Federal Sites
Bureau
of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation
Statistics catalogs and maintains a wide range of transportation
data, available for download or purchase. The BTS also supports
the National Transportation Library (NTL), a rich collection
of full-text documents available via the Internet and CD-Rom,
and indexed in the powerful search engine DOTBOT.
Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA)
The homepage of the USDOT branch responsible for nation's
highway system and intermodal connections. The FHWA maintains
dozens of useful transportation sites, which can be searched
using the FHWA's search engine.
FHWA
Innovative Finance Page
This FHWA site provides significant coverage of innovative
finance for surface transportation projects. It summarizes
research on alternatives to conventional pay-as-you-go,
grant-based funding strategies; provides links to FHWA Innovative
Finance newsletters; and supplies technical guidelines for
specific finance mechanisms.
FHWA Resource Center Finance and Technical Service Team
The Resource Center Finance Technical Service Team provides a complete range of services to financial officials at state, local, and Federal Highway Administration Division offices across the United States, covering 50 states and six territories. The mission of the Finance Team is to provide sound innovative financing and federal fund management alternatives that (i) rely on solid and prudent analysis in leveraging federal funds to meet capital requirements, (ii) are consistent with the State's needs and overall capital management strategy, (iii) foster effective and efficient stewardship of the Federal-aid program, (iv) employ a creative approach that results in real added value, (v) can successfully attract infrastructure investors through public-private-partnership contracts.
Federal
Railroad Administration (FRA)
The Federal Railroad Administration oversees railroad
transportation in the U.S. Under its purview are proposals
for high speed rail and magnetic levitation systems,
many of which are discussed as candidates for innovative
finance.
Federal
Register (FR)
The site of the Federal Register provides online access
to and official daily publication of Rules, Proposed
Rules, and Notices of Federal agencies and organizations,
as well as Executive Orders and other Presidential Documents.
Its search engine narrows queries both by document type
and date.
Federal
Transit Administration (FTA)
The FTA provides financial & planning assistance to help
plan, build, & operate rail, bus & paratransit systems in
communities nationwide. The agency also assists in the development
of local & regional traffic reduction.
Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office
This site introduces the national Intelligent Transportation
Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office of the US DOT. The program
promotes advanced technology to improve transportation efficiency
and safety while stimulating the US technology base. The
site's Electronic Document Library provides rich information
on ITS and uses an online alphabetized catalog. Also supplied
are state by state profiles of ITS expenditures, projects,
and road transit and road applications toll collections.
National
Technical Information Service (NTIS)
This Department of Commerce sponsored website proves
access to a broad repository of unclassified scientific,
technical, engineering, and business information. The
search engines works best with specific queries.
National
Transportation Statistics
This Bureau of Transportation Statistics site provides
detailed national-level data on the U.S. transportation
system, its economic performance, safety record, energy
use, and environmental impacts.
Transportation
Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21)
This site provides the full text of TEA-21 authorizing
legislation for the Federal surface transportation programs
for highways, highway safety, and transit for 1998-2003.
Also included are links to useful summaries and publications.
Transportation
Infrastructure Finance and Innovation
Act (TIFIA)
The site contains useful
information about TIFIA
federal credit assistance
for transportation projects
of national importance,
as well as an on-site credit
risk calculator.
TRB Cooperative Research Programs
The National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP), Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP), National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP), and Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) are applied, contract research programs that develop near-term, practical solutions to problems facing transportation agencies. Both NCHRP and TCRP include annual projects addressing ongoing needs.
U.S.
Department of Transportation (USDOT)
The homepage of the USDOT, with links to its eleven individual
operating administrations and helpful descriptions of
each administration's roles and responsibilities. The
powerful DOTBOT search engine references all USDOT websites.