[PDF] Transportation Research Opportunities For Universities Annual eBook

Author :
Publisher : Transportation Research Board
Page : 76 pages
File Size : 46,81 MB
Release : 1993
Category : Transportation
ISBN : 9780309054720

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The University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will soon enter its sixth program year. Program goals have been refined, center capabilities to meet goals have grown, and program funding has been reauthorized through federal fiscal year 1997 by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). To solidify these gains, DOT program staff has requested the assistance of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Research Council in developing a formal evaluation process and implementation plan to measure the progress of the centers on an ongoing basis. The recommendations of the study committee convened to carry out this task are presented in this report. The primary goal of the review process should be to provide feedback to centers and DOT on the quality of center programs and opportunities for their improvement. A key component of the review is to assess the extent to which the expected synergy, or value added, from funding centers instead of individual research and education projects is being realized.

Author : Sarah Jo Peterson
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 535 pages
File Size : 43,89 MB
Release : 2019-12-30
Category : Transportation
ISBN : 0309493749

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In 1920, state highway engineers, federal officials, and experts from academia were among a small group convened by the National Academy of Sciences to confront the problems of the highway. The public was entrusting them with billions of dollars for good roads, and World War I had proved the feasibility of moving freight long distances by truck. But even new highways were crumbling. They turned to research for solutions. The founders of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the generations that followed took on problems such as safety, social equity, and environmental issues. They embraced "total transportation," adapting their highway research model to urban transportation and then applying it to rail, marine, and aviation modes. Today TRB convenes thousands of researchers, practitioners, and administrators every year to advise the government, solve practical problems, foster innovation, and stimulate new research. In The Transportation Research Board, 1920â€"2020: Everyone Interested Is Invited, Sarah Jo Peterson tells the story of how people and institutions created and have continued to shape TRB. In a compelling narrative accompanied by more than 150 images exploring the history of transportation and research, she argues that TRB can be best understood as an infrastructureâ€"one that people purposely designed and devotedly maintained. Despite TRB's institutional complexity, its unique mission, the vast collection of acronyms in its orbit, and the significant changes to the organization in its first 100 years, Dr. Peterson provides a view from 30,000 feet, deftly describing the social, political, and economic context in which transportation (and TRB) functioned. At the same time, she attends to details of the key events, individuals, and human motivations that shaped TRB's evolution. The author's skills as a historian, her experience in the transportation field, and her manifest ability to tell a good story have produced a book that transportation professionals of all stripesâ€"and, for that matter, anyone interested in the history of transportation in the United Statesâ€"should find both engaging and informative and an essential addition to their library.