately)
While these tasks are identified separately in the timeline, they proceed in parallel and interact in complementary ways.