To develop these syntheses in a comprehensive manner and to ensure inclusion of significant knowledge, TRB analyzes available information assembled from numerous sources including a large number of transit agencies. A panel of experts in the subject area is established to guide the researchers in organizing and evaluating data collected on each topic and to review the synthesis report. Each synthesis is an immediately useful document that records practices that were acceptable within the limitations of the knowledge available at the time of its preparation. Whenever you believe that a synthesis should be updated, it would be appreciated if you would write TRB and let us know. Selection of Topics TCRP Project Committee J-7 meets each year to select topics for study using funds from the upcoming fiscal year.
Current funding allows for initiation of about four syntheses per year.
The problem should be timely and critical with respect to economic impact, safety, or social impact. The problem is appropriate if current practice is non-uniform or inconsistent from agency to agency, or if the validity of some practices appears to be questionable. The quality and quantity of useful available information should indicate a need to organize and compress that, which has already been learned and written on the topic. The topic should not be one where ongoing research or other activities in progress might be expected to render the synthesis obsolete shortly after completion. The continued success of this project depends on a constant supply of worthy synthesis topics.