Providing technical assistance to local roads managers has not been a priority of traditional federal research programs. However, the national network of technology transfer (t2) centers, which emerged in the 1980s from the fhwa's rural technical assistance program, are now at the forefront in providing technology transfer to local roads officials. Accordingly, the t2 centers' primary responsibilitiesare to (a) identify the needs of local officials, (b) package the appropriate technology for meeting those needs in such a way that it can be easily understood and implemented at the local level, and (c)follow up on locals' use of the new technology to make sure its implementation has been successful. Although these centers have in the past 10 years made great strides in accomplishing the first two stages of this process, they must continue to work hard to find appropriate means for accomplishing the third. T2 centers must begin to reassess their role as agents of change and ask themselves, how well arewe communicating technological change to local roads officials? Theonly way to determine if the technology transfer program has been successful is to document how locals have used the technology received through these centers to improve thsir method of operation. A successful technology transfer effort ensures that new technology is both introduced to local officials and implemented practically to solvea problem or satisfy a need. If a climate conducive to change is not created by the technology transfer agent in his relationship with local officials, then change will not occur. T2 centers need to develop strategies that will help them not only to learn whether or not local officials are making significant use of the information and materials the centers provide but also to determine the costs associated with implementing technological change for the user's benefit. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1291, Fifth international conference on low-volume roads, may 19-23, 1991, raleigh, north carolina, volume 1.
Abstract