AASHTO Council on Active Transportation Research Roadmap
National
Project Summary
The AASHTO Council on Active Transportation (CAT) has a Strategic Plan to foster, support, monitor, disseminate, and implement research on active transportation. Toole Design as a part of a team with Portland State University, created a Research Roadmap that identified research gaps and prioritized research needs to direct the CAT’s research activities and help achieve their strategic goals.
Toole Design led the practitioner outreach for this project. To understand the most relevant research needs among practitioners, we conducted a survey of over 200 active transportation professionals to screen the needs identified in the literature. The survey was followed by a series of workshops to refine and prioritize the needs. Through this effort, we defined over 100 research needs and categorized them as higher, medium, or lower priorities, finally identifying six needs that were drafted into research needs statements.
The Roadmap is designed to encourage active transportation research that will address the most important needs of state DOTs and similar transportation agencies. The research priorities in the Roadmap were developed through an extensive outreach effort as well as a focused review of existing research. Along with the Roadmap, the team developed a Continuity and Implementation Plan to provide the CAT with tools and mechanisms to implement the Roadmap with activities the CAT can undertake to further develop and advance the research needs identified and keep up on the ever-growing volume of research that will shape that effort.
Implementation of the Roadmap should lead to more and practice-driven active transportation research, but it is just a starting point. The CAT can continually review, update, and expand the Roadmap as new research is released and practice and policy advances.
Expertise Applied
