FHWA/UTC Workshop on Urban / Suburban Mobility and Congestion Mitigation Research

Concluding Discussion Session

June 6-7, 2006

The workshop concluded with a plenary discussion focusing on next steps and strategies for establishing continuing, regular communications between FHWA and the UTC's in support of a developing a national research agenda focused on congestion mitigation issues. The following were topics of discussion:

This workshop is intended to be a pilot for future workshops focusing on other priority research topics. What was your overall impression of the workshop? What worked and what didn't?

Workshop content and structure:

• This was a great conscious raising exercising and it was very useful to learn about the specific areas and strategies that DOT will be following. It has been especially helpful to get to see and meet individual FHWA people. The TFHRC directory is really helpful and I'm going to go back and have the right technical people at our UTC get in touch with the right FHWA people. Very helpful bridging exercise.
• Bringing people together is a good idea; lots of good interaction went on at the workshop. The challenge will be maintaining the interaction when we get back home - being part of a listserve, etc. is not the same as being dedicated to a particular task for a couple of days like this. A meeting like this is much more effective.
• The presentation on the Secretary's Congestion Initiative was very compelling and put the congestion problem in terms that the general public can understand. It was useful to see the Secretary's 6 point plan and better understand the priorities of the Department.
  • Note: While FHWA encourages the UTC's to help us support the Secretary's initiative, our goal is to establish a relationship with the UTC's for the long term that goes beyond current initiatives. We are seeking ways to collaborate with the UTC's to develop and maintain a nationally coordinated research program focusing on congestion mitigation and other US DOT research priority areas.

Participants:

• I am here representing my UTC and trying to cover all technical areas. At future workshops, it would be useful to invite people who have more expertise in a particular subject area.
• It would be very useful to have more State representatives participate in the workshop. FHWA would need to pay for their travel, as they cannot travel otherwise. It would be helpful to have at least 5 or 6 States at the next workshop - could they be picked randomly to attend?

Schedule:

• The academic year starts in September, so having the workshop earlier in the year would facilitate coordinating with the UTC academic programs. Some UTC's are already in the midst of finalizing their strategic plans and others have already issued requests for proposals for next year's program so that work can start in the fall.
• The UTC's expect the level of coordination to grow, especially in subsequent years. This year most are already a long way down the road in terms of defining their programs for the next year.

Building trust and sharing among the UTC's

Themes:

• Competition is part of the UTC environments. Sharing information is a conflict of interest in some ways - sharing of plans is very different than sharing of results.
• Bringing us together so that we develop the respect and trust with one another will help build inter-UTC teams and collaboration and will result in greater academic cooperation.
• The UTC's would like to find a way to share curriculum - Could FHWA become a facilitator or organizer to help the UTC's to share?
• It would be nice to have easy access to what other UTC's are doing. Research in progress is one resource and UTC's have information on the web, but it is hard to go looking in so many places.
  • Note: The RITA UTC web site: http://utc.dot.gov/ identifies the theme of each UTC and contains a link to the UTC's web site.

Facilitating national program collaboration between FHWA and the UTC's

• The window of opportunity for collaboration with the UTC's is on three levels, which will develop and mature over time:
  1. Cooperative discussions: FHWA's 1st step was to try to identify those UTC's that had a theme that seemed to fit with our congestion mitigation research priority. The next step is to begin to communicate in more detail about specifics of the FHWA research program and the UTC's programs. This conversation needs to become robust enough to identify real partnering opportunities. FHWA and the UTC's both need to be thinking about where there are opportunities to collaborate, and look for ways to pursue those opportunities. Over time a deeper collaboration will develop; more than coordinated communications, it becomes a coordinated program.
  2. Collaborative program development: We have an opportunity now because the UTC's are currently putting together their Strategic Plans; creating a program for next year and identifying resources. There may be opportunities for UTC's to collaborate on FHWA research; FHWA staff may sit on UTC advisory boards; or vice versa. This kind of collaboration can take many different forms, but it is deeper than just exchanging information and research reports.
  3. Leveraging resources: Leveraging resources doesn't have to be just money. As the UTC's look at FHWA roadmaps, we can look for opportunities to identify and take advantage of opportunities to do joint research where we see natural ties between FHWA and UTC research programs. We can develop a joint work program and conduct the research jointly, without an exchange of money. One possibility is to stage the research, where FHWA conducts the initial research and a UTC picks it up and continues with it.

Next steps:

• To facilitate a more robust dialog between with the UTC's, FHWA will work to more fully engage the Division Offices and the Resource Center in the UTC programs, not only those UTC's with congestion-related themes, but all of the UTC's.
• As appropriate, FHWA will identify technical experts -- from Headquarters, the Division Offices or the Resource Center -- to serve on UTC advisory or oversight committees and project selection panels. These technical experts will work with UTC researchers to ensure a coordinated national research program and to identify opportunities for collaborative research efforts.
• FHWA program managers and researchers will continue to look for opportunities to engage UTC's in a dialog about our research programs and in carry out parts of our roadmaps.
• In addition to future workshops or other activities focused on broad program areas like congestion mitigations, TRB and other conferences can serve as venues for future face-to-face meetings and discussions between FHWA and UTC experts in specific technical areas.