DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 



Submitted by William C. Steber, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Systems Engineering^ 



DOT Mission 



The Department of Transportation (DOT) was 

 established by an act of Congress in 1966 within 

 the following statement of broad agency missions: 



...establishment of a Department of Transporta- 

 tion is necessary in the public interest and to 

 assure the coordinated, effective administration 

 of the transportation programs of the Federal 

 Government: to facilitate the development and 

 improvement of coordinated transportation serv- 

 ice, to be provided by private enterprise to the 

 maximum extent feasible; to encourage coopera- 

 tion of Federal, State, and local governments, 

 carriers, labor, and other interested parties to- 

 ward the achievement of national transportation 

 objectives: to stimulate technological advances 

 in transportation: to provide general leadership 

 in the identification and solution of transporta- 

 tion problems: and to develop and recommend 

 to the President and the Congress for approval 

 national transportation policies and programs to 

 accomplish these objectives with full and appro- 

 priate consideration of the needs of the public, 

 users, carriers, industry, labor, and the national 

 defense. - 



From the above missions statement and from a 

 general provision of the act that states the Secre- 

 tary shall "... promote and undertake research 

 and development relating to transportation, includ- 

 ing noise abatement, with particular attention to 

 aircraft noise: ..." research and development 

 goals and objectives of the Department have been 

 refined. The dominant goal of departmental R&D 

 is to provide the knowledge and technology needed 

 to mold the various transportation modes — air, 

 rail, highway, water, pipeline — into a balanced and 

 integrated system. In this regard the following 



have been identified as 

 management objectives: 



the Department's R&D 



'Additional information on DOT R&D is contained in the Ap- 

 pendix following this section. 



-Public Law 89-670, 89th Congress, H.R. 15963, October 15, 

 1966. 



Modernize regulations and legislation 



• Minimize adverse impacts of energy con- 

 straints 



• Improve safety and security 



• Lessen unfavorable environmental impact 



• Increase efficiency and service 



• Increase knowledge base. 



Definition of Basic Research 



If basic research is defined to be fundamental 

 research conducted solely for the purpose of un- 

 derstanding natural or social phenomena without 

 regard to any potential applicability, then in that 

 sense DOT does not support any basic research. 

 The Department does, however, support research 

 that is basic in a broader sense; the ensuing discus- 

 sion is to be taken in the latter context. 



Basic research at DOT is defined to be that re- 

 search that is supportive of the overall mission of 

 the Department but that is not targeted toward a 

 specific application or a solution to a specific prob- 

 lem. This definition implies that the applicability of 

 the research is potentially long range and broad in 

 spectrum: Long range because it is not targeted to 

 a specific immediate problem, and broad because 

 the research can form a basis for diverse applica- 

 tions, thereby transcending strict modal bounda- 

 ries. 



Role of Basic Research 



Basic research provides a body of knowledge 

 that not only enables new applications but also illu- 

 minates or generates new alternatives to current 

 procedures and methods. Thus, basic research in 

 the economic and behavioral sciences may aid in 

 the evaluation of policy alternatives, while techni- 

 cally oriented advanced research may make feasi- 

 ble new transportation systems now considered 

 extremely costly or complex. 



TRANSPORTATION 155 



