Spending on passenger and freight transport. exceeds $1 trillion annually, representing 11% of the nation's GDP. This report provides info. on: the public and private funding for surface transport. research, the transport. community's view on the Fed. role for such research and the Dept. of Transport's. ability to fulfill that role, and the issues that the transport. community believes the Congress and the Dept. should consider during the reauthorization of the Intermodal Surface Transport. Efficiency Act of 1991, which covers highways, mass transit, and railroads.

TRB Special Report 299: A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy suggests that federal, state, and local policy makers need informed guidance about the effectiveness, costs, feasibility, and acceptability of transportation strategies to mitigate transportation greenhouse gas emissions and conserve energy and to adapt to climate change. The report covers strategies affecting travel and mode choice, models and decision tools, infrastructure investment options, and infrastructure construction, operation, and maintenance. The committee that prepared the report recommends beginning a research and development initiative by making a modest investment of 40 million to 45 million annually in the next surface transportation authorization that would be used to develop the best available guidance quickly on the basis of existing information and then begin to improve that guidance over time as new research is completed.

Through its initial planning efforts - with major involvement of the transportation and research communities - the NSTC Committee on transportation R & D has developed the first Transportation Science and technology Strategy to help Congress, the White house, and Federal agency heads to establish national transportation R & D priorities and coordinated research activities. The Strategy is based on the results of numerous outreach events, environmental scans, and an analysis of the transportation systems current and future strengths, weaknesses opportunities, and threats.