September 24—Thomas H. West, a longtime official at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), has been named the new Director of the California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT). He succeeds Hamed Benouar, the founding director, who left for a post in private industry in August.

CCIT was founded in 2001 to facilitate commercialization and deployment of intelligent transportation system technologies by working with University of California researchers, Caltrans, and the transportation industry. In 2003, it became a stand-alone center at the Institute of Transportation Studies Berkeley (ITS).

West, who is a 20-year employee of Caltrans, served most recently as Caltrans' Program Manager for GoCalifornia, the $107 billion transportation component of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Strategic Growth Plan to Rebuild California. West's responsibilities included managing Proposition 1B, the ballot measure passed in November 2006 that authorizes nearly $20 billion in transportation bonds.

"Tom brings a wealth of experience, including strong working relationships with key members of the state and local transportation communities, which will help him advance the goals of CCIT," said Michael Cassidy, ITS Acting Director.

"I look forward to using my experience at Caltrans to forge partnerships and expand CCIT's role in helping identify and bring to deployment the most promising technologies that can help California meet the growing demands on its transportation system," West said.

West's earlier posts at Caltrans include Chief of the Division of Research and Innovation (DRI), Caltrans' research arm, which works closely with the University of California, the California State University system and various public agencies and private companies to develop technologies that address the state's transportation needs.

West also worked as Caltrans' project manager for California Partners for Advanced Highways and Transit (PATH), another ITS Berkeley research center, and helped initiate the 1997 National Automated Highway System Consortium, which presented a large-scale demonstration of automated vehicles and technologies developed in large part at PATH. He has been very active in Caltrans' intelligent transportation systems (ITS) programs, acting as liaison for the Division of Traffic Operations' state ITS deployment efforts.

West has a B.S. in Electrical/Electronic Engineering from the California State University at Chico.