Data Presentation on Transportation Agency Websites: Trends and Best Practices

The Division of Research, Innovation and System Information (DRISI) within California’s Department of Transportation (Caltrans) provides solutions and knowledge that improves California’s transportation system. The Division recently sought to determine whether the data it provides on the agency’s website, the way it’s organized, and how it’s delivered, serve the division’s goals and the agency’s priorities of sustainability, active transportation, livability, and economic vibrancy. If not, they wanted to know what improvements were needed. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to: (a) discover the variety of practices for structuring, organizing, and presenting such data currently in use by other transportation-related websites; (b) determine “best practices” that offer the greatest potential to engage, illuminate, and provide practical application for the transportation community; and (c) determine which of these reasonably could be implemented on the Caltrans DRISI (research) library website and identify areas for further exploration and discussion.