Surface Transportation Research and Development Act of 2005 - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2005 through 2010 for certain surface transportation research and development (R&D) activities.
Amends Federal highway law to revise requirements for transportation: (1) research strategic planning, requiring development of a five-year transportation R&D strategic plan to guide Federal transportation R&D activities; and (2) deployment grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts.
Directs the Secretary of Transportation to establish a National Multimodal Trends Policy Research Program that systematically addresses critical short-term, medium-term, and long-term social science issues affecting and affected by the transportation system.
Directs the Secretary to implement programs to promote and demonstrate the application of innovative pavement technologies and technologies in highway safety.
Establishes the Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Education Program.
Directs the Secretary to arrange with the National Research Council to develop a National Transportation Information Needs Assessment.
Requires the Director of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics to establish an Advisory Council on Transportation Statistics.
Directs the Secretary to establish a Future Strategic Highway Research Program.
Amends the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century to revise the Intelligent Transportation Systems Act of 1998 and rename it the Intelligent Transportation Systems Act of 2005.
Authorizes appropriations for FY 2005 through 2010 for: (1) transit R&D; (2) highway safety R&D; and (3) motor carrier R&D.
Directs the Secretary to establish an Innovative Practices and Technologies Demonstration and Deployment Program.
Amends Federal transportation law to authorize the Secretary (or the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development when required for urban transportation planning) to make grants to nonprofit institutions of higher learning to: (1) conduct competent R&D and investigations into the theoretical or practical problems of urban transportation; and (2) train individuals to conduct further R&D or obtain employment in an organization that plans, builds, operates, or manages an urban transportation system.
Directs the Secretary to establish: (1) a motor carrier R&D program; (2) a multimodal energy and climate change program to study the relationship of transportation, energy, and climate change as part of the National Climate Change Technology Initiative and the Climate Change Research Initiative; (3) a national cooperative freight transportation R&D program; (4) data exchange formats to ensure that highway and transit monitoring systems data, including statewide incident reporting systems, can readily be exchanged across jurisdictional boundaries; and (5) a planning capacity building initiative to support enhancements in transportation planning.
Directs the President shall establish a Next Generation National Transportation Policy Study Commission.