Transportation Planning Research Highlights
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Planning, Environment and Realty's (HEP) Surface Transportation Environment and Planning Cooperative Research Program (STEP) ended on September 30, 2012. For current HEP research information, please see HEP's research web site.
The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA's) Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty's research program supports projects with the goal of strengthening transportation planning and environmental decisionmaking. This document highlights recent research projects focused on planning and programming that were conducted to achieve this goal. To learn more about FHWA's these and other research efforts, visit: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep/step/
- Beyond the Short Term: Transportation Asset Management (TAM) for Long-Term Sustainability, Accountability and Performance Report. This report examines TAM as a system for sustainability and accountability.
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/asset/10009/index.cfm
- Transportation Decisionmaking: Information Tools for Tribal Governments offers professionals' resources to plan for capital, operating, and maintenance needs on tribal lands. http://www.tribalplanning.fhwa.dot.gov/
training_series.aspx
- The guidebook, Considering Security and Emergency Management in the Planning of Transportation Projects, highlights considerations, potential partners and sample measures for highway-related infrastructure projects. http://www.planning.dot.gov/documents/
ConsideringSecurityAndEM.pdf
- The Public Involvement Reference Tool is designed to help you find specific public involvement documents, discover and share best practices, and to assist State transportation agencies to improve their transparency, efficiency, and accountability. /planning/public_involvement
/reference_tool/
- The Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP) sponsored a 12-session webinar series on activity-based modeling to advance transportation modeling approaches and techniques. (http://www.tmiponline.org/Clearinghouse/
Item-Types/Recorded-Webinar.aspx). TMIP also convened five peer reviews and produced reports of their results to help planning agencies meet federal, state or local transportation planning requirements. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/tmip/resources/ or http://www.tmiponline.org/
- Modeling and Analysis Needs and Resources for Small Metropolitan Area Transportation Planning: Report on a Peer Exchange, is a report evaluating the current travel modeling and analysis needs and capabilities of small MPOs. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/tmip/publications/
other_reports/mpo_peer_exchange/
- The Asset Sustainability Index Report examines the concept of a suite of proposed performance measures centered around an Asset Sustainability Index.
http://planning.dot.gov/documents/ASI_report/ASI-index.htm
Research and MAP-21:
Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) authorized funding for a new FHWA research program that strengthens transportation planning and environmental decisionmaking. The program's key components will be projects and programs that:
- Minimize the cost of transportation planning and environmental decisionmaking processes, highway infrastructure, and operations.
- Improve transportation planning and environmental decisionmaking coordination and processes.
- Minimize and reduce the potential impact of highway infrastructure, operations, and surface transportation on the environment.
- Improve construction techniques and reducing congestion and related emissions.
- Reduce the impact of highway runoff on the environment.
- Improve the understanding and modeling of factors that contribute to the demand for transportation.
The details of the program are being finalized. Please visit https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep/step/ to find the latest information about this program and FHWA's research efforts.
