TSMO Awards

Submission Due October 19

About NOCoE

At the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE), our aim is to support and empower the people who conduct the nation’s Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO), by connecting them with experts and sharing best practices to save lives, time and money.

NOCoE TSMO Awards

To celebrate your successes, we are announcing the NOCoE TSMO Awards to showcase the very best in our industry.

These awards will celebrate the use of TSMO, encourage its expansion throughout the United States, and in line with our mission, we will also share your impactful and creative solutions with the industry. 

The NOCoE TSMO Awards are open to any city, county, MPO (RPO, COG), state DOT or private sector organization. We ask that you submit using the guidelines and rules outlined below.

A panel of TSMO expert judges will select winners in the four primary categories described below. They will then choose one overall winning submission from among the category winners.

Judges will also select an individual to be honored as the TSMO Champion of the Year, chosen for his or her work in advancing the TSMO cause and changing the way people think about transportation.

We anticipate strong competition and even if your submission doesn’t win, your entry may be chosen to be showcased on our website (with your permission of course).

Good luck, and we look forward to celebrating your work!

TSMO Award Timeline

August

Contest begins with NOCoE accepting submissions

October

Submission deadline: Friday, October 19 (11:59 p.m. EST)

November

Judging ends: November 9

Winners announced on website and in social media: week of November 12

January 2019

Panel discussion, awards ceremony and reception take place at TRB

Award Categories for Submission (One winner per category)

Major incident or special event planning and response – This award will recognize an agency or organization’s response to a specific incident special event utilizing TSMO, and should detail interagency cooperation in planning and response as well as any measures of effectiveness on safety, travel time reliability and/or congestion.

Improving your agency’s TSMO capabilities – This award will recognize an agency or organization that successfully integrates CMM/CMF into its organization structure and the TSMO benefits that came out of it. This should include how the capabilities in each of the CMM/CMF dimensions have been improved through the use of the agency or organization self-assessments and implementation of follow on action plans.

Best TSMO project (creative solution) – This award will recognize a successful “on the ground project” e.g. ATM, SPaT corridor, V2I pilot, ICM or other improvement with consideration of safety, congestion and/or travel time reliability improvements resulting from the TSMO project, compared to a traditional capacity based approach.

Public Communications – This award will recognize an agency for use of communications strategies, tactics and tools to inform the public of specific TSMO solutions and their benefits. Submissions should demonstrate public awareness generated by the communications activities.

 

Special Awards (One winner per special award)

NOCoE TSMO Overall Winner – This award will be chosen from among the category winners as the best overall submission and will be announced during TRB 2019.

TSMO Champion – This award will recognize an individual for their contributions to advancing the practice of TSMO and changing the way people and organizations think about transportation. Please send nominations to pson@transportationops.org.

Prizes and Recognition

Each selected winner (the person submitting the application or their designated surrogate) and a guest will receive a round-trip airplane ticket to the 2019 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting.

During a panel session at the TRB Annual Meeting, each winner will be allowed 15-minutes to present their project to attendees and then participate in a moderated TSMO panel.  

Winners will be honored with an award presentation during an after-hour awards reception.  During this ceremony the overall winner will be announced and presented with the overall NOCoE TSMO Award Trophy.

Each of the four category winners will receive recognition through media announcements, NOCoE’s social channels and bi-weekly newsletter, as well as on the NOCoE website where their case studies will be hosted and shared as leading examples of TSMO.

The TSMO Champion, (selected by the judges) will also receive round-trip airfare for themselves and a guest. He or she will also be presented with the NOCoE TSMO Champion Trophy during the after-hours award reception and will also be recognized in NOCoE communications channels.

Award Submission Eligibility

The NOCoE TSMO Awards are open to any city, county, MPO (RPO, COG), state DOT and private sector organization.

Award Criteria

Applicants should describe a TSMO project or strategy implemented within the last five years that demonstrates transportation management or operations success in saving lives, time or money (individually or in combination). Entries will be judged based on submitted materials including the case study (with weighted sections) and any supporting documentation that demonstrates an overall public, community and industry impact, as well as creativity in advancing TSMO.

Please note: Submissions will be shared publicly and on the NOCoE website (unless otherwise requested).

Submission Rules

All applications for the 2018/19 awards cycle must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. on October 19, 2018 and include any supporting documentation that further explains the processes involved. Each submission packet should include:

  • Name of the organization(s) applying for the award
  • Name of contact applying for the award including:
    • Address (city, state, zip code, country)
    • Phone number
    • E-mail
    • Twitter handle (if applicable)
  • Category being applied for
  • 800 – 1,200 words (no penalty for going over, but please do not be excessive)
  • Include the following sections:
    • Background - Provide details of history and situation that led to a need for a TSMO solution
    • TSMO Planning, Strategies and Deployment - Provide details of the TSMO implementation process from beginning to end
    • Communications Planning and Execution - Provide details of the communications process with the public, within your agency, and if applicable, coordination with other agencies
    • Outcome, Benefit and Learnings - Provide details of how the TSMO solution worked, any public or community benefit and lessons learned
    • Any supplemental materials that are not included in the case study submission document (ex. graphics/diagrams, pictures, architecture, PDFs, PowerPoints etc.) should be submitted at the same time. Please make sure all supporting documents share a common title (ex. AZ TSMO Award, AZ TSMO Photo1, AZ TSMO Diagram1)

Applicants may submit up to ten files with images and supporting documents. NOTE – system will reject files of greater than 500 MB.

Submissions may be submitted by email with subject line NOCoE TSMO Awards to: nocoe@transportationops.org; ahopps@transportationops.org

Judging Criteria

15% – Background

30% – TSMO Planning, Strategies and Deployment

15% – Communications Planning and Execution

40% – Outcome, Learnings and Public Benefit