TRANSPORTATION OPERATIONS--BACK TO THE FUTURE!

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1999

Subject Area

land use - planning, organisation - management

Keywords

U.S. Federal Highway Administration, Transportation policy, Transportation planning, Transportation operations, State of the practice, Service delivery, Resource allocation, Public private partnerships, Plan implementation, Management, Long range planning, Institute of Transportation Engineers, Government agencies

Abstract

Twentieth-century surface transportation programs substantially focused on the development of basic infrastructure networks. The new challenge for transportation in the 21st century is managing the performance of transportation resources to deliver integrated transportation services to customers under varying conditions in a manner that is performance driven, not project driven. The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and the U.S. Federal Highway Administration have therefore initiated a major long-term effort to provide transportation professionals and others with the opportunity to move beyond fine tuning and to significantly advance the state-of-the-practice of transportation operations. During 1999, a series of discussion groups generated the following set of recommendations: develop a vision that will support a long-term mission for transportation operations; establish an authorizing environment for operations that includes a broad range of stakeholders; educate national leaders on needs and issues of the operations stakeholders and on the potential benefits; foster coalitions at local, regional, and national levels and among agencies and associations to carry out the mission; and define and deliver agendas for operations. The Phase 1 effort to meet these objectives began in mid-1999 and includes convening a national steering committee on transportation operations, generating white papers and overview issue papers, generating input from stakeholders, and presenting findings at the April 2000 ITE Conference. It is anticipated that Phase 2 will be a multiyear effort involving the broad range of stakeholder groups for transportation operations and the delivery of the recommendations generated from Phase 1.

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