Many useful transportation-specific resources can help information professionals of any experience level navigate the transportation information world. Below is a representative sample of instructive national and state resources organized by category. A few resources may appear in more than one category.
National Transportation Resources
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO): A nonprofit organization that represents state DOTs with numerous councils and committees.
AASHTO Research Advisory Committee: Committee advises the AASHTO Special Committee on Research and Innovation and is committed to promoting quality and excellence in research and in the application of research findings to improve state transportation systems.
U.S. Department of Transportation
Organization chart: Listing of the department’s agencies.
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): Agency within U.S. DOT that supports state and local governments in the design, construction and maintenance of the nation’s highway system.
National Transportation Library (NTL): Home to transportation-related research, reports and data, providing access to these materials and other reference services.
National Transportation Knowledge Network: An alliance of transportation organizations supporting a network of transportation information professionals by facilitating the expansion, access to and sharing of transportation knowledge.
Transportation Librarians Roundtable: A monthly web conference series hosted by NTL and co-sponsored by AASHTO, TRB and SLA.
Transportation Research Programs and Databases
National Transportation Library Research Tools: Resources that emphasize government information and materials in the public domain.
Organization chart of transportation research in the U.S.: Diagram that includes organization descriptions and links.
ROSA P: NTL’s all-digital library. The collections in this resource are full-text publications, data sets and other resources, and are freely available to the public.
Transportation Research Board (TRB): A nonprofit organization and division of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that facilitates information exchange, research and advice regarding transportation issues.
National Cooperative Highway Research Program: Program funded by state DOTs to facilitate transportation research addressing issues of common interest.
Research in Progress (RiP): TRB database on current and recently completed research projects.
Transport Research International Documentation (TRID): An integrated database that combines records from TRB’s Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database. This resource provides access to more than 1.3 million records of transportation research worldwide.
State Transportation Resources
State DOT Research: Listing of state DOT research programs with links to related websites.
State Planning and Research (SP&R) Guide: FHWA’s guide to the research portion of the State Planning and Research Program.
Transportation Glossaries
AASHTO Transportation Glossary, 4th Edition (2009 publication available for purchase as a PDF single-user download or paperback).
Glossary of Regional Transportation Systems Management and Operations Terms (Transportation Research Circular E-C166).
Glossary of Highway Safety Terms and Definitions, National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.
Transportation Research Thesaurus (TRT), TRB.
Glossary of Acronyms, U.S. DOT.