Since 2009, when NCHRP's last Security 101 report was released, there have been significant advances in transportation security approaches, including new strategies, programs, and ways of doing business that have increased the security of transportation systems as well as ensured their resiliency. Hazards and threats to the system have also continued to evolve since 2009. While the inciden...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 541 explores how state departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) acquire proprietary data for transportation applications. Recent technological advancements have led to new types of transportation data with characteristics that include improved quality and greater temporal and wider g...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 531 documents agency practices, challenges, and successes in conducting automated pavement condition surveys. The report also includes three case examples that provide additional information on agency practices for conducting automated pavement surveys. Pavement condition data is a critical component for pavement management s...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 538: Practices for Online Public Involvement summarizes current practices regarding online public participation strategies being used by state departments of transportation (DOTs), as well as explores the effectiveness of using these strategies and tools. Online public participation methods offer agencies the potential for ex...

The full issue of the January-February edition of the TR News is now available.  This issue explores emerging trends, research needs, and related events that discuss how technology may be harnessed to create more resilient transportation systems. Articles also focus on electrification, obesity solutions, and infectious diseases in the built environment.   The TR News is TRB's bimonthl...

TRB’s Forum on Preparing for Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility has released Transportation Research Circular E-C247: TRB Forum on Preparing for Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility.  The circular provides a summary of a February 2019 mini-workshop on the importance and role of connectivity within the automated vehicles and shared mobility environment. Key takeaways from the workshop...

TRB's Technical Activities Division has released Transportation Research Circular E-C246: Structural Monitoring as a primer to convey an understanding of how structural monitoring (SM) technology can be used most effectively. The circular is designed to help bridge owners understand the different purposes of structural health monitoring (SHM). Effective use of SHM can help determine the most co...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has released the pre-publication version of NCHRP Research Report 915: Relationship Between Erodibility and Properties of Soils, which provides reliable and simple equations quantifying the erodibility of soils based on soil properties. The report a detailed analysis of the issue. In addition, the project that developed the report also...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Research Report 200: Using GIS for Collaborative Land Use Compatibility Planning Near Airports offers guidance for using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a collaboration tool to encourage compatible land use around airports. The report is designed to help airport and community planners seeking to work together to protect existing and futu...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 139: Transit Service Evaluation Standards provides an overview of the purpose, use, and application of performance measures, service evaluation standards, and data collection methods at North American transit agencies. The report addresses the service evaluation process, from the selection of appropriate metrics through development of ...

TRB's Transportation Research Circular E-C243: SHRP 2 Safety Data Student Paper Competition 2017-2019 contains student papers that were selected from a competition to promote use of the SHRP 2 Safety Data. A call for abstracts was issued in October 2017 to graduate students across the country, soliciting innovative ideas for using the data. The Review Panel for the SHRP 2 Safety Data Stude...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 138: Public Transit Rider Origin–Destination Survey Methods and Technologies captures the state of the practice among agencies of different sizes, geographic locations, and modes and evaluates the opportunities for and challenges of conducting surveys in an era of emerging technologies. The report presents the reality and complexity of...

A featured article in the January-February 2019 issue of the TR News explores emerging trends, applied research, research needs, and innovative solutions to challenges across all transportation modes and functions. State departments of transportation are deploying new technologies, streamlined and innovative processes, research-driven methods, and holistic systems approaches to further the goal...

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has released Data Matters: Ethics, Data, and International Research Collaboration in a Changing World: Proceedings of a Workshop. The publication summarizes an event held on March 14-16, 2018, in Washington, DC that explored the changing opportunities and risks of data management and use across disciplinary domains. The third worksho...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 528: Analyzing Data for Measuring Transportation Performance by State DOTs and MPOs summarizes what data state departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) are using and how they are measuring transportation performance. Knowledge about transportation data already exists, but may be...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 891: Dedicating Lanes for Priority or Exclusive Use by Connected and Automated Vehicles identifies and evaluates opportunities, constraints, and guiding principles for implementing dedicated lanes for connected and automated vehicles. This report describes conditions amenable to dedicating lanes for users of these vehic...

TRB has released Critical Issues in Transportation 2019 . In this report, which is updated periodically by the TRB Executive Committee, a series of challenging questions are posed to explore issues and opportunities that may arise 10 to 20 years into the future. These questions, 63 in all, have been organized into 12 topic areas and provide a way to frame future areas of research, policy analys...

TRB's E-Circular 238: 2018 National Household Travel Survey Workshop explored users' experiences with the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) dataset at an August 2018 workshop in Washington, D.C. Conducted by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the NHTS is the authoritative source on the travel behavior of the American public. It is the only source of national data that allows ...

TRB has released Transforming the Marine Transportation System Through Multimodal Freight Analysis: Proceedings of the Fifth Biennial Marine Transportation System Research and Development Conference that summarizes the discussion about multimodal freight transportation that took place on June 19-21, 2018.The conference considered potential research to address issues associated with transforming...

TRB Special Report 329: Renewing the National Commitment to the Interstate Highway System: A Foundation for the Future explores pending and future federal investment and policy decisions concerning the federal Interstate Highway System. Congress asked the committee to make recommendations on the “features, standards, capacity needs, application of technologies, and intergovernmental roles to up...

TRB's E-Circular 240: Workshop on Implementing a Freight Fluidity Performance Measurement System explored emerging tracking and measurement technologies, including blockchain, and examples of multisector data sharing to capture multimodal freight performance as discussed during a September 2018 conference. Performance of the freight transportation system is important to shippers and carriers, p...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 896: Updating Regional Transportation Planning and Modeling Tools to Address Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles, Volume 1: Executive Summary summarizes guidelines to help agencies update their modeling and forecasting tools to address expected impacts of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) on transportation...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 896: Updating Regional Transportation Planning and Modeling Tools to Address Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles, Volume 2: Guidance provides detailed information and guidelines for state departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to help update their modeling and forecas...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) latest Impacts on Practice explores the impact ACRP Synthesis 39 : Airport Wildlife Population Management has had on integrated wildlife management plans at airports. A wildlife biologist at Orlando International Airport utilized this report to develop a holistic approach to mitigating bird strikes with a specific species of heron that thrives i...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 4: Autonomous Vehicle Action Plan (AVAP) develops awareness of the legislative landscape and the foundational laws and regulations that may need to be prioritized for modification for Connected and Automated Driving Systems (C/ADSs) technologies. The A...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 2: State Legal and Regulatory Audit assists state agencies as they work to adapt their legal programs to reflect the realities of Connected and Automated Driving Systems (C/ADSs)—a term that in this report encompasses both vehicle connectivity and an A...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 3: Legal Modification Prioritization and Harmonization Analysis identifies how and when regulations and laws will need to be modified to facilitate the implementation of Connected and Automated Driving Systems (C/ADSs)-equipped vehicles. The report als...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 5: Developing the Autonomous Vehicle Action Plan provides technical background on developing Volumes 1 through 4 of NCHRP Web-Only Document 253. It includes further background on terminology and definitions used in the suite of reports; legal and regul...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 6: Implementation Plan provides a technical memorandum on how to put the research findings and products into practice; identifies possible institutions that might take leadership in applying the research findings/products; and identifies issues affecti...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 1: Legal Landscape explores federal, state, and international legal activities and practices regarding Connected and Automated Vehicles and Highly Automated Vehicles (C/AV/HAVs): Section 1 reviews United States federal activities within the sphere of r...