Beginning with this issue, which is the first issue in a new volume, Public Roads will be published six times per year.

At various times during its 79 years of publication, Public Roads has been published monthly, bimonthly, and quarterly, but for the past 25 years, Public Roads was a quarterly publication. By "going bimonthly," we will be able to bring to you more information about federal highway policies, programs, and research and technology, and we will be able to provide more timely information about new developments.

For its first 75 years, Public Roads was really a technical journal. It was even subtitled "A Journal of Highway Research" (and later "A Journal of Highway Research and Development"). For the last four years, Public Roads has been a magazine that represents the entire Federal Highway Administration while maintaining a solid foundation in sharing information about research and technology.

This issue is a good example of the eclectic character of the "new" Public Roads. We have articles about policy issues (the ITS awareness campaign to overcome an identity crisis and gathering input from truckers on hours-of-service regulations), about an administrative issue (transportation asset management), and about an unusual result of a common road-construction activity as reported by a state highway agency ("The Phoenix"). But "the scale is tipped" in favor of articles about research and the development of new technologies.

As Public Roads begins its 80th year of service to the U.S. and international highway research and operations communities, we continue to strive to be increasingly effective in meeting the needs of our readers.