What's New in Data and Information Technology

The International Council on Clean Transportation has released a report that examines the use of remote sensing in regulating and controlling pollution from on-road vehicles. Remote sensing systems use absorption spectroscopy to non-intrusively measure pollutant concentrations in the exhaust plumes of in-use vehicles. This report identifies how remote sensing compares to the portable emissions ...

The Upper Great Plains Institute at North Dakota State University has released a report that reviews agent-based models of transportation. These models use data mining and simulation to reflect a high level of detail for travel patterns in a region or state. This report also determines an agent’s travel behavior in rural and small urban freight movement, designs a multi-agent system, and invest...

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 is sponsoring the Innovations in Freight Data Workshop on April 9-10, 2019 in Irvine, California. The 2019 workshop will build from the 2017 workshop and bring together freight data users and decision makers to learn and share the latest applications of emerging freight data sources, development of value-added features, integration of data sets, and other innovations. The advance program is...

TRB is cosponsoring the 2nd International Intelligent Construction Technologies Group Conference (IICTG 2019) on April 23-25, 2019 in Beijing, China. This conference provides a forum for the dissemination of knowledge concerning the collection, analysis, and application of information relating to intelligent construction technologies (ICT). ICT consists of real time quality monitoring and proce...

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has released the latest issue of its Research and Technology (R&T) Now news update. Each issue reports on research, technology, and development activities taking place within the U.S. Department of Transportation. This edition features information about: New federal guidance for automated vehicles Wildlife monitoring technologies Cooperative Au...

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...

Visit the TRB Annual Meeting Online (AMOnline) to locate papers, presentation slides, and posters from the 2017, 2018, and 2019 TRB Annual Meetings. This portal allows users to find all available papers and visual aids by session, presentation or paper number, author, subject area, and more. TRB is not providing the Compendium of Papers in advance of the meeting. Please use this online resource...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) has released a request for proposals to develop content for three issues of a new ACRP periodical, which will have the latest content and updates regarding select transformative technologies at airports. Proposals are due January 29, 2019.

Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS) is hosting an event on January 9, 2019 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM with TRB Executive Director, Neil Pedersen, and TRB staff officers who will describe ways to effectively navigate the TRB Annual Meeting. Register in advance. The event will take place at the Keck Center of the National Academies, 500 Fifth Street NW, Washington, D.C. 

TRB is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and follows the NASEM guidelines in preventing discrimination, harassment, and bullying of participants at NASEM events, including TRB meetings and conferences. We encourage you to review this statement, as we strive to maintain a professional and cordial environment for anyone associated with TRB activities.

The Institute of Transport Studies at Monash University has released the latest issue of its bimonthly newsletter, which is designed to highlight recently added items to the World Transit Research database. This edition features research on planning, operations, technology, and more.

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 ...

The next TRB E-Newsletter will be sent on January 2, 2019.

TRB's Behavioral Traffic Safety Cooperative Research Program (BTSCRP) has released a request for proposals to develop a research agenda for teen driver behavioral safety countermeasures using the Second Strategic Highway Research Program's Naturalistic Driving Study data. Proposals are due February 7, 2019.

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has released a request for proposals to determine how frequently safety performance functions (SPFs), SPF adjustment factors, and severity distribution functions should be updated and develop guidance for maintaining and updating existing and future functions and factors. Proposals are due January 31, 2019.

TRB is sponsoring the 9th International Visualization in Transportation Symposium: Visualization in Action on November, 5-6, 2019 in Washington, D.C. Registration is now open. The symposium theme is Visualization in Action. Today’s visualization techniques can reshape the way transportation agencies and companies approach problem solving, make decisions, and communicate with others. The sy...

The Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota has released a report that determines whether some of the limitations of Bridge Weigh-in-Motion (BWIM) systems may be overcome by enriching their datasets. These limitations include poor accuracy with multiple vehicle passage, and inability to accurately capture the passage of a vehicle moving at variable speeds. BWIM systems ...

The Iowa Department of Transportation has released a report that explores potential applications of expanded maintenance data and traffic data. This report focuses on using automated vehicle location and snowplow image capture technologies to examine winter weather events and their effects on crashes. These data resources have the potential to supplement existing efforts to monitor traffic, wea...

The U.S. Congressional Research Service has released a report that summarizes the newest version of the Geospatial Data Act (GDA). The GDA seeks to organize and manage geospatial data among federal agencies, local and state authorities, the private sector, and academia. The GDA has the potential to illuminate how each responsible agency budgets for its geospatial activities, which may allow Con...

The Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis has released a report that establishes a framework for long-distance data collection that redefines long-distance travel. Current travel demand models have not traditionally focused on long-distance travel patterns. The goal of this report is to update the existing planning framework to include long-distance travel...

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation has released the latest edition of its newsletter that highlights recent accomplishments and products from university transportation centers (UTCs). This edition features The University of Wyoming, a member of the Region 8 Mountain-Plains Consortium led by North Dakota State University. It...

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...

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has released the latest issue of its Safety Compass newsletter. This edition features information about: A tool for calibrating safety performance factors Online safety courses Reducing rural roadway departures

TRB's first committee meeting for the Mobility as a Service Study on December 17, 2018 will provide an opportunity for members of the public to inform the research process of this study. Register in advance to join the meeting remotely from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM ET. Questions from the audience will be answered during specified parts of the program. Speakers include representatives from the U.S. Fe...

TRB's first committee meeting for the Mobility as a Service Study on December 17, 2018 will provide an opportunity for members of the public to inform the research process of this study. Register in advance to join the meeting remotely from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM ET. Questions from the audience will be answered during specified parts of the program. Speakers include the TRB staff and committee re...

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released a report that validates the performance of inductive loop signature technology with ground truth vehicle classification data in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. Using loop signatures may obtain important transportation data, such as travel time, density, partial dynamic origin/destination demand, lane change, and vehicle classification d...

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 National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has released a request for proposals to develop a field guide on how to best use census data to address transportation issues. Proposals are due February 7, 2019.