V3201028_SSJ_v1_Redacted.pdf

Procurement Request No. V3201028

V220T.12 (01/15)

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

VOLPE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS CENTER (VOLPE CENTER)

Office of Policy, Planning and Environment (V320)

SOLE SOURCE SAP JUSTIFICATION

A. Description of Supplies/Services.

The Volpe Center requires the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) to convene a Non-motorized Road Users/Vulnerable Road Users Workshop in November 2017 and develop a Workshop Report per the requirements described in the Statement of Work (SOW).

The Workshop Report will include, at a minimum, the following analyses:

1. Data on non-motorized road user fatalities and injuries in Southeast Asia, including any available information and data on the number of users, crashes, deaths. Demographic information on users and contributing factors (e.g., alcohol involvement) will also be included.

2. Detailed information on the laws and policies in place related to non-motorized road users.

3. Discuss how this information may translate to Developing Nations as a whole.

4. Discussion of the shortcomings or gaps in the laws and policies.

5. Consider the best legal and policy framework to address risks.

6. Identification of parts of the WP.1 conventions or consolidated resolutions that might address some of these shortcomings.

7. Identification of the necessary legal structures that are met by neither current national legislation nor

WP.1 documents (gaps).

B. Market Research.

In December 2013, the U.S. Government signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) with the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) in India, and this MOC was extended in March 2015. Under this agreement, the U.S. and IRTE have regularly exchanged data and expertise on many modes of transportation safety and alcohol countermeasures in Southeast Asia. In June 2016, the Volpe Center was asked to convene a Conference on Road Traffic Safety Needs of Developing Nations, and the Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the Volpe Center technical initiator met in Washington, DC, to discuss sources of data on motorcycle crashes and demographic information on riders and contributing factors to discuss at the Conference. The IRTE’s database on motorcycle crashes was cited in that discussion as the only responsible source; no other known database can provide reliable data that can be used in the formulation of the required White Paper and other studies. In March 2017, the Volpe Center was asked to convene a Workshop on Non-motorized Road Users/Vulnerable Road Users, and, again, IRTE’s database on crashes, non-motorized road user fatalities and injuries, and demographics information was cited in discussions of how best to convene the required Workshop. In April 2017, an internet search by the Volpe Center technical initiator found no reliable alternative to the IRTE data on crashes, non-motorized road user fatalities and injuries and demographic information on riders and contributing factors in the South and Southeast Asia and Asia Pacific focus nations of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and the Philippines, to be used in convening the Workshop required in the SOW. These internet searches resulted in data from individual countries, most of it quite old (1980s), and none for all of these required countries.

C. Supporting Rationale.

The IRTE is the only source for a reliable dataset on motorcycle crashes and demographic information on riders and contributing factors in the sample developing countries for the reasons specified below.

(1) Sole Source:.

(i) IRTE has the only single dataset with crash and non-motorized road user fatality and injury data on developing countries, a sample of which includes India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Procurement Request No. V3201028

V220T.12 (01/15)

Laos, Cambodia, and the Philippines, which is required for the Workshop. The transportation data experts at IRTE have the technical capability to collect the appropriate data from all of the sample countries.

(ii) The crash, fatality, injury, and demographic dataset must be reliable if it is to be useful to the Volpe Center, OST, and NHTSA. Other than IRTE, available datasets are limited to one country and are out of date by years or even decades. The transportation data experts at IRTE have the expertise to ascertain whether the data they are collecting is reliable.

(iii) It has taken IRTE years to refine its data collection techniques and data analysis expertise to the point where its dataset with crash, fatality, injury, and demographic data on sample developing countries is a unique, valuable tool for transportation policy and solutions. If the Volpe Center does not contract with IRTE to gain access to its motorcycle crash dataset, an insightful Workshop will not be feasible, as much of its background data and trends analysis would be based on faulty information. Educating another entity such as a Government agency or an academic or private institute would take years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in time, facilities, and travel.

(2) Brand Name: N/A.

(3) Unusual and Compelling Urgency: N/A.