Meeting/Event Information

Hello NMITE Members and Affiliates!

Please join us on August 6th, 2026  for a joint summer meeting with ITS NM at the MRCOG Board room. Nathan Masek will be presenting on TSMO and ITS in MPO Regional Transportation Planning; an Effective Approach at MRMPO. Meeting Attendance is free but you will need to register to redeem lunch.

An MPO represents federal, state, and local agency integrated planning with the responsibility of delivery of a muti-modal transportation program that meets the prescribed mobility goals and cooperative environment of region. Further, 23 CFR Part 450 outlines key responsibilities of the MPO which include crucial elements that when integrated, provide an effective methodology to promote TSMO and ITS Deployment on a project and project-element level.

The role of ITS is crucial in the development of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP), the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), the Congestion Management Process (CMP), with the AMPA’s Regional Intelligent Transportation Architecture and when fully integrated in these processes, ITS/TSMO recommendations can ensure that –

·       Project/Project-level ITS/TSMO “elements” are identified in the MTP and TIP plan early development stages

·       All ITS proposed projects are vetted by the ITS Subcommittee, which is comprised of regional ITS stakeholders to ensure coordination and consistency with

·       all ITS projects are consistent with the AMPA Regional Architecture, ie, Rule 940 and Systems Engineering

A hierarchy of committees administer responsibilities for each of these multi-modal transportation planning elements, and it is the confluence of this coordination that establishes an ideal mechanism to promote TSMO and ITS to the benefit of improved system efficiency and safety for all modes including vehicle and vulnerable road users.

At MRMPO the CMP Committee also comprised of member agencies works with the ITS Subcommittee (ITS SC) to evaluate transportation project priority ranking in the TIP. With the ITS Subcommittee comprised of member agency traffic engineers, planners, and operators; the two committees function separately but work in cooperation to ensure that projects evaluated by the CMP have adequately considered TSMO and ITS, and are consistent with the Regional ITS Architecture. It is noteworthy that the performance measures used by the CMP are directly related to actual TSMO/ITS Services from the Regional Architecture, thus ensuring that projects in the TIP are consistent with 23 CFR Part 940 (Rule 940) on ITS.

Nathan Masek, AICP

Senior Transportation Planner II/Traffic Monitoring Program Manager, Mid Region MPO/Mid Region Council of Governments (MRMPO/MRCOG), Former President and current Board Member, Intelligent Transportation Society of New Mexico. Nathan has been a transportation planner in the private and public sectors for over 30 years. He is specialized in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), as well as Congestion Management, travel performance summary and traffic data collection, freight planning,  modelling, GIS, and transportation project development, management, and support. His current role at the Mid Region Council of Governments involves the coordination of ITS among member agencies, including the integration of ITS into the transportation planning process and the promoting the importance of integrated traffic operations management and traveler information. He also manages the MRCOG Traffic Monitoring Program and is currently working on using technology and innovative approaches to support performance measures in Build America/MAP 21/FAST Act and Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSM&O) all to promote transportation’s role in Incident and Emergency Management, shared ITS infrastructure using ArcGIS online among AMPA stakeholders, as well as ITS New Mexico’s promotion of connected and autonomous vehicles in the state of New Mexico. He has a Bachelor’s of Arts in Geography with a specialization in Urban and Transportation from San Diego State University, and has Master’s work in Geography with a specialization in Urban and Transportation Geography and GIS from SDSU and the University of New Mexico, respectively. Nathan is a member/friend of several TRB Committees and is also an avid cyclist.