Innovative technology is a key part of the current state of road transportation. There are driving forces behind the development and application of these technologies and they range from a knowledge base of science and engineering to environmental factors to resources to economic and financial considerations. The question of what motivates innovation and characterizes innovative technologies is addressed in the paper in terms of curiosity, creativity, challenging problems and willingness to take risks, as well as impact, creation of new knowledge and recognition. Some representative example specific to roads include pavement management systems, advanced road weather information systems, Superpave technology, a large suite of ITS technologies and electronic toll route highways. Further examples applicable to but not specific to roads include public-privatepartnerships (P3's), recycling of waste materials and engineered materials tailored to specific applications. Various emerging technologies with high potential include wireless network monitoring of road conditions, "smart" roads, nanotechnology applications in road materials, sensors, etc, and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.