An announcement for a TRB Conference held in Seattle, Washington, July 19--22, 1992, on Transportation Planning, Programming, and Finance includes the following statement of purpose: "Many changes have taken place that have created new challenges for planning and programming decisions in the 1990's especially the impacts of the recently passed surface transportation legislation that will greatly impact the planning and programming area. These challenges include (1) an increasing emphasis on maintenance and rehabilitation of an aging infrastructure versus new facility expansion; (2) a growing concern with urban and suburban growth and congestion and the appropriate mix of management and investment actions needed to address it; (3) the impact of the new Clean Air Act and other environmental considerations; (4) the new Surface Transportation Act including major changes to the federal program structure, federal/state matching ratios for funding, and the definition of the federal aid highway system; (5) funding pressures at all levels of government and the resulting interest in private sector funding sources; and (6) greater emphasis on multimodal issues."

In view of these issues, there is a pressing need to improve processes for transportation planning, programming and financing. Research is needed to identify approaches that can be used to address these aspects reflecting each area's particular institutional structure, programming process, system needs, financial resources, and funding mechanisms.

The objectives of the project will be to (1) review the emerging issues affecting planning and program decisions, e.g., accommodating environmental criteria and implications of the recent clean air and wetlands requirements; (2) assess current and new approaches to programming and planning including institutional and technical aspects; (3) determine the steps required to address emerging issues; and (4) develop a research action agenda. An important element in this research will involve convening a workshop of transportation leaders to address the issues in an effective manner.

The workshop was held on November 1 to 3, 1993, resulting in a research agenda that was presented to the AASHTO Standing Committee for Research for its consideration of research projects for the NCHRP. Projects selected by the Standing Committee appear in a series of 8-32 projects.