Implementing Transportation Knowledge Networks

Explores a business plan for the development of Transportation Knowledge Networks (TKNs) in the United States. The business plan defines ten key products and services to be provided to transportation practitioners by the regional TKNs, with support from a national coordination function. TKNs are defined as "decentralized, managed networks linking information providers to users wherever they are located."

This report is a record of the formation, major activities and accomplishments of the Transportation Library Connectivity pooled fund study, TPF-5(105), from its approval by FHWA in 2005 through its fifth and final annual meeting in September 2010. Some 50 state departments of transportation, 600 transit agencies and nearly 400 metropolitan planning organizations generate a staggering amount of valuable information, yet the transportation sector lacks a systematic approach to effectively manage this information. This challenge has been well-documented in reports such as the Federal Highway Administration's Value of Information and Information Services; the National Cooperative Highway Research Program's Scoping Study for a National Strategic Plan for Transportation Information Management; and the Transportation Research Board's Special Report 284, Transportation Knowledge Networks: A Management Strategy for the 21st Century. The Transportation Library Connectivity pooled fund study was formed against the backdrop of these challenges and developments. By working together more closely and more formally as transportation agency libraries, members improved services to their customers and also enhanced their readiness to embrace the planned policy changes recommended by TRB SR 284 for inclusion in the next surface transportation funding act. During its five years, study membership grew from 11 members in nine states to 25 members in 22 states. A new pooled fund study, to be led by Missouri DOT, is being formed to build upon the achievements of this study.

This book presents many valuable research methods useful in conducting research in modern urban transportation systems and networks. The knowledge base in practical examples, as well as the decision support methods described in this book, is of interest to people who face the challenge of searching for solutions to the problems of contemporary transport networks and systems on a daily basis. The book is therefore addressed to local authorities related to the planning and development of strategies for selected areas with regard to transport (both in the urban and regional dimensions) and to representatives of business and industry, as people directly involved in the implementation of urban transportation systems and networks solutions. The methods contained in individual chapters of the book allow to look at a given problem in an advanced way and facilitate the selection of the appropriate strategy (e.g., in relation to the air quality in considering the impact of the atmospheric emission from the urban road traffic, the role of incentive programs in promoting the purchase of electric cars, life-cycle costing decision-making methodology and urban intersection design, but also in assessing the impact of the socio-financial conditions on the bike-sharing system operation and its implementation in medium-sized cities, etc.). In turn, due to the new approach to theoretical models (including comparison methods of driving errors in a single-lane and multi-lane roundabouts, methods of parking measurements, methods of ensuring the technical readiness of transport companies fleet due to the region's capabilities as well as speed-related surrogate measures of road safety based on floating car data), the book is also of interest to scientists and researchers carrying out research in this area.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th IFIP/IEEE International Workshop on Distributed Systems: Operations and Management, DSOM 2002, held in Montreal, Canada, in October 2002. The 16 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 40 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on managing quality of service, measuring quality of service, service architectures, policy and process, and fault analysis.