BTS Bureau of Transportation Statistics : DOT Releases Five-Year Research, Development, and Technology Strategic Plan

Following a period of public comment and stakeholder input, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released its collaborative Research, Development, and Technology (RD&T) Strategic Plan(link is external), which presents the Department's research priorities for the next five years (Fiscal Years 2017 - 2021). The document provides an action plan that responds to the trends affecting the current and future perfor­mance of the Nation's transportation system, as identi­fied in U.S. DOT's Beyond Traffic-Trends and Choices 2045(link is external) document. The RD&T Strategic Plan meets the statutory requirements of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, and recognizes four critical transportation topic areas that will be the focus of all RD&T efforts across the Department:

• Promoting Safety;
• Improving Mobility;
• Improving Infrastructure; and,
• Preserving the Environment.

The Strategic Plan also describes four overarching research themes, identified during the stakeholder engagement process, which cut across all of the critical transportation topic areas. These are Policy Research, Emerging Technology, Strengthening Research Coordination, and Big Data.
Contact Nancy Wilochka: [phone].