Web site offers transportation clearinghouse

The designers of smarter, more efficient transportation systems have a new online resource to get information about transportation research.

The Transportation Department and Bureau of Transportation Statistics unveiled their TRIS Online site (www.ntl.bts.gov/tris) on the National Transportation Library's Internet site Monday at the Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, D.C.

TRIS, Transportation Research Information Service, is a database of more than 500,000 records of published and ongoing research on all modes of transportation. TRIS Online will enable users to access electronic copies of full-text reports or to link directly to the publishers or suppliers that produce the documents.

Transportation officials at the ribbon-cutting ceremony referred to TRIS Online as the Amazon.com of transportation research.

The provisions of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century mandated the online database and World Wide Web access to TRIS is a result of a memorandum of understanding between the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Transportation Research Board, said Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater.

"Good things come from good pieces of legislation," Slater said. The online library is part of the administration's efforts to make government more accessible to the public, he said.