V3141014_Sole_Source_final_Redacted.pdf

Procurement Request No. V3141014

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

VOLPE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS CENTER (VOLPE CENTER)

Surface Transportation Human Factors Division, V-314

Sole Source SAP Justification

A. Description of Supplies/Services.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems

Center (Volpe Center), Cambridge, MA, requires services from University of Washington Professor Dr.

Linda Ng Boyle to be a member of an independent research review panel consisting of two Volpe Center employees and an independent outside expert. Dr. Boyle, in particular, is required because of her nationally recognized expertise and independence both from federal government agencies and from the research organization.

The work of the expert review panel concerns a research study conducted by the Texas

Transportation Institute (TTI) of Texas A&M University that is investigating the potential effects, such as driver distraction, of adding highway sponsorship acknowledgement to Changeable

Message Signs (CMS). CMSs are programmable, portable or permanent, traffic control devices that display messages to motorists. This review, is concerned with the safety ramifications of adding any extraneous material information to CMSs and the implications for the sponsor, Federal Highway

Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices(MUTCD) Other stakeholders may be concerned with the potential value of sponsor acknowledgement on CMSs in terms of state revenues, the potential for outdoor advertising, and the potential negative effects on the attractiveness of the highway environment. As a result of multiple stakeholder interests, this is a sensitive study that requires both a high degree of expertise from a distinguished outside authority on the scientific merit of the research. Scientific merit is determined through the experimental methods, statistical analysis of the results, and given these, how the researchers interpret the findings.

The responsibilities of the outside expert are to assist the Volpe Center by reviewing and providing a technical assessment of the research plan, reviewing the reported experimental research procedures and findings, assisting in conducting a site visit to review the research facilities, materials, and conditions under which the research is conducted, participating in a telephone briefing for the Volpe Center and

FHWA, and participate in a stakeholder “workshop” to discuss the validity and reliability of the findings, conclusions, and implications of the research.

To ensure the credibility of the review, it is necessary for the Vole Center to obtain a nationally recognized expertise, specifically on statistical methods, is a critical criterion for the outside member of the expert review panel (Criterion 1, below). In addition, the specific research to be reviewed requires demonstrated expertise in the evaluation of accident research (Criterion 2 and Criterion 3), and driver distraction research (Criterion 4). Accordingly, the required, high level of expertise is defined here as a person who meets several criteria:

1. National leadership position on statistical analysis methods in transportation research

2. Referee (typically, a consulting editor) of a journal on the causes of accidents

3. Author or co-author of at least fifty articles in peer-reviewed journals

4. Author or co-author of at least ten articles on driver distraction published in peer-reviewed journals.

Independence is also a critical criterion for the outside expert. He or she must not have competing or compromising interests such as current or past association with the university conducting the research or financial interests related to the research outcome. Financial interests include previous or current work that entitites concerned with the research outcomes, or with FHWA actions based up them, have sponsored. FHWA employees also do not meet the independence criterion. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA, attached) is required to prevent disclosure of documents and related reviewer comments because of potential FHWA actions that this research review may affect.

The estimated total dollar value of these services, including travel expenses, is $24,610.

B. Market Research.

and performed market research in March 2016. This research consisted of utilizing the Small Business Administration’s Dynamic Small Business Search Database to search for firms who can provide the required expert using the Key Terms in Table 1 as the “key words”. Table 1 below provides the Key Terms, number of results yielded, and a description of the results.

Table 1. Market Research Results from SBA DSBSD March 2016

Key Term Number of Results Description of Results

Statistical Consultant 0 No results yielded Transportation Statistics 0 No results yielded

Distracted Driving 3 Businesses that specialize driving simulators, motorcycle advanced rider training, and consulting services such as driver training, accident investigations, and trip planning.

Driver Distraction 0 No results yielded

Distraction Expert 0 No results yielded

Statistical Expert 0 No results yielded

Driving Statistics 0 No results yielded

Driving Evaluation 1 Business that provide analytics and software to enable data driven evaluation and improvement of domestic and global logistics and supply chain performance

None of the results from the SBA database yielded any results applicable to the purpose of this work.

This procurement aims to identify an individual who has both extensive experience with conducting research and analyzing human behavior, specifically distracted driving. All the firms identified in the key term search were incapable of performing the work required of the expert reviewer.

also performed a search of the GSA Schedule 871 using the same key terms as used in the SBA search, with the following results (Table 2):

Table 2. Market Research Results from GSA Schedule 871 March 2016

Key Term Number of Results Description of Results Statistical Consultant 0 No results yielded

Transportation Statistics 0 No results yielded

Distracted Driving 1 Business that specializes in off-the-shelf training devices

Driver Distraction 0 No results yielded

Distraction Expert 0 No results yielded

Statistical Expert 0 No results yielded

Driving Statistics 0 No results yielded

Driving Evaluation 0 No results yielded

The one result from the GSA Schedule was a business specializing in providing off-the-shelf training devices. This does not meet the criteria required for this procurement.

C. Supporting Rationale.

1) Sole Source: Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

(i) Explain why a particular expertise or level of expertise is critical to the requirement. .

The purpose of the contract is to determine the credibility of a research study on the safety of acknowledging corporate sponsorship by adding essentially extraneous information to CMSs. The purpose of including an outside expert on the review panel is to enhance the scientific authority of the independent assessment of the research. The outside expert must demonstrate nationally recognized expertise for his or her evaluation of the research to withstand the scrutiny of potentially critical stakeholders. To complement Volpe Center panel reviewers’ capabilities, this high level of recognized expertise is required in statistical methods, evaluation of accident research, and driver distraction.

Neither of the two Volpe Center panel members is nationally recognized for expertise in statistical methods, and also for expertise in both the evaluation of accident research and driver distraction research.

(ii) Provide evidence that this contractor is the only source that has the required expertise, referencing the market research outcome

The SBA and GSA Schedule 871 searches described above found no firms capable of performing the required expert review. then conducted a search of Google Scholar for any authors of articles indexed with keywords indicating that the authors may have the required expertise (March, 2016). The search terms were (1) “statistical analysis of experiments” (2) “accidents” and (3) “distraction”. This search yielded four results including the following seven names:

. A followup Google Scholar search using these names to determine whether any of the seven met both Criterion 3 and Criterion 4 above, and examination of the names of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Statistics Committee members (Criterion 1) determined that none of these seven met all four criteria listed above. TRB, a division of the National Science Foundation, is the preeminent scientific organization in surface transportation and holding the position of Chair of a relevant TRB Committee conveys national leadership in the scientific specialty area.

Through this process, we also found that the Chair of the TRB Statistics Committee (ABJ-80) is Dr.

Linda Ng Boyle. Examination of the editorial board of the only known journal focusing on accident causation, Accident Analysis and Prevention, indicated that Dr. Boyle is a Consulting Editor.

Through a Google Scholar search, found that she is the co-author of more than ten refereed journal articles on driver distraction and more than fifty publications overall, so she also meets the three other criteria. Through additional market research (telephone), determined that she appears to have no conflicting financial interests or professional association with the university conducting the research to be reviewed. Thus, the market research revealed that no other qualified person or entity has this expertise aside from Dr. Boyle.

(i) Define the impact in terms of feasibility, time, and cost of educating another contractor to obtain that expertise.

It is infeasible to educate another contractor to obtain this level of expertise because it would require many years of study and distinguished, published research.

(2) Brand Name: N/A

(3) Unusual and Compelling Urgency: N/A

D. Required Signatures. The following signatures represent concurrence/approval of this justification:

_Original Signed by________________ _ Original Signed by ____________________ Andrew Kendra Date David P. Moore, Jr. Date PR Technical Initiator PR Technical Initiator’s Supervisor

_Original Signed by_______________ Cathryn Oliva-Simmons Date Contracting Officer