Organizational Alternatives for a Transit Research Coordinating Council

In anticipation of changes in transit research and development (R&D) programs under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funded this study to examine: the type of coordination, if any, needed to manage new and expanded transit R&D activities; and the organizational structure for this coordination. FTA requested that the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Research Council conduct this study. This report presents the study results. Briefly, the following conclusions were reached: First, the need for coordination of transit R&D programs is more critical today than it has been in the past because of the increased scale of funding for R&D activities, the expanded number of research programs, and the diversity of organizations involved in research. The greatest need is for a policy-level coordinating mechanism--a Transit Research Coordinating Council (TRCC)--to monitor the complex research environment and provide guidance to program sponsors and managers on appropriate directions and priorities for the national transit research effort. Second, creation of a successful coordinating group requires involvement of the major stakeholders in the transit community in a structure sufficiently independent from program sponsors and individual constituents to render credible advice, a knowledgeable membership with the capability to identify emerging issues and advise on broad research program goals and directions, continuity to maintain an ongoing monitoring capability and provide timely advice, and staff and budget sufficient to support these activities. More specifically, the TRCC should comprise the leadership of the full spectrum of transit research programs, program sponsors, and potential users of research. Its role should be proactive as well as reactive, and should include the following functions: program monitoring and information exchange; assessment of the balance and effectiveness of existing research programs; advice on the direction, priorities, and level of funding of future research activities; and assessment of the adequacy of research dissemination efforts. Finally, the most promising institutional arrangements for a TRCC were narrowed to two: (a) a federal advisory committee--either as part of the recently authorized Surface Transportation Research Advisory Committee or as a new federal advisory committee focused only on transit--or (b) a new committee of the National Research Council modeled on a recently created policy advisory committee for an expanded highway research program. The report is organized in six chapters: (1) Introduction; (2) Evolution of Transit Research; (3) Need for Coordination; (4) Requirements for Successful Coordination; (5) Institutional Structure for the TRCC; and (6) Recommendations.