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Transportation Technology Transfer: Successes, Challenges, and Needs (2005) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix G - Impediments to Innovation in Highway Transportation
Pages 81-82

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Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 81...
... Technical choices are open to such intense public scrutiny that officials avoid controversy by relying on engineering design standards that simply repeat previous practice. Federal, state, and local permit processes are needed to protect public health and safety, but can preempt consideration of innovative solutions.
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From page 82...
... 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. Resources for R&D in the public sector are limited; the size and complexity of the market limit interest in infrastructure problems.
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Key Terms

  • insurance costs
  • innovative solutions
  • disclosure rules
  • product liability
  • method specifications

  • preempt consideration
  • limited technical
  • intense public
  • resist change
  • design standards

  • liability tort
  • organizations institutionalize
  • litigation discourage
  • construction dampens
  • conservative nature

  • sector organizations
  • simply repeat
  • highway agencies
  • natural tendency
  • engineering design

  • permit processes
  • provide design
  • agency technical
  • technical capabilities
  • protect public

  • dilute agency
  • job skill
  • little incentive
  • local permit
  • agencies rely


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