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| Volume 17, Issue 2 | Summer 2005 |
What is with the SURTC Director and her seat on the TOPS committee? Jill Hough, DirectorSURTC The TOPS committee is not the weight-loss program many people associate with the acronym. Rather, it is a group of transit industry representatives that focus on public transportation research. The acronym stands for T = TCRP, which in itself is another acronym meaning the Transit Cooperative Research Program, the O is for oversight, P is for project, and S is for selection. The TCRP Oversight Project Selection committee was authorized in 1991 as a research program focused on the needs of transit operating agencies. It is sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration and carried out under an agreement among the National Academies of Science acting through the Transportation Research Board. TOPS provides policy guidance and sets priorities for TCRP research. The committee sets priorities among research topics, establishes policies and incentives to encourage nomination of promising projects, identifies criteria for selecting among competing proposals, adopts a research management plan to guide projects from conception to implementation to dissemination, and give direction to program staff. A TCRP Memorandum Agreement exists which assigns to the TOPS committee the following responsibilities: 1) The Transportation Development Corporation (TDC) Board of Directors, as constituted for purposes of conducting business under the TCRP, acts as the TOPS committee and is responsible for: 1) soliciting research needs from transit operators and other interested entities, 2) evaluating and selecting research topics, 3) setting project priorities and recommending funding levels, 4) ensuring the dissemination of research results, and 5) evaluating program effectiveness. The TOPS committee has 24 members representing different sizes of transit agencies, national organizations, universities, private corporations (manufacturers, suppliers, and consultants). In addition, selected individuals serve as "ex-officio," non-voting, members of the Board of Directors: Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, Executive Director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Executive Director of the Transportation Research Board, and Executive Vice President of the American Public Transportation Association. Although much of the business conducted for TOPS is done through mail and email, the committee meets twice a year (June and October). The June meeting is when new committee members are approved, FTA provides their research and technology program reports, specific research projects are presented, and updates are given for ongoing research. At the October meeting, committee members select the next year's research agenda by choosing from submitted problem statements and setting the dollar amounts for carrying out the research. It can be a grueling meeting because there are only so many resources and usually numerous problem statements. The members that can form the best arguments for the research projects, justify the resource allocation and convince the rest of the committee of the importance of the study, get their project selected. Jill, who was selected to the TOPS Committee in 2003, provides a rural/small urban transit perspective. In addition, she is one of the two university representatives. Do Not Miss the Vendor Show!!Sunday Noon - 4pm Supporting Our Supporters
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