NJDOT Lunch and Learn: An Inside Look at the Research Library and its Digitization Project


In the 1940s, the State Highway Department (predecessor to the New Jersey Department of Transportation) created its first departmental library for transportation information. For the past 80 years, this depository of relevant transportation articles and materials has grown. Today NJDOT’s research library is a part of the Bureau of Research, Innovation & Information Transfer. The library offers employees several research and career development resources and holds a collection of documents of notable histories of transportation in New Jersey.

As a part of the NJDOT’s Lunch and Learn series, on February 22, 2024, Eric Schwarz, NJDOT’s research librarian, gave NJDOT employees an overview of the resources available through the NJDOT Research Library and directed a portion of his talk to “Discoveries in the First Year of the NJDOT’s Digitization Project.” The digitization project is an effort to make past documents, films, and other materials from the NJDOT archive, accessible online. Eric has been instrumental to the digitization project, leveraging resources of the multi-state Transportation Research and Connectivity Pooled Fund Study Digitization Project [TPF-5(442)].

The Lunch and Learn presentation gave NJDOT employees an overview of the NJDOT Research Library and highlighted several digitally archived historical materials and “lessons learned” during the first year of NJDOT’s digitization project.

Materials range from historic newspaper articles of The Highway to documentary clips of past infrastructure projects and initiatives. Materials have been selected, catalogued, indexed, processed, and preserved by Eric. The digitized materials are now accessible on the Internet Archive’s page for the NJDOT Research Library and contribute to the overall story of transportation in New Jersey.

Notably, the digitization efforts led to uncovering the names of several NJDOT employees who died while working for the department and its predecessor agencies. Five of these individuals were recognized at the Annual Remembrance Ceremony held in September 2023 with name plaques added to a Memorial Wall maintained by NJDOT at Headquarters. As noted during the Lunch and Learn presentation, additional documentary evidence has been found of persons who lost their lives while on duty as the digitization project has proceeded in recent months.

Eric’s presentation conveyed how the digitization project contains a well-spring of information that may prove of interest to historians and other researchers. Digitized materials like old photographs, maps and videos show the makeup of the highway commission in 1922, the number of miles in the State Highway System in 1925, and the number of women who have served as transportation commissioner. The digitized materials reveal several ways that NJDOT has contributed to safety innovations in transportation, including the implementation of cloverleafs, breakaway signs, center barriers, and the piloting and expansion of Emergency/Safety Service Patrol operations. This and other information about the state’s transportation history was made engaging and interactive through mini-pop quizzes.

Eric displayed the research poster about the Digitization Project presented at the Transportation Research Board Annual Conference held in Washington DC in January of 2024 at the Lunch and Learn event.

In addition to describing the digitization process and lessons learned participating in the pooled funded study, Eric gave an overview of the NJDOT Research Library, including its various services and available resources.

Eric noted reference and research services that can be accessed through the NJDOT Research Library. Employees, as well as other transportation professionals, may access various online resources and databases through the research library. Online databases and other sources include:

  • TRID (Transportation Research Board) — A collection of worldwide transportation research
  • Bureau of Transportation Statistics — Statistical information useful to transportation professionals
  • ROSA-P — the National Transportation Library’s Repository and Open Science Access Portal
  • ASTM Compass — Specialty documents from ASTM, AASHTO, American Welding Society
  • AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) — Standards and Publications

The research library also provides professional development tools like exam preparation books that can be lent out for several weeks. These books will help professionals prepare for a range of Civil Service and Professional Exams.

As state employees, NJDOT employees can apply for a State Library card, which must be renewed every two years. This card allows individuals to borrow print materials from the NJDOT research library, as well as the New Jersey State Library

Eric noted that links to several online resources and other information about the NJDOT Research Library can be found on the NJDOT Research Library page including links to the NJ State Library which contains additional transportation-related resources.

In addition to the recording, the Lunch and Learn presentation slides can be found here.


Resources

Notable Digitized Materials

Did You Know? Research on ALICE and Mobility of Low-Income Households

At the 2023 NJDOT Research Showcase, New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti “appealed to attendees to advance community-centered transportation and to commit to considering the needs of ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) persons when devising research questions and in carrying out their day-to-day activities with the goal of planning, building and maintaining a more safe, equitable and sustainable transportation system.” Gutierrez-Scaccetti has repeatedly said that she “drives with ALICE” in mind, but that ALICE would rather drive by herself. On Jan. 30, 2023, Gutierrez-Scaccetti spoke at the National ALICE Summit on Navigating the ALICE Highway: A Multistate Transportation System by 2030.

In recognition of the Commissioner’s emphasis on getting to better know who ALICE is, the NJDOT Research Library has done a quick research of resources related to the mobility of low-income households and the ALICE project at The United Way. These are included below:

United Way of Northern New Jersey operates the website United for ALICE, which maintains research pages for “partner states” (28 states, including New Jersey, plus the District of Columbia). United Way of Northern New Jersey (then known as United Way of Morris County) released its first ALICE report in 2009.

United Way prepares state fact sheets that compare the ALICE Essentials Index (AEI) to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) over time.

The October 2023 NCHRP Research Results Digest, Collective and Individual Actions to Envision and Realize the Next Era of America’s Transportation Infrastructure: Phase 1, includes this background on ALICE households: “Economic growth and prosperity have not been spread evenly across the United States. About 13 percent of households earn incomes below the poverty line and an additional 29 percent are considered to be asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed (ALICE)…. The average household spends 16 percent of total expenditures on transportation—the second biggest cost after housing…. Significant numbers of Americans have limited access to health care, education, fresh food, or high-speed Internet.”

In 2018, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy cited “more than one million [ALICE] families” in New Jersey as the impetus to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. In 2024, New Jersey’s minimum wage will surpass $15 for the first time.

November 2023 article from the journal Social Science & Medicine laments the fact that public health studies have not used ALICE data.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy takes an opposite tack in its criticism. It issued a 2021 report, An Assessment of ALICE: A Misleading Measure of Poverty. “Unfortunately, United Way’s research on this issue is methodologically flawed, misleading and does not help inform the public or policymakers about how to help these households,” the authors write. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy describes itself as “a nonprofit research and educational institute that advances the principles of free markets and limited government.”

United for ALICE states that it provides “unbiased data that is replicable, easily updated on a regular basis, and sensitive to local context,” and that its published measures provide a better picture of “the number of households that are struggling in each county in a state,” compared with the Federal Poverty Level. United for ALICE’s most recent research methodology report was published in April 2023.

Transportation research on low-income individuals can be found via the TRID and ROSA-P databases.

The following are some relevant articles on the topic, curated by the NJDOT Research Library:

Current research projects into the topic of serving low-income populations include these:


Please contact the NJDOT research librarian, Eric Schwarz, MSLIS, at (609) 963-1898, or email at library@dot.nj.gov for assistance on how to expand your search to projects, or retrieve these or other publications.

NJDOT Annual Remembrance Ceremony

The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) held its Annual Remembrance Ceremony honoring those who lost their lives on 9/11 as well as the 41 NJDOT employees who lost their lives while on duty. The event pays tribute to their legacies and provides a moment to reflect on their courage which will be remembered forever.

During this year’s Remembrance Ceremony, held on September 11, 2023, NJDOT added the names of five employees to the Department’s Employee Memorial who had given their lives in service as they worked the highways and bridges of the state. These five names were of men who died on the job in the 1940s, while working for the New Jersey State Highway Department, the predecessor of NJDOT. Their names were found as part of an archiving and digitization project by the NJDOT Research Library, part of the Bureau of Research within the Department.

The unveiling of these names occurred during the NJDOT 23rd annual remembrance ceremony and 22nd anniversary of 9/11.

The stories of these five men – Arthur Reinhardt, Walter Eckert, Jeremiah O’Brien, William Kays, and Joseph Platt – were published in an employee newspaper of the Highway Department when they died in the 1940s. However, their names had never been added to the memorial wall. Thirty-six other names of persons who perished on the job (with the most recent being Joe Kealey, who died in 2010) had previously been enshrined on the wall. Research continues to find additional employees of New Jersey’s Highway or Transportation departments who also sacrificed their lives on the job.

Eric Schwarz, NJDOT Research Librarian, gave the keynote speech detailing this archival work and highlighting the lives of the five men.

The NJDOT established its Employee Memorial wall on September 8, 2000, coincidentally about one year before the terrorist attacks on America on 9/11/01. Since 2001, the Employee Memorial has taken on additional meaning, and the ceremony has been held on or about September 11 each year since 2002.

The annual ceremony also honors military personnel and veterans, law enforcement, and emergency responders from NJDOT and the New Jersey State Police. In her welcome remarks, New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti noted the many meanings of the day for NJDOT and the importance of work zone safety.

Employee Memorial Wall at NJDOT HQ.
Employee Memorial Wall on 9/11 Remembrance Day.
NJDOT Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti speaking at NJDOT’s 23rd Annual Remembrance Ceremony.

Commissioner Gutierrez-Scaccetti reported on the launch of two initiatives to safeguard roadway workers, first responders, and motorists in 2023. The first was the launch of NJDOT’s incident management training as an online self-guided course. The second is a work zone safety campaign launched this past summer. Radio ads and written advertorials remind the public to slow down and move over when driving through a work zone or when passing a first responder or a disabled car. She pointed out that “slow down and move over” is not just a catchphrase or act to save lives, but also the law.

In 2022, 49 law enforcement officers, emergency responders, tow truck operators, roadside technicians and DOT crew members were struck and killed on the job in the United States. Since September 2022, 24 New Jersey crew members were injured in work zones or while assisting motorists. While none of those New Jersey crew members died, “those are unacceptable numbers,” Commissioner Gutierrez-Scaccetti said. “Work zone safety is a priority at NJDOT and baked into everything we do. She repeated her motto, “Everyone goes home every night.”

Speaking of the names added to the memorial in 2023, Commissioner Gutierrez-Scaccetti said: “The deaths of these five men are a reminder that distracted and impaired driving is a deep-rooted issue in this country, a danger that has existed for over a century.”

The Remembrance Ceremony Program for this year’s event can be found here and many photos of this year’s event are shared in an image slider below.

Eric Schwarz, NJDOT Research Librarian, unveiling plaque at NJDOT Employee Memorial Wall.

INTERNET ARCHIVAL PROJECT

Schwarz, NJDOT Research Librarian, found the names of the five men as part of a digitization project that the NJDOT is conducting as part of a transportation pooled fund, with the documents being housed on the website of the Internet Archive. Highlights of the initial documents posted to the NJDOT collection include: monthly reports of the Highway Department published from 1956 to 1966; annual reports from the 1940s to 1991; The First Five Years of the Garden State Parkway, 1954-1959; and NJDOT’s 50th anniversary commemorative book from 2016.  

The issues of The Highway, an in-house newsletter, reporting the deaths of the five men from the 1940s who gave their lives are also available (Arthur Reinhardt, Walter Eckert, Jeremiah O’Brien, William Kays, and Joseph Platt).  


RESOURCES ON WORK ZONE SAFETY

For those researching or seeking to ensure work zone safety, here are several useful resources:

  • Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Training, NJ Information Resources Portal. This website provides technical assistance resources to support TIM Responder Trainings that bring police, firefighters, DOT, towing, medical personnel, and other incident responders together to engage in interactive, hands-on incident resolution exercises.
  • TRID Search on Work Zone Safety. The TRID Database provides access to 1.4 million records of transportation research worldwide.  Here is a saved search of research and ongoing projects in the last year on that use “Work Zone Safety” as a search term.
  • FHWA Website on Work Zone Safety Management. The FHWA Work Zone Management program develops and deploys solutions and strategies that enable agencies to incrementally and continuously improve work zone management to minimize traffic delays and maintain the safety of all road users and workers.  This website provides facts and statistics, best practices, regulations and guidance, training materials, webinars and links to resources on related topics.
  • National Workzone Safety Information Clearinghouse. A project of the Transportation Development Foundation of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). It is operated in cooperation with the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Topics of interest include: Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety, Smart Work Zones, Transportation Management Plans, Accommodating Pedestrians, and Project Coordination in Work Zones.
  • National Work Zone Awareness Week. The next Work Zone Awareness Week is set for April 15-19, 2024.
  • NJ LTAP Work Zone Safety Trainings. The New Jersey Local Technical Assistance Program periodically offers training course on work zone safety.  Please check calendar for upcoming events.

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Photos courtesy of Glenn Catana, Office of Communications, New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Did You Know? Recent NJ Transportation Research Publications

The NJDOT Research Library maintains a “Did You Know” page to share basic facts about the research library, transportation research resources, and newly issued publications available through AASHTO and the ASTM COMPASS Portal.

Hot Topic Searches are available on the TRID Searches page

The Research Library maintains a "TRID Searches" page that contains a list of recent publications indexed in the TRID database organized by 37 subject areas. NJDOT’s Library also maintains "Hot Topic" searches that contain the projects and publications issued in the last five years on several topics, including: Transformational Technologies; Planning & Safety; Resilience; Sustainability; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and Workforce Recruitment and Retention.

TRID (Transport Research International Documentation) is the world's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic resource on transportation research information. It combines the records from the Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) database of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) database of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

TRID helps researchers locate solutions to problems, avoid duplication of work, and save resources. It includes records of AASHTO publications, federal and state DOT reports, University Transportation Center (UTC) reports, and commercial journal literature, among other sources. It also satisfies the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requirements to consult TRB's TRIS databases to identify ongoing or previously completed research on a given topic.


Recent NJ Publications in TRID

Recent publications with New Jersey identifiers and/or prepared by NJ research institutions can be identified through TRID.  A quick search in TRID uncovered these recently added records in the TRID database of recently completed research publications:

Advanced Reinforced Concrete Materials for Transportation Infrastructure
Final Report, 2023, 107p
Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Materials

Exploring the Impact of Truck Traffic on Road Segment-Based Severe Crash Proportion Using Extensive Weigh-In-Motion Data
Safety Science, Volume 166, 106261
Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment

Severity Modeling of Work Zone Crashes in New Jersey Using Machine Learning Models
Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, Volume: 15, Issue Number: 6
Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Safety and Human Factors

Variation in Drivers’ Seat Belt Use by Indicators of Community-Level Vulnerability
Journal of Safety Research, Volume: 85
Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Updating 2019 Safe Corridors Reports
Final Report, 2023, 93p
Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Safety and Human Factors

What Transportation Systems Management & Operations (TSMO) Means to My Local Transportation Agency
ITE Journal, Volume 93, Issue Number: 4
Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management

Implementing Artificial Neural Network-Based Gap Acceptance Models in the Simulation Model of a Traffic Circle in SUMO
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Online First
Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting

Pedestrian- and Bicyclist-Involved Crashes: Associations with Spatial Factors, Pedestrian Infrastructure, and Equity Impacts
Journal of Safety Research, Available Online
Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors

Investigation of Young Pedestrian Crashes in School Districts of New Jersey Using Machine Learning Models
International Conference on Transportation and Development 2023: Transportation Planning, Operations, and Transit
Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors

Application of Machine Learning Models and SHAP to Examine Crashes Involving Young Drivers in New Jersey
International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology, Available Online
Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors

Artificial Intelligence-Aided Grade Crossing Safety Violation Detection Methodology and a Case Study in New Jersey
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Online First
Subject Areas: Highways; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors

Evaluation of Coefficient Related to Runoff from Roadway Projects
Final Report, 2023, 125p
Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Pavements

Statewide Prioritization of Vernal Pools for Pond-Breeding Amphibians in New Jersey
Journal of Environmental Management, Volume: 339
Subject Areas: Environment; Highways

Identifying Colonial Roads in Southern New Jersey: An Application of Remote Sensing, Field, and Archival Methods to Document the Locations, Condition, and Routes of Critical American Revolutionary War Supply Chains
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Online First
Subject Areas: Highways; History; Maintenance and Preservation

Microtransit Deployment Portfolio Management Using Simulation-Based Scenario Data Upscaling
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Volume: 169, Issue Number: 0
Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation

Please contact the NJDOT research librarian, Eric Schwarz, MSLIS, at (609) 963-1898, or email at library@dot.nj.gov for assistance on how to expand your search to projects, or retrieve these or other publications.

Did You Know? Recent Transportation Research Publications

The NJDOT Research Library maintains a “Did You Know” page to share basic facts about the research library, transportation research resources, and newly issued publications available through AASHTO and the ASTM COMPASS Portal.

Hot Topic Searches are available on the TRID Searches page

The Research Library maintains a "TRID Searches" page that contains a list of recent publications indexed in the TRID database organized by 37 subject areas. NJDOT’s Library also maintains "Hot Topic" searches that contain the projects and publications issued in the last five years on several topics, including: Transformational Technologies; Planning & Safety; Resilience; Sustainability; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and Workforce Recruitment and Retention.

TRID (Transport Research International Documentation) is the world's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic resource on transportation research information. It combines the records from the Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) database of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) database of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

TRID helps researchers locate solutions to problems, avoid duplication of work, and save resources. It includes records of AASHTO publications, federal and state DOT reports, University Transportation Center (UTC) reports, and commercial journal literature, among other sources. It also satisfies the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requirements to consult TRB's TRIS databases to identify ongoing or previously completed research on a given topic.


Recent NJ Publications in TRID

If you are looking, you can find publications with New Jersey identifiers and/or prepared by NJ research institutions.  A quick scan of TRID uncovered these recently added records in the TRID database displaying recently completed research publications:

Resilient Pavement Materials to Mitigate Impact of Climate Change in New Jersey
Journal of Testing and Evaluation, Volume 51, Issue 4, 2023, 13p.
Subject Areas: Design; Environment; Highways; Materials; Pavements

Application of hybrid support vector machine models in analysis of work zone crash injury severity
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Volume 19, Issue 0, 2023, 100801
Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors

Replicable Methodology for Transportation Agencies to Identify Priority Areas for First and Last Mile Solutions at the Regional Level
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Volume 2677, Issue 3, 2023, pp 1293-1303
Subject Areas: Planning & Forecasting; Public Transportation 

Energy Harvesting on New Jersey Roadways
Final Report, 2023, 123p
Subject Areas: Energy; Highways

Innovative Techniques And Materials For Preventing Concrete Shrinkage Cracking
Final Report, 2023, 65p
Subject Areas: Highways; Materials

NJDOT Highway Safety Improvement Program Implementation Plan
Final Report, 2023, 43p,
Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors

Public Views on the Reallocation of Street Space Due to COVID-19
Journal of the American Planning Association, Volume 89, Issue 1, 2023, pp 93-106
Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting

Assessment of the First-and-Last-Mile Problem in Underserved Communities: Case Study in Camden City, NJ
Transportation Research Record, 0(0).
Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Society

 

Please contact the NJDOT research librarian, Eric Schwarz, MSLIS, at (609) 963-1898, or email at library@dot.nj.gov for assistance on how to expand your search to projects, or retrieve these or other publications.

NJDOT’s Research Library Hosts Tool to Find Recent Transportation Research Publications

The NJDOT Research Library maintains a “Did You Know” page to share basic facts about the research library's operations, available transportation research resources, and newly issued publications.

Hot Topic Searches are available on the TRID Searches page

The NJDOT Research Library also has a "TRID Searches" page that contains a list of searches for recent publications indexed in the TRID database, based on 37 subject areas, covering all modes and disciplines of the transportation field.

Select "Hot Topic" searches are also maintained that list ongoing projects and publications issued in the last five years that are stored in the TRID Database.  These hot topics include:

  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Planning & Safety
  • Resilience
  • Sustainability
  • Transformational Technologies
  • Workforce Recruitment and Retention

TRID (Transport Research International Documentation) is the world's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic resource on transportation research information. It combines the records from the Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) database of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) database of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

viperagp | Adobe Stock

TRID helps researchers locate solutions to problems, avoid duplication of work, and save resources. It includes records of AASHTO publications, federal and state DOT reports, University Transportation Center (UTC) reports, and commercial journal literature, among other sources. It also satisfies the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requirements to consult TRB's TRIS databases to identify ongoing or previously completed research on a given topic.

To expand your search to projects, or for any other research questions, please contact Eric Schwarz, the NJDOT Research Librarian, at eric_cnslt.schwarz@dot.nj.gov or 609-963-1898.