Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology Evaluation Final Report: Eco-Logical

Appendix I. Qualitative Coding Database

Figure 4 shows the total number of benefits, challenges, and recommendations that the evaluation team coded under each evaluation theme and category (see section 2.3 for definitions). This information was used to identify evaluation findings, not necessarily to rank the categories.

Source: FHWA.
Figure 4. Graph. Number of recipient comments on benefits, challenges, and recommendations organized by evaluation theme and category.

The evaluation team identified 766 comments in total with 251 benefits, 332 challenges, and 183 recommendations. The evaluation category “External Stakeholders” received the most comments under both benefits and challenges. Some categories were inherently positive (e.g., “Credence”), while others were inherently negative (e.g., “Staff Turnover”). As a result, those categories only had benefits or challenges, respectively. The categories “Grant or IAP Program,” “Credence,” “Process or Process Change,” Process Impacts,” and “Environmental Impacts” had a higher ratio of benefits to challenges, while other categories had more challenges than benefits listed. Recommendations were either geared toward FHWA or peer agencies and were primarily in the categories “Knowledge,” “Outreach,” “Grant or IAP Program,” “Funding,” “External Stakeholders,” and “Process or Process Change.”

Figure 4 is not intended to rank any category as inherently more valuable than another, but it is meant to show the relative frequency of the comments coded in each category.