The Essential Federal Role in Highway Research and Innovation (2015) / Chapter Skim
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1 Challenges and Opportunities
1 Challenges and Opportunities
Pages 4-11
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Improving highway safety, reducing congestion, and maintaining aging infrastructure are among the challenges facing the U.S. highway system.
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Whereas roads becoming "smart" is the next step in the evolution of highways, the roads of today are already far more sophisticated than those of earlier generations, and they might more properly be thought of as corridors that include the roadway, as well as the roadside -- for illumination, signage, crash protection, and many other features. In metropolitan areas they may include sound walls to buffer noise from tires and engines, drainage systems to capture and filter runoff to protect local streams, median plantings for aesthetics and habitat, and bicycle routes.
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From page 6... ...
Despite the increasing volumes of traffic, the fatality rate, defined as the number of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, has fallen from about 5.1 in the early 1960s to about 1.1 today.2 Further reduction in the numbers of deaths and injuries on the nation's roads is one of the major challenges for the future, particularly as the U.S. population ages.
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The challenges facing infrastructure owners will be compounded by revenue shortfalls for highway agencies. The nation's 2.7 million miles of paved roads have an estimated value of $2.8 trillion (Bureau of Economic Analysis, Fixed Asset Tables, Nonresidential Detailed Estimates, as cited by Winston 2013)
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From page 8... ...
| opportunities The development of a wide range of advanced and affordable sensors, including Global Positioning System receivers, has opened up possibilities for transforming the way people and goods move on the nation's roads. A connected vehicle network in which advanced technology operates the highway transportation system by electronically linking vehicles to one another and to infrastructure offers a range of benefits, including improved safety, reduced energy costs, increased roadway capacity, and greater mobility for those who cannot currently drive (Denaro et al.
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The nation has invested $223 million over the past 9 years in the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) ; the results of this research could save many lives, rehabilitate aged facilities faster with less disruption, greatly reduce congestion associated with accidents and incidents, and speed the provision of new highway capacity while preserving the environment.4 For example, the time taken to renew infrastructure can be accelerated by prefabricating bridge elements and by encouraging communication and coordination between highway agencies and utility companies to avoid unnecessary delays.
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From page 10... ...
Horizon 2020 Framework program, for example, is supporting efforts to develop more efficient highway infrastructure, with the goal of achieving zero traffic disruption from inspection, construction, and maintenance by 2030.5 Whereas federal investment in U.S. research, development, and technology (RD&T)
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Chapter 3 describes the federal role in the broader context of the nation's organizationally complex highway RD&T endeavor, and Chapter 4 examines FHWA's RD&T role in meeting future challenges.
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