The National ITS Architecture defines the following primary goals and metrics for ITS: In 1956, the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act initiated a 35-year $114 billion program that designed and constructed the interstate highway system.
This included meetings held by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in October 1986 to discuss technology applied to future advanced highways.
It had a primary goal of providing "the foundation for the nation to compete in the global economy".
This new mixture of infrastructure and technology was identified as an intelligent transportation system (ITS) and was the centerpiece of the 1991 ISTEA act.
ITS is loosely defined as "the application of computers, communications, and sensor technology to surface transportation".