Preparing for the Future of Highway Transportation

Special Libraries Association 2009 Conference

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Outline

• FHWA Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Purpose and Process
• EAR impact on scientific knowledge and research capacity)

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EAR Key Process

• Focus on high-risk, high payoff research
• All projects begin with initial stage research (e.g. scanning, literature review, etc.)
  • Assure leverage of the most recent, relevant and advanced research from all fields
• Not all initial stage research leads to (or is expected to lead to) follow-on or actionable results
• Merit review is used to enhance the quality of research processes and results

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Current Partnerships

• Academic
  • University Transportation Centers, other universities
• Government
  • Other Federal Agencies, State, Local
• Non-Governmental, Non-Profit
• Industry

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Key Partnerships

• Research stakeholders are involved throughout
  • From scoping of focus areas through communication of research results
• Stakeholders include
  • Academic
  • Government: Other Federal Agencies, State, Local, International
  • Industry: Businesses, Associations

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EAR FY 09 Focus Areas

• Breakthrough concept for integrating highway safety and system operations
• Nanoscale research
• Massive scale systems
• Human behavior in traffic
• Financing highways for the next century
• New technologies and advanced policies for energy and resource conservation

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Building Knowledge

• Raising strategic and situational awareness
  • Accelerating trends
  • Responding to new directions
• Synthetic and cross-cutting topic areas
  • Learning communities
  • Multi-disciplinary approaches

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Research Capacity

• Peer learning
  • Access to new ideas and methods through partnerships, fellowships
• Bootstrapping
  • Improving research processes; better modeling, measurements
• Research process evaluation

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So what is the future of transportation?

• Traffic signals that know when vehicles are arriving
• Bridges that heal themselves
• Roadways that remove pollution from the air, water

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For more information

See the EAR Program website located at www.fhwa.dot.gov/advancedresearch or Contact David Kuehn, EAR Program Manager, at (202) 493-3414 or david.kuehn@dot.gov

Thank You