Unprecedented transparency puts trove of information at public’s fingertips
FRANKFORT, Ky. (Feb. 7, 2014) – Where are Kentucky’s state-maintained bridges? How many electric vehicles are registered in Kentucky? What is Kentucky’s five-year trend in highway crashes? How much was spent last year on highway projects, by county?
Answers to these and countless other questions are a click or two away with a new Web portal – Kentucky Transportation Cabinet DataMart – that for the first time puts a wealth of information about Kentucky’s transportation system at the public’s fingertips.
With the click of a mouse, the KYTC DataMart delivers details of road and bridge projects, traffic counts, highway crash data and organization performance measures – to name but a few.
“We’re excited to launch our Data Mart,” said Transportation Secretary Mike Hancock. “People want to know about transportation projects in their area, and the Data Mart gives everyone the opportunity to view real-time data.
“The information has always been publicly available, but we have created a single portal through which to access it. We believe this is unprecedented among state transportation agencies in terms of transparency and ease of access,” Hancock said.
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet DataMart, developed by the cabinet’s Office of Information Technology, gives the public direct access to many of the tools used by KYTC engineers.
“Parts of the DataMart are highly specialized, but the portal is evolving and will become progressively easier for public use,” Hancock said. “We welcome the public’s feedback to help us improve the site.”
The DataMart was designed to be a one-stop shop for customers and consumers of Kentucky Transportation Cabinet data. It was built to achieve the following Cabinet objectives:
♦ Provide a central portal to obtain access to transportation data.
♦ Automate and display regularly scheduled reporting.
♦ Provide transparency into and public accountability for the Cabinet’s management and stewardship of public funds.
One of the financial transparency and accountability objectives of the DataMart is to provide reporting as mandated by the federal transportation law known as MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century). Through a simple scorecard, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the people of the commonwealth can see how KYTC’s performance compares to FHWA expectation.
The DataMart may be accessed by logging onto datamart.business.transportation.ky.gov.
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