Helping to initiate a discussion of the appropriate institutional forms that a comprehensive transportation information program might take is the goal of this paper. The purpose and scope of such a discussion are delineated; some of the institutional forms and types now operating in this sphere are surveyed; and the functions that institutions must perform in order to be effective are examined. In thefirst part of this paper, the aim is to establish an overview of the scope and character of national transportation data development. In the second part, the major transportation data-collecting institutions, federal, state, local, and private are examined, with particular emphasis on those federal entities within the u.S. Dot. In the third part, the institutional functions to be performed in the development of a national transportation statistical system are reviewed. These include: assembling data needs; program design; funding; program coordination; and product delivery. Preliminary observations are presented in a brief concluding section, not to draw definitive finalconclusions and make recommendations, but rather to help guide further discussion. Fundamentally, these observations examine the argument that the present national transportation data program needs new institutions and institutional arrangements to give structure to the scope and scale of its activities. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1271, Transportation data and information systems: current applications and needs 1990.
Abstract