OpenDOT Browse Popular ideas

We are a nation that faces increasing stress, obesity, gas prices, carbon emissions, traffic jams, and parking fees. Providing federal funding and mandates to expand metropolitan bicycling infrastructures would simultaneously address all these problems, while offering an improvement in the quality of life of a significant portion of the US population.

Surveys might be taken to target high-profile early adopters,... more »

The Department of Transportation should live webcast all meetings for proposed rule making and regulations where the public comment should take place. They should make these meetings available for on demand viewing and have the ability to have that content be indexed for video search. By doing this the public and stakeholders will be able to see the inner workings of the rule making process and make the content and... more »

I think the idea of reducing emissions and traffic through telecommuting has not been given enough attention. For knowledge workers whose primary job involves sitting at a computer all day anyway I see no reason why those jobs can't be done from a home with high speed internet. I think it's the next evolutionary step in virtualization. It reduces the power consumption required to maintain office spaces as well as highway... more »

Get fresh ideas on furthering our goal of keeping the nation’s transportation infrastructure in a state of good repair.

Making XML or CSV files containing fuel economy data for each model and year and data files for CAFE standards by year available for download would make visualizing data easier.

If total U.S. sales for each model and year of vehicle could be collected from car manufacturers, it would make it easier to see how the average fuel economy of vehicles on the road was changing.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/fueleconomy.jsp... more »

A lot of DOT budget is passed through to state and local governments in terms of grants for public transportation.

 

DOT should required all DOT-funded projects to solicit online participation.

 

Currently, participation is mainly done in-person events and taskforces. Lots of interested parties cannot make these in-person events but would be interested in participating online.

Much effort will be spent making vehicles more efficient in the future. This is a very good thing for both the individual, and the government. However, very little effort has been expended to make our traffic control system more efficient. Two are two reasons for this. First, it has been historically difficult to interconnect traffic intersections with a central control facility. Even after all the connections are made,... more »

This could be done through a consolidated DOT portal where recipients of DOT funds are required to publish project status reports.

I've been hearing from various news sources that the groups who are responsible for verifying the safety of vehicles don't have the experience and expertise to examine the newer electronic and computerized components of cars. I've read that actions are being taken to remedy the situation, but I've heard no mention of software.
As cars are more and more computerized, the physical components will be more and more under... more »

Make our internal culture more agile and innovative.

The 1,600 members of Open Source for America are dedicated to supporting and guiding federal efforts to make the US government more open through the use of open source software. We have established recommendations for all agencies to consider in their Open Government Plans, with these recommendations especially highlighting the need to remove barriers to the successful leveraging of open source software and open IT more... more »

Be open to citizens’ innovative ideas for transforming government.

Transportation accounts for 70% of oil use, and much attention is being focused on improving vehicle technology (hybrids, clean diesel, etc.). However, much of fuel waste occurs in local stop & go traffic and other congestion. This also results in increased carbon emissions, plus loss of productivity (lost wages and quality of life). In the Chicago area, near-continual repair of roads and expressways means perpetual lane... more »

Use of Open Collaboration Tools can improve information sharing, communication and morale.

Incorporate voices and ideas of citizens into routine policy process.