| AAMVA Celebrates 50 Years of Supporting D20 Data Standards(July 2024) - By 1965 there were a total of 90,357,667 vehicles (private and public) registered in the United States and there were 98,502 licensed drivers driving those vehicles. With 51 jurisdictions keeping track of all those drivers in using their own methods and terminology, it became clear that road safety was being impacted by folks not being able to understand out of state data (a suspension on a driver’s record, a reason on a crash report, etc.). The situation was serious enough for NHTSA to put a requirement into the federal regulations with the threat of the loss of highway funds. Enter the Data Element Dictionary for Traffic Records Systems (aka, D20). D20 provides standard terminology and coding instructions used by motor vehicle administrators to describe vehicle registration, drivers, and crashes. In other words, it established a common language for MVAs to use when sharing data. Without these standards, each of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions would record elements with their own data definitions, which would then have to be mapped to 50 other formats allowing the states to exchange the information. D20 currently has 520 elements that are referenced 13,250 times in AAMVA messages. If each state had its own format that could be 662,500 elements to map. While traffic injuries continue to happen, not understanding the data is no longer cited as a contributing cause. For 50 years AAMVA has been tasked with maintaining the D20 Standards, and for 50 years the challenges of the 60s have not been a concern. That's less headaches for our member jurisdictions, which is something to celebrate, indeed! |
As the use of computerized data systems for motor vehicle programs increases, the need to transfer data between those systems and organizations also increases. The D20 Standard for Traffic Records Systems contains data element definitions used by the motor vehicle administration community. The standard provides standard terminology and coding instructions that promote uniformity of data elements exchanged between organizations in the following areas:
Communication standards such as D20 allow organizations (such as jurisdictions) to have a standardized convention to exchange business data. Through this exchange, driver and registration information is available to assure the issuance of accurate licenses, registration, and titles. D20 is designed to facilitate continued coordination among data system developers. For new systems and system modifications, organizations are encouraged to use data elements in the D20 dictionary whenever possible to promote consistency and uniformity.
D20 definitions are used in:
Terminology and codes used in the D20 dictionary come from many sources. Whenever possible, definitions from other standards, practices, and rules are used to maintain consistency. Most requests to enhance D20 originate from motor vehicle agency systems because the D20 data definitions are used in the exchange of data between these systems. However, because D20 is an open standard, any interested party may submit a request to update D20.
To support current technologies, two versions of D20 are now available. The AMIE version is a continuation of the earlier editions of D20. A new JSON version of D20 is now also available, which presents data formats more suited to technologies like web services.
file - 11/28/2023
file - 11/28/2023
