• To foster and disseminate practical and emerging research on public transportation planning issues.
• To be actively involved in the Committee’s research agenda and programs and to network with other transportation professionals.

• Responses were evenly matched with two (2) respondents for each alternative and two (2) responses for "somewhat."
• Committee has identified "cutting edge" issues for discussion and research; Committee’s process and extensive agenda take time to learn; broader involvement in non-highway issues is needed.

• Public transit agency practitioners and policy makers, academic community, FTA, TRB, TCRP, planning and development agencies.
• Policy support, objective research and practical, easily implementable recommendations; short-term: papers, publications, panels; long-term: information on trends and new ideas (like sustainable transportation).

• Technology changes, impacts and consequences for public transit (4 responses).

• Funding/user cost issues; reduced Federal role (4 responses).

• Changes in demand for transit and new ways to serve them (3 responses).

• Impact of decentralized growth and land use linkage issues (3 responses).

• Develop a research agenda, including best practices and emerging issues, of critical importance to the transit community and other partners (6 responses).
• Coordinate and disseminate information with other TRB committees (4 responses).
• Focus on balanced transportation and sustainability issues (2 responses).

• Definition of the Committee’s role and responsibilities in the TRB structure, research agenda and encouraging active and timely member participation (4 responses).
• Concerns about the impacts of funding cutbacks on research and participation of public sector members and friends in Committee and TRB activities (3 responses).
• Varied responses (see the Attachment).

• Impact of new technologies and other emerging issues (mobility manager concept, transportation/land use linkage, new intergovernmental/interagency relationships) on transit services and markets (4 responses).
• Committee’s role in identifying a future-oriented research agenda and dissemination of results (2 responses).
• ISTEA reauthorization issues and the impact on research (2 responses).

• To advance issues related to transit-oriented development and research on emerging transportation planning issues.
• Exchange ideas and information regarding public transportation in the U. S. and other countries; have an opportunity to disseminate research results.
• To help foster practical research in public transportation planning.
• Joined originally in 1972 -- to get more TRB (then HRB) involvement in transit and other non-highway modes.
• To participate in research and direction on the future of transit in the U. S.*
• I joined to get more involved in TRB activities and to gain a broader perspective on transit planning issues.

• Participate in Annual Meeting and contribute to the Committee’s overall agenda and programs.
• Active involvement by Committee members in various activities.
• To be able to network with others, develop timely topics for research and develop the direction for transportation planning.
• *To achieve (a).
• To be involved in setting the research agenda, exploring new issues impacting transit.
• My expectation was that I would have an opportunity to do more than just review papers, and I would be able to relate the work of the Committee to my own work.

• Have learned more about the extensive activities of the Committee and have become more involved than I expected to be at this stage.
• Committee Annual Meetings are very focused on major issues resulting in active participation by members. Mid-year meetings provide additional opportunities for discussion of issues.
• Over the years, the Committee has been able to identify cutting-edge issues and have them discussed and researched. The Committee’s work has pushed TRB in the direction of being more useful to practitioners.
• Mostly met by numerous added TRB activities, but full involvement in non-highway transportation still to be achieved.
• Somewhat. It took me a little time to understand how the Committee worked, and what the boundaries of the Committee’s area of interest are.
• It's been a bit of a mixed bag -- I haven’t followed through on some opportunities to do more Committee work, and my own career path has veered away from the "general" to more specific areas.

• Public transit agencies, academic community, FTA, TRB, TCRP, planning and development agencies at all levels.
• Practitioners at various levels, policy makers, etc.
• Transportation agencies, especially planners and policy people, FTA.
• The mobile society.
• Transit policy makers, at both the federal and local levels.
• Customers should, first and foremost, be transit planners working in the field, either at transit agencies or at consulting firms who do work for agencies.

• Policy support through research and conferences that explore and clarify emerging issues.
• Requires objective research as to what currently works/does not work re: transit services and facilities. (both now and in the future)
• Now -- useful papers, publications, panels. Future -- Information on trends, new ideas, state-of-the-art.
• Anticipate and foster programs, practices, etc. to improve mobility at least detriment to society (now). Provide a sustainable transportation system (future).
• They need the Committee’s input on what to be concerned about 5, 10, 15 years from now -- not so much with today’s problems and issues.
• Customer requires practical approaches to address transit issues that do not require onerous data collection or analysis, and which can be implemented in a straightforward manner.

• Continuing decline in transit’s share of trips in the face of decentralizing metropolitan development. Emphasis on new technologies and automation. Continued emphasis on customers and serving new markets in innovative ways.
• Loss of federal funding. Continued low density development in metropolitan areas. Technology changes -- providing both opportunities and challenges for transit.
• What is the real demand for public transit? Optimum methods for meeting demand: mix of services, centralized/decentralized operation, private/public. Impact of technology on capacity.
• Sustainability of systems. Full user costs allocations. Seamless transportation. 
• New technology and incorporation of its services into regular operations. Adjusting to the new policies and directions that are coming from Washington; both fiscally and new mandates (Welfare to Work). Adjusting to new/shifting patt erns of customer demands and needs, the aging of the baby boomers; shifting populations continue to strain traditional service.
• The on-going struggle for funding -- how cost-effective are some major investments, particularly rail, and how cost-effective is operating support. Land uses -- will continued sprawl reduce more transit operations to irrelevancy? ho w can we harness transit services and land use planning together in a positive way (livable communities)? Infrastructure renewal -- "new" transit systems built since the 1960’s will soon start facing the cost of reinvesting in aging infrastructure that "o lder" transit systems are still struggling with.

• Continue to develop a research and discussion agenda on transit/development issues. Communicate Committee activities both within and beyond the Committee membership. Involve the planning community in Committee activities.
• More research related to "best practices." Feedback from TCRP results. More coordination and information sharing with other TRB committees.
• Identify and focus on 3 - 5 areas with greatest potential impact and develop useful materials on them. Increase coordination and joint work with other committees. The Committee is viewed as a key resource to get critical transportat ion questions asked and answered.
• Get agreement on three major issues affecting public transportation (4. above). Get research directed to sustainability and full user costs allocations. Push sustainability concepts.
• Prepare transit community for the 21st Century -- new technologies and shifting transit user needs. Actively shape transit research through TRB and other sponsors. Sponsor TRB activities exploring how to respond to future aging popu lation, etc. These could be TRB sessions, workshops, conferences.
• Relevancy -- let’s make the Committee’s work something that practitioners look to when they want to keep abreast of current transit planning issues. Quality -- let’s encourage research of high caliber, with papers that are clearly w ritten, thorough and worthy of dissemination. Advocacy -- let’s continue to "preach" the social value (and economic value) of balanced transportation policies that look beyond the private auto.

6. What are the three (3) top challenges facing the Committee over the next five years?

• Declining market share for transit and possible loss of policy support. Uncertain funding climate for research. Inability to influence governmental entities to implement transit/land use coordination goals.
• Dealing with "transit" beyond the traditional definitions. More localized focus for transit financing with possible loss of federal research support. Maintaining balance among agencies, consultants, practitioners given cuts in local funding support.
• How to broaden the Committee’s broad scope and interests (a strength) with the need to focus (a challenge). How to work with TRB to ensure products are useful to practitioners. Impact of governmental funding cuts on participation of key public sector members and friends.
• Effectiveness. Agreement. Ability to look into the future.
• Defining role and responsibilities within TRB’s structure. Continued conservative, anti-government stance by Congress destroying progress in transit made in recent years -- How to respond. Keeping up with the advances in technology and policy. If our Committee is supposed to look at the future and we take too long to do it the future will pass us by.
• Defining ourselves -- the Committee’s interests may be so broad as to make it difficult to say what we do. Apathy -- it’s still difficult to get members and friends to do Committee work in a timely manner (and I’m as guilty as the r est).

• Growing interest in transit-oriented development and growth management in metropolitan regions. Apparent retention of ISTEA requirements and research practices in pending reauthorization legislation. Support from the transit ind ustry and FTA for continued emphasis on transit/land use linkage.
• Helping disseminate TCRP results to practitioners. Helping define possible new roles for transit; e.g., mobility managers. Defining how technology can help planners address market needs.
• The industry needs a fresh perspective and the Committee can provide it. Committee can provide needed linkage for TRB among modes and disciplines (Committee works easily/naturally with other committees). To publish information that moves U. S. public transportation forward.
• NEXTEA -- or whatever it’s to be called. Education directed to future needs and expectations. Highway congestion increases -- causing need to relook at systems.
• Year 2000 can offer a catalyst to examine a broad set of issues/future of our industry. Make new technologies opportunities to reshape how transit is provided to the public and becoming available.
• The on-going redefinition of relationships between federal, state and local transit agencies presents an opportunity for an independent body to provide insight and guidance. the completion of some major transit investments in the co ming year (WMATA Metro, NYCTA 63rd St. Connection) may afford an opportunity to evaluate the efficiency of very long-term, multi-decade projects.

 8. What two (2) activities would you like to see the Committee doing that it is not doing now?

• Major outreach effort to planning and development organizations. Regular newsletter for Committee members and others.
• Identification of how research results are affecting the real-world planning environment. More coordination/collaboration with other TRB committees.
• Have a newsletter in addition to Newsline. Strengthen the network among members to share ideas and information.
• Pushing for needed research more effectively. Sustainability concepts.
• More communication between Committee members -- e-mail list, etc. Put out information on TRB sessions, activities, hot topics through a WEB site.
• One Blank

 9. Please rank the priority of the following activities from one (1) through (n).

• Annual Conference Committee meeting 3,1,1,1,1,3 1.7
• Panel Sessions at the TRB Annual Meeting 1,3,4,2,3.1,1 2.3
• Paper Review 2,2,2,4,3,2 2.5
• Coordination with other TRB committees 5,4,3,5,2,5 4.0
• Committee Newsletter 4,6,5,3,4,4 4.3
• Mid-Year Conference on selective topics 6,5,6,6,5,6 5.7
• Other (specify): Leadership. Participating/influencing
• NCHRP,TCRP,topics and other research directions 1 NA

 10. Any other comments or ideas not covered above?

 I’m glad you’re doing this!