BACKGROUND

As transportation agencies strive to deliver community-centered transportation, practitioners must have reliable data, analytical tools, partners, and resources. Data enables transportation professionals and decision-makers to better understand the diversity of the communities they serve by illustrating community characteristics and needs, and highlights trends that inform transportation planning. Data inputs can include a variety of categories, such as demographic and socioeconomic. Data availability exists on multiple spectra: public to private, primary to tertiary, and freely available to purchased.

Developments in data and analytical techniques are fast evolving and could support transportation agencies in identifying (1) the visions and goals of their communities quantitatively or qualitatively and (2) disparities in access to the transportation that enables community success. As technology increases the number of data sources, there is a corresponding increase in the complexity, clarity, and questions about the fidelity of data for transportation agencies to consider as inputs. Additionally, safeguarding individual privacy and ensuring ethical use of data are paramount as this field develops. 

However, there are knowledge, capacity, and practice gaps in using data to understand communities. Challenges may include data accuracy, assumptions in analyses, accessibility of data, and identifying logical pairings between sources and uses of the data. Research is needed to better understand data opportunities and confront the challenges transportation agencies experience to enable planning for community-centered transportation. 

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this research is to develop a guide and data framework to empower transportation agencies to deliver community-centered transportation.

Accomplishment of the project objective will require at least the following tasks.

TASKS

Phase I

The project should begin with background research, including a scan of the practice and a literature review (see Special Note L) regarding data opportunities for transportation planning activities to achieve community-centered transportation. Additionally, the research team should develop an engagement strategy for activities in all three phases of the research. In Phase I, the research team shall engage transportation professionals to gather information on primary, secondary, and tertiary data to gain an understanding of (1) the data state DOTs already collect, possess, or analyze, (2) the data that could be accessed through data sharing, and (3) data that can be purchased from private vendors. At the end of Phase I, the research team shall prepare the Phase I Interim Report and Updated Phase II Research Plan and participate in an in-person interim meeting. 

Phase II

The research team should develop a data opportunities catalog for public-sector users that includes the following activities:

(1) Identify available and new data to be developed, collected, and analyzed, but prioritize existing data collected by public and partner agencies.

(2) Evaluate data sets by use and source, including assumptions, limitations, uncertainties, and value of the data.

a. Flag compliance, privacy, and ethical considerations for using data.

b. Investigate the data sets by the user’s capacity, resources, and scale of investigations.

(3) Identify data partnering opportunities and challenges and data sharing agreements and protocols.

(4) Outline communication techniques to describe findings, data limitations, and uncertainty in discussion with various audiences such as the public, elected officials, and approving agencies.

The research team shall use the data opportunities catalog as the basis for creating a data framework which shall align the data opportunities with the key components of transportation planning for community-centered transportation. Components should include:

(1) Forecasting and modeling,

(2) Equity analyses,

(3) Scenario planning,

(4) Investment priorities,

(5) Links to asset managers’ recommended portfolio of improvement projects, or

(6) Methods for assessing and addressing the changes in community needs over time.

The framework shall also demonstrate effective practices through case examples or offer recommendations for each component to close knowledge, capacity, or practice gaps using the research findings. 

Before concluding Phase II, the research team shall engage the community of practice to vet the research outcomes at a workshop or through targeted focus groups. The participants should include practitioners from state departments of transportation (DOTs) and their partners. The Phase II Interim Report shall include a summary of findings from the engagement activities and a draft implementation plan for the project panel to prepare an application to the NCHRP 20-44 Implementation Support program. The Updated Phase III Research Plan shall finalize the concepts for the final deliverables with an annotated outline for the guide and data framework. The research team shall participate in a virtual interim meeting to present the Phase II findings to the NCHRP.

Phase III

The research team shall develop the final deliverables. For the proposal, the final deliverables shall include at least:

• The guide and data framework due no later than 4 months before contract expiration,
  
  
• An executive brief to build leadership buy-in for transportation agencies to access partner data through the creation of data sharing protocols or memoranda of understanding,
  
  
• A PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes that summarizes the project and distinctly illustrates for a broader audience how the research can be applied, and
  
  
• The final implementation plan.
  

The final deliverables shall be reconsidered in the Updated Phase III Research Plan.

The sequencing of tasks to achieve the research objective and associated deliverables (such as technical memoranda or summary reports) shall be structured in the same cadence as quarterly progress report (QPR) submissions so that technical content can be reviewed at the same time as a QPR. One month shall be reserved for review and NCHRP approval for each interim report. NCHRP approval is required to advance to the next phase. An in-person interim meeting shall follow Phase I, and a virtual interim meeting shall follow Phase II.

STATUS: Proposals have been received in response to the RFP. The project panel will meet to select a contractor to perform the work.