Session 1 -- New Data Needs: What are they and how can they be met?

Moderator, Panel 1: Ms. Sabrina David, Federal Highway Administration, Florida Division
Ms. Tamara Christion, FHWA, Florida Division -- Presentation
Ms. Tina Hatcher, FDOT HPMS Coordinator
Ms. Stacy Scott, Pavement Assessment Administrator, FDOT State Materials Office
Mr. W. Roger Cox, Hillsborough County, Project Manager, Pavement Management Team
Ms. Camile Mathews, City of Ocala, Traffic Engineering Division
Mr. Jerry Traudt, FDOT District 5, DeLand

Moderator, Panel 2: Mr. Gordon Morgan, FDOT Transportation Statistics Office
Ms. Tonia Kelly, FDOT Office of Information Systems -- Presentation
Mr. Brian Pessaro, FDOT Office of Policy Planning -- Presentation

This was a two-panel session. The first panel discussed new data needs for the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS), the current availability of the new data, and resources necessary to obtain the data, especially on city streets and county roads. The panelists talked about the HPMS reassessment effort by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the state’s role and efforts in generating and processing current and additional HPMS data, and the districts’ and local governments’ roles in this effort. Several of the panelists stressed the challenges ahead. Some of the challenges discussed included technical issues involving collection of good pavement data—including rutting, faulting, and cracking—impacts of changing standards, and coordination among different levels of government. The panelists agreed that building alliances with MPOs, counties and cities as well as FHWA would assist FDOT’s efforts in HPMS data collection, although concerns about the practicality of collecting the additional data remain.

The Strategic Intermodal System (SIS) and Transportation Regional Incentive Program (TRIP) generate data needs both for determining the roads on the systems, and prioritizing projects on the roads. The second panel discussed known and potential SIS and TRIP data needs and uses with the audience. For the SIS discussion, an overview was provided on SIS and a related database system under development called eSIS. In the TRIP data needs presentation, the panelist introduced the TRIP website to the audience and described the information that is available and what is missing. The available data include policy data, maps of partnerships, project prioritization criteria, and GIS Shape files of most TRIP networks. While much data about TRIP roads is available, the TRIP roads are not identified as such in RCI, making data compilations and comparisons more difficult.