Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization Pilot of the Data Business Plan for State and Local Departments of Transportation: Data Business Plan

As part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Roadway Transportation Data Business Plan (DBP) project, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations developed a guideline for State DOT and local agency staff charged with mobility data-related responsibilities to follow in the creation, development, and implementation of a data business plan for roadway travel mobility data. This guideline provides systematic instructions on how to plan for, implement, and maintain a data business plan, including: stakeholder outreach, data assessment and improvement plan, data governance processes and documents, and data management practices. The Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) participated in a pilot effort to test and implement the guideline. The MPO is responsible for establishing a comprehensive transportation planning process to guide transportation funding in Hillsborough County, Florida. To support this process, the MPO maintains a Multimodal Transportation Database to store information on the highway, bicycle, pedestrian, and transit networks within Hillsborough County. Currently, there are opportunities for increased regional collaboration on mobility data collection and management. Data is not integrated across the region. This limits the MPO's ability to conduct analyses for planning and to add value for its customers. Adding other mobility datasets to the database introduces a number of challenges related to data systems, technology, and governance. To address these concerns, the MPO developed this DBP to better understand what mobility data is being collected by their regional planning partners, how the data could support mobility planning, operations, and performance measure activities, and who is responsible for managing and updating the data. The MPO's goal is to integrate travel time and speed data into the Multimodal Transportation Database to support performance based planning and make it available to their planning partners in the region. The expected outcome of the DBP is a framework for partner agencies to share travel time and speed data for roadway users and freight within the tri-county region for planning purposes.\n