Implementing Transportation Knowledge Networks (2009)

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TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2009 www.TRB.org N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I V E H I G H W A Y R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCHRP REPORT 643 Subject Areas Planning and Administration Implementing Transportation Knowledge Networks SPY POND PARTNERS, LLC Arlington, MA W I T H UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA CENTER FOR TRANSPORTATION STUDIES Minneapolis, MN A N D Sandy Tucker TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES College Station, TX Research sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM Systematic, well-designed research provides the most effective approach to the solution of many problems facing highway administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local interest and can best be studied by highway departments individually or in cooperation with their state universities and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation develops increasingly complex problems of wide interest to highway authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated program of cooperative research. In recognition of these needs, the highway administrators of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials initiated in 1962 an objective national highway research program employing modern scientific techniques. This program is supported on a continuing basis by funds from participating member states of the Association and it receives the full cooperation and support of the Federal Highway Administration, United States Department of Transportation. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies was requested by the Association to administer the research program because of the Board’s recognized objectivity and understanding of modern research practices. The Board is uniquely suited for this purpose as it maintains an extensive committee structure from which authorities on any highway transportation subject may be drawn; it possesses avenues of communications and cooperation with federal, state and local governmental agencies, universities, and industry; its relationship to the National Research Council is an insurance of objectivity; it maintains a full-time research correlation staff of specialists in highway transportation matters to bring the findings of research directly to those who are in a position to use them. The program is developed on the basis of research needs identified by chief administrators of the highway and transportation departments and by committees of AASHTO. Each year, specific areas of research needs to be included in the program are proposed to the National Research Council and the Board by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Research projects to fulfill these needs are defined by the Board, and qualified research agencies are selected from those that have submitted proposals. Administration and surveillance of research contracts are the responsibilities of the National Research Council and the Transportation Research Board. The needs for highway research are many, and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program can make significant contributions to the solution of highway transportation problems of mutual concern to many responsible groups. The program, however, is intended to complement rather than to substitute for or duplicate other highway research programs. Published reports of the NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at: http://www.national-academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America NCHRP REPORT 643 Project 20-75 ISSN 0077-5614 ISBN 978-0-309-11811-8 Library of Congress Control Number 2009940854 © 2009 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, or Transit Development Corporation endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. Such approval reflects the Governing Board’s judgment that the program concerned is of national importance and appropriate with respect to both the purposes and resources of the National Research Council. The members of the technical committee selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for recognized scholarly competence and with due consideration for the balance of disciplines appropriate to the project. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are those of the research agency that performed the research, and, while they have been accepted as appropriate by the technical committee, they are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. Each report is reviewed and accepted for publication by the technical committee according to procedures established and monitored by the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee and the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, the Federal Highway Administration, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and the individual states participating in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of this report.

CRP STAFF FOR NCHRP REPORT 643 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs Christopher J. Hedges, Senior Program Officer Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Hilary Freer, Senior Editor NCHRP PROJECT 20-75 PANEL Area of Special Projects Leni Oman, Washington State DOT, Olympia, WA (Chair) Janet Bix, Westerville, OH Julie Bolding, South Dakota DOT, Pierre, SD Timothy A. Klein, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Washington, DC R. David Lankes, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY Glenn E. Roberts, New Hampshire DOT, Concord, NH Lynne K. Siemers, Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC Sue Sillick, Montana DOT, Helena, MT Nelda Bravo, FHWA Liaison Mark R. Norman, TRB Liaison Barbara Post, TRB Liaison C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research reported herein was performed under NCHRP Project 20–75 by Spy Pond Part- ners, LLC, with subcontract support from the University of Minnesota Center for Transporta- tion Studies and Sandra Tucker. Frances D. Harrison, Chief Technical Officer of Spy Pond Partners, LLC, served as Principal Investigator and is the primary author of this report. Other members of the research team con- tributing to this report were Hyun-A Park, President, Spy Pond Partners LLC; Sandy Tucker, Engineering and Applied Sciences Librarian at Texas A&M University Libraries; Arlene Mathi- son, Information Manager and Librarian at the University of Minnesota Center for Transporta- tion Studies (CTS); Gina Baas, Director, Communications and Outreach at CTS and Robert Johns, Director of CTS. Editorial support was provided by Kate Woodworth at Spy Pond Part- ners, LLC.

This report presents a business plan for the development of Transportation Knowledge Networks in the United States. The project builds on a number of previous TRB activities aimed at improving access to information for transportation professionals. If successfully implemented, a decentralized, managed network of information centers will help link users to the information they need, when they need it. This report will be of interest to all trans- portation practitioners, managers, and executives who need more effective and efficient ways to navigate the vast pool of information resources available to them. In 2000, the paper “Access to U.S. Transportation Information Resources,” by Jerry Bald- win of Minnesota DOT noted that “a large portion of information resources needed by the nation’s transportation policy makers and practitioners cannot be efficiently identified, located and retrieved when needed.” There have long been concerns among the transporta- tion library community that information services are inadequate. In recognition of these concerns, the AASHTO Research Advisory Committee requested a small-scale study to determine the scope and content of a national strategic plan for transportation information management. That project, conducted by Barbara Harder and Sandra Tucker in June 2002, compared existing transportation information services with current needs, determined through structured interviews with a wide range of transportation information users. The study found transportation to be lagging behind many public-sector departments in its level of funding for information services. After reviewing the final report, the AASHTO Standing Committee on Research asked TRB to provide recommendations on how transportation information could best be man- aged and provided. An expert committee was assembled and appointed by the National Research Council to conduct the study, with funding provided by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. The study resulted in TRB Special Report 284: Transportation Knowledge Networks: A Management Strategy for the 21st Century. The study committee rec- ommended the development of a business plan that would include details of the proposed funding and services of a national network of information service providers called Trans- portation Knowledge Networks (TKNs). Funding for this follow-on effort was again pro- vided by the NCHRP. Under NCHRP Project 20-75, a research team led by Spy Pond Part- ners worked under the guidance of the project panel—the result is the business plan outlined in this report. The product of this research is not an end in itself but a roadmap for achieving a new way of managing transportation information. The research results cannot simply be adopted by any transportation agency; they will require a coordinated, national effort and a stable source of funding. Making recommendations on policy or organizational measures is out- F O R E W O R D By Christopher J. Hedges Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

side the scope of NCHRP projects. It will be up to the transportation community to con- sider these research results carefully and take the necessary steps to put Transportation Knowledge Networks into practice. The ways we manage and access information today have changed the way we look at the world. For almost any endeavor we undertake, there are online information sources that show us ways to do it better. The implementation of Transportation Knowledge Networks as recommended in this report could help bring the ways we provide, maintain, and oper- ate our transportation systems into the information age . . . into the 21st Century.

AASHTO-IS AASHTO Financial and Administrative Subcommittee on Information Systems ACTS Advisory Council on Transportation Statistics AgNIC Agriculture Network Information Center ARTBA American Road & Transportation Builders Association BTS Bureau of Transportation Statistics CEO Chief Executive Officer CUTC Council of University Transportation Centers DOT Department of Transportation ETKN Eastern Transportation Knowledge Network FACA Federal Advisory Committee Act GAO Government Accountability Office GSA Government Services Administration HEEP Highway Engineering Exchange Program LIST Library and Information Science for Transportation LTAP Local Technical Assistance Program MTKN Midwest Transportation Knowledge Network NAC National Academy of Sciences NAL National Agriculture Library NGO Nongovernmental Organization NLM National Library of Medicine NLTAPA National LTAP Association NN/LM National Network of Libraries of Medicine NTL National Transportation Library MPO Metropolitan Planning Organization OAI Open Archive Initiative OCLC Online Computer Library Center RAC AASHTO Research Advisory Committee RITA Research and Innovative Technology Administration RWIS Road Weather Information System SCOFA (AASHTO) Standing Committee on Finance and Administration SCOH (AASHTO) Standing Committee on Highways SCOP (AASHTO) Standing Committee on Planning SCoPM (AASHTO) Standing Committee on Performance Management TDM Transportation Demand Management TKN Transportation Knowledge Network TKN-NCB Transportation Knowledge Network National Coordinating Body TMIP Travel Model Improvement Program TRIS Transportation Research Information Services TTAP Tribal Technical Assistance Program UTC University Transportation Center VMT Vehicle Miles of Travel WTKN Western Transportation Knowledge Network A C R O N Y M S A N D I N I T I A L I S M S

C O N T E N T S 1 Summary 3 Chapter 1 Introduction 3 Background 4 Research Objectives 5 Overview of Research Approach 5 Report Organization 6 Chapter 2 Initial Outreach Effort 6 Interviews with Transportation Stakeholders 9 Web Survey 9 Findings and Conclusions 11 Chapter 3 TKN Products and Strategies 11 Overview 12 TKN Product and Service Descriptions 15 Example Scenarios 17 Chapter 4 Business Plan Summary 17 Overview 17 Context for Transportation Knowledge Networks 17 Transportation Knowledge Network Concept 19 Costs and Funding 21 Chapter 5 Summary of Transportation Knowledge Network Outreach Activities 21 Overview 21 Outreach Activities and Deliverables 23 Chapter 6 Implementation Plan 23 Step 1: Refine and Expand the Communications Toolkit 24 Step 2: Continue Outreach 25 Step 3: Use the Directory Project to Build Awareness of TKNs 25 Step 4: Implement Pilot TKN Products and Services and Measure Results 25 Step 5: Create TKN Advisory Board 25 Step 6: Develop a Detailed Program Plan and Budget 26 Step 7: Program Start-up Activities 26 Step 8: Initial Implementation 28 References 29 Appendix A Transportation Knowledge Networks: A Business Plan 50 Appendix B Initial Web Survey—Questionnaire and Results

56 Appendix C Initial Web Survey Results—Open-Ended Responses 69 Appendix D Follow-up Survey to AASHTO SCOH Members 72 Appendix E Focus Group Summary