Data Repository

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Motor Carrier Administration’s (FMCSA) core mission is to reduce commercial motor vehicle-related crashes, injuries, and fatalities. To further this mission, FMCSA’s Office of Analysis, Research, and Technology undertakes numerous research studies to improve the safety and efficiency of commercial motor vehicle operations through technological innovation and improvement, which results in many datasets that would be of value to other researchers and the public.

  
The FMCSA Data Repository and website (https://fmcsadatarepository.vtti.vt.edu/), managed by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), provides the public access to these datasets. The Data Repository provides the public with a centralized repository of datasets from previous FMCSA studies, as required in the policy memorandum from the Office of Science and Technology Policy “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research” dated February 22, 2013, available at: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf . Public-use data which does not contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII) are also available on the Data Repository website. Complete datasets from the research studies which contain PII are maintained in a secure data enclave, which is accessible only to approved users who are authorized to access that data at the VTTI data enclave facility. The data elements of each study that qualify for this level of access are determined on a case-by-case basis and are based on the data use terms laid out in the originating study’s informed consent forms (ICFs). This Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is published in accordance with the E-Government Act of 2002 and addresses the risks associated with maintaining and facilitating access to data in the Data Repository.