The Essential Federal Role in Highway Research and Innovation (2015) / Chapter Skim
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3 Highway RD&T Program Organization and Focus
3 Highway RD&T Program Organization and Focus
Pages 22-31
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From page 22... ...
Counties, towns, and other jurisdictions are responsible for the remaining 3.2 million miles of arterial and local roads; these jurisdictions typically depend on their state DOTs for technical assistance.
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A complex array of highway research programs has developed in response to the needs of the various agencies and jurisdictions responsible for different aspects of the nation's road network. RD&T Funding Most highway research in the public sector is driven by federal surface transportation legislation, which authorizes a small array of research programs related to highway transportation (Table 3-1, page 36)
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provides the core funds that states rely on for their individual and collective research activities. Highway RD&T The focus of this report is on highway RD&T for construction, operation, safety, planning, environmental mitigation, and policy -- activities that are primarily the responsibility of FHWA, the states, MPOs, and many other jurisdictions.
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The ITS R&D program is primarily focused on the connected vehicle initiative, a collaboration among the federal government, automobile original equipment manufacturers, and public-sector infrastructure owners. ITS is funding R&D aimed at allowing communication of safety-related information between vehicles (vehicle to vehicle or V2V)
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From page 26... ...
However, the focus of a substantial share of the research projects is on highway issues because most UTCs are required to match federal funding dollar for dollar and many UTCs receive their match from their state DOT. The Research and Technology Coordinating Committee's (RTCC's)
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From page 27... ...
The innovations flowing from SHRP 2 are being implemented by early adopters and will be promoted more intensively and broadly to the states through FHWA's Technology and Innovation Deployment Program. At first sight, the array of highway-related and highway-specific research programs summarized above may appear to be
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From page 28... ...
To avoid duplication across all these programs, each program submits all of its research projects into a national database, the Research-in-Progress data ase b maintained by the Transportation Research Board, and research program managers are required by federal regulation to consult this database before they initiate new projects. | barriers to innovation Risk aversion in the public sector is well known -- institutions and public officials are understandably leery of taking risks since, in contrast to the private sector, rewards are few but failure can have severe consequences for public support of agencies and for individual careers.
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Public processes are slow moving, and that is understandable because they involve public funds. Even when innovations have been proved through field tests and adoption by one or more jurisdictions, dispersion can occur slowly because of the decentralized ownership of roads, lack of awareness by both public officials and private contractors, and the need to train the transportation workforce in new concepts and approaches.
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| summary Many research programs address highway performance and safety in some fashion; these programs relate to the missions
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The highly applied, problem-solving nature of individual state DOT research programs and NCHRP is true to this mission. Even so, the decentralized nature of the programs may seem "messy" and overly complex at first sight.
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