Overview
The overall goal of Project L36, Regional Operations Forums for Advancing Systems Operations, Management, and Reliability, was to advance transportation system management and operations (TSM&O) and serve as a platform for mainstreaming the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Reliability research results through a regional operations forum (ROF) concept. The term regional describes a geographic area comprising several states or several metropolitan areas within a state. The curriculum offered through the ROFs was intended to provide pertinent education and training on TSM&O business processes; organizational capabilities; operations and planning; and design, technical, and analytical issues to a broad range of transportation agency representatives.
The objectives for the project were:
- To design an ROF curriculum based on a comprehensive review of available and anticipated research results of the SHRP 2 Reliability program and other information available from TSM&O resources, including federal, state, and local initiatives;
- To pilot test the curriculum developed, including:
- Continually adjusting the curriculum to incorporate SHRP 2 research outcomes as they became available; and
- Conducting an ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of the curriculum and its delivery; and
- To develop a sustainable business model for the ROFs.
The project has met both its goals and objectives. Specifically, the following tasks have been accomplished as a result of this research project:
- Curriculum was developed and delivered for a 4-day, in-person ROF. Some of the curriculum was included in the form of prestudy materials and recorded speaker sessions that were played on DVDs during the ROF; the remaining sessions were delivered in person.
- Five ROF pilots were scheduled, coordinated, and delivered in:
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Seattle, Washington
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Concord, New Hampshire
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- An additional ROF was delivered in Orange, California, by the research team and funded by Caltrans.
- A 1-day follow-up was scheduled, coordinated, and delivered in Nashville, Tennessee.
- A report on the future sustainability of the ROF program was developed and presented at the May 2014 Implementation Planning Workshop (IPW).
- A section dedicated to the ROFs was created on the Knowledge Transfer System (KTS) website at http://www.tsmoinfo.org/resources/regional_operations_forums.aspx. The website was developed to allow the page to be easily edited without any additional funding required.
Based on the results of the independent evaluation done by the research team and the discussions during the IPW in May 2014, the ROF pilots have been a success, and discussions are now focused on how to continue delivery of additional ROFs to other locations. In addition, there are plans to conduct follow-ups in regions that have already participated in one of the ROF pilots.