tion needs in a manner consistent with national 

 goals of clean air, energy efficiency, and mobility. 

 In this vein, UMTA RD&D supports work to re- 

 duce life cycle costs and improve safety of con- 

 ventional mass transit systems, to promote appli- 

 cation of innovative new systems, and to provide 

 general support of central city revitalization and 

 accessibility for elderly and handicapped citizens. 



The newly created Materials Transportation 

 Bureau within DOT conducts research in the gen- 

 eral area of hazardous materials and pipeline safe- 

 ty. Research focuses upon materials characteris- 

 tics/properties to provide an expanded data base 

 for improved safety standards, and advanced tech- 

 nology for improved materials transport safety. 



A significant point regarding the composition of 

 the Department's program with respect to resource 

 allocation is that approximately three-fourths of 

 total resources are in grants to others — the diverse 

 constituencies mentioned earlier by Mr. Owens — 

 while slightly less than one-quarter are devoted to 

 operating activities, including RD&D. In FY 1978, 

 2.5 percent ($422 million) of the total DOT pro- 

 gram level of $16.7 billion is slated for research 

 and technology based efforts. Regarding the rela- 

 tive functional breakdown of the Department's RD 

 &D program between improving DOT operational 

 responsibilities (largely FAA and Coast Guard) and 

 the systems options/regulations areas of technical 

 involvement, both socioeconomic or "soft" re- 

 search and more hardware or advanced prototype 

 testing are conducted with a division that usually 

 approximates an even share of financial effort. 



I would like to address more specifically the 

 proposed FY 1978 RD&D budget for the Office of 

 the Secretary. The transportation, planning, re- 

 search, and development appTopriation, which has 

 four subdivisions, finances those research activi- 

 ties and studies which directly support the Secre- 

 tary's responsibilities and which can be more ef- 

 fectively or appropriately conducted in the Office 

 of the Secretary than by the operating administra- 

 tions within the Department. 



Subdivision I, policy and planning, provides the 

 foundation for development of transportation poli- 

 cy and coordination of national level transporta- 

 tion planning dealing with such issues as regulatory 

 modernization, energy policy, allocation of Feder- 

 al resources within the transportation sector 



viewed as a total system, and analysis of financial- 

 ly ailing transportation industries. This research is 

 primarily socioeconomically oriented and is admin- 

 istered by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for 

 Policy, Plans and International Affairs (PPI). 



Subdivision II is the program of university re- 

 search. This program has gained the interest and 

 commitment of the most competent transportation- 

 oriented academicians in the United States and 

 provides an input to the Department of Transpor- 

 tation which cannot be obtained from any other 

 source. The creative thinking and special expertise 

 of the academic community provides a unique 

 perspective to transportation research and a valu- 

 able reenforcement of the capabilities within DOT. 



Subdivision III, the systems development and 

 technology research category administered by 

 Transportation Systems Development and Tech- 

 nology (TST) identifies and develops technical 

 opportunities for improving transportation which 

 are not appropriate for the operating administra- 

 tions or the private sector. The foremost objective 

 of this effort is to coordinate the diverse RD&D 

 efforts of the Department into a total program 

 which modernizes regulation and legislation, in- 

 creases efficiency and service, improves safety and 

 security, lessens unfavorable environmental im- 

 pacts, minimizes adverse impacts of energy con- 

 straints, and increases the knowledge base. 



The final OST RD&D subdivision is titled spe- 

 cial programs and supports the work administered 

 by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Envi- 

 ronment, Safety, and Consumer Affairs. Major 

 efforts within the special programs category for 

 FY 1978 include support for environmental affairs 

 (specifically in the areas of improved environmen- 

 tal review/analysis process and coordination of 

 handicapped and elderly activities within the De- 

 partment), safety affairs, consumer affairs, facilita- 

 tion efforts such as cargo and intermodal interface 

 data, and finally transportation security. 



I hope this overview of the FY 1978 DOT RD& 

 D Program has given sufficient program content to 

 enable you to move forward in your hearings with 

 a general familiarity fostering an interactive ex- 

 change which will further promote our collective 

 goal of improved transportation systems for the 

 United States. 



TRANSPORTATION 



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