01478706

Component

With billions of dollars dedicated to transportation research, university faculty and graduate students across the nation are discovering solutions and products that will make our infrastructure safer and more efficient. Little research exists, however, regarding the best way to communicate these answers and advances in the state of the practice to transportation professionals in the field. Further, the available research does not treat transportation engineers as information consumers. The nation’s infrastructure depends on an effective way to place vital findings into the hands of the users. This project included a preliminary literature review as well as an unprecedented survey of 175 transportation professionals. The survey explored the respondents’ preferences for receiving transportation engineering research, ranking current methods such as hard and electronic copies, live transmissions, national transportation resource libraries, and social media networks. Results revealed that among professionals surveyed, the technical brief—typically a two-page summary—was rated the most desired and effective research product. Conversely, respondents reported the technical brief was only the fifth most common way of receiving information. Other findings suggested that greater attention should be paid to search engines as access points for research results and succinct supplementary materials, such as PowerPoint presentations. Findings also suggested that funding agencies could easily adjust reporting requirements for transportation research to promote the creation of more effective informational products for working professionals. Future studies should continue to acknowledge transportation professionals as consumers to ensure this vital information can be transmitted into practice.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABG10 Conduct of Research.

01470560

13-5209

English

18p

2013

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References

Information dissemination; Literature reviews; Research; Research reports; Surveys; Transportation engineers

Research; Transportation (General); I10: Economics and Administration

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-5209

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 5 2013 12:59PM