MTC Asset Newsletter Winter 2008

Director's Message

by Tom Maze

I could not start any message without mentioning the tragic passage of David Forkenbrock in January this year. While director and founder of the Public Policy Institute at the University of Iowa he was also part of the founding team that originally developed the MTC (then the Midwest Transportation Center). Working first with Benjamin Allen (now president of the University of Northern Iowa) in 1988 and then as my partner and associate director from 1989 through 1995, David had many lasting impacts on the MTC including early key research projects and co-development of the Transportation Scholars program.

David had a lasting impact on the MTC and helped to make Iowa a hot bed for transportation policy, economics, and safety research. Like many individuals that dominate any field of study, David could often be challenging, but his spark and genius will be sorely missed.

This year will be a year of change at the MTC as we wrap up the regional University Transportation Center and establish a Tier 1 center. There are two differences between the two, although both types of centers are funded though the same U.S. DOT program.

The first difference is that regional centers are funded at a higher level, nominally $2 million dollars per year with an equal amount of non-federal matching funds. Tier 1 centers are nominally funded at $1 million dollars per year with an equal about of non-federal matching funds.

The other significant difference is that the regional center represents all the states in the federal region. Our region includes Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. While a Tier 1 center only represents its theme and its member universities. Otherwise, both types of centers essentially do the same things: conduct a competitive research program, conduct a graduate transportation educational program, and conduct a technology transfer program.

Although our old regional center was highly safety oriented, the new theme will only focus on transportation safety. Our partners include the three state Iowa universities, and we are currently reestablishing our program—including the traditional seminar series—which will now be more safety oriented.

It has been some years since the University of Iowa and Iowa State University have been linked together in the same University Transportation Center, and we will hope to make ties between the traditional skills of crash records and analysis of the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State with the world-class human factors capabilities of the University of Iowa.