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A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299 (2009)

Chapter: 5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

5
Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management

As demonstrated in previous chapters, mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted and conservation of energy used in transportation will most likely have to involve more than vehicles and fuels if society commits to 60 to 80 percent reductions in transportation GHG emissions by 2050. Legislation introduced in both the House and the Senate in 2009 implies substantial reductions in transportation GHG emissions. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Waxman’s and Congressman Markey’s proposed bill (H.R. 2454) passed the House of Representatives in June 2009. It would establish a carbon cap-and-trade program, encourage introduction of electric vehicles, require Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation of GHG emissions from heavy-duty transportation vehicles, and require states and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to follow EPA’s guidance in setting targets and planning for reductions in transportation GHG emissions. The bill establishes a goal of reducing GHG emissions by 83 percent from overall 2005 levels by 2050. The legislation does not set transportation-specific requirements, but it requires EPA to set transportation GHG emission reduction targets that states and MPOs should meet. In addition, it outlines a variety of transportation mitigation efforts that states and MPOs could analyze and that regions could implement in pursuing their own GHG emission reduction goals. Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Boxer and Senator Kerry unveiled a bill in October 2009 that has similar provisions.

The surface transportation reauthorization bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Chairman Oberstar of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has planning and target-setting goals that mirror those of Waxman–Markey. The surface transportation reauthorization

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

bill introduced by Chairman Rockefeller of the Senate Commerce, Transportation, and Science Committee and Senator Lautenberg (S. 1036) calls for annual reductions in per capita vehicle miles of travel, a 40 percent reduction in transportation GHG emissions by 2030, increased use of public transportation, and an increase of 10 percent in the proportion of freight moved on nonhighway modes. In addition, various states have adopted plans to reduce future vehicle miles of travel.

As described in Chapter 3, the effectiveness, costs, feasibility, and acceptability of most strategies to mitigate transportation GHG emissions have not been established. Because travel and economic growth are tightly linked, implementing the most cost-effective mitigation policies would help minimize reductions in future prosperity. The federal government, states, MPOs, cities, and counties will all set transportation policies. Thus, the audience for transportation policy guidance is large and diffuse. The research areas identified in Chapter 3 would provide guidance for policy decisions at all levels of government.

The climate will continue to change for decades because of GHGs already in the atmosphere. Therefore, well-designed adaptation to climate change needs to begin. The infrastructure capital costs of raising or replacing bridges, roads, and guideways vulnerable to flooding, for example, are high, and climate impacts at the spatial and temporal scales that transportation officials require cannot be predicted. The recommendations in Chapter 4 provide a framework for conducting research that can guide decisions about effective transportation adaptation strategies.

RESEARCH PROGRAM COST

The committee believes that the urgency of responding to energy and climate change goals requires initiation of the research identified in previous chapters in short order. The technical information to inform policy decisions and practice could be significantly enhanced over the course of the next surface transportation authorization cycle, although at least two such cycles would likely be required to complete the envisioned fundamental and applied research. Some of the recommended research will probably need to continue on a regular basis, much as safety, operations, and other subjects are ongoing topics of research.

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

The committee was charged with developing approximate costs of the research programs it recommends. As a first step in developing these estimates, the committee asked each of the commissioned paper authors to develop a “bottoms up” estimate derived from the research topics the authors’ recommended and their judgment as experienced researchers and research managers.1 The committee relied on these estimates, in part, and applied its judgment, as explained below.

As indicated in Chapters 3 and 4, the topics suggested for research are examples of areas where facts are unknown or in dispute or the committee judges that genuine progress in understanding can be made. A rigorous cost estimate would have required more detailed research road maps than the committee had the time or resources to develop. There is a compelling need to initiate research and analysis to provide the best possible guidance for policy makers based on existing literature, available data, and professional judgment. The committee believes that this cost can be reasonably approximated on the basis of previous experience.

Estimates of the cost of the fundamental mitigation research and the applied adaptation research are necessarily more speculative. The committee believes that scholars and experts will need to be convened to provide guidance on the most promising areas. Nevertheless, transportation research programs are typically authorized for periods of 5 or 6 years, and progress in addressing climate change and energy conservation needs to commence as soon as possible. Therefore, the committee has expressed its judgment with regard to the appropriate scale at which to start these activities in the upcoming authorization. The experience that will be gained will help inform subsequent authorizations.

Mitigation

In the mitigation area, a program with two main components is suggested. The first, policy guidance and outreach, would initially provide policy makers with technical guidance for implementing mitigation policies based on available research. It would also provide practitioners with guidance for analyzing and implementing mitigation strategies and

1

See the detailed estimates prepared by Burbank (2009), pp. 16–32 and Table 2; estimates prepared by McNeil (2009), Table 7; and those prepared by Whitty and Svadlenak (2009), pp. 117–119.

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

improving technical tools. These tools would initially be based on the best available information and would be improved as new information emerges from the fundamental research program described below.

The committee has drawn on Burbank’s (2009) discussion of needed areas of research and her estimates of program costs, but it suggests a considerably scaled-back approach at the outset. She identifies a large-scale program of activity and technical assistance that would exceed $50 million per year. The committee suggests starting with a smaller set of the most critical policy research activities described in Chapter 3 in the section on policy guidance and outreach. The committee estimates that the five applied policy research topics in that section could all be completed within a total cost of $5 million. Outreach to policy makers at the state, regional, and local levels could be conducted for $1 million annually once new guidance had been developed; hence it would not gear up until the third year or so. Updating technical tools for practitioners would require at least $9 million annually, for a total of $53 million over 6 years.2 Thus, as a starting point, these activities are judged to cost about $60 million, for an average cost of about $10 million during the upcoming authorization cycle. Should this area be funded, a more refined estimate based on experience and need should be developed before subsequent authorizations.

A fundamental research program is recommended that would be modeled on the way basic research is organized and conducted by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Burbank recommends a program of $50 million annually, but the committee believes that the existing research institutions would not be able to absorb this much funding productively at the outset. Instead, the committee recommends that funding begin at $10 million in the first year, grow by $5 million annually for the second through the fourth years, and then level off at $30 million annually in subsequent years. The committee suggests that the first couple of years of this research area be devoted to commissioning critical

2

The committee recognizes that this is a conservative estimate for the cost of improving technical tools relied on by practitioners. For example, the committee that prepared Special Report 288: Metropolitan Travel Forecasting: Current Practice and Future Direction (TRB 2007) estimated that the federal share of investment needed to improve travel forecasting models and get them into practice would be on the order of $20 million annually, and this is only one of the tools where improvements would be needed by practitioners.

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

surveys of the literature and convening panels of scholars and experts. The most promising areas based on priority topics would be identified, drawing on those identified in Chapter 3 that are most amenable to advancing through expanded investment. The committee believes that $30 million per year is an appropriate scale of investment for fundamental mitigation research at the outset, but it recognizes that this level of investment needs to be reevaluated toward the end of the first authorization to determine the appropriate level in subsequent years.

Adaptation

An adaptation research program is needed that would (a) summarize and build on existing knowledge to guide decision making, particularly in the area of developing decision tools for policy makers that incorporate probabilistic approaches to risk management, and (b) conduct applied research in the traditional areas of transportation programs (construction, operations, maintenance) and for the revision of standards. The first priority for this research should be to develop guides to decision making based on existing research. Decisions about how to protect, move, or extend the life of existing infrastructure at risk from climate change–related damage could be both expensive and controversial. The risks involve uncertainties beyond those normally encountered in transportation infrastructure decisions. Tools to guide decision making that incorporate these risks and uncertainties are needed. In parallel, more fundamental research should be undertaken to improve these tools. Technical guidance at the operational level is also needed. Stakeholders involved in building, operating, and maintaining transportation infrastructure need to be involved in the development of a detailed applied research agenda, which would occur during the upcoming authorization cycle. The identified research would be conducted during the following cycle.

The foundational research, as rearranged in accordance with the suggestions of Chapter 4, would cost roughly $31 million over the first 6 years, according to McNeil’s (2009) estimates of the cost of each research topic (see Table 7 of her paper). During the initial 6-year period, expert and practitioner stakeholders could also flesh out the recommended applied research topics and develop a research road map with detailed cost estimates and schedules and a request that the program be funded in a second

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

authorization. Development of detailed applied adaptation research plans and individual project scopes would cost roughly $3 million. The applied research program could also begin work on revision of design standards and identification of best practices, with a combined cost of about $13 million. Over the first 6 years, these activities, along with supporting research activities3 and administration, would total roughly $60 million, or about $10 million per year. In the second 6-year period, emphasis would be placed on the applied research topics based on a detailed program plan developed in the interim by experts and stakeholders and completion of the foundational research. The actual cost of these activities will depend on the development of the research program plan.

Summary

The committee believes that an investment of $40 million to $45 million annually over an initial 6-year period is appropriate in starting a research program of this nature (Table 5-1). During this authorization period the program will be able to provide initial guidance to policy makers and begin conducting applied and fundamental research. The guidance will be updated as research projects are completed, but such research will need to continue beyond the first authorization period. The cost of the program for a subsequent authorization will depend on the experience gained in the first round and the detailed research program plans to be developed.

The committee believes that the research should be organized as a single program and given high priority. Because of the importance and nature of the research, University Transportation Centers should also be encouraged to fund transportation energy conservation and climate change–related research. The recommended program may appear substantial but would represent only about 9 percent of all the surface transportation research programs of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). The decisions to be made with the information developed will

3

Supporting research activities are defined to include the information clearinghouse and dissemination activities recommended by McNeil (2009) as well as the cost of travel for stakeholder involvement in development and review of requests for proposals and meetings to evaluate final reports.

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

TABLE 5-1 Estimated Cost of Research Programs ($ millions)

Program

6-Year Total

Annual Average

Mitigationa

 

 

Guidance and outreach

60.0

10

Fundamental research

130.0

21.7

Subtotal

190.0

31.7

Adaptation

 

 

Research

60.0

10

Total

250.0

41.7

aThe mitigation research cost estimate does not include the cost of collecting travel data for research and improved modeling practice purposes. The cost of such data collection could be $300 million annually (see Appendix B). The estimates also do not include the cost of a mileage charging demonstration program (see Appendix A).

involve costs and benefits of much greater magnitude than the cost of the research.

CRITERIA FOR RESEARCH PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

Three main interrelated themes about research organization emerged from the papers commissioned for this study and the committee’s deliberations:

  1. Broad and diverse audience: Transportation system governance is decentralized, and it plays an indispensable role in the daily lives of all Americans. In addition, transportation has a significant impact on national petroleum imports and energy consumption. For these reasons, the audience for the necessary policy and implementation guidance spans all levels of government, private industry, and the public.

  2. Need for stakeholder involvement: Stakeholder perspectives and interests are diverse. Individuals at different levels of government, in industry, and in nongovernmental organizations have different kinds of responsibilities, and some of the measures to be studied are potentially controversial. Stakeholder involvement in the research programs needs to be broad and deep to ensure relevance to this diversity of interests. Relevance can be encouraged through stakeholder involvement in a research program and virtually guaranteed through stakeholder

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

governance of a program. (Involvement implies an advisory role, whereas governance implies a decision-making role.)

  1. Need for credible, objective research: Because of the controversial nature of some of the topics and the differences in perspective of some of the stakeholders, the research program needs to be as credible and objective as possible. Objectivity can be achieved by following the highest standards of scientific quality control: scoping of requests for proposals by qualified research managers, open solicitation and competition for funding, merit review of proposals by peers, and peer review of completed research.

The above themes can be reduced to two essential criteria for organizing and managing the research: extensive stakeholder involvement and processes to ensure scientific rigor. To these criteria could be added an important aspect of research management: an ability to shift direction, reorder priorities, and reprogram funds as new information is gained. Finally, the programs must be accountable to the elected officials who provide the funds and the stakeholders who need the insights from research to make decisions.

Stakeholder Involvement

Stakeholder involvement may vary across the different program areas, as described below, but in each case it needs to be extensive. Expert and practitioner stakeholders should participate in prioritizing and selecting areas of emphasis, in merit review of proposals, and in evaluating projects as they near completion.

Mitigation Policy Guidance and Outreach

Critical in this area is the recognition that transportation decisions are made by policy makers at all levels of government—national, state, regional, and local—as well as in the private sector, and their views about priorities should be reflected in the research undertaken.

Fundamental Mitigation Research

Research to advance knowledge in mitigation would be best organized on the NSF model, in which requests for proposals are shaped by subject

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

matter experts, panels of experts serve as merit reviewers, proposals are openly solicited, and only the most qualified proposals receive funding. The panels would be mostly composed of scholars, but inclusion of some practitioners would be vital in ensuring that the research is relevant to people who must implement transportation programs.

Adaptation

In the foundational research category, a small number of research projects would develop methodologies that would be helpful in providing policy makers and practitioners with advice on how to inventory vulnerable assets and in making informed decisions about adapting infrastructure. Stakeholders should be engaged in selecting areas of emphasis, and they should participate in merit review panels along with subject matter experts and in peer review. Included in this area are fundamental research projects on adaptation that could be organized along the lines of the fundamental mitigation research described above.

The planning for the applied adaptation research program should be based on extensive interaction with practitioners and experts in the relevant fields, who would help develop a detailed research plan, participate in merit review, oversee research projects as they are conducted, and help evaluate the research as it nears completion.

Scientific Rigor

The best practice in research management is to have open solicitations for the conduct of research, to rely on merit review by peers for the selection of the best proposals, and to involve experts—and, in the applied areas, practitioners—in the evaluation of the research.

Management Capability, Flexibility, and Focus

By its nature, research, whether fundamental or applied, is a process of discovery. Often the most carefully developed plans will have to be adjusted as knowledge is obtained. Thus, research managers need the capability and flexibility to shift direction. Such decisions should not be undertaken lightly and should be predicated on extensive dialogue with expert and practitioner stakeholders, but the capability is essential. Highly detailed

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

legislative designations in the authorization of the programs could limit this flexibility.

The committee also considered whether the various research programs could be folded into the ongoing activities of the USDOT modal administrations. It concluded that such a decision risks fragmentation and loss of focus of the activity.

Accountability

If the programs are funded, they should be designed to be accountable to Congress and to stakeholders. The engagement of stakeholders in decisions to be made about priorities and in evaluation of completed projects will satisfy their accountability needs. To ensure accountability to Congress, evaluations at the program level should be conducted by independent third parties capable of analyzing research activities of this nature. The peer review should be conducted at least every other year, and reports should be provided by the evaluators directly to Congress.

RELATED ISSUES

Mileage Charging

Interest in mileage charging as an option to replace or supplement the gas tax in funding surface transportation infrastructure and operations is growing. Implementation of a mileage charging system would provide a pricing mechanism for road use on the entire network; this system could become an element of a mitigation strategy, whereby vehicles with low or poor fuel economy could be charged a premium over a base charge for road use. As described in Appendix A, several recent reports by congressional commissions and others have recommended a broad research and demonstration program to test the feasibility of this concept.

An R&D program is needed that would inform the design and operation of a series of mileage charging demonstration programs. The research would give policy makers information about how issues such as privacy, efficiency, public acceptance, and equity affect the design and implemen-

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

tation of a mileage charging program. It would also recommend strategies for addressing public concerns. Extensive demonstrations would be required to test alternative concepts and engage key stakeholders and the public in determining the acceptability of such an approach.

Data

The transportation field suffers from inadequate data with regard to system performance and travel behavior. Rough indicators are available, particularly at the national level, but they are less reliable at the state and local levels at the detail required for good decisions. If legislation that requires reductions in per capita travel at the national, state, and regional levels is enacted, better baseline measures of passenger and freight travel will become necessary. Most data systems designed to provide national statistics are only representative at the national level and sometimes at the state level. For regions to monitor passenger and freight travel reliably, larger and more frequent samples would be necessary. Furthermore, if regions are to use transportation and land use strategies to reduce GHG emissions and energy consumption, the modeling needed to develop reasonable forecasts of travel and land use patterns and how they might change under various policy regimes will require much more extensive data than are currently collected. Because the United States is a large and diverse nation with more than 300 million residents, 250 million vehicles, and thousands of jurisdictions, data collection will entail considerable costs (see Appendix B). Such data serve many transportation purposes; the need to address climate change and energy conservation may serve as the impetus to make the appropriate level of investment in data collection.

SUMMARY

Transportation mitigation and adaptation research programs would cost $40 million to $45 million annually for the upcoming authorization. The investment would be worthwhile given the risks posed by climate change and energy dependence and the link between transportation, the economy, and the lifestyles of hundreds of millions of people. Many

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

mitigation strategies are possible, but not all are necessarily politically acceptable, likely to be effective, or good public policy. Because of the dearth of data and research in this area, policy makers do not have good information about which policies would be most cost-effective, feasible, and acceptable. The recommended research programs would begin to fill this gap but would not be completed within a single authorization period. The committee recommends that this research be given high priority and hopes that new funds can be found to fund this research as a single, unified program. It believes that University Transportation Centers should also be funding transportation energy and climate change–related research. The required investment for subsequent authorizations will depend on the experience gained and on development of more detailed research plans for a second authorization period.

The organization of the research is as important as the topics and the funding level. The audience for the research is broad and diverse, as are the entities that would have to implement the results. Thus, extensive stakeholder involvement in the research program is critical to its success. Furthermore, because the topics are important and even controversial, the research should be conducted at the highest standards of scientific inquiry. The management of the research program should be capable of shifting direction as knowledge is obtained and should have the flexibility to do so. It should be accountable to Congress and stakeholders.

Mileage charging has emerged as a possible supplement to or replacement for the fuel taxes that are the principal sources of revenue for highway and transit programs. Such a program could become a key element of a mitigation strategy by allowing for additional fees on fuel-inefficient vehicles. Prominent groups, including two commissions chartered by Congress, have recently recommended an accelerated demonstration program to test various technologies and engage policy makers and the public in determining whether such a system would be technically feasible and acceptable. (See Appendix A.)

Collection of the data necessary to carry out the kinds of initiatives envisioned in proposed legislation would cost considerably more than the mitigation and adaptation research identified above (see Appendix B). Data collection would help governments in carrying out the planning

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

and analysis requirements in draft legislation and would make mitigation research much more successful. The committee recommends that Congress authorize funding for the collection of data adequate to meet the needs of federal, state, and local governments as they analyze options and plan mitigation strategies.

The nation faces a challenge as important and complex as any national priority in achieving transportation GHG emission reduction and energy consumption goals through significant changes in travel demand. Transportation is deeply woven into the fabric of the economy and the daily lifestyles of Americans. Whole metropolitan areas, residential neighborhoods housing more than 100 million people, and mobility preferences have been shaped by decades of history and transportation, energy, and housing policies. The Interstates and other intercity highways have allowed industrial and commercial development to occur in areas without the advantages of a natural harbor or proximity to a rail hub.

Because transportation is such a large contributor to GHG emissions and energy dependence, significant changes in federal, state, and regional transportation policy may well become necessary. Such changes will surely require difficult choices among values and desired outcomes. Adapting the transportation system to climate change will be necessary, and the high costs and levels of uncertainty imply difficult choices for policy makers. Furthermore, mitigating transportation’s impacts and adapting to a changing climate will be ongoing challenges for decades to come. The system built over the past century is too large, its effects too pervasive, and its economic significance too high for it to change quickly or easily.

Investment in the research and data collection recommended in this report will inform the federal, state, and regional policy makers of today and tomorrow who will be confronted with making such decisions—decisions that will affect not only the feasibility and cost of achieving climate and energy goals but also the future prosperity of the nation and the quality of life of every citizen. These decisions will have a better chance of leading to desired outcomes if they are based on the best knowledge science can provide. The cost of the recommended research investment pales in comparison with the importance of informing the best possible choices for the future.

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×

REFERENCES

Abbreviation

TRB Transportation Research Board

Burbank, C. J. 2009. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) and Energy Mitigation for the Transportation Sector: Recommended Research and Evaluation Program. Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C.

McNeil, S. 2009. Adaptation Research Programs and Funding. Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C.

TRB. 2007. Special Report 288: Metropolitan Travel Forecasting: Current Practice and Future Direction. National Academies, Washington, D.C.

Whitty, J. M., and J. R. Svadlenak. 2009. Discerning the Pathway to Implementation of a National Mileage-Based Charging System. Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C.

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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×
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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×
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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×
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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×
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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×
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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×
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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×
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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×
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Suggested Citation:"5 Estimated Research Program Cost and Criteria for Effective Management." Transportation Research Board. 2009. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy: Special Report 299. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12801.
×
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In reviewing proposals for transportation research programs as part of reauthorizing the federal surface transportation program, the Transportation Research Board recognized a gap: no proposals explicitly addressed research to mitigate GHG emissions and energy consumption attributable to passenger and freight travel or to adapt to climate change. A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy is the product of a study to suggest research programs to fill this and other perceived gaps.

Specifically, this book identifies research needs with regard to policies and strategies relating to the use of the transportation system and to assist infrastructure owners in adapting to climate change; focuses on research programs that could provide guidance to officials at all levels responsible for policies that affect the use of surface transportation infrastructure and its operation, maintenance, and construction; and aims to help officials begin to adapt the infrastructure to climate changes that are already occurring or that are expected to occur in the next several decades.

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