Economic Stimulus and Transportation for the Nation

The much discussed Economic Stimulus Bill that recently passed the U. S. House of Representatives has designated $30 billion for use by the Federal Highway Administration for "Highway Infrastructure Investment". The same section of the Bill requires that "in selecting projects to be funded, recipients shall give priority to projects that can award contracts within 120 days of enactment of this Act" and additional language states that if less than 50% of the funds are obligated by the state within the 120 day period then a portion of the remaining funds will be redistributed.

Clearly the states will be highly motivated to spend out 50% of the $30 billion or $15 billion within 120 days of passage of this Bill. It remains to be seen what this Bill will look like after it gets through the Senate but, it's a sure bet there will be a lot of money spent on transportation infrastructure in a very short period of time.

As this huge $30B economic carcass peristalts through the anaconda that is our National Transportation Plan (There is one, isn't there?) the geospatial community can only hope that some resources will be applied toward transportation data integration in the NSDI. As a start, the NSDI should represent a seamless, nationwide set of addressable road data that is robust enough to be used for multiple purposes. The Economic Stimulus Bill provides funding for much more than just transportation infrastructure because Congress recognizes that a national, multi-dimenional approach is required. Shouldn't we be evaluating and planning our transportation infrastructure in just the same national context and not as 50 individual problems? How can we do that without a fully integrated national transportation data picture?

Every year, as part of a series, NSGIC highlights what it believes are national issues that deserve attention in its Advocacy Agenda. One of several timely items on the agenda this year is Transportation For The Nation or TFTN. TFTN provides a start to NSGIC's pursuit of a nationally integrated transportation data view. It is worthy of your support and it at least worthy of a few minutes of your time to find out what it is all about.

The next few years look to be exhilarating times in state transportation infrastructure management. There is real need to apply steel and concrete to our long ignored transportation infrastructure. But, there is an equal need to improve our ability to understand and evaluate our transportation infrastructure as a cohesive, integrated national model. Take a few minutes and check out TFTN. As we think about all the money and effort that will be expended in the very near future in support of transportation infrastructure TFTN makes more and more sense every day.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Transportation and Addressing

The Transportation for the Nation and Addresses for the Nation working groups presented a joint panel that included several states, the US Census Bureau, US DOT, the Forest Service, the Postal Service and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA).

Will Craig, of Minnesota, gave an overview of the different roles of the counties, states and federal agencies and Jill Saligoe-Simmel gave an overview of the need for good address data. The address work group is developing a white paper on needs and approaches that will be reviewed by the NSGIC membership.

Dan Widener, of Virginia, gave an update on work on Transportation for the Nation. There was a Transportation Research Board meeting in 2007. That workshop was meant to bring data users and data producers together to talk about the idea of Transportation for the Nation. Dan ran through some of the work done to flesh-out ideas for national transportation data. The results of the workshop will be published in the summer of 2008 by the Transportation Research Board.

In 2008, the Transportation for the Nation working group will be working on a business plan and is interested in creating a regional "proof of concept." This would have to be a volunteer effort but would result in a report at the NSGIC Annual Meeting.

The US Census Bureau presented it updated TIGER data set as perhaps the start of Transportation for the Nation. Bob LaMacchia described the effort to update TIGER. The data were updated with input from states and counties and the TIGER now includes the National Hydrography data set. He noted that TIGER doesn't include everything that is needed, but it can provide a basis for the Transportation for the Nation. TIGER will now be released in shapefile format, starting with the 2007 update.

The US Department of Transportation expressed support for the idea of Transportation for the Nation, based on the needs of DOT for assistance in tracking the road miles in the nation. US DOT tracks several networks, including the federal highways, freight routes, a system used to track highway funding needs, and TIGER and TeleAtlas data. Steve Lewis suggested that the DOT and NSGIC will need to lead a group effort to create a single data set that meets all needs.

Betsey Kanally of the US Forest Service, presented some facts on the numbers of miles of roads on Forest System lands. The Forest Service provides some map data but hopes to provide more.

Ruth Jones, who works in Address Management for the US Postal Service, spoke about how the Postal Service manages addresses and how they might be shared. About 2 million addresses are added each year, from a variety of sources.

Patrick Halley, of the National Emergency Number Association, spoke about the needs of the emergency response community as they relate to addressing. He noted that the 911 community is still coming up to speed technologically. He also reviewed the changes in how people use telephones, cell phones and the personal computers and how those changes are impacting the emergency response community.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

(Assume) It's March: Do You Know Where Your DOT GIS Folks Are?

In mid-March, the nation's transportation-GIS community will gather in Houston, Texas, for GIS-T. They'll meet the week following the NSGIC Mid-Year Conference in Annapolis, Maryland.

The annual GIS for Transportation Symposium is sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. It will include a wide variety of presentations and discussions about transportation-related GIS issues.

My personal favorite? "Trials and Tribulations of Completing the World's Largest Orthophotography Project." From Texas, of course.

GIS-T traditionally includes a State Summary and Roll Call of the States similar to those at NSGIC gatherings. This year's GIS-T State Summary survey includes some questions that highlight the relationship between DOT GIS staff and state GIS coordinators, an important component in Transportation for the Nation.

At the very least, state GIS coordinators may want to touch base with their transportation partners to see if they will be in Houston.

A Podcast on NSGIC's National Initiatives

Directions Magazine has released a 20-minute podcast interview of TeleAtlas' John Auble on the subject of national-scale data initiatives such as Imagery for the Nation and Transportation for the Nation.

The podcast serves as something of a catch-up on the NSGIC 2007 Annual Conference, which Directions writers were not able to cover in person.

Auble, a member of the NSGIC Corporate Leadership Council, gave an overview, from his perspective, of the advances made in the last several years towards the goals of the 50 state initiative and more robust local/state/federal/private-sector partnerships.