Research Goals

One element of this stewardship is identifying and articulating a desired end-state for system operation and performance.  Further, the Dynamic Mobility Applications program will actively invest in open source research and development activities with the over-arching goal of maintaining a feasible evolutionary path from current technologies and practices to reach the desired end-state.  Without a Dynamic Mobility Applications program, the public and private sectors will bear higher costs of uncoordinated, proprietary and duplicative mobility applications research and testing, higher costs for the commercialization and integration of non-interoperable or proprietary technologies and control systems, and slowed progress towards a less desirable and ad hoc sub-optimal end-state.

A successful Dynamic Mobility Applications Program will be characterized by a number of outcomes, some related to the success of the program in developing new applications and attracting partners, others related to improvements in productivity and mobility related to the deployment of new applications:

Multiple Multi-Modal Applications Developed Leveraging Multi-Source Data. The program successfully identifies and develops multiple mobility applications that combine new forms of data in real-time.  These applications demonstrate substantial promise in the improvement of system productivity and traveler mobility, as defined by a set of unambiguous performance measures.  Multiple organizations and partners are involved in applications development. Some of these participants are part of program-funded efforts, while others participate with funding from other sources to leverage the data, tools and development environment made available by the Dynamic Mobility Applications program. 

Research Spurs Commercialization. Transparent mobility applications research and development efforts prompt private sector interest in commercializing these new applications and speed their deployment.  Careful treatment of intellectual property rights and collaborative development in an open source applications development environment chart a clear course for non-proprietary commercialization of applications.  Multiple commercialization efforts are underway, shortening the time from development to deployment for key mobility applications.
 
Applications Enable Transformational Change. Tested and deployed applications demonstrate significant mobility and productivity benefit.  These benefits are evident in the field and supported by analysis from enhanced modeling and simulation tools.  These applications exploit new data sources and vehicle-traveler-infrastructure connectivity to provide cost-effective mobility solutions for individuals.  These individual mobility benefits manifest themselves at the system level in markedly increased system productivity.  As an increasing number of travelers and vehicles adopt new technologies, applications become more and more effective over time.  This natural evolution is underscored by an appropriate deployment of infrastructure-based controls to supplement and take advantage of increasing participation.