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APPENDIX G
Impediments to Innovation in Highway Transportation
Principal Impediments to Innovations in Highway Transportation
Excerpted from TRB Special Report 256:
Managing Technology Transfer--A Strategy for the Federal Highway Administration (1999)
Principal Impediments to Innovations in Highway Transportation
Impediment Category Type Description
Technical Testing and demonstration New technologies need to be tested and demonstrated thoroughly before
public agencies will accept them in competition with other, well-established
technologies.
Standards Standards-setting groups that offer a safeguard against unexpected failure are
often slow and deliberate and can delay implementation of innovative solutions.
Testing to failure Long-term testing is difficult and expensive and can preclude innovative solu-
tions that are large and/or expensive.
Procurement Disclosure rules Public-sector disclosure rules can prevent the use (and advantages) of a propri-
etary design or process.
Low-bid contracts Such contract awards do not account for future operating and maintenance
costs and can result in higher total costs.
Life-cycle costs Making awards based on life-cycle costs is difficult; adequate information on
such costs may not be available.
Specifications Public agencies rely on design or method specifications. This can discourage
innovative techniques and products that could be considered if performance
specifications were used.
Legal Designbuild limitations Requiring that separate firms provide design and construction dampens the
potential for innovation.
Product liability and The potential for product liability tort claims, high insurance costs, and
insurance costs prospects for litigation discourage both the development and application of
new techniques and products.
Community participation Technical choices are open to such intense public scrutiny that officials avoid
controversy by relying on engineering design standards that simply repeat pre-
vious practice.
Permit process Federal, state, and local permit processes are needed to protect public health
and safety, but can preempt consideration of innovative solutions.
Public Sector and Resistance to change The natural tendency to resist change and the conservative nature of public-
Institutional sector organizations institutionalize this resistance.
Lack of institutional Highway agency engineers have little incentive to examine new or innovative
incentives technologies to solve familiar problems.
Limited agency capabilities Highway agencies with limited technical capabilities may be unable to main-
tain complex new technology.
Interest group resistance Many organizations and interest groups committed to preserving the status quo
act as a check on innovation.
Effect of political Political patronage can dilute agency technical competence, further reducing
patronage the incentive for innovation.
(continued )
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(continued )
Principal Impediments to Innovations in Highway Transportation
Impediment Category Type Description
Public Sector and Employment practices and Employment practices and compensation can restrict the ability of public agen-
Institutional work rules cies to hire personnel needed to implement and maintain new technologies.
Technology mismatch There are possible mismatches between technologies employed today and
those needed to meet future demand, as well as possible mismatches between
existing and future job skill.
General Limited resources Resources for R&D in the public sector are limited; the size and complexity of
the market limit interest in infrastructure problems.
Factors that Impede Implementation of Research Findings Excerpted from
NCHRP Report 382: Facilitating the Implementation of Research Findings: A Summary Report (1996)
Factors Pertaining to the Characteristics of Research Results
· Allocation of patents, etc., unsettled
· Research output does not fit work procedures
· Research output not sufficiently tested
· Mismatch between research and user needs
Factors Pertaining to the Organizational Context
Internal organizational context
· Inadequate travel budget
· No local precedents
· Political involvement of managers
· Skill obsolescence
· Discomfort with change
· Inadequate resources
· Inflexible contract specifications
· Legal liability
· Organizational inertia
· Risk aversion
External organizational context
· Hi-tech government support bias
· Dispersed funding authority
· Privatepublic tensions
· No local precedent
· Contractor investment risk
· Research-user culture gaps
· Unclear national objectives
Factors Pertaining to the Implementation Process
· Researchers not market-oriented
· Unknown information source
· Costliness
· One-way dissemination
· Poor quality/relevance filters
· User successes unpublicized
