Director Jennifer Dill’s message for April 2011

As researchers and academics, it would be easy to lose ourselves in our work and not see every opportunities to put our research into practice. That’s why, at OTREC, we’ve taken extra effort to apply our work to real-world transportation problems.

Clearly, people are paying attention. On April 6, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood welcomed transportation researchers to Washington, D.C., to spotlight the research products being put to use in the marketplace or policy arena. LaHood even celebrated our efforts with this column afterward.

I represented OTREC at that University Research Technology Transfer Day, displaying a research product you can hold in the palm of your hand. Called the “Fix This!” tool, it uses smart-phone technology to let pedestrians and bicyclists collect information on the quality and safety of their neighborhood streets. The tool stems directly from OTREC projects at the University of Oregon to improve communication between residents and transportation officials.

Using a smart phone, users record obstacles, such as bumps, holes and debris, or good attributes, such as pedestrian signals, crosswalks and bike lanes. They can photograph and comment on their observations to provide more information. This provides a simple, accurate and cheap way for officials to identify and address concerns; in other words, to “Fix This!”

Another OTREC project gave rise to an online tool that animates entire bus routes to let transit managers see how problems develop and to fix them. The tool shows each bus along the route, using colors to indicate whether the bus is moving or at a stop, and whether the bus is early, on time or late. Window icons even show how many available seats each bus has.

The tool makes it easy to see if buses arrive on time, which is important to low-frequency routes, and are adequately spaced, which is important to high-frequency routes. These and other dynamic route statistics and performance measures are integrated into route information and displayed intuitively on an interface based on Google Maps. The result is a better-managed bus fleet, saving the agency time and money and sparing riders from aggravation and uncertainty.

These tools are just two examples of the many ways OTREC works to connect transportation research and practice. We understand that performing the best research is only part of our job; getting the research in the hands of the people who will use it is the crucial next step.

Toward that end, OTREC is proud to participate in a Transportation Research Board-organized Webinar May 5 titled “Communicating the Value of Research: A Focus on Successful State DOT Practices and Case Studies.” In a time of limited budgets, it’s more important than ever to let people know that their investment in transportation research provides indispensible returns.