three recommendations are offered to DOT and TSA for assuming this strategic role. The first recommendation stems from a recognition that the transportation sector is so large, dynamic, and fragmented that no single agency can be responsible for day-to-day security tactics and technologies. If TSA is to have a meaningful role in securing all the modes of transportation, it must be prepared to offer advice and assistance at a strategic level. The second and third recommendations recognize that TSA is the only national entity with responsibility for security in the transportation sector as a whole. It is therefore in the best position to ensure research is undertaken that is useful to all transportation modes and that good information on security technologies and methods is provided to the many public- and private-sector users and providers of transportation services.

Recommendation 7.1: TSA should establish a strategic research and planning office—attuned to, but distinct from, the agency’s operational and enforcement responsibilities—that can work with DOT, the modal agencies, other federal entities, state and local governments, and other elements of the public and private sectors on security system research, planning, and deployment.

Having a strong analytic capacity, the office could undertake the following:

• Explore and evaluate alternative security system concepts for the different modes of transportation through collaboration with the public- and private-sector owners, operators, and users and through the application of operations research and human factors expertise.

• Ensure that there are no gaps in security planning and preparation because of the narrow purview, perspectives, and knowledge of individual modal agencies and owners, operators, and users of transportation systems.

• Encourage the explicit inclusion of security goals in the transportation planning process and in the design of vehicles, facilities, and operating systems by seeking out dual-use opportunities and by identifying design standards for new transportation systems and facilities that fully integrate security considerations.

• Advise metropolitan governments and transportation agencies on the need to develop integrated regional emergency response plans; and advise local and state transportation agencies, public transportation authorities, and related entities on how to reshape their administrative structures so as to give security prominence in their planning and decision making.

• Explore ways in which security enhancements can be encouraged, and how market and institutional barriers to the deployment of security measures can