Data Partnering Between Transportation Agencies for Mutual Benefit: The Illinois Experience

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has taken an active approach to identifying and implementing data partnering relationships that provide mutual benefits. These partnerships involve other state agencies, local agencies, and metropolitan planning organizations. Demand has increased for comprehensive, accurate, and timely information for planning and asset management activities. Data partnering relationships can provide many benefits, including more complete data collection, data verification, and improved data accessibility. Effective data partnering requires well-defined responsibilities, cooperation, and the commitment of each agency. IDOT's data partnering relationships in three critical areas of data collection and dissemination are detailed: rail-highway crossings, traffic, and structures. Given trends in the decreasing resources for data collection, multiagency data partnering activities likely will increase. It is important to manage these activities properly to improve the enterprise data resource.