1. AASHTO Research Advisory Council July 25, 2018
Critical Issues in Transportation
AASHTO Research Advisory Council July 25, 2018

2. Criteria for Being “Critical”
It is an important longer term issue that is likely to be a major policy issue in the future.
There are expected to be major changes related to the issue that will affect transportation in an important way.
It is an issue that is cross cutting across multiple modes of transportation.
It is an issue that affects all levels of government.
It is an issue that affects both the public and private sector.
It is an issue of importance globally, and not just in the United States.
It is an issue that is related to broader societal outcomes we are trying to achieve.

3. Broader Societal Goals That Transportation Supports
Safety and security
Economic vitality/growth
Quality of life
Sustainability
Equity in providing opportunity
Public health

4. Critical Issue Topics Transformational Technologies Policy Issues
Serving a Growing and Shifting Population
Energy/Sustainability
Resilience/Security
Safety/Public Health
Equity
Governance
Asset Performance and Management
Funding/Finance
Goods Movement
Institutional and Workforce Capacity
Research and Innovation

5. Transformational Technologies Policy Issues
Connected and autonomous vehicles
Shared mobility services
Electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles
Location and development impacts
Big data and smart cities
Balance of regulatory oversight and technology development and innovation
Artificial intelligence

6. Serving a Growing and Shifting Population
Mega-region internal travel and connections
Needs of growth areas vs. non-growth areas
Rural access needs
Millennial and Baby Boomer needs, especially in areas not well served by transit

7. Energy/Sustainability
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
Sustainable energy sources for transportation
Electric powered transportation
Sustainability considerations in decision making
Streamlining project development and environmental review process

8. Resilience/Security Adding security without impeding mobility
Adopting a risk management approach to resilience
Adaptation to severe weather events
Security risks form drones
Cybersecurity and GPS vulnerabilities
Evacuation issues

9. Safety/Public Health Adopting proven and new safety technologies
Adopting proven crash avoidance methods
Public health’s linkage to transportation
Fatigue management
Operator distraction from technology
Unmanned aircraft safety issues
Safety management and safety culture
Impacts of marijuana and other drugs
Learning from other nations’ approaches

10. Equity Equity issues of alternative financing mechanisms
Access to new technology services for disabled and elderly travelers
Access issues for the economically disadvantaged
Environmental justice issues

11. Governance
Devolution’s impact on interstate and international commerce
Addressing nationally significant bottlenecks
Megaregion and multi-jurisdictional decision making
Roles in providing Mobility as a Service
Implications of transformational technologies on institutions
Governance of data

12. Asset Performance and Management
Use of pricing and technology to improve system performance
Managing for performance
Asset management and life cycle cost decision making
New materials, construction techniques, and maintenance approaches
Impacts of heavy loads on infrastructure

13. Funding/Finance Role of federal funding User fee financing issues
Mileage based user fee issues
Role of public-private financing
Funding for low density links
Funding for public transit and inland waterways
Incentivizing carbon emission reductions
Subsidizing disabled, elderly, and economically disadvantaged transportation

14. Goods Movement Providing for growth in freight
Reducing emissions from freight
Worker shortages in freight
Transformational technologies in freight
Data challenges, e.g. proprietary data
Concentration of freight into a limited number of carriers
Distribution of domestic energy
Effect in changes in manufacturing (e.g. 3D printing)

15. Institutional and Workforce Capacity
Institutional capacity to address current issues
Preparing the workforce for new technologies and future issues
Attracting underrepresented groups into transportation
Outsourcing management issues
Baby boomer retirement impacts
Displacements of workers by technology
Attracting new workers to transportation

16. Research and Innovation
Learning from new technology experiments and sharing lessons learned
Impact of rapid development and deployment of new technology on traditional research
Accelerating public sector research and innovation
Development and retention of the teachers of tomorrow