How it Helps
Implementing
Resilience Policies and Goals:
Cities and regional transportation organizations should adopt Vision statements to develop a resilient transportation system. Various departments within the local agency, such as planning, design, maintenance, operations, information technology, and communication departments, may further expand these assertions into specific policies, objectives, and procedures to achieve the resilience vision.3
Partnerships:
A transportation resilience strategy must include all relevant parties to be developed, gain support, and be successfully implemented. Local stakeholders, both external and internal to the transportation agency, are a vital source of information on the network’s existing vulnerabilities since they are the ones who know the community best. Agencies have had to regularly work with local police enforcement, emergency responders, utility personnel, and other entities to coordinate responses to obstacles such as flooded roads, fallen power lines, toppled trees, and other issues. There may already be de facto or informal coordination between regional or local authorities and these parties. To assist these organizations in responding more effectively to severe occurrences, current collaborations may be expanded, new partnerships can be created, and formal communication mechanisms can be developed.3
Funding:
Community members must take action to provide the needed funding to reconstruct transportation infrastructures that have been neglected for years. Additionally, a long-term, systematic strategy that is ingrained in transportation assets, structures, and operational cultures is necessary to achieve transportation resilience.6
Challenges:
Due in part to a lack of public, governmental, and industry-leading knowledge of the function and benefit of increased transportation resilience, there is no widespread agreement on the need to invest in robust transportation infrastructure. For owners and operators in the transportation industry, it is challenging to invest in long-term resilience due to uncertainty over the probability, costs, and implications of developing risks.
Examples
1) Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) oversees the security of the country’s internal and external transportation networks. The TSA fosters and ensures that transportation resilience is distributed across various important Federal institutions. The TSA creates comprehensive policies to safeguard the nation’s transportation network, which includes ports, refineries, freight transport facilities, trains, trams, and public transport systems. It collaborates with state partners and other federal agencies to carry out this purpose.
2) National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO)
National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) is the only non-profit organization with governor-designated energy officials. NASEO has developed several resources that are meant to help State Energy Offices and other emergency management organizations evaluate the potential costs, advantages, and interdependencies connected with diversifying their fleets, lowering their reliance on petroleum, and putting money into electric, natural gas, propane, and biodiesel vehicles and infrastructure to support energy security.