Statewide Data and Information Systems Committee

E-NEWSLETTER for STATE DATA PRACTITIONERS

TRB Statewide Data and Information Systems Committee
March 2005

PURPOSE: The primary goal of the TRB Statewide Data and Information Systems Committee (ABJ20) Newsletter is to disseminate research findings, description of new data tools, upcoming conferences/training announcements, and summaries of recent advances in the data field to a wide community of transportation practitioners. As an information resource, the newsletter will perpetuate the improvement and integration of transportation data to assist statewide multimodal planning.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS

Upcoming Conferences

Workshops

Recent Conference Proceedings / Information

IN THE HEADLINES

New Website for the TRB Statewide Data and Information Systems Committee (ABJ20)

President’s FY 2006 Budget

Strategies for Improving Traffic Safety Data Nationwide

Traffic Safety Web Site

UNC Highway Research Safety Center (HSRC) Crash Data Website

Crash Records Information System (CRIS) Arrives in Texas

Alaska DOT and Public Facilities Multi-year Data Business Plan

State / Local Match Waiver for Vehicle Classifiers

Research to Explore Geo-spatial Highway Travel and System Performance Monitoring

Transportation Information Management: A Strategy for the Future

Minnesota Statewide Freight Plan

 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Mid-year meeting (committee ABJ20 and others)

Boston, Massachusetts: July 10-12 at the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center
Further details to follow. After Friday, March 11, see www.TRB.org/Conferences/JointSummer

RESEARCH AND REPORTS

Recently released research product related to statewide transportation data

IN EVERY ISSUE

Website Links

Subscription Information

 

CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS

UPCOMING CONFERENCES

* 2005 Transportation Planning Applications Conference Portland, OR: April 24-28, 2005
http://www.trb-portland-05.com/index.html

* Census Data for Transportation Planning: Preparing for the Future Irvine, California: May 11-13, 2005
http://www.trb.org/Conferences/Census_Data_for_Transportation_Planning.pdf

* Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) Boston, Massachusetts: July 8-9, 2005
http://trb.org/conferences/cfs/

* 6th National Conference on Transportation Asset Management - Making Asset Management Work in Your Organization Kansas City, Missouri: Fall 2005 See Call for Abstracts with March 31 deadline
http://gulliver.trb.org/conferences/Asset/ RECENT CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS / INFORMATION

* Review the ABJ20 2005 TRB Annual Meeting Minutes:
http://webservices.camsys.com/trbcomm/minutes2005annual.htm

* 2005 TRB 84th Annual Meeting: What did you think?
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=2318
Please take a moment to send TRB your comments and suggestions on ways TRB might enhance the experience of those who attend TRB's Annual Meetings.

IN THE HEADLINES

* New Website for the TRB Statewide Data and Information Systems Committee (ABJ20)
http://webservices.camsys.com/trbcomm/home.htm
Make note of the new website location for the ABJ20 committee! Highlights of the new site include previous meeting minutes, peer exchange proceedings, 2005 TRB session presentations, and favorite links. Please contact Anita Vandervalk (ABJ20 committee chair) with any comments or suggestions on the new Internet site.

* President's FY 2006 Transportation Budget
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4644 President
George W. Bush has released his proposed fiscal year 2006 budget for the federal government. The budget includes a $59.5 billion request for U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) programs. Under the proposal, the DOT's new research agency, the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, will receive $39 million to carry out its mission of more effectively managing and coordinating the Department's research portfolio; and $131 million is requested for the new Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration to safeguard the nation's pipelines and transportation of hazardous materials. The largest portion of the President's 2006 request provides $35.4 billion for the Federal Highway Administration. The DOT's budget request also includes a $28 billion funding increase for the President's six-year surface transportation reauthorization proposal, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003 (SAFETEA), from $256 billion to $284 billion. The 2006 budget request contains no funding for Amtrak unless immediate and significant reforms along the lines of the President's proposed Amtrak legislation are made to the passenger rail service. The budget request includes $360 million to support existing commuter and freight service along the Northeast Corridor and elsewhere. Funding for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration increased by $45 million in 2006. The budget also includes $14 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration to support new infrastructure, hire new air traffic controllers and deploy technology that enhances aviation capacity and safety.

* Strategies for Improving Traffic Safety Data Nationwide
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/crash/crashstatistics/trafficsafetydata_IPT_Report.htm
The National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposes initiatives to help reduce the incidence of death and injury on the country's roadways by increasing the flow of timely, accurate, uniform, complete and accessible traffic safety data. A report on this topic is available from NTSA at the Internet site above.

* Traffic Safety Web Site
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov
FHWA has updated its safety Internet site. The updated site is designed to emphasize FHWA's safety focus areas of roadway departure crashes, intersection fatalities, pedestrian safety and a comprehensive approach to safety.

* UNC Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC) Crash Data Website
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4614
The University of North Carolina's (UNC's) Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC) has unveiled the NC Crash Data Query Website, an online analysis tool of 2002 North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) crash data. The website, funded by the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the North Carolina Governor's Highway Safety Program, allows users to create tables reflecting crash, vehicle, and person counts for crashes in North Carolina in 2002. The tables can reflect either the entire state of North Carolina or a specific city, county, Highway Patrol Area, or NCDOT Division. In addition, crash data can be analyzed using a variety of variables, including time of day, road surface condition, and vehicle count.

* Crash Records Information System (CRIS) Arrives in Texas
http://txdps.state.tx.us/crisproject
CRIS is a collaborative effort between the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). CRIS is the improved crash reporting and information system that allows for efficient processing of crash reports and provide readily available access to crash reporting data through the Internet. CRIS provides a technological solution to the previously manual process of crash data reduction and analysis, and it improves reporting capabilities, enhances safety and improves decision-making for law enforcement and transportation professionals. The system was rolled out in January of 2005, and it is currently in a six month transition phase for technical support of the application.

* Alaska DOT and Public Facilities Multi-year Data Business Plan
http://www.dot.state.ak.us/stwdplng/FTP/DataBusinessPlan/ or contact Jack Stickel at jack_stickel@dot.state.ak.us.
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is starting a multi-year program to develop a data business plan. The project is targeted-it concentrates on only data where the planning function collects, processes, archives, provides to users, or is otherwise a data steward. The data business plan project is modeled after the TRB Statewide Transportation Data Committee Peer Exchange, "Developing Business Plans to Support Transportation Decision-making", held in San Diego, California on June 27, 2004.

* State/Local Match Waiver for Vehicle Classifiers
For more information, please contact Ralph Gillmann (Ralph.Gillmann@fhwa.dot.gov) at (202) 366-5042.
State and local agencies have traditionally monitored traffic volumes on a wide scale but truck movements much less so. However, the need to monitor commercial vehicle traffic and freight movements has increased substantially. In order to promote the expanded the monitoring of commercial vehicle traffic and freight movements, it has been decided to permit State Planning and Research (SP&R) and Metropolitan Planning (PL) funds to be used by the States and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO's) without match for the purpose of purchasing and installing permanent automatic vehicle classification equipment in fiscal years 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. States have approximately 5,000 permanent traffic volume stations that need to be converted to permanent vehicle classification stations in order to improve commercial vehicle monitoring. Enhanced monitoring will result in significant benefits to the planning process, implementation of the new Pavement Design Guide, and improved data quality of the vehicle classification information reported for FHWA business uses.

* Research to Explore Geo-spatial Highway Travel and System Performance Monitoring
For more information, please contact David Winter (David.Winter@fhwa.dot.gov) at (202) 366-4631.
FHWA is proposing advanced research that will center on the development and deployment of a data integration system that uses states' geo-spatial networks to link the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS), Traffic Volume Trends (TVT), and National Bridge Inventory (NBI) databases. This linkage is based on a prototype already in operation in FHWA's Office of Highway Policy Information. The design of the system will allow for the easy addition of other databases within and outside the DOT. The system will support more advanced performance measures, allow more in depth analysis of existing databases, and support future analytical procedures. It will minimize rework and reinterpretation of data reported to FHWA by State and local data providers and enable spatial and trend analyses across FHWA's databases. Network analysis involves developing tools that understand the relationship between various geographic features. The integrated geo-spatial system will support such analysis, especially with the addition of some additional data elements that do not currently exist, the most significant of which are intersections/interchanges. This data along with states' networks, will allow for the development of analytical tools that would be able to predict the impact that one road has on an intersecting road, as well as the interaction between various data elements such as roads, bridges, railroad grade crossings, etc. With the development of the integrated geo-spatial system, target set for 2006, an effort will be initiated to evaluate other databases within and outside the DOT for future reference. EPA's non-attainment database and the Bureau of the Census's demographic files are examples of data that could be explored.

* Transportation Information Management: A Strategy for the Future
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4737
TRB's Committee for Transportation Information Management: A Strategy for the Future held its second meeting March 1-2, 2005, in Washington, D.C. The committee has been charged with providing strategic advice to the federal government and the states regarding a sustainable administrative structure and funding mechanism for meeting the information services needs of the transportation sector. The committee will define the core services that need to be provided, identify how they should be provided, and suggest options for funding. The committee's final report is expected to be completed by mid-fall 2005.

* Minnesota Statewide Freight Plan
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4700
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released the state's first-ever statewide freight plan, which identifies system deficiencies and recommends planning and programmatic solutions to address the state's freight movement challenges. The department forecasts that more than 1 trillion tons of freight will be shipped in, out, within, and through Minnesota in 2020, a 60 percent increase from 2001.

RESEARCH AND REPORTS

* Review of the American Community Survey
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4383
The U.S. Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report that reviews operational and programmatic aspects of the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS will be a mail survey of about 3 million households annually, whose results will be cumulated over 5 years to produce estimates that will replace information previously provided by the Decennial Census long form. The GAO report recommends that the U.S. Secretary of Commerce direct the Census Bureau to revise the ACS evaluation and testing plan, give stakeholders meaningful input on related decisions, make the underlying survey information public, and set a schedule for incorporating operational and programmatic changes into the 5- year averages for 2008-12.

* WSDOT's Performance Measurement Library
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/accountability/library/default.htm
WSDOT recently completed a best practices inventory of performance measurement practices in other state departments of transportation. This Performance Measures Library is a resource for researching these practices. It also includes links to national and international efforts and other notable performance reporting by city, county, and regional entities

* Continuing Project to Synthesize Information on Highway Problems
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4378
TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 292: Continuing Project to Synthesize Information on Highway Problems outlines the NCHRP synthesis research process, and provides a list of ongoing and completed NCHRP synthesis reports.

* Geospatial Information Infrastructure for Transportation Organizations
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4028

* Data for Understanding our Nation's Travel: National Household Travel Survey Conference
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4531
TRB's Electronic Circular 71: Data for Understanding Our Nation's Travel: National Household Travel Survey Conference summarizes a conference held on November 1-2, 2004, in Washington, D.C. The conference was designed to bring together a diverse set of data users who understand the data's usefulness in order to provide feedback to inform the design of future national travel behavior surveys. The report includes a collection of session summaries written by the session chairs and general speakers. Papers and presentation summaries can be found on the conference website.

* 2002 Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey: Final
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4508
The U.S. Census Bureau has now released all state reports and the U.S. Summary from its latest Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey. This survey includes information on fuel efficiency, annual mileage, primary range of operation, permanent equipment, and other physical and operational characteristics for pickups, sport utility vehicles, minivans, all other single-unit trucks, and truck-tractors. It is conducted every five years as part of the economic census. The microdata (without tabulation software) are now available. The CD-ROM (with tabulation software) is expected to be available in early January.

* A New Destination: The National Academies' Geographic Information Center
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4538
To help foster a better understanding of the many uses of geographic information-from urban planning to safe navigation to disaster relief-the National Academies has launched the Geographic Information Center, a website that organizes the Academies' body of work on the subject. More people are using geographic information as it becomes more readily available and easier to use, and as new ways to use it are found and shared. The new website provides updates on the latest projects, reports, and events on geographic information topics, and also features case studies and other highlights of reports.

* Economic Indicators for Transportation: January 2005
http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4643
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the U.S. Department of Transportation has recently updated it report on economic indicators relating to transportation. The indicators fall into two broad categories- those that provide context about the economy and society in which transportation functions, and those that convey information about an aspect of transportation.

IN EVERY ISSUE

Have a short project description, upcoming activity or conference that might be appropriate to distribute on our list? Contact Bill Eisele: bill-eisele@tamu.edu.

TRB Statewide Data and Information Systems Committee (NOTE OUR NEW LOCATION): -> http://webservices.camsys.com/trbcomm/home.htm

TRB E-Newsletter: http://gulliver.trb.org/news/
To SUBSCRIBE send an e-mail note to tpalmerlee@nas.edu with "Subscribe Data E-News" in the message's subject field. Confirmation of your subscription to the listserv will be sent within 5 business days. Subscriptions are free. To UNSUBSCRIBE yourself from this listserv send "Unsubscribe Data E-News" in an email message to tpalmerlee@nas.edu. If you ever need to get in contact with the owner of the list (if you have trouble unsubscribing, or have questions about the list itself), send email to tpalmerlee@nas.edu.

Thomas M. Palmerlee Senior Program Officer, TRB 202-334-2907 tpalmerlee@nas.edu