DOT officials and other transportation professionals use information to make decisions influencing the performance of the nation’s transportation infrastructure. DOTs and other agencies expend substantial amounts of time and money to ensure that their information is current, relevant, accurate, reliable, and available to users when it is needed, in forms that facilitate effective decision making. The term “transportation information” has many embodiments: reports, manuals, maps, plans, and photographs printed on paper; electronic files and databases stored on computer networks or in machine-readable media; DOT business practices; and records and observations of transportation system configuration, operations, facilities design, materials, and construction. Such information is captured, stored, and made available by functional units at DOTs, libraries, organized bibliographic databases (such as the Transport Research International Documentation or TRID service), catalogs, and increasingly the open Internet. Transportation information may be available in forms suited to immediate or on-demand use by the public – for example, current traffic conditions or motor-vehicle registrations – or stored inaccessibly in agency archives. Effective management of transportation information entails capturing the information from its various sources; organizing it in ways that facilitate its use by analysts, decision-makers, and researchers; preserving it; setting policies regarding data security and who may have access; and making information findable and accessible by users. The explosive growth in capabilities to capture, store, and work with information has given rise to diverse terminologies and technical approaches to information management and challenged DOTs’ capacity for change. There are no commonly accepted strategies or guidelines for a DOT’s information governance and management or the capabilities required for agencies and staff to effectively manage the agency’s transportation information across all information sources. Common problems within DOTs include uneven information access among operating units, incomplete and inconsistent archiving of system information collected by multiple departments and private contractors during project development, and inadvertently lost ability to find information (for example, when text files such as construction specifications are stored only as images, rather than searchable files). The objective of this research was to prepare guidance describing (1) practices DOTs can use for capture, preservation, search, retrieval, and governance of transportation data and information; and (2) strategies and actions a DOT can follow to implement current best practices for information management. A research team led by Cambridge Systematics, Inc., Tallahassee, FL, conducted the research. The research team reviewed current DOT policies and practices and documented the practices of several agencies that have made particular efforts to improve their management of transportation information. A set of case studies and examples was developed to present principal findings from this review. The team also investigated current thinking in information management, enterprise content management, and related fields to identify issues of particular importance for transportation information management and technology trends likely to influence future DOT information management activities. The team gave particular attention to the current state of practice regarding standardization of terminology, categorization schemes for transportation information and enhancements in detail or scope of information that should be included in such schemes, and opportunities for developing a common terminology and categorization scheme that could be made available for use by all state DOTs. Drawing on this research, the team assembled a set of suggested policies, tools, and practices DOTs can use to improve their effectiveness in managing transportation information. This document is written as a guide that DOT staff can use to supplement their understanding of information management principles and to consider practices they might adapt to improve their own agency’s management of transportation information. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting