Transportation spending to soar

State and local government spending on emerging technologies for intelligent transportation systems will jump from $1.8 billion in 2004 to $2.5 billion in 2009, according to an August report by Input Inc.

The Reston, Va., market researcher predicted that growth in the state and local transportation IT market will start slowly, but accelerate sharply in fiscal 2006 and hit a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent through fiscal 2009.

Spending will center on smart-highway initiatives such as real-time traffic and weather updates, comprehensive automobile tracking and universal toll collection.