National Academies Press: OpenBook
Page i
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidance for Developing a Freight Transportation Data Architecture. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14466.
×
Page R1
Page ii
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidance for Developing a Freight Transportation Data Architecture. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14466.
×
Page R2
Page iii
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidance for Developing a Freight Transportation Data Architecture. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14466.
×
Page R3
Page iv
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidance for Developing a Freight Transportation Data Architecture. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14466.
×
Page R4
Page v
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidance for Developing a Freight Transportation Data Architecture. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14466.
×
Page R5
Page vi
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidance for Developing a Freight Transportation Data Architecture. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14466.
×
Page R6

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2011 www.TRB.org N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I V E F R E I G H T R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCFRP REPORT 9 Subscriber Categories Data and Information Technology • Economics • Freight Transportation • Marine Transportation • Motor Carriers Planning and Forecasting • Railroads Guidance for Developing a Freight Transportation Data Architecture Cesar Quiroga Nicholas Koncz Edgar Kraus Juan Villa Jeffery Warner Yingfeng Li David Winterich TEXAS TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE THE TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM College Station, TX Todd Trego Dunwoody, GA Jeffrey Short AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE Arlington, VA Elizabeth Ogard PRIME FOCUS, LLC DePere, WI Research sponsored by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE FREIGHT RESEARCH PROGRAM America’s freight transportation system makes critical contributions to the nation’s economy, security, and quality of life. The freight transportation system in the United States is a complex, decentralized, and dynamic network of private and public entities, involving all modes of transportation—trucking, rail, waterways, air, and pipelines. In recent years, the demand for freight transportation service has been increasing fueled by growth in international trade; however, bottlenecks or congestion points in the system are exposing the inadequacies of current infrastructure and operations to meet the growing demand for freight. Strategic operational and investment decisions by governments at all levels will be necessary to maintain freight system performance, and will in turn require sound technical guidance based on research. The National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) is a cooperative research program sponsored by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) under Grant No. DTOS59-06-G-00039 and administered by the Transportation Research Board (TRB). The program was authorized in 2005 with the passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). On September 6, 2006, a contract to begin work was executed between RITA and The National Academies. The NCFRP will carry out applied research on problems facing the freight industry that are not being adequately addressed by existing research programs. Program guidance is provided by an Oversight Committee comprised of a representative cross section of freight stakeholders appointed by the National Research Council of The National Academies. The NCFRP Oversight Committee meets annually to formulate the research program by identifying the highest priority projects and defining funding levels and expected products. Research problem statements recommending research needs for consideration by the Oversight Committee are solicited annually, but may be submitted to TRB at any time. Each selected project is assigned to a panel, appointed by TRB, which provides technical guidance and counsel throughout the life of the project. Heavy emphasis is placed on including members representing the intended users of the research products. The NCFRP will produce a series of research reports and other products such as guidebooks for practitioners. Primary emphasis will be placed on disseminating NCFRP results to the intended end-users of the research: freight shippers and carriers, service providers, suppliers, and public officials. Published reports of the NATIONAL COOPERATIVE FREIGHT 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 NCFRP REPORT 9 Project NCFRP-12 ISSN 1947-5659 ISBN 978-0-309-15523-6 Library of Congress Control Number 2010941126 © 2011 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, RITA, or PHMSA 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 Freight Research Program, conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The members of the technical panel selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance. The report was reviewed by the technical panel and accepted for publication according to procedures established and overseen by the Transportation Research Board and approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this report are those of the researchers who performed the research and are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, or the program sponsors. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, and the sponsors of the National Cooperative Freight Research Program do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of the report.

CRP STAFF FOR NCFRP REPORT 9 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs William C. Rogers, Senior Program Officer Charlotte Thomas, Senior Program Assistant Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Hilary Freer, Senior Editor NCFRP PROJECT 12 PANEL Catherine T. Lawson, State University of New York - Albany, Albany, NY (Chair) Scott R. Drumm, Port of Portland (OR), Portland, OR David L. Ganovski, David Ganovski & Associates, LLC, Berlin, MD Kathleen L. “Kitty” Hancock, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Alexandria, VA Ernest B. Perry, III, Missouri DOT, Jefferson City, MO Ronald J. Duych, RITA Liaison Rolf R. Schmitt, FHWA Liaison Thomas Palmerlee, TRB Liaison AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research reported herein was performed under NCFRP Project 12 by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), Texas A&M University System, in collaboration with the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), and Prime Focus LLC. TTI was the prime contractor for this study, with the Texas A&M Research Foundation serving as Fiscal Administrator. Cesar Quiroga, research engineer at TTI, was the principal investigator. The other authors of this report are Nicholas Koncz, assistant research scientist at TTI; Edgar Kraus, associate research engineer at TTI; Juan Villa, research scientist at TTI; Jeffery Warner, associate transportation researcher at TTI; Yingfeng Li, assistant research scientist at TTI; David Winterich, research associate at TTI; Todd Trego, senior research associate; Jeffrey Short, senior research associate at ATRI; and Elizabeth Ogard, president at Prime Focus LLC. 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

NCFRP Report 9: Guidance for Developing a Freight Transportation Data Architecture pre- sents the requirements and specifications for a national freight data architecture to link myr- iad existing data sets, identifies the value and challenges of the potential architecture, and specifies institutional strategies to develop and maintain the architecture. The report is espe- cially valuable for (1) its analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of a wide range of data sources; (2) the development of a national freight data architecture definition that is scal- able at the national, state, regional, and local levels; and (3) a better understanding of the challenges that might block the implementation of a national freight data architecture as well as candidate strategies for developing, adopting, and maintaining the data architecture. This report lays the foundation for the development of such a data architecture. Public and private decisionmakers must understand the freight transportation system, its use, its role in economic development, its environmental impact, as well as other conse- quences in order to respond effectively to growing logistical requirements for businesses and households. This understanding draws on many disparate data sources covering commod- ity movements, relationships among sectors of the economy, international trade, freight traffic, supply chains, and transportation services and infrastructure. These data sources are difficult to link into useful information because they are collected under various definitions and time scales, geographic levels, and aspects of transportation. Efforts to bridge these dif- ferences with analytical techniques or new data collections tend to be ad hoc or cover only part of the freight transportation universe. Several studies and conferences by TRB have called for a national freight data architecture to link existing data sets and guide new data collections. However, none of these calls defined what is meant by data architecture or how it would be designed and implemented. Under NCFRP Project 12, the Texas Transportation Institute was asked to (1) review sys- tems, databases, and architectures that might be used as a potential reference for the devel- opment of a national freight data architecture; (2) develop a formal definition for a national freight data architecture; (3) identify high-level categories of data architecture components; (4) identify potential implementation approaches; (5) develop a list of specifications for the freight data architecture; and (6) identify challenges and strategies related to the implemen- tation of a national freight data architecture. F O R E W O R D By William C. Rogers Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

C O N T E N T S 1 Summary 10 Chapter 1 Introduction 10 Background 15 Research Objectives 17 Chapter 2 Data Sources, Systems, and Architectures 17 Introduction 17 Data Sources 19 System and Architecture Review 46 General Observations and Lessons Learned 49 Chapter 3 Surveys, Interviews, and Peer Exchange 49 Introduction 51 Surveys and Interviews 55 Peer Exchange 58 Chapter 4 Outline and Requirements for a National Freight Data Architecture 58 Introduction 58 Special Considerations 61 National Freight Data Architecture Definition 61 National Freight Data Architecture Value 62 National Freight Data Architecture Components 66 National Freight Data Architecture Specifications 72 Challenges and Strategies 76 Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations 76 Introduction 76 Data Sources, Systems, and Architectures 77 Online Surveys, Interviews, and Peer Exchange 78 National Freight Data Architecture Definition 78 National Freight Data Architecture Value 79 National Freight Data Architecture Components 79 National Freight Data Architecture Recommendations and Specifications 79 Challenges and Strategies 82 References 90 Definition of Terms 92 Abbreviations, Acronyms, Initialisms, and Symbols Note: Many of the photographs, figures, and tables in this report have been converted from color to grayscale for printing. The electronic version of the report (posted on the Web at www.trb.org) retains the color versions.

Next: Summary »
Guidance for Developing a Freight Transportation Data Architecture Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

TRB’s National Freight Cooperative Research Program (NCFRP) Report 9: Guidance for Developing a Freight Transportation Data Architecture explores the requirements and specifications for a national freight data architecture to link myriad existing data sets, identifies the value and challenges of the potential architecture, and highlights institutional strategies to develop and maintain the architecture.

The report also includes an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of a wide range of data sources; provides information on the development of a national freight data architecture definition that is scalable at the national, state, regional, and local levels; and offers readers a better understanding of the challenges that might block the implementation of a national freight data architecture as well as candidate strategies for developing, adopting, and maintaining it.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!