In issuing this Request for Proposal (RFP), the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) allies itself with the leading agency in this country in their efforts to modernize the existing data products and improve the communication between the agency and the public.

NYMTC is an association of governments, transportation providers and environmental agencies that is the metropolitan planning organization for New York City, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley. NYMTC’s mission is 1)to serve as the collaborative forum to address transportation-related issues from a regional perspective; 2)to facilitate informed decision-making within the Council by providing sound technical analyses; 3)to ensure the region is positioned to capture the maximum federal funds available to achieve the goals of the Unified Planning Work Program, Regional Transportation Plan and Transportation Improvement Program; and 4) to focus the collective planning activities of all Council members to achieve a shared regional vision (Source: NYMTC website).

In order to fulfill its mission, NYMTC produces an array of information in support of the planning and policy decisions that shape the region. This information is produced in the form of various reports, brochures and databases, and “is used by many transportation specialists and academics both in the NYMTC region and outside the region as well as people from other countries” as explained in the RFP. Thus, NYMTC wants to ensure that its data products are “current, accurate, consistent, and contain the information that can be used easily by users and serve their needs properly”; i.e., an overall quality of the data products is desirable. Therefore, it is essential to carry out a project that examines the data products and makes recommendations for further improvements.