Surface Transportation Research and Development Act of 2015

Surface Transportation Research and Development Act of 2015

This bill directs the Department of Transportation (DOT) to develop a five-year transportation research and development strategic plan for FY2018-FY2022.

The head of each DOT modal administration and joint program office shall submit comprehensive annual research plans, consistent with the strategic plan.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (ORT) shall:

• publish annually on a public website a comprehensive database of all DOT research projects, including research funded through University Transportation Centers; and
• examine the impact of pavement durability and sustainability on vehicle fuel consumption, vehicle wear and tear, road conditions, and road repairs.

DOT shall establish a working group to design and develop a research program to reduce traffic congestion.

The ORT shall:

• seek to identify new, innovative, and emerging vehicle technologies and advanced communications and sensing techniques;
• assess wireless technologies' capabilities to achieve a deployable system in which vehicles of all types, traffic signals, other infrastructure systems, pedestrians, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and mobile devices can interact with each other through secure communications; and
• assist in the development of cybersecurity standards.

The ORT shall also:

• analyze the state of rail safety technologies and whether passenger, commuter, and transit rail transportation industries are keeping up with technological innovations to make rail cars safer;
• determine how much additional time and resources are needed for railroad carriers to meet positive train control system implementation requirements; and
• identify technologies that achieve the safety goals of those requirements that could be implemented sooner than positive train control systems.

Neither an individual nor an entity shall be ineligible to receive a cash prize to stimulate innovation in basic and applied surface transportation research and technology development just for using a federal facility or consulting with a federal employee in relation to the prize competition if the same facility or employee is made available equitably to all competition participants.

DOT may not require a prize competition participant to waive claims against DOT arising out of the unauthorized DOT use or disclosure of the participant's intellectual property, trade secrets, or confidential business information. But the federal government may not gain an interest in intellectual property developed by a prize competition participant without the participant's written consent.

The ORT shall reach an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to study the most effective means of preventing motorcycle crashes.

DOT highway and rail bridge infrastructure research and development activities shall include corrosion prevention measures for structural integrity.

The hazardous material (hazmat) technical assessment, research, development, and analysis program may include cooperative research on hazmat transport.

The DOT curriculum of courses necessary to train public sector emergency response and preparedness teams in hazmat transportation may be online.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov