SUMMARY

 

STRATEGIC ISSUES FOR IMPROVED MONITORING TO SUPPORT TRANSPORTATION OPERATIONS

Date :           Nov 27, 2001

Location :           TRB – Washington DC

Attended By :            Representatives from TRB, AASHTO, State DOTs, FHWA, academia, private sector

Goal:           Discuss a draft white paper leading to the development of a document that can be circulated for wider discussion and consensus development

 

Strategic Issues to be Explored

·         Developing a common understanding of the types and density of information needed to manage, use, and plan the future of transportation facilities;

•     Planning and funding to deploy and maintain monitoring technology to collect the needed information;

•     Methods to turn data gathered by monitoring technology into useful information;

•      Establishing institutions with the authority and accountability to manage transportation facilities and assist users through application of the information;

•      Institutional arrangements for keeping and sharing the information while protecting privacy of the individuals represented in the data; and

•     Support for ongoing improvements to technology for monitoring, data processing, and information dissemination.

 

Main Points of Discussion at the Meeting

·         Attempt to identify the data requirements for transportation management and operations, as a first step toward defining, developing, and implementing the necessary data systems.

·         Discuss reaching consensus on:

o       What functions in operations require data?

o       What questions need to be answered to serve those functions?

o       What categories of data are needed to answer those questions?

o       Over how much of the highway system should we be collecting that data?

o       Are there parts of the highway system that require different levels or types of data collection?

o       Bringing it together: a proposed outline of data requirements.

 

Issues Raised at the Meeting

·         Defining what is meant by operations – what are the operational decision boundaries that data must support?

·         What are the most useful ways to classify data requirements – by operation function, information category, by static and dynamic data types

 

Next Steps