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Champion(s)
Scan of Agencies with Documented and Quantified Performance Measures Related to the Integration of Technology
Funding
Research Period
Description
The purpose of this research is to: 1) conduct a scan of state and local agencies with documented and quantified performance measures related to the integration of technology; 2) develop a summary of such performance measures; and 3) propose a set of synthesized draft standards for CAV, ITS/TSMO, EV, SM/MoD/MaaS, and UAS/UAM projects that also align with federal requirements. (Note: This RNS has been drawn from a System Management and Emerging Technologies (SMET) research roadmap because it overlaps with Transportation Performance Management.)
Literature Search Summary
Existing research in emerging transportation technologies is focused on impacts on data, workforce training, best practices, and asset management. There is some research to date around quantifying the impact of emerging technologies or determining performance measures for these technologies. Research around performance management looks at integrating performance management into processes rather than developing metrics for performance. This project will build off existing research and support development of performance measurements for emerging transportation technologies and support development of process for quantifying and evaluating impacts with considering of existing performance measure requirements, and one that develops performance measurements.
Objectives
The desired outcome and expected final product of the research is to develop a technical memorandum that summarizes findings from the scan, maps the relationships and interdependence among the organizations developing and leading use of performance measures related to technology, synthesizes and recommends performance measures that align with integration of emerging transportation technologies, and identifies and recommends future research focused on use of performance measures to support continued integration of emerging technologies.
Urgency and Potential Benefits
As emerging transportation technologies are deployed on public roads, state DOTs are presented with a new challenge because the impacts of these technologies are still being evaluated. Further, the ability to evaluate impacts is hindered by the fact that many emerging technologies are still in the development stage and commercial use cases that will be scaled nationally are not yet known.
As road users in different jurisdictions are exposed to the safety issues presented by emerging transportation technologies, state DOTs are looked at to answer how these technologies will be regulated, monitored, and assessed. Part of this includes quantifying their impact on the transportation
system both at a local level and a federal level. Understanding how these technologies will transform transportation and road usage is integral to protecting the safety of road users while also understanding how proposed use cases may or may not impact the transportation system.
This research can be used to guide state DOTs in implementing emerging transportation technologies in a safe way that is based on the quantitative effects of the technologies on the transportation system. The benefits of this research will be the ability to provide guidance about the impacts of emerging transportation technologies to State DOTs and local agencies, which can then be used to steer the deployment of these technologies via standards development. Further benefits include understanding how these technologies will change the transportation system and developing performance measures for emerging technologies that are accessible to state and local governments.
Implementation Considerations
Within a state DOT, departments focused on the evaluation and integration of emerging transportation technologies into the transportation system will likely be responsible for using the research results. Some state DOTs have dedicated staff focused on transportation and innovation while other DOTs have merged this into their departments focused on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
State DOTs can use the body of research developed by this statement to modify existing standards or develop new standards for the testing and deployment of emerging transportation technologies. The findings from this research are also anticipated to support needed coordination across departments when considering the evaluation and implementation of performance measures, including coordination around staff working on emerging technologies and staff supporting modeling.
Existing venues for further discussion around the project and the findings will include AASHTO meetings, SMET joint-subcommitee, and meetings of the Transportation Research Board. There will also be opportunities to coordinate findings with other national organizations and the Federal Highway Administration.