ATSSA Signal Sept/Oct 2018

Innovation & New Programs American Traffic Safety Services Association 14 FHWA Deputy Administrator shares insight on EDC-5 Addresses opportunities for ATSSA members The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has announced the innovations selected for “EDC-5,” the fifth round of its Every Day Counts program. EDC-5, which will run over the course of two years (2019 to 2020), provides train- ing and technical support to state de- partments of transportation (DOTs), lo- cal governments, and private partners in order to create an “On-Ramp to Inno- vation.” This round’s innovations include advanced geotechnical explorationmeth- ods, collaborative hydraulics, reducing rural roadway departures, safe trans- portation for pedestrians, unmanned aerial systems, incorporating crowd- sourcing in operations, value capture, virtual public involvement, and weather responsive management strategies. As part of that program release, ATSSA recently did a Q&A with FHWA Deputy Administrator Brandye Hendrickson about EDC-5, State Transportation Inno- vation Councils (STIC), and how FHWA is working to foster roadway innovations in the public and private sector that pro- vide business opportunities for ATSSA members. Q: What were the results of the meetings to identify innovations for the next round of EDC? A: One obvious benefit of the April 27 meeting was the opportunity for the key transportation organizations to spend some time with each other, as well as with FHWA’s senior leadership. Our goal for the meeting was to make sure we were on the right track with the fifth round of EDC, by getting feedback from our partners on the proposed innova- tions before the final decisions were made. The stakeholders were given the chance to provide their own unique per- spectives and pose questions. In the end, we decided to move forward with all the innovations based on the feed- back we received from our partners. That was extremely valuable. Q: What happens next for those innovations that have been identified? A: Because of the feedback and the substantive comments we received at the meeting, FHWA revisited the inno- vation proposals and revised their focus and scope. We’re now assembling In- novation Deployment Teams (IDTs), which are groups of experts both from within and outside the agency. Our plan is to have these teams ready in time for our EDC Summits slated to take place around the country starting in October. The teams can help stakehold- ers hit the ground running, to acceler- ate use of EDC-5 innovations. Q: Is FHWA looking to promote more innovation in the future, and is the agency trying to address some of the barriers that the private sector encounters in getting innovative products to the marketplace? A: Absolutely! The mission of the FHWA Office of Innovative ProgramDelivery is to “transform transportation through innovation,” and the four centers within the office support that mission in com- plimentary ways. The Center for Accel- erating Innovation (CAI) has its flagship program in EDC, but also manages com- plimentary programs such as the Accel- erated Innovation Deployment Demon- stration and the State Transportation Innovation Council Incentive Programs that can bring other innovations to the table for deployment and further adop- tion. We’re also looking at the current process for getting patented and pro- prietary products introduced and used. The first step is to review any applicable regulations with an eye toward remov- ing barriers. We’ve been asking, “what are the impediments that make it difficult Brandye Hendrickson, FHWA Deputy Administrator FHWA has contact information for each STIC at www.fhwa.dot.gov/innovation/stic/stic-contacts.cfm