00734510

Monograph

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The Research and Technology Coordinating Committee (RTCC) was asked by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to review environmental mandates, identify shortcomings in the information available to support environmental policy decisions, and offer guidance regarding research activities related to highway transportation and the environment. In response, the committee held two roundtable discussions with participants from state and local government environmental and transportation agencies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and FHWA and reviewed studies that identified research needs, problems in the organization and planning of environmental research, and problems in the environmental decision-making process. The committee reached conclusions in two areas: (1) it identified the need for research to produce information that would immediately enable federal, state, and local transportation officials to respond more effectively to environmental regulatory requirements and contribute to national environmental goals and (2) it identified the need for reforms to the organization of research and to the linkages between research and policy that could lead to more effective environmental programs. This report considers specific research needs relating to surface transportation and air quality. The greatest immediate need of transportation policy makers and administrators for environmental information and analysis is probably in support of programs for complying with federal clean air regulations. Water quality, noise, and land use are environmental concerns linked to transportation, and these issues will be important considerations in transportation policy making in the future. Some of the general conclusions reached in this report are relevant to all environmental regulation. Chapter 1 of this report describes concerns about the applicability and utility of the available information about transportation and air quality that motivated this study and presents a framework to guide identification of research needs. Chapter 2 identifies high-priority research topics; Chapter 3 addresses research organization; and Chapter 4, long-term issues regarding the relationship of research to policy. Appendixes A, B, C, and D are, respectively, a review of selected current research programs on transportation and air quality, a summary of several recent studies that identified transportation and air quality research needs, a review of studies that have proposed organizational changes or regulatory reforms to improve the information base for transportation and air quality programs, and a description of the RTCC roundtable discussions on environmental research needs. The discussions summarized in Appendix D also highlight some of the specific regulatory compliance problems that have stimulated the concerns of state and local officials regarding the adequacy of existing information and research programs.

This study was sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

English

88 p.

1997

Appendices (4) ; References

Air quality; Compliance; Decision making; Environmental policy; Highway transportation; Regulatory reform; Research

Environment; Highways; Policy; Research

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Mar 4 1997 12:00AM