What's New in Data and Information Technology

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R) is seeking a Supervisory Librarian (Managing Director of the National Transportation Library). This position is part of OST-R’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The NTL, established under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, is responsible for collaborating with federal and other transportation librarie...

The use of performance measures and data informs transportation decision making. TRB will conduct a webinar on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM Eastern that will provide an overview of Transportation Research Circular E-C263: Conference on Performance and Data in Transportation Decision Making . The e-Circular summarizes a conference from September 2019 that brought together ...

Convened by Transportation Research Board, the Geospatial Acquisition Technologies in Design and Construction Summer Committee Meeting will be held online August 4-6, 2020. Topics include photogrammetric technology, importance of accurate geospatial mapping — especially considering autonomous vehicles — new methods in survey techniques and computations, LiDAR and other existing and emerging tec...

TRB standing committees will be reviewing submissions for the 2021 TRB Annual Meeting and potential publication in the Transportation Research Record (TRR). We welcome submissions on all modes of transportation and relevant transportation-related research. Because of committee restructuring, individual committees will not be issuing Calls for Paper this year. However, in addition to the general...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to complete the development and implementation of the Intercity Bus Atlas (ICBA) as an ongoing, comprehensive and publicly available inventory of intercity bus services. In particular, research is needed to populate the ICBA with General Transit Feed Specification data. Proposals are due August 20, 20...

The TRB Technical Activities Division’s Standing Committee on Public Involvement in Transportation is holding its 14th annual John and Jane Q. Public Communications Contest. TRB seeks best practices in successfully communicating with John and Jane Q. Public during disruptive, crisis situations that affect the transportation industry. The John and Jane Q. Public Communications contest recog...

The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Web-Only Document 270: Developing a Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research  provides guidance for state departments of transportation (DOTs) to help them meet the requirements of the U.S. DOT Public Access Plan requiring preservation of the products of all federally fund...

Since the passage of the Federal-Aid Road Act in 1916, all levels of government have been using transportation surveys to determine both existing and future transportation needs. Travel surveys have been and continue to be the basis for transportation investment decisions. With the advent of Big Data, changing dynamics of travel and time use, transformational mobility alternatives (e.g., transp...

Beginning with the first Planning Applications Conference in April 1987, transportation planners, engineers, and researchers from the public sector, private sector, and academia have gathered every two years to showcase practice-ready planning applications at every level of the transportation planning process. After the success of the first conference, the Conference Steering Committee was invi...

Winnie Okello, Senior Civil Engineer, told TRB that her "vision for TRB 100 years from now is that we will have transitioned to better more efficient and accessible modes of transportation. Modes that also take into consideration the complex utility needs of its users. The more technologically advanced society becomes the greater the desire for community and human connection; I hope we as trans...

To accelerate automated vehicle (AV) technology deployment, practitioners must set, measure, and monitor key AV safety and performance goals. TRB will conduct a webinar on Tuesday, July 14, 2020 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Eastern that will explore how to set and measure these goals to ensure public safety. Presenters will share current practices, the progress already made with setting goals for A...

Connected and Autonomous Plant: Roadmap to 2035 , released by Highways England

The latest issue of the HEP research quarterly newsletter , released by U.S. Federal Highway Administration

Analysis of the Railroad-Highway Grade Crossing Rules , released by the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Improving Transportation Information Resilience: Error Estimation for Networked Sensor Data , released by the National Center for Sustainable Transportation at University of California, Davis

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to provide staff at Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah state DOTs with the training and support needed to implement the NCHRP Research Report 905: Measuring the Effectiveness of Public Involvement in Transportation Planning and Project Development . These state DOTs will use toolkit to:...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals encourage dissemination and application of the principles and practices presented in NCHRP Report 814: Data to Support Transportation Agency Business Needs: A Self-Assessment Guide . This will be done by (1) developing a plan to deliver professional services support for selected agencies undertaking t...

As in many industries, transportation is facing significant challenges as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Through the ongoing and rapidly changing phases of the pandemic, TRB is giving researchers, practitioners, and experts opportunities to share their insights with a wider audience through our webinars, Zoom meetings, blog articles, social media, and other platforms w...

Even before the advent of Intelligent Transportation Systems, the Standing Technical Committee on Highway Traffic Monitoring was identifying best practices, gaps, and research needs related to traffic monitoring programs. Initially established as a Weigh-in-Motion Task Force in 1985, it transitioned to a standing committee in 1988. The mission of the Highway Traffic Monitoring Committee is to p...

Create or update your MyTRB profile  now if you will be a credited author of a paper submitted for presentation or for inclusion in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board . Having up-to-date profile information in the MyTRB system will ensure that you’ll have a smooth paper-submission process. If you are the designated corresponding author for a pa...

Response of Autonomous Vehicles to Emergency Response Vehicles (RAVEV) , released by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

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...

The latest version of the Fostering Multimodal Connectivity Newsletter , released by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration

The latest issue of Research and Technology (R&T) Now , released by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration

TRB's National Highway Cooperative Research Program (NCHRP) has issued an invitation for letters of interest from those wishing to be considered as a principal investigator for one or more of the 19 new NCHRP synthesis topics. Letters of Interest must be submitted through the Letters of Interest Submission Portal by August 27, 2020. For the list of new synthesis topics and for information for p...

Blockchain has evolved into a technology with the potential to transform a range of industries by securing the exchange of privacy, establishing provenance, facilitating data sharing, and creating value through transactions in completely new, safe, and efficient ways. It has numerous relevant applications for airport operations, including managing challenges associated with coronavirus disease ...

In a video submitted in response to TRB's "Tell Us 'Our' Story" centennial activity, Michael Morris, Director of Transportation, North Central Texas Council of Governments notes that TRB's centennial is an opportunity to "celebrate the accomplishments of TRB...and help us understand where we should go and how we should get there in the next 100 years."  Thank you Michael! Michael's video i...

The fully grouted method of installing piezometers is increasingly popular, but it doesn’t work in every case. TRB hosted a webinar on Wednesday, July 8, 2020 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM Eastern to provide critical information regarding the most effective piezometer installations for the applications at hand. It focused on which factors to consider when deciding on a fully grouted instal...

TRB is committed to holding its 100th Annual Meeting in January 2021. We are closely monitoring the evolving situation related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and its potential impacts on the meeting. We are evaluating how to hold the meeting in a way that continues the important convening value and ensures the health and safety of everyone involved in the event, including whethe...

With increased connectivity between vehicles, sensors, systems, shared-use transportation, and mobile devices, unexpected and unparalleled amounts of data are being added to the transportation domain at a rapid rate, and these data are too large, too varied in nature, and will change too quickly to be handled by the traditional database management systems of most transportation agencies. The TR...