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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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APPENDIX B
Development of Research Focus Areas

The F-SHRP strategic focus areas and research topics as they developed throughout the study process are presented in this appendix. Table B-1 summarizes this information.

Initial Brainstorming List, July 15, 1999

The following list of focus areas was the result of the committee’s brain-storming session at its June 1999 meeting. This list was sent out with the initial outreach letter to solicit reactions from stakeholders. A short description of each area and potential research topics are included.

1.
Accelerating the Renewal of America’s Highways

Much of the nation’s highway system is in need of major repair or rehabilitation. The public wants this work done quickly, with as little disturbance as possible (“get in, get out, stay out”). To this end, agencies need to streamline the entire project delivery process, including planning, environmental review, design, construction, and procurement procedures. Agencies are also concerned about how to pay for this work. Despite these challenges, the need to renew aging highways also presents an opportunity to improve the safety, design, and performance of highway facilities; their interaction with the environment; and their role in the community.

Possible research topics: Construction methods, innovative materials, nondestructive evaluation technologies, innovative contracting and finance, work zone safety, creative design (see below), environmental mitigation design/ techniques, life-cycle cost analysis, development of performance measures for performance-related specifications.

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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Table B-1 Development of F-SHRP Topics

Initial Brainstorming List, July 15, 1999

Potential Strategic Focus Areas, April 25, 2000

Potential Research Topics, May 22, 2000

Infrastructure renewal

  • Accelerating the renewal of America’s highways

  • Accelerating the renewal of America’s highways

  • Accelerating the renewal of America’s highways

  • Achieve rapid, long-lived, minimally disruptive reconstruction of freeways and Interstates

  • Achieve rapid, long-lived, minimally disruptive reconstruction of bridges

  • Rebuild urban street networks to serve 21st-century cities

  • Improve infrastructure investment decisions by developing tools for asset management systems

NOTE: Column heads correspond to the section headings in the text of Appendix B under which the listed items are discussed.

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
×

Candidate Research Topics, July 5, 2000

Reintroduction of Fourth Strategic Focus Area, October 2000

Vision, Strategic Focus Areas, and Research Topics, March 2001

Infrastructure renewal

  • Accelerating the renewal of America’s highways

  • Improve infrastructure investment decisions by developing tools for asset management systems

  • Achieve rapid, long-lived, minimally disruptive reconstruction of freeways and Interstates

  • Renew urban street networks to serve 21st-century cities

  • Improve infrastructure condition and operations through better preservation strategies

  • Accelerating the renewal of America’s highways

(Topics remained the same.)

  • Rapid, long-lived, minimally disruptive highway renewal

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
×

Initial Brainstorming List, July 15, 1999

Potential Strategic Focus Areas, April 25, 2000

Potential Research Topics, May 22, 2000

Safety

  • Making a quantum leap in highway safety

  • Making a quantum leap in highway safety

  • Making a quantum leap in highway safety

  • Achieve a significant reduction in single-vehicle run-off-the-road crashes

  • Achieve a significant reduction in intersection crashes

  • Improve knowledge of crash causation through collection and analysis of more accurate and complete safety data

  • Improve the safety of highway designs through development of a compendium of information about the relationship between roadway design and safety

  • Improve postcrash emergency medical services

  • Achieve a significant reduction in truck-related fatalities

a As a result of report review, the Safety strategic focus area was revised to read “Making a Significant Improvement in Highway Safety,” and the safety research program was revised to focus on crash factors and the cost-effectiveness of countermeasures.

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
×

Candidate Research Topics, July 5, 2000

Reintroduction of Fourth Strategic Focus Area, October 2000

Vision, Strategic Focus Areas, and Research Topics, March 2001

Safety

  • Making a quantum leap in highway safety

  • Improve knowledge of crash causation through collection and analysis of more accurate and complete safety data

  • Achieve a significant reduction in the number and severity of single-vehicle run-off-the-road crashes

  • Achieve a significant reduction in the number and severity of intersection crashes

  • Making a quantum leap in highway safety

(Topics remained the same.)

  • Comprehensive crash causation study and selected countermeasuresa

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
×

Initial Brainstorming List, July 15, 1999

Potential Strategic Focus Areas, April 25, 2000

Potential Research Topics, May 22, 2000

Environmental quality

  • Integrated environmental review process

  • Controlling highway runoff

  • Serving population and economic growth by providing new capacity in an environmentally sensitive way

(At this stage, the concepts of environmental quality, impact analysis, and planning and design were merged into a single concept of how to provide highways that meet a wide range of customer requirements.)

  • Serving population and economic growth by providing new capacity in an environmentally sensitive way

  • Envision 21st-century highway transportation

  • Envision 21st-century freight transportation

  • Improve transportation-related air quality through better data and models for decision making

Planning and design

  • Context-sensitive design

  • Integrated high-way–truck design

 

 

Analysis of impacts

  • Effect of communication technology on travel demand

 

 

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
×

Candidate Research Topics, July 5, 2000

Reintroduction of Fourth Strategic Focus Area, October 2000

Vision, Strategic Focus Areas, and Research Topics, March 2001

Environmental quality

  • Delivering a sustainable highway system (this focus area was retitled at this point)

  • Improve scientific and policy information for sustainable highway systems

  • Develop a toolkit for practitioners to use in delivering sustainable highway systems

  • Delivering a sustainable highway system

(The two topics in this area were merged into one, combining the titles of both.)

  • Environmentally, economically, and socially responsive highway development

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
×

Initial Brainstorming List, July 15, 1999

Potential Strategic Focus Areas, April 25, 2000

Potential Research Topics, May 22, 2000

Operations

 

  • Enhancing maintenance and operations in the information age

  • Enhancing maintenance and operations in the information age

  • Improve the speed and efficacy of incident management and response

  • Significantly reduce delay through improved congestion management

  • Prepare transportation institutions to implement ITS operations strategies

  • Improve institutional preparedness for innovative maintenance approaches

  • Significantly improve pavement preservation

Institutions

  • 21st-century transportation agencies

(This concept was discontinued as a separate category, and institutional issues were integrated into each of the other strategic focus areas and research topics, as appropriate.)

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
×

Candidate Research Topics, July 5, 2000

Reintroduction of Fourth Strategic Focus Area, October 2000

Vision, Strategic Focus Areas, and Research Topics, March 2001

Operations

  • Enhancing maintenance and operations in the information age

(This strategic focus area was discontinued at this stage.)

  • Increasing mobility by optimizing system performance (a new focus area was developed at this stage)

  • Providing real-time information to customers

  • Reducing congestion from nonrecurring incidents

  • Reliable travel times

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
×

2.
Making a Quantum Leap in Highway Safety

To respond to the public’s demand for safe highways, significantly new approaches are needed. Comparatively straightforward solutions have already been implemented and have resulted in tremendous progress during the last few decades. Any significant reduction of the current toll of more than 40,000 lives lost per year in highway crashes will require addressing more complex factors, such as human behavior; the role of enforcement; and the interaction among vehicle, driver, and road. Such reduction will also require investigating and applying more advanced technologies, such as intelligent transportation systems (ITS) applications.

Possible research topics: Highway designs that communicate better with the driver and vehicle about safety, including the use of sensors and ITS-related technologies; safer designs that also meet environmental and aesthetic objectives; data collection and analysis regarding crash causation and improvements to safety from specific changes in roadway design; impact of the aging driver population; improved incident management.

3a.
Integrated Environmental Review Process

Much attention is being devoted at the national and state levels to improving the environmental review process. Efforts to streamline the process must simultaneously address project delivery and environmental objectives. This can be done only by achieving better integration of environmental considerations and analysis into the overall planning process. Objectives must be clearly articulated and meaningful performance measures developed against which streamlining efforts can be evaluated.

Possible research topics: Development of technologies to support integrated environmental and planning analysis and decision making, such as geographic information systems (GIS), technologies based on the Global Positioning System (GPS), expert systems, and visualization technologies. Methods and performance measures for evaluating environmental review process streamlining and for assessing the implementation of resulting project designs.

3b.
Controlling Highway Runoff

Environmental Protection Agency regulations regarding storm water runoff pose a challenge to transportation agencies, which must ensure that the runoff from highways and construction projects is not degrading water quality. Snow and ice control materials, maintenance operations, sediment from

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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construction sites, and air emissions washed back in precipitation all contribute to pollution in highway runoff, but the processes by which this occurs and the impacts of various pollutant sources and mitigation measures are not well understood.

Possible research topics: Monitoring and modeling of the fate and transport of transportation-related runoff; assessment of the impact of storm water runoff of various types; development of best management practices and assessment of their performance, constraints, and costs.

4.
Context-Sensitive Design

The public wants roads that get them where they want to go safely and efficiently and that are aesthetically pleasing, have minimal negative impact on the environment, and promote a healthy community. Much is known about designing roads for their basic functional performance: conveying vehicles safely and efficiently from one place to another. But there is little clear guidance on how to achieve this aim while also meeting safety, community, and aesthetic criteria. What are the critical design criteria in these other areas? How can apparently competing goals be balanced? What will the fundamental, unifying criterion be?

Possible research topics: Design methodologies that integrate performance, safety, aesthetic, and social criteria; innovative materials; and environmental concerns.

5.
Integrated Highway–Truck Design

Potential increases in truck size and weight constantly contend with the limits imposed by pavement design (to reduce pavement damage by trucks) and roadway geometry (to maintain safe operation of trucks). Providing adequate pavement and roadway design is difficult since several generations of heavy-vehicle technology can be used over the life of a road. Achieving the combined goals of more economical commercial vehicle technology and high-quality and safe roadways requires a systems approach to the design of the vehicle and the highway.

Possible research topics: Pavement materials, construction, design methodologies; pavement–truck interaction models; truck suspensions; safety design for trucks; economic analyses; use of separate facilities or lanes for trucks; use of ITS technologies, particularly to address the possible safety impacts of new truck designs.

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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6.
Effect of Communication Technology on Travel Demand

Communication technologies, such as personal computers and cellular phones, can have a significant impact on the amount, timing, and types of travel. For instance, with the growth of a web-based economy and the increase in people working at home, more commercial vehicles are using suburban streets to deliver goods ordered over the Internet and to bring professional mail, packages, and supplies directly to homes. Personal computers and cell phones do not appear to reduce travel as much as to increase the ability to communicate while one travels. Industry demands just-in-time delivery of products and materials, with the expectation that communication technology will eliminate the need to wait.

Possible research topics: Effects that the increase in commercial vehicle deliveries to private homes may have on commercial vehicle travel, local roads, and neighborhoods; development of travel models that address the impact of the increased use of portable communication technologies.

7.
21st-Century Transportation Agencies

Transportation agencies must be better prepared to deal with an environment that challenges traditional ways of doing business, characterized, for example, by a broadening set of performance demands imposed on the highway system. These demands include technical, environmental, economic, safety, social, and political requirements; the public’s expectation of more communication; and the need for technologies and expertise not traditionally associated with highway engineers.

Possible research topics: Ways to address the need for a more varied and highly skilled workforce, including recruitment, training, and retention of personnel; extent to which universities are preparing engineers and other professionals for this field; effects of outsourcing, including how much can be outsourced without detriment to the agency’s responsiveness and ability to manage, whether this depends on the type of activity, and how asset management can best be accomplished.

Potential Strategic Focus Areas, April 25, 2000

At the committee’s March 2000 meeting, the results of the broad outreach effort were discussed, four strategic focus areas were developed, and cross-cutting topics were identified; the concept of an overarching theme was also introduced.

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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Overarching Theme: Providing Outstanding Customer Service for the 21st Century

Challenges and opportunities in highway transportation are requiring new ways of thinking about moving people and goods. These challenges represent a broadening set of performance demands imposed on the highway system, including technical, environmental, economic, safety, social, and political requirements. Transportation professionals must learn to respond to the new economy (one that is global, rapidly changing, and customer-focused), the desire for greater environmental sustainability, a demand for ever-increasing quality of life, the public’s expectations for greater involvement in transportation decision making, and the need for technologies and expertise not traditionally associated with highway engineers. Meeting all these expectations requires a systems approach, which includes sensitivity and responsiveness to the context (social, economic, environmental, technological) in which transportation takes place. The four strategic focus areas described below are aimed at supporting this overarching theme.

Strategic Focus Areas

1.
Accelerating the Renewal of America’s Highways

See earlier description.

Expected benefits: Improved facility and system performance; reduced user and life-cycle costs.

Additional possible research topics: Collection and analysis of data and development of predictive performance models to support asset management; development of renewal approaches that improve or restore urban quality of life; consideration of projected trends in vehicle design and their impact on highway design.

2.
Making a Quantum Leap in Highway Safety

See earlier description.

Expected benefits: Reduced injuries and fatalities.

Additional possible research topics: Human factors studies, including research on special populations (older drivers, new drivers, impaired drivers, immigrant populations); better access and protection for bicycles and pedestrians; tools for data collection, such as event data recorders; a special study to investigate crash causation; development of standards and strategies for safety design; research on the effectiveness and best use of automated enforcement; commu-

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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nication between the vehicle and the infrastructure (automated vehicles/ highways).

3.
Serving Population and Economic Growth by Providing New Capacity in an Environmentally Sensitive Way

During the next few decades, the demand for personal travel and goods movement is expected to increase significantly. Factors contributing to this growth in demand include increasing population, growth of the economy, and other social and economic trends (such as e-commerce, just-in-time manufacturing, and customization of products) associated with the demand for flexible and rapid response to customer requirements. Yet any new capacity must be provided in the context of concerns regarding quality of life and environmental sustainability. The objective of this strategic focus area is to contribute significantly to a vision for a future highway/transportation system and to provide information and tools that the transportation community can use to help make that vision a reality.

Expected benefits: Better information and tools for decision making.

Potential research topics: Travel and freight demand forecasting models; understanding of the influence of economic restructuring on transportation supply and demand; methods for evaluating intermodal trade-offs and for integrating modes in a more seamless way for both passengers and freight; consideration of potential increases in truck size and weight and their effects on safety, infrastructure, and operations; development of logistical tools and techniques; evaluation of new approaches, such as privately managed roads and truck-only facilities; analysis of relationships and trade-offs among capacity enhancement, access management, and land conservation; better data, analysis, and design tools for predicting and avoiding or mitigating environmental impacts; methods for better communicating with the public about complex transportation issues and for gathering more representative public input.

4.
Enhancing Maintenance and Operations in the Information Age

With the completion of the Interstate highway system, transportation agencies have increasingly turned their attention to maintenance and operation of the system. However, the importance of this focus area is not limited to the preservation and performance of existing highways; increasing demands on the system and the challenges faced in meeting these demands (see Focus Area 3) require that the existing system, any new system, and the transition between the two be managed with keen attention to operational perfor-

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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mance. The objective of this focus area is to develop information and tools for improving the operational performance of the highway system.

Expected benefits: Better system performance for users; greater agency efficiency.

Potential research topics: “Smart” materials; sensors; characterization and measurement of system operational performance; tools for asset management (including performance data, performance measures, and cost-accounting methods); evaluation of demand and capacity management tools (such as high-occupancy vehicle lanes, pricing, and truck restrictions); logistics analysis and methods for both passenger and freight movement; ITS technologies for communicating real-time information to users and managers; skill requirements for operations and access management; enhanced operational models.

Cross-Cutting Topics

A number of topics recur throughout the four strategic focus areas. These topics may suggest promising areas in which to focus research.

First, several types of research or areas of technology development appear to provide opportunities for significant progress. These include the following:

  • Data and data systems: Improvements in the quality and quantity of data and in data accessibility and management. This area could include collection of better crash data, transportation demand data, and asset management data (facility condition and performance, activity-based costs); improvements in the accessibility and coordination of current databases; and the development of new databases.

  • Methods and tools for design, analysis, and management: Characterization and measurement of system performance (design impacts on safety, facility response to maintenance interventions, effectiveness of demand and capacity management techniques, effectiveness of environmental mitigation techniques); modeling and prediction of future conditions (travel demand, freight demand, demographics, global economic structure, sociotechnical and cultural changes).

  • Advanced technologies: High-performance and “smart” materials; sensors; nondestructive evaluation technologies; ITS technologies (electronic and communications technologies for communication about system performance and condition, for communication between vehicle and road, and for automation applied to safety and mobility objectives); robotics; GIS; GPS; artificial intelligence techniques.

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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Second, regardless of the specific technical focus, any research undertaken will need to reflect the following considerations:

  • Systems approach: Integration of diverse requirements, considerations, and criteria in planning, design, construction, operations, and maintenance; consideration of longer life cycles and broader issues and impacts. Examples are integrated truck–pavement–bridge design and an integrated approach to safety that includes driver, vehicle, and roadway.

  • Goods movement: Recognition of goods movement as a major contributor to the economy and to quality of life; integration of goods movement as a significant factor in transportation planning, design, safety, and operations and in dealing with public concerns.

  • Institutional issues: Rethinking roles, responsibilities, and institutional structures; identifying educational requirements for future transportation professionals; addressing workforce issues, such as recruitment, training, and retention; developing new ways of managing highway activities, including financing strategies that better leverage public funds and procurement methods that promote faster and higher-quality construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance; streamlining consensus processes with resource agencies.

Potential Research Topics, May 22, 2000

By May, a more focused technical outreach process had led to the identification of 17 potential research topics under the four strategic focus areas described above. These research topics were as follows:

  • Accelerating the renewal of America’s highways

    1. Achieve rapid, long-lived, minimally disruptive reconstruction of freeways and Interstates.

    2. Achieve rapid, long-lived, minimally disruptive reconstruction of bridges.

    3. Rebuild urban street networks to serve 21st-century cities.

    4. Improve infrastructure investment decisions by developing tools for asset management systems.

  • Making a quantum leap in highway safety

    1. Achieve a significant reduction in single-vehicle run-off-the-road crashes.

    2. Achieve a significant reduction in intersection crashes.

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
×
  1. Improve knowledge of crash causation through collection and analysis of more accurate and complete safety data.

  2. Improve the safety of highway designs through development of a compendium of information about the relationship between roadway design and safety.

  3. Improve postcrash emergency medical services.

  4. Achieve a significant reduction in truck-related fatalities.

  • Serving population and economic growth by providing new capacity in an environmentally sensitive way

    1. Envision 21st-century highway transportation.

    2. Envision 21st-century freight transportation.

    3. Improve transportation-related air quality through better data and models for decision making.

  • Enhancing maintenance and operations in the information age

    1. Improve the speed and efficacy of incident management and response.

    2. Significantly reduce delay through improved congestion management.

    3. . Prepare transportation institutions to implement ITS operations strategies.

    4. Improve institutional preparedness for innovative maintenance approaches.

    5. Significantly improve pavement preservation.

Candidate Research Topics, July 5, 2000

After additional outreach, the four strategic focus areas were reduced to three, the third focus area was retitled, and nine of the above research topics were chosen for further analysis.

Strategic Focus Area 1: Accelerating the Renewal of America’s Highways

1.
Improve Infrastructure Investment Decisions by Developing Tools for Asset Management Systems

Managers of transportation agencies are faced with countless needs and limited resources. They need the best information and tools possible to help decide which investments will yield the best return in their state or locality. The idea of asset management is being refined and more widely accepted, and some components or forerunners of asset management (such as pavement, bridge,

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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sign, or maintenance management systems) are being used in all states. However, the data and tools needed for effective decision making about investments across highway assets are still not well developed. This research may address some of the following specific topics: data issues (data needs, sources, collection technologies, and integration); diagnostic tools (sensors and non-destructive evaluation technologies) to assess facility condition and performance; analysis tools for better life-cycle cost analysis, trade-off analysis, and sensitivity analysis; and institutional issues (use and possible misuse of information, required skills and training, impacts on institutional structure and ways of operating, ways of getting metropolitan planning organizations and other agencies involved).

2.
Achieve Rapid, Long-Lived, Minimally Disruptive Reconstruction of Freeways and Interstates

Rehabilitation of aging highway infrastructure is a major concern to agencies across the country. Much of this infrastructure is heavily used and critical to the transportation system, so prolonged disruption of operations for rehabilitation imposes significant user costs. This research would focus on ways of performing highway rehabilitation quickly, with minimal disruption to operations and minimal need for future disruption due to maintenance and rehabilitation activities. Potential specific research topics include materials (especially regarding rapid setup and durability), design (pavement and structural), construction processes and methods (such as modular construction), equipment (possibly including automated or robotic equipment to improve quality and speed), sensing and nondestructive evaluation technologies, contracting and financing mechanisms, and traffic operations and management strategies and technologies (such as automated traveler information systems, VMS, pavement markings).

3.
Renew Urban Street Networks to Serve 21st-Century Cities

This topic encompasses much of what characterizes the previous topic: aging, inadequate, but heavily used infrastructure in need of significant rehabilitation with minimum disruption to users. However, the focus on urban street networks rather than freeways and Interstates adds some issues particular to urban streets, such as pedestrian and bicycle safety and mobility; transit use (buses, access to subway and light rail); storm water management and treatment; and installation and repair of subsurface utilities. Specific research topics might include materials, design considerations (geometric, structural, bicycle/pedestrian, aesthetic or context-sensitive), construction methods,

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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equipment, contracting and financing mechanisms, traffic operations and management, safety (especially bicycle/pedestrian), hydraulics, storm/wastewater management, maintenance management, and access and mobility issues (such as better intermodal access for passengers and delivery of goods in cities).

4.
Improve Infrastructure Condition and Operations Through Better Preservation Strategies

Effective management of highway infrastructure requires that actions be taken in a timely manner to preserve the system, retard deterioration, and reduce the need for major rehabilitation in the future. Preservation strategies must be based on knowledge about current and predicted system condition and the effectiveness and proper timing of preservation actions. Research in this area might address specific topics such as integration of performance data and models from various management systems; funding issues (ensuring the availability of funding to perform appropriate preservation activities in a timely fashion); development of performance measures and specifications; development of mix design procedures; evaluation of alternative preservation techniques (such as various “thin” treatments); materials selection (required properties for aggregates in thinner layers, for bonding to existing material, and for rapid opening to traffic); construction practices and equipment that facilitate timely, high-quality maintenance treatments with minimal disruption to traffic and maximum safety for workers.

Strategic Focus Area 2: Making a Quantum Leap in Highway Safety

5.
Improve Knowledge of Crash Causation Through Collection and Analysis of More Accurate and Complete Safety Data

Better understanding of the respective roles of the driver, the vehicle, and the roadway in highway crashes is critical to designing and operating a safer highway system. No comprehensive crash causation study has been conducted in the United States since a study performed in the 1970s by Indiana University. Driver characteristics and the driving environment have changed significantly since that time. In addition, new sources of data and better data collection technologies (event data recorders, GIS, GPS) are available now to improve the conduct of such a study. This research would produce better knowledge about crash causation, which could be used to develop countermeasures and programs. The research would also produce improved techniques for studying crash causation, which could be used by state and local jurisdictions to analyze local safety issues.

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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6.
Achieve a Significant Reduction in the Number and Severity of Single-Vehicle Run-off-the-Road Crashes

Run-off-the-road crashes account for one-third of highway fatalities. Research in support of addressing this highway safety problem might include some combination of the following specific topics: data collection/crash causation study; ITS technologies (automated warning systems, lane-keeping technologies); human factors research; improved highway design; signage, lighting, and pavement markings; and enforcement strategies (including automated enforcement). Knowledge gained from this research could be used to develop safer designs; operational strategies; warning and prevention technologies; analysis tools for decision makers in planning, design, operations, and maintenance; and driver training.

7.
Achieve a Significant Reduction in the Number and Severity of Intersection Crashes

Intersection crashes account for 22 percent of highway fatalities. Several categories of more-vulnerable road users—older drivers, very young drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists—are involved in this type of crash. As with the run-off-the-road crash topic, research in support of addressing this highway safety problem might include some combination of the following specific topics: data collection/crash causation study; ITS technologies (collision avoidance and automated warning systems); human factors research; improved highway design and access management policies; signage, signals, lighting, and pavement markings; and enforcement strategies (including automated enforcement). Knowledge gained from this research could be used to develop safer designs; operational strategies; warning and prevention technologies; analysis tools for decision makers in planning, design, operations, and maintenance (such as simulation techniques for assessing the safety and operational implications of alternative intersection configurations); and driver training.

Strategic Focus Area 3: Delivering a Sustainable Highway System

8.
Improve Scientific and Policy Information for Sustainable Highway Systems

Delivering a sustainable highway system requires knowledge about diverse aspects of the system and its relationship to the human and natural environments. Research in this area would be aimed at improving scientific and policy information in such specific areas as air quality, water quality, noise, environmental justice, habitats, context-sensitive design, community participation, economic impacts, land use, and financing strategies.

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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9.
Develop a Toolkit for Practitioners to Use in Delivering Sustainable Highway Systems

Knowledge is not sufficient for achieving sustainable highways, but must be put in a form that is easily used by practitioners and stakeholders in the highway development process. Research in this area would be aimed at developing tools to assist in such tasks as planning and design of highways that are safe and compatible with their human and natural environments; assessment of economic, community, and environmental impacts; development of mitigation strategies and assessment of their economic impacts; visualization of designs prior to construction; and evaluation of outcomes of finished projects to provide improved knowledge for the future.

Reintroduction of Fourth Strategic Focus Area, October 2000

Stakeholder response to the above three strategic focus areas indicated a need to reintroduce the fourth area that had previously been removed. Two potential research topics were developed under this fourth area, and two other research topics were combined, yielding a total of ten topics at this stage. Appendix C contains a summary of the review of existing highway research programs that was performed for these ten topics.

Strategic Focus Area 1: Accelerating the Renewal of America’s Highways

The following candidate research topics were included in this focus area at this stage:

  1. Improve infrastructure development decisions by developing tools for asset management systems.

  2. Achieve rapid, long-lived, minimally disruptive reconstruction of freeways and Interstates.

  3. Renew urban street networks to serve 21st-century cities.

  4. Improve infrastructure condition and operations through better preservation strategies.

Strategic Focus Area 2: Making a Quantum Leap in Highway Safety

The following candidate research topics were included in this focus area at this stage:

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  1. Improve knowledge of crash causation through collection and analysis of more accurate and complete safety data.

  2. Achieve a significant reduction in the number and severity of single-vehicle run-off-the-road crashes.

  3. Achieve a significant reduction in the number and severity of intersection crashes.

Strategic Focus Area 3: Delivering a Sustainable Highway System

  1. Improve scientific and policy information for sustainable highway systems; develop a toolkit for practitioners to use in delivering sustainable highway systems.

Strategic Focus Area 4: Increasing Mobility by Optimizing System Performance (Added)

Roadway users want to be able to travel safely and to arrive at their destinations in a reasonable time frame. Congestion is already a major impediment to achieving these objectives in many metropolitan areas. At the same time, personal travel and goods movement are expected to increase significantly during the next 25 years. Providing new capacity is one answer, but congestion levels in 68 metropolitan areas are so high that 1,087 freeway lane-miles and 1,432 arterial lane-miles would need to be added annually just to maintain current congestion levels. There is an urgent need to make a major leap forward in the development and application of roadway operations to reduce congestion, provide safer roads, and support a growing economy that is increasingly dependent on just-in-time logistics and supply chain management.

Opportunities for significant improvements in this area are provided by progress made in several operations-related areas during the last decade. These areas include deployment of ITS infrastructure that enables real-time management of highways; development of management techniques that improve highway flow and contribute to crash reduction and avoidance of fatalities; and availability of information that allows customers to use the roadway infrastructure more efficiently. However, none of these tools, together with more traditional traffic and highway operations approaches, have yet been united in an integrated system or discipline that can be applied consistently in different circumstances to achieve significant mobility and safety results. Research in this area would be aimed at integrating these opportunities and focusing them on addressing one or more major operational issues.

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×

Two candidate research topics were developed in this focus area:

  1. Providing real-time information to customers: Given changes in lifestyle and the economy, roadway customers—private and commercial—place a high value on system reliability, security, and traveler information. Travel demand models have postulated and experience has shown that people will change their travel behavior in the presence of better travel information. Several existing technologies improve the accuracy and timely provision of information to users, including ITS-based travel pattern information, cell phones, and AVI position reporting data (TRANSMIT). Historical databases can form the basis for developing point-to-point travel time predictions. The use of real-time information may also drive changes in infrastructure investment and operations policy and practice. Research in this area could focus on the following specific topics:

    • Performance requirements

      • Requirements and values of different customer segments under various conditions (such as commute, recreation, work zone, disaster, special event, freight delivery)

      • Performance measures, indicators, and indices that adequately communicate system performance to customers and operators in useful ways

      • Human factors considerations involved in effectively communicating the information within the constraints of various media [telephone, broadcast, personal data assistant (PDA), Internet, VMS]

      • Definition of minimum information requirements for various geographic, weather, and travel density conditions for the functional specifications of various roadway classes

      • Information about intermodal connections and alternatives to increase transit use, including door-to-door travel times, costs, and walking/waiting times

    • Technologies for collection, storage, sampling, and analysis of data

      • Travel time prediction models

      • Alternative detection and surveillance technologies

  1. Reducing congestion from nonrecurring incidents: Approximately 60 percent of delay has been attributed to nonrecurring incidents, such as crashes, work zones, and special events. Incidents also increase the likelihood of secondary crashes. ITS technologies have provided some capability to know what is happening on the roadway and to respond. Nevertheless, the actual real-time management of incidents is generally based on intuition

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
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and trial and error; in addition, currently available tools for intervention are still relatively crude. Better management of incidents in advance (for planned events) and faster response (for unplanned events) could significantly reduce congestion and the frustration it generates, as well as improve safety. F-SHRP research in this area could focus on the following specific topics:

  • Data and analysis technologies

    • Techniques for predicting location, frequency, duration, and type of incident as the basis for improving incident detection and response protocols, including, for example, prepositioning of service patrols, equipment, and personnel and targeting of traveler information. This research might include artificial intelligence (AI) approaches combined with ITS-based historical data and data mining techniques.

    • Use of on-site GPS/stereo/AI techniques and video imaging from surveillance cameras to substantially reduce documentation requirements for serious crashes.

  • Traffic control technologies

    • Traffic control techniques, based on micro simulation and micro analysis, for real-time management of supersaturated bottlenecks; intensified traffic controls that might include automated and variable lane and speed control, coupled with automated enforcement

    • Micro simulation traffic models for more user-friendly applications (improvements to CORSIM, for example)

    • Low-cost/low-maintenance traffic-adaptive signal technology, especially for use in areas where special events occur regularly (near stadiums and convention centers, for instance), based on low-cost detection devices (such as video image processing) and wireless communications technology

    • Design, including technology, designs, and operating techniques for making roadways more flexible (for example, to modify flow patterns in response to special event traffic, recreational traffic, or other incidents)

    • Performance: development of performance measures and standards for appropriate levels of system application and operational intensity to help agencies determine cost-effective approaches to meeting customer needs

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Development of Research Focus Areas." Transportation Research Board. 2001. Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life -- Special Report 260. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10223.
×

Vision, Strategic Focus Areas, and Research Topics, March 2001

At the committee’s October 2000 and March 2001 meetings, a vision for the highway system was developed, and the research topics were reduced to four. These four, after further refinement, became the four research programs recommended in the report.

Vision

The committee developed the following vision for the highway system:

A highway system that actively contributes to improved quality of life for all Americans by providing safe, efficient mobility in an economically, socially, and environmentally responsible manner.

Research Topics

Rapid, Long-Lived, Minimally Disruptive Highway Renewal

Overall goal: To develop a consistent, systematic approach to performing highway renewal that is rapid, causes minimum disruption, and produces long-lived facilities.

Comprehensive Crash Causation Study and Selected Countermeasures

Overall goal: To build the foundation for a quantum leap in highway safety through the in-depth study of crash causation and the development of prototype countermeasures for selected crash types.

Environmentally, Economically, and Socially Responsive Highway Development

Overall goal: To develop approaches and tools for systematically integrating environmental, economic, and community requirements into the analysis, planning, and design of new highway capacity.

Reliable Travel Times

Overall goal: To provide highway users with reliable travel times by preventing and reducing the impact of nonrecurring incidents.

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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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TRB Special Report 260 - Strategic Highway Research: Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life examines the goals, research agenda, administrative structure, and administrative needs for a new strategic highway research program. After extensive outreach to the highway community, the committee recommended the establishment of a Future Strategic Highway Research Program (F-SHRP). F-SHRP would comprise four research program areas: accelerating the renewal of America's highways; making a significant improvement in highway safety; providing a highway system with reliable travel times; and providing highway capacity in support of the nation's economic, environmental, and social goals.

The committee recommended that F-SHRP be administered by a credible, independent organization capable of managing a large-scale contract research program in a manner that would ensure the highest-quality research. The initial SHRP program was managed by the National Academies for just these reasons. The committee recommended that F-SHRP be funded at $75 million per year through a 0.25 percent takedown of federal-aid highway funds apportioned under the next surface transportation legislation. As recommended by the committee, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has funded the development of detailed research program plans. These plans will be implemented if F-SHRP is authorized.

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