The administration and human resources functions within an airport can experience great challenges as airports grow, diversify, experience changing priorities, bring in new technologies, or change in other ways. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Web-Only Document 49: Research Roadmap on Airport Administration & Human Resource Issues recommends priorities and timing, sets a...

The importance of safety cannot be overstated and requires continued shifts in the approach to safety management within the public transportation industry. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's pre-publication of TCRP Research Report 218: Characteristics and Elements of Non-Punitive Employee Safety Reporting Systems for Public Transportation compiles the best practices used in non-puni...

The TRB Centennial Book is available for purchase in ebook or print format. In The Transportation Research Board, 1920–2020: Everyone Interested Is Invited , author Sarah Jo Peterson tells the story of how people and institutions created and have continued to shape TRB. In a compelling narrative accompanied by more than 150 images exploring the history of transportation and research, she argues...

Considering diversity issues in corporate recruitment of CEOs is the focus of the TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Report 148: Practical Resources for Recruiting Minorities for Chief Executive Officers at Public Transportation Agencies . The report provides strategies to recruit minorities for CEO positions and offers resources to assist governing boards of public transportation ...

The transportation industry has a need for contract administration guidance. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 939: Guidebooks for Post-Award Contract Administration for Highway Projects Delivered Using Alternative Contracting Methods, Volume 1: Design–Build Delivery provides a practitioner’s guide for construction administration on Design – Build (D-...

The transportation industry has a need for contract administration guidance. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 939: Guidebooks for Post-Award Contract Administration for Highway Projects Delivered Using Alternative Contracting Methods, Volume 2: Construction Manager–General Contractor Delivery provides a practitioner’s guide for construction administr...

The use of alternative contracting methods (ACMs) has accelerated the delivery of highway design and construction projects. These changes came about through efforts of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and state agencies over the last 30 years. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 939: Guidebooks for Post-Award Contract Administration for Highway...

Current legislation and subsequent asset management rules require state departments of transportation (DOTs) to conduct statewide evaluations of roads, highways, and bridges that have required repair and reconstruction activities two or more times since 1997 due to emergency events as declared by the president of the United States or by a state’s governor. The TRB National Cooperative Highway R...

Issue Number 326 of TR News magazine is available in full to subscribers. Here is a sample from the issue: a 14-page photo collage of the 99th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting from January 12–16, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Do you see yourself in any of the photos?

The March-April 2020 issue of TR News (#326) - including a cover feature on TRB's "century of progress and foundation for the future" of transportation research - is available in hard copy and digital copy for subscribers. For those who are not subscribers, the table of contents is available. Other feature articles in the issue include ones on whether research processes can keep up, accessible ...

Topics in the November–December 2019 issue of TR News include an analysis of the #TRBAM Annual Meeting Twitter hashtag to understand communication dynamics; climate change, a critical transportation issue; assessing, marking, and coding highway structures in emergencies; and more. This issue also kicks off the magazine’s yearlong celebration of the 100th anniversary of TRB, which will include t...

Five different business models for mobile fare payment apps are examined, as the world of apps used by transit agencies in the United States and Canada continues to steadily grow. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Synthesis 148: Business Models for Mobile Fare Apps documents current practices and experiences of transit agencies that offer mobile fare payment applications to tr...

Addressing decision-making challenges in pandemic response in the transportation context is a multi-dimensional task, involving not only transportation/transit organizations, but health organizations, emergency management agencies, and communications outlets as well. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Report 769: A Guide for Public Transportation Pandemic Planning and...

One of the most time-honored of the technical activities that TRB performs, state visits revealed lots of interesting issues in 2019, including a lot around the important role state Departments of Transportation increasingly have around data needs. The TRB staff summary of the visits, each of which last one or two days and typically consist of meetings with various levels of DOT management; dis...

The transportation industry faces a wide range of plausible future drivers and scenarios that could affect standard practices over the next 30 to 50 years. Because the range of plausible futures over such a long-term period is very broad, making a focused prediction of the implications for highway infrastructure preservation, maintenance, and renewal (PMR) is quite challenging. The TRB National...

Issue 323 of TRB's magazine complements our recent short video Your Future in Transportation . The September-October 2019 issue  has several features on the workforce topic, including ones called " People, Organizations, Jobs, and Businesses for Tomorrow’s Transportation, "The Future Multimodal Workforce," "How to Win the War for Talent," and "Building a Business Case for Increasing Divers...

As an East Coast tech hub, Raleigh, North Carolina, is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States. Leaders there used the knowledge gained from two reports by TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program to develop a draft Balanced Scorecard, which was then refined, approved, and implemented. Impacts on Practice: Measuring Success at Raleigh–Durham International Airport su...

The January-February 2020 issue of TR News - including a cover feature on the "radical" transportation logistics of the Burning Man festival - is available in hard copy and digital copy for subscribers. For those who are not subscribers, the table of contents is available. Other feature articles in the issue include ones on data's critical role in transportation decisions, the transportation ne...

Women have traditionally been underrepresented within the transit workforce. However, the percentage of women within transit agencies appears to be increasing, and many transit agencies report that the percentage of women advancing into management and leadership positions has also been increasing over the past 5 years. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Synthesis 147: Attractin...

State transportation agencies are increasingly tasked with doing more with less in managing highway transportation networks. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 923: Workforce Optimization Workbook for Transportation Construction Projects provides state transportation agencies with guidance to identify their construction staffing needs and how to best a...

Staff from smaller airports typically lack specialized expertise in the negotiation and development of airport property or the resources to hire consultants. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Research Report 213: Estimating Market Value and Establishing Market Rent at Small Airports provides airport management, policymakers, and staff a resource for developing and leasing airp...

There are opportunities and challenges in implementing public–private partnerships at airports. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's Conference Proceedings on the Web 26: Public–Private Partnerships: What Are the Lessons Learned? is a summary of the presentations and discussions at an ACRP Insight Event held July 10-11, 2019, in Washington, DC.  These in-depth, face-to-face gathe...

There are opportunities and challenges in implementing public–private partnerships at airports. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's Conference Proceedings on the Web 26: Public–Private Partnerships: What Are the Lessons Learned? is a summary of the presentations and discussions at an ACRP Insight Event held July 10-11, 2019, in Washington, DC.  These in-depth, face-to-face gathe...

Examples of transformational technologies—many are discussed in technical and popular media—include wireless telecommunications, shared vehicles, connected vehicles, fully autonomous vehicles, alternative-fuel vehicles, smart cities and communities, big data analytics, internet-of-things, as well as UAVs or drones, 3-D printing, and more. Public agencies face significant challenges continuing t...

Airports are using tools that help them identify risks within their environment. Most airports are providing a means to report risk. Smaller airports use low-cost options such as email, a 24/7 phone number, or a suggestion box. Larger airports have embraced safety management or enterprise risk management programs that include more expensive reporting and tracking systems. The TRB Airport Cooper...

Transit-priority projects seek to improve transit service quality and mobility and to increase transit ridership. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Research Report 208: Strategic Communications to Improve Support for Transit-Priority Projects: Report and Toolkit presents and analyzes the communication approaches used by cities and transit agencies in the delivery of transit-pr...

The full issue of the July-August edition of TR News is now available. This issue focuses on types of trespassing in passenger and freight rail: the importance of the issue, possible strategies to prevent trespassing, and effects on the rail transportation system. Articles present an overview of the prevalence of trespassing deaths and address a variety of preventive strategies and technologies...

Transportation agencies face a complex set of challenges as they make cross-asset resource allocation decisions. Such decisions entail deciding how much to invest in an agency’s roads, bridges, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), and other traffic and safety assets to achieve a variety of competing objectives, such as improving pavement and bridge conditions, increasing mobility, and enha...

Transportation agencies across the United States are afflicted with aging infrastructure, unstable funding, changing performance expectations, and programs that need updating to meet future demand effectively and efficiently. Yet, these agencies are charged with ensuring ongoing alignment between the life cycle cost, capacity, extent, condition, and function of a piece of infrastructure or a pr...

The U.S. Navy has many unique naval engineering needs that demand a highly capable and robust U.S. naval engineering enterprise. In seeking an independent review of the unclassified elements of its National Naval Responsibilities—Naval Engineering (NNR-NE) program, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) asked for recommendations on ways to ensure the program meets the many naval engineering re...