TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD 2025 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE*

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Carlos M. Braceras, Executive Director, Utah Department of Transportation, Salt Lake City

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Marie Therese Dominguez, Commissioner, New York State Department of Transportation, Albany

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Jim Tymon, Executive Director, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Washington, DC

___________________

^* Membership as of May 2025.

COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAMS

Evaluation of the Every Day
Counts Program

Jeffrey Alexander
Rossana Zetina-Beale
Sara Nienow
RTI INTERNATIONAL
Research Triangle Park, NC

Subject Areas
Administration and Management • Highways • Planning and Forecasting

CRP SPECIAL RELEASE SERIES

The Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) Special Release series publishes the findings of projects managed by CRP upon request by organizations outside of CRP’s core research programs.

CRP SPECIAL RELEASE 5

Project TFPE-04
ISSN 2831-4670
ISBN 978-0-309-73353-3

© 2025 by the National Academy of Sciences. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the graphical logo are trademarks of the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein.

Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, APTA, FAA, FHWA, FTA, GHSA, or NHTSA endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP.

NOTICE

The report was reviewed by the technical panel and accepted for publication according to procedures established and overseen by the Transportation Research Board and approved by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this report are those of the researchers who performed the research and are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board; the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; or the program sponsors.

The Transportation Research Board does not develop, issue, or publish standards or specifications. The Transportation Research Board manages applied research projects which provide the scientific foundation that may be used by Transportation Research Board sponsors, industry associations, or other organizations as the basis for revised practices, procedures, or specifications.

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Learn more about the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at www.nationalacademies.org.

The Transportation Research Board is one of seven major program divisions of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The mission of the Transportation Research Board is to mobilize expertise, experience, and knowledge to anticipate and solve complex transportation-related challenges. The Board’s varied activities annually engage about 8,500 engineers, scientists, and other transportation researchers and practitioners from the public and private sectors and academia, all of whom contribute their expertise in the public interest. The program is supported by state departments of transportation, federal agencies including the component administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and other organizations and individuals interested in the development of transportation.

Learn more about the Transportation Research Board at www.TRB.org.

COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAMS

CRP STAFF FOR CRP SPECIAL RELEASE 5

Monique R. Evans, Director, Cooperative Research Programs

Waseem Dekelbab, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs

Patrick Zelinski, Senior Program Officer

Kevin Padilla, Senior Program Assistant

Natalie Barnes, Director of Publications

Heather DiAngelis, Associate Director of Publications

Hilary Freer, Senior Editor

CRP PROJECT TFPE-04 PANEL

Cameron T. Kergaye, Utah Department of Transportation, Holladay, UT

Veronica Murphy, New Jersey Department of Transportation, Trenton, NJ

Tommy E. Nantung, Indiana Department of Transportation, West Lafayette, IN

Juan Douglas Rogers, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

Tyson D. Rupnow, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, Baton Rouge, LA

Mary Huie, FHWA Liaison

AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks go to the staff members at the FHWA who provided documents, data, recollections, and insights about the Every Day Counts (EDC) Program. We are especially indebted to Jeffrey A. Zaharewicz, Program Director, and Julie Zirlin, Program Coordinator, for access to archived documents from the EDC Program and its Innovations and for their time and insights, which provided input critical to our understanding and assessment of the Program. The authors also appreciate the many staff members from FHWA headquarters and division offices and the representatives of state departments of transportation who contributed their time and thoughts in interviews during the development and conduct of this evaluation.

Jeffrey Alexander of RTI International led this effort under the supervision of the evaluation project Principal Investigator, Michael Gallaher (also of RTI International). Lena Leonchuk (of RTI) directed the evaluation planning, and Rossana Zetina-Beale and Sara Nienow (both of RTI) led the data collection and analysis activities. Dr. Gretchen Jordan of 360 Innovation, LLC, provided valuable expert guidance on the evaluation plan, indicators, and interview questions and advice throughout the project. The lead authors also thank the RTI research staff on the project team, including Razaan Abnowf, Chrystall Davis, Daden Goldfinger, Joshua Fletcher, and Aidan Sorge. Any errors in this report are the sole responsibility of the lead authors.

FOREWORD

By Patrick Zelinski
Staff Officer
Transportation Research Board

CRP Special Release 5 presents an evaluation of FHWA’s Every Day Counts (EDC) Program. The report will be of interest to those responsible for identifying and deploying innovative technologies, systems, and processes in surface transportation. The report also addresses the broader topics of technology transfer, diffusion of innovation, and methods to quantify the value of research.

This report documents an evaluation of FHWA’s Every Day Counts (EDC) Program. FHWA started the EDC Program in 2009 as a state-centric initiative for identifying and deploying proven, but underutilized, innovations that can make U.S. surface transportation more adaptable, sustainable, equitable, and safer for all. By accelerating the adoption of the selected technologies and practices, the EDC Program seeks to promote an innovation-oriented culture in the surface transportation community that will ultimately facilitate and accelerate the diffusion of promising improvements in the future.

The EDC Program was assessed under the TRB-FHWA Program Evaluation (TFPE) effort. For Project TFPE-04, “Evaluation of FHWA’s Every Day Counts Program,” RTI International was tasked to evaluate the EDC Program’s strategic and operational management, the outcomes attributable to program activities, and the extent to which those outcomes supported progress on FHWA’s strategic goals. This report presents evidence regarding the efficiency, implementation, and effectiveness of the EDC Program in pursuing its goals. Also included are indicators of the outputs and outcomes generated by the program and the program’s contribution to broader impacts on the culture of innovation in the surface transportation community.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION PROGRAM

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation that supports state and local governments in the design, construction, and maintenance of the nation’s highway system (Federal Aid Highway Program) and various federally and tribally owned lands (Federal Lands Highway Program). A significant portion of FHWA’s research activities, evolved over many years in response to successive legislative initiatives, is managed by agency staff from the Research and Technology (R&T) Program housed at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Virginia, and other locations. The aim of FHWA’s R&T activities is to support FHWA’s mission through deployment of innovations that address current issues and emerging challenges, create efficiencies in the highway and transportation sector, and provide information to support policy decisions.

The FHWA Research and Technology Evaluation Program seeks to assess and communicate the benefits of FHWA’s R&T efforts; ensure that the organization is expending public resources efficiently and effectively; and build evidence to shape and improve policymaking. FHWA partners with state transportation departments, local agencies, industries, and academia to conduct research on issues of national significance and accelerate adoption and deployment of promising research products.

To ensure that R&T activities are effectively and efficiently contributing to FHWA’s mission, R&T staff apply leading practices in research management and occasionally undertake formal evaluations of select activities, projects, or programs. In addition, FHWA’s R&T staff solicit advice from the Transportation Research Board (TRB), particularly the Research and Technology Coordinating Committee (RTCC). The RTCC issues annual reports commenting on R&T programs generally and suggesting adjustments to program strategies and approaches to improve program relevance, effectiveness, and impact.

In 2014, FHWA initiated the R&T Evaluation Program with two core objectives:

1. To evaluate the selection process by which research is funded, and
2. To assess the effectiveness of selected projects within the R&T portfolio, in terms of both research outcomes and technology transfer activities.

Under the R&T Evaluation Program’s initial phase, 16 evaluations were conducted by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center.

In 2019, FHWA asked TRB to undertake management of evaluations under a second phase of the R&T Evaluation Program. TRB’s activities under this TRB-FHWA Program Evaluation (TFPE) effort comprise a series of projects evaluating research activities designated by FHWA and conducted by RTI International under TRB’s direction and oversight. To date, the following projects have been completed:

• TFPE-01, Asphalt Binder Quality Tester
• TFPE-02, Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Program
• TFPE-03, Ultra-High Performance Concrete Connections
• TFPE-04, FHWA’s Every Day Counts Program
• TFPE-05, FHWA’s Initiative on Integrating NEPA and Permitting

These evaluations are intended to generate evidence and provide data-driven assessments that substantiate the contributions of FHWA’s R&T Program to fulfilling the agency’s mission and strategic goals. The evaluations are focused on estimating and forecasting the socioeconomic returns from investments in R&T Program activities to inform future research plans and improve technology transition outcomes. To this end, the evaluations include quantitative estimates of impact metrics. In addition, the evaluations provide input on data collection, tracking, and monitoring for ongoing program evaluation and improvement.

CONTENTS

Summary

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Background on the EDC Program and This Evaluation

1.2 Evaluation Objectives

1.3 Innovation Diffusion and Adoption Frameworks

Chapter 2 Evaluation Method

2.1 Evaluation Scope

2.2 EDC Program Logic Model

2.3 Evaluation Questions and Approach to Evidence-Building

Chapter 3 Data Collection and Analysis

3.1 Stakeholder Lists and Relational Analysis

3.2 Interviews

3.3 Document Review

3.4 Implementation Plans

3.5 FHWA Website Content

3.6 EDC Summit Summary and Baseline Reports

3.7 EDC Progress and Final Reports

3.8 Newsletters and Legacy Reports

3.9 Integrative Analysis and Case Studies

Chapter 4 Observations and Key Findings

4.1 Views on the Selection of EDC Innovations

4.2 Value of State Transportation Innovation Councils

4.3 Implementation Resources and Benefits

4.4 Addressing EDC Innovation Risks, Challenges, and Culture

4.5 Reporting on Implementation

Chapter 5 Findings by Evaluation Question

5.1 EDC Program Design, Structure, and Operations

5.2 Outcomes Supported by EDC Program Activities

5.3 Contributions by EDC to FHWA Strategic Objectives

5.4 Success Factors and Future Options for Program Effectiveness

Chapter 6 Conclusions

References

Glossary

Abbreviations

Appendix A EDC Innovations

Appendix B Detailed Evaluation Planning Matrix

Appendix C Description of Implementation Plans Reviewed

Appendix D Interview Guides