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    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
    <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
    <atom:link href="https://rip.trb.org/Record/RSS?s=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" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
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    <language>en-us</language>
    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
    <image>
      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
      <url>https://rip.trb.org/Images/PageHeader-wTitle-RIP.jpg</url>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Synthesis of Information Related to Highway Practices. Topic 52-16. Visualization of Highway Performance Measures</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1707176</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Visualizations are tools for analyzing, reporting, and communicating the complexities of a transportation system and for synthesizing these intricacies into presentations that can be easily understood.

The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Synthesis 584: Visualization of Highway Performance Measures documents current practices and methods used by state departments of transportation (DOTs) for visualizing highway performance measures and their use of visualization techniques for communication and decision support.

Supplemental to the publication is a Presentation of Visualization Examples.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2020 10:49:26 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1707176</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Synthesis of Information Related to Highway Practices. Topic 52-07. Use of Pavement Data Collection Technology for Pavement Data Quality Management and MAP-21 Reporting</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1707238</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Automated collection of pavement data allows agencies to collect data on pavement health, including cracking, rutting, faulting, and roughness, at highway speeds. This provides important information for better pavement decision-making. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Synthesis 589: Automated Data Collection and Quality Management for Pavement Condition Reporting documents the experiences, challenges, and state-of-the-practice solutions used by state departments of transportation that are in the midst of transition or that have transitioned to automated and semiautomated processes for collecting pavement data. It also summarizes the data for state and federal reporting requirements, such as Transportation Asset Management Plans and the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21).]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2020 09:25:47 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1707238</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Federal Funding Flexibility: Use of Federal Aid Highway Fund Transfers by State DOTs</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1628623</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Federal aid highway funding to departments of transportation (DOTs) changed substantially in 2012 with the transition from the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act:  A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) to Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21). Ninety federal transportation programs funded under SAFETEA-LU were consolidated into 30 new and existing programs under MAP-21. The majority of the funding was consolidated into five formula programs [National Highway Performance Program (NHPP), Surface Transportation Program (STP), Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ), and Metro Planning]. While many small focused programs were eliminated as separate programs (e.g., Safe Routes to School), the activities they funded remain eligible for funding under other programs.
State DOTs employ a range of strategies to transfer federal aid highway funds across modes, among federal aid highway programs, and from state DOTs to local and regional governments. Limited research has been done on the extent that state DOTs use this flexibility or the effectiveness of their strategies.
The objective of this research is to examine how states have used the funding flexibility provided in MAP-21 to advance federal and state priorities while efficiently and effectively utilizing available resources.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 06 Jun 2019 18:52:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1628623</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>A Practical Review of Georgia’s Existing GIS Environmental Datasets Toward Enhancing Regional/Statewide Platforms to Streamline the Transportation Planning Process (Phase I)</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1522838</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The primary objective of this research is to determine the various factors affecting development of an environmental resources database needed to facilitate timely compliance with environmental review mandates for Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21)/Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 09 Jul 2018 14:34:32 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1522838</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Research for the AASHTO Committee on Environment and Sustainability. Task 103. Administration of Categorical Exclusions by State Departments of Transportation under NEPA </title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1489873</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Since 1989, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and State DOTs have employed programmatic agreements that establish procedures for expeditious and efficient approval of Categorical Exclusions (CEs). President Obama signed Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) into law on July 6, 2012. Section 1318(d) of MAP-21 puts forward a permanent program that allows State DOTs to assume CE approval authority on the behalf of FHWA. The content, structure, and approach of existing programmatic agreements between FHWA Division Offices and State DOTs vary widely, as FHWA affords State DOTs the flexibility to adopt programmatic agreements best suited to each state’s individual circumstances.

On October 6, 2014, FHWA and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published a Final Rule1 in the Federal Register that amends the NEPA regulations for FHWA and FTA, 23 CFR Part 771,2 to authorize the establishment of programmatic agreements between FHWA and State DOTs to allow State DOTs to make a CE approval on FHWA’s behalf. In accordance with the regulation, State DOTs should establish new or revised existing programmatic agreements before November 6, 2019. In undertaking the required re-establishment of new programmatic agreements with FHWA, in accordance with 23 CFR Part 771.117(g), State DOTs need to understand how CEs are currently administered and how programmatic agreements are structured.

The purpose of this research is to produce a report characterizing the state of Categorical Exclusion (CE) programmatic agreements (PA) between FHWA and State DOTs, including PAs that are already compliant with 23 CFR Part 771.117(g), as modified in accordance with the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Ac]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 27 Nov 2017 19:33:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1489873</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>CMAQ Performance Plan Phase I</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1457184</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) program was created to support all areas of non-attainment that did not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Currently under the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), the Federal Highway Administration has provided funding to state and local transportation governments for projects which will reduce traffic congestion and vehicular emissions. MAP-21 requires that metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) with a transportation management area of more than one million in population representing a nonattainment or maintenance area, develop and update biennially, a performance plan to achieve air quality and congestion reduction targets. For the purpose of carrying out the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has established measures for States to use to assess traffic congestion and on-road mobile source emissions.
The most recent federal guidance for the CMAQ Program indicates that Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) need to develop procedures for assessing emission reduction benefits for proposed CMAQ projects. In the downstate New York region, a committee, chaired by New York Metropolitan Transportation Committee (NYMTC), which includes the five boroughs of New York City and Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland counties, evaluates projects proposed for funding under the CMAQ program.
During the past three years the City College of New York (CCNY) under the UTRC consortium assisted NYMTC in the development of an application and guidance form to evaluate projects submitted for CMAQ funding. The application was created by combining three separate applications under the direction of the directors of NYMTC sub regions (NYC, Lower Mid-Hudson and Long Island). A secondary resource of reference was also used to create the application by CCNY. CCNY team reviewed approximately ten different CMAQ applications from MPO’s around the nation. The CCNY team is qualified to perform the requested tasks of this project to develop the CMAQ Performance Plan for NYMTC. The project team will work with the Program, Finance and Administration Committee (PFAC) Operating Procedures Working Group, which will guide the development of the plan, and act as the steering committee for this project.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Feb 2017 13:52:50 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1457184</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Identifying and Analyzing the Relative Advantages and Disadvantages of Public-private Partnerships and Traditional Delivery for Transport Projects</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1441899</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) sent out a clarion call to the transport community that all roads should lead to private sector financing of  infrastructure. An evaluative tool that can be used to ascertain the relative merits and disadvantages of design-bid build (DBB) and public-private partnerships (P3) across California, learning lessons also from Oregon and Washington. This involves applying a transaction cost economic measurement framework to these two modes of delivery, adapted from comparative ex post analyses of projects that were developed side-by-side using DBB and P3 methods [Whittington, 2012], systematically comparing the institutional arrangements for implementing these modes across states.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 04 Jan 2017 10:56:09 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1441899</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>PPRC14: "Improvement of Caltrans Pavement Management System (PaveM)"</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1441838</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Work in this task is designed to meet California Department of Transportation's (Caltrans's) needs for improved policies, operations, and business practices for the management of California's pavement resources and investments in the following areas: (1) Help Caltrans meet the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP21) requirements for asset management of pavements for both state and local government. (2) Improved sustainability of Caltrans's pavement network by reducing energy use, emissions, and use of new materials through recycling.   Sustainability also considers minimizing the impact of the road network on surrounding human and ecological communities. (3) Improved delivery of pavement projects and services through new and improved methods and specifications for pavement management. (4) Optimized pavement performance and lower life cycle costs of pavement through improved capacity to model and calculate life cycle costs. (5) Reduced congestion from recurring maintenance and rehabilitation by use of improved design methods, and new materials and construction strategies and specifications. (6) Improved smoothness and safety as well as reduced noise from traffic on pavements, and through development and implementation of better pavement management approaches.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 04 Jan 2017 10:54:06 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1441838</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Proposed Macro-Level Safety Planning Analysis Chapter for the Highway Safety Manual</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1407198</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The objectives of this research were to develop validated and demonstrated quantitative macro-level safety prediction models and a quantitative safety planning chapter for the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual (HSM) intended for use by transportation practitioners at all levels. This includes a guidance document on the development and application of these models, methods to integrate the model results into planning procedures, and electronic analysis tools for applying the models in practice. The research results are intended as a new chapter for inclusion in a future edition of the HSM. The results should address a broad range of safety planning level issues related to macro-level models such as, but not limited to, geography, demographics, transportation modes and modal interaction, existing or planned land-use and/or transportation projects, model transferability, calibration needs, and associated data limitations.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 12 May 2016 13:55:06 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1407198</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Hazardous Material Safety Permit (HMSP) Program Improvements</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1400174</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The project team performed a program evaluation of all aspects of the HMSP program. It produced a detailed draft final report on all aspects of the evaluation that enabled FMCSA to meet the above goals. A Federal Register Notice was published in August 2015 implementing policy changes that revised the HMSP renewal process and a portion of how the safety performance is tracked.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Mar 2016 17:14:54 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1400174</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Case Study of Mexico's Third-Party Entry-Level Driver Training (ELDT) Program for Commercial Vehicle Operators</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1400148</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The objective of this project was to document lessons learned for assisting the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in the development of an entry-level driver training (ELDT) program in the United States using a third-party system. 
Effective October 1, 2012, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), in Section 32304, Commercial Motor Vehicle Operator Training, mandated that FMCSA issue a final rule on ELDT programs and that it cover all commercial driver’s license (CDL) drivers. FMCSA is separately gathering research information on the effectiveness of different types and amounts of ELDT. The proposed process in the 2007 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for delivering ELDT is via third-party schools. There is information available from Mexico’s implementation of a third-party process for training commercial drivers. The United States’ acceptance of a Mexican Licencia Federal (LF) dates back to November 21, 1991, when the Office of Motor Carrier Safety in the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Dirección General de Autotransporte Federal (DGAF) in the Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT) determined mutually that Mexican CDLs are comparable to U.S. CDLs and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishing the comparability. FMCSA is in the process of updating this MOU by revisiting the numerous revisions that have occurred in the CDL programs of both countries. Since the execution of that MOU, the Mexican program has changed the licensing program from a federally staffed operation to a private third-party school operation. This project involved conducting a literature review of ELDT methods and analyzing Mexico’s experience using a third-party approach for ELDT programs to document lessons learned. A final report containing documentation of the Mexican experience and results from development and implementation of an ELDT program using a third-party approach is pending publication. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Mar 2016 12:09:36 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1400148</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Develop and Support Transportation Performance Management Capacity Development Needs for State DOTs</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1395894</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The focus of this pooled fund project will be to research and assess training and educational needs of contributing members, develop and deliver training, and to facilitate the sharing and retention of performance management best practices.  Funding will be used to:  (1) Identify Gaps in Transportation Performance Management (TPM) Knowledge, Skills and Abilities--Conduct a needs analysis for learning and capacity development of contributing members resulting in a short and long-term capacity building roadmap; (2) Develop and Deliver Learning and Capacity Development Resources--Develop training and educational material to meet the gaps identified in the knowledge, skills and abilities; (3) Establish a TPM Information Clearinghouse--The TPM Information Clearinghouse will be used to showcase PM best practices, foster collaboration, and serve as a repository for PM resources; and (4) Support Knowledge Transfer Among Pooled Fund States. Specifically this pooled fund will: guide the prioritization of needs for determining training and other educational support for contributing members: (1) provide and promote communication and information sharing among member States related to learning and capacity development needs in the areas of performance management and provide input on research topics; (2) develop framework and roadmap for addressing learning and capacity development needs; (3) identify learning and capacity development resources needed to support the development of PM skills; (4) develop online and/or blended training courses and materials that are suitable for a wide variety of audiences such as State Departments of Transportation (State DOTs), Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), Public Transit Providers, and local governments; and (5) support a TPM Information Clearinghouse which will serve as a repository for TPM best practices and other resource information to assist states, MPO's and local government with learning about TPM and their implementation of TPM.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 22 Jan 2016 11:32:18 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1395894</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Size &amp; Weight Laws Compilation
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1371143</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Prepare study required by Congress under Section 32802 of Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21).  
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2015 09:19:05 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1371143</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SI 14.2.2 Support for National Performance Management. Research Data Set (Probe Data)
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1371141</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This funding supports the use of data that supports Federal Highway Administration, (FHWA), U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), State and Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) programs.  It is being used for current programs and to meet  Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) deliverables.    
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2015 09:01:16 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1371141</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SI.12-01.01: Transportation Performance Management (MAP-21 Requirements)
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1370911</link>
      <description><![CDATA[No summary provided.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 02 Oct 2015 14:41:18 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1370911</guid>
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