Despite a number of well-publicized studies (5–9) concerning the remarkable payoffs of investments in ITS technology extrapo- lated from a handful of operational tests, ITS benefits assessment is not a straightforward matter and poses significant challenges. Capital planning and programming procedures at NYSDOT require that projects with an ITS content compete for scarce resources with projects whose approach is in line with the traditional capacity- increase philosophy. The scarcity of good tools for benefits evalu- ation of ITS elements for use at the program development and update stages hinders the ready programming and deployment of new ITS user services. In this paper, a research effort led by the Calspan University at Buffalo Research Center for NYSDOT is described. The effort aims at developing a library of modeling tools called ITS Options Analy- sis Model (ITSOAM) to evaluate the merit of ITS deployment ele- ments within a benefits-cost framework. ITSOAM is developed as a sketch-planning tool to meet the diverse needs of New York State ITS coordinators in their economic assessment of expected user and operational benefits imputable to specific ITS elements in specific corridors. It is intended as a system assisting engineers and plan- ners in screening worthy ITS deployments. With this objective in mind, fewer resources (data, time, and analyst expertise) need to be mobilized to conduct economic evaluation. The functionality built into ITSOAM evolved from an extensive outreach effort by the study team among ITS stakeholders within NYSDOT. It rests on the following principles: • Compatibility with evaluation tools and processes used for con- ventional capital projects at NYSDOT and New York State metro- politan planning organizations. With this in mind, only delay, safety, environmental (emission and fuel consumption), and for some ITS services, operational benefits are quantified. No attempt is made to quantify other types of benefits. • Compatibility with NYSDOT goals. When appropriate, four primary benefit groups are quantified: delay, safety, emission, and fuel cost. • Evaluation centered on individual ITS market packages (10), or elements thereof, rather than on ITS components. • Estimation of benefits at the scale best suited for the planning of ITS elements under consideration (i.e., at the corridor, subregion, or facility level). • Low input data requirement. As a program development tool, ITSOAM must be self-contained and implementable without resorting to a four-step planning model or a traffic simulation model. • Analysis of sensitivity to critical model parameters, such as rate of traffic diversion in response to variable message signs (VMSs) or incident detection time. Dependence on local deployment condi- tions and uncertainty concerning the effects of ITS elements can be captured by sensitivity analysis. The design and development of a library of modeling tools called ITS Options Analysis Model (ITSOAM) to evaluate the merit of intelligent transportation system (ITS) deployment elements within a benefits-cost framework are described. ITSOAM is designed as a sketch-planning tool to meet the diverse needs of New York State ITS coordinators in their eco- nomic assessment of expected user and operational benefits imputable to specific ITS elements in specific corridors. It is intended as a system assist- ing engineers and planners in screening worthy ITS deployments. The general modeling philosophy and framework of ITSOAM are presented, with an emphasis on the evaluation of basic information dissemination by variable message signs. Many state departments of transportation have embraced intelli- gent transportation system (ITS) technologies for offering alterna- tive strategies to achieving their programmatic goals. As early as 1992, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) estab- lished a “Policy for the Application of IVHS [Intelligent Vehicle- Highway Systems] in New York State” (1). In this policy statement, NYSDOT pledges to “encourage the development and implementa- tion of technological solutions to known or predicted transportation problems, provided these technological solutions are cost-effective and consistent with the Department’s program goals” (1, p. 2). The department’s policy was visionary in more ways than one. It foresaw the need to “institutionalize IVHS thinking throughout the depart- ment and to have consideration of IVHS technologies become a fun- damental project development activity” (1, p. 5). The interweaving of ITS considerations into the transportation program development process is also the cornerstone of several FHWA-funded initiatives, including the ITS Planning Handbook (2) and the ITS Deployment Analysis System (IDAS) (3, 4 ). The ability to conduct options analysis concerning alternative capital investments in new lane capacity versus more efficient use of existing lane capacity as a means of increasing throughput and enhancing safety is limited by the benefits evaluation tools and models available to planners. The tools and models available to conduct options analysis among different types of ITS technologies are equally limited. As the national ITS program transitions from operational tests to field deployment, emphasis is shifting away from technological implementation issues and toward market and user acceptance, user benefits, and integration of ITS approaches with a range of other strategies and programs and within the trans- portation planning process. Simultaneously, data on the outcome of operational tests become available to perform analysis of user ben- efits of ITS services and to assist in making program decisions among competing options. 60 ■ Transportation Research Record 1774 Paper No. 01- 3118 Benefits Evaluation of Basic Information Dissemination Services Jean-Claude Thill and Galina Rogova J.-C. Thill, Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo, Amherst, NY 14261. G. Rogova, Calspan University at Buffalo Research Center, Buffalo, NY 14225.