ABJ00 Data and Information Systems Section

TSP Summary

Highlights

ABJ00 has 11 committees. As of July 6, 2009, TSP have been received by ten of these. The TSPs were well prepared and thorough, indicating a highly motivated set of committee chairs and membership.

Most of the committees had undertaken recent strategic planning activities. These activities did not result in changes in scope. All committees found their scopes relevant and reflective of the committees’ activities. However, the strategic planning activities did prompt some committees to make changes in its activities or structures to better align with their committee scopes.

  • ABJ80 would like to change its name from “Statistical Methodology and Statistical Computer Software in Transportation Research” to “Committee on Statistical Methods.” The reasons for the change are three fold: to simplify the name, to better reflect committee activities in that they really do not deal with software, and to better reflect that statistical methods dealt with are infrequently unique to transportation.
  • ABJ10, National Transportation Data Requirements and Programs, convened two subcommittees (Passenger Travel Data and Data Requirements for Transportation System Resilience) to bridge gaps in the committees activities.
  • ABJ20, Statewide Transportation Data and Information Systems, identified new initiatives and redirected activities to better enable the committee to address key challenges it anticipates state DOTs will face in coming years.
  • ABJ35, Highway Traffic Monitoring, considered how to broaden its activities to keep aligned with its change in scope that happened when it was moved from the Pavement Management Section to its current section.
  • ABJ70, Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing, wants align its activities to include the aspect of facilitating decision making.

Committees have been active in terms of sponsoring annual meeting sessions/ workshops and submitting Research Needs Statements. Not all have been successful in getting research funded. ABJ20 has successfully had two problem statements funded in the last three years. ABJ30, Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems, has had five problem statements funded. ABJ40 has had two problem statements funded. ABJ90, Freight Data, has had three problem statements funded. This committee is hosting a special session at TRB followed by a workshop in May 2010 to focus on the development of new research needs statements.

Several committees have been quite active in planning conferences, workshops and other related activities. ABJ20 is actively involved in planning for the asset management conference and the asset management & GIS peer exchange. ABJ35 is active in the planning of the biennial North American Travel Monitoring Exhibition and Conference (NATMEC). ABJ40, Travel Survey Methods, is active in the International Conference on Transport Survey Methods that occurs every three years on a different continent. ABJ60, Spatial Data and Information Science, has sponsored four workshops (outside of the annual TRB meetings) over the past 2 years bringing together academics and industry in the geospatial area.

Issues

While there are no critical issues facing the committees in the section, there are some minor challenges associated with a few committees.

  • ABJ80 and ABJ95 (Data Visualization) are assigned to TRB staff other than Tom Palmerlee. This has provided some challenges in integrating these committees into the greater Section activities. There is a committee culture that derives from the staff person, and the current situation creates challenges to synergistic activities. The meeting of ABJ80 at the annual meeting, for instance, has been scheduled to conflict with the Section meeting for the past two meetings. This is somewhat less of an issue for ABJ90 since that committee started as a Task Force that was borne of the Data Section. ABJ80 has become the outlier in the Section. Not only does ABJ80 has zero statements in the Research Needs Database but it also did not provide a TSP.
  • While ABJ10 is active in hosting and collaborating on annual meeting sessions, it has zero statements in the Research Needs Database. The committee needs to formalize and then “work” a strategic plan.
  • ABJ70 also has zero statements in the Research Needs Database. However, under a new chair, the committee has been energized on working with committees inside and outside of the Section to relate AI and computing tools to the real world. The committee has a special interest in data: dealing with missing data, data accuracy and consistency, data management, and knowledge building using data – using this special interest and cooperating with other committees, we should see more activity in research problem statements.
  • Several committees do not yet have web pages or other means for regular communications with their members and friends. These include: ABJ10, ABJ90, and ABJ35. No committees other than ABJ30, ABJ40, and ABJ95 identified the use of new and emerging communication technologies.
  • All committees need to work on attracting and “using” young members. The most young members on any committee is two, and most have zero.

Actions

All committees – that provided TSPs -- are focused on cross-cutting issues, and tend to work collaboratively with other Sections and Groups. A synthesis of the issues of most common interest were: Data quality, Data for decision making (infrastructure, climate change, safety), Data privacy, performance measurement, New technologies for data capture. An action for the Section is to develop a plan for facilitating cross-cutting activities among committees of the Section and outside of the Section. A Strategic Plan for the Section is being developed and among other items, it will address this action.

The Section is interested in creating more visibility for Data for Decision Making theme. This theme was not only threaded through most of the TSPs (either as “data” or as “analytical tools”). This theme was a priority coming out of the Section’s retreat in 2008. The Section has a 08-36 problem statement ready to submit that addresses this theme. It proposes to conduct a scoping study that will result in recommendations for the development of a logical process and associated tools for determining the usability of transportation data for critical-issue decision making (a Transportation Data Program Self-Assessment Guide). In addition and looking ahead to re-authorization, the various committees of the Section are keyed in to the current buzz words (i.e., climate change, performance measures, safety) and associating annual meeting sessions, workshops, and other activities to these key themes.

Several committees will need some attention in the near future to deal with the issues identified above. Because these issues are relatively minor, such attention can be provided without detracting from the proactive, move-forward acivities and priorities of the Section.

Johanna Zmud

December 29, 2009