What's New in Data and Information Technology

The latest of TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Ready Results summarizes nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods for assessing the condition of in-service post-tensioning and stay cable systems. Post-tensioned (PT) girder bridges and stay cable bridges pose a challenge to bridge inspectors because steel tendons used as the primary structural support in these bridges ar...

Edward Strocko, director of the Office of Spatial Analysis and Visualization at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), is a featured volunteer in the November-December 2016 edition of the TR News . He has overseen the migration and modernization of the BTS geographic information system web infrastructure, which allowed for an open data catalog of geospatial information. Additionally, Mr...

The California Department of Transportation has released a report that develops a quantile regression method for predicting future traffic flow at a signalized intersection by combining both historical and real-time data. The report includes the result of a case study in Los Angeles County, California.

The Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota has released a report that expands safety data research on roundabouts by relating the frequency of individual behaviors to specific design features of roundabouts. Previous research into this topic has identified behaviors that are associated with crashes in two-lane roundabouts, with yielding violations and turn violations g...

The Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin has released a report that proposes the development of an automated system to efficiently estimate the traffic volumes on uncounted links. Texas does not currently have an automated approach for estimating volumes for links without counts.

TRB is sponsoring a paper competition for Master's and Doctoral students to propose research projects using the SHRP 2 Naturalistic Driving Study Dataverse, the Naturalistic Driving Study data, and Roadway Information Database . Abstract submissions are due by October 29, 2017 The selected students will conduct their proposed analysis and develop a research paper. Selected students will also be...

The Centre for Automotive Safety Research at the University of Adelaide in Australia has released a report that summarizes the data of vehicle speeds from 2015 and compares the speeds to data dating back to 2002. These data are collected to assess the effects of speed reduction countermeasures and to monitor the speed behavior of South Australian motorists over time.

TRB is co-sponsoring the Forum on the Impact of Vehicle Technologies and Automation on Users on November 8-9, 2017, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The two-day Forum is designed to bring together representatives and experts from the research community, government, and industry to discuss and identify research needs and direction on the impact of vehicle technologies and automation for drivers and othe...

Act now to secure your exhibit space at the 2018 TRB Annual Meeting, January 7-11, 2018, in Washington, D.C. All indications are that attendance at the meeting will be the largest ever. Don't miss this opportunity to demonstrate your organization's support for transportation research and innovation, and to showcase your products and services to more than 13,000 transportation professionals. Mor...

A featured article in the May-June 2017 issue of the TR News examines how to develop appropriate evaluation frameworks that account for the integration of new technologies into the infrastructure in order to accurately value the current highway system. The TR News is TRB's bimonthly magazine featuring timely articles on innovative and state-of-the-art research and practice in all modes of trans...

TRB will conduct a webinar on Thursday, August 24, 2017 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM ET that provides users of TRB's Research in Progress (RiP) Database with the latest information about RiP's search and data entry interfaces. The RiP Database is a leading tool for transportation professionals to stay updated on current or recently-completed transportation research projects. In order to comply with ...

TRB conducted a webinar on Monday, August 21, 2017 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM ET that discussed two new tools designed by the Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Program: the LTPP Climate and LTPPBind Online tools. The LTPP Climate Tool offers users access to climate data derived from NASA’s Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) database for applications includi...

TRB is co-sponsoring the Traffic Control Device Challenge (TCDC), which aims to promote innovation and stimulate ideas in the traffic control devices area with a goal of improving operations and safety. The focus of this year’s TCDC includes research into ways to prevent wrong-way driving. Submissions are due October 1, 2017, and guidelines for participation are available online. If selected as...

TRB conducted a webinar on Tuesday, August 15, 2017 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM ET that highlighted three statewide approaches to planning for pedestrians and bicyclists that include innovative partnerships between state departments of transportation, state departments of health, and metropolitan planning organizations or local governments. The presenters discussed the approaches to collecting and ...

TRB will conduct a webinar on Tuesday, September 26, 2017 from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM ET that discusses research from National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Research Report 37 : Using Commodity Flow Survey Microdata and Other Establishment Data to Estimate the Generation of Freight, Freight Trips, and Service Trips: Guidebook. This webinar focuses on the use of Freight Trip Generatio...

TRB's E-Circular 223: Innovations in Freight Data summarize the presentations and discussions that took place at the Innovations in Freight Data Summit on May 17–18, 2017 in Irvine, California. The conference provided a forum to convene traditional freight-planning stakeholders with data and technology experts to discuss recent advances in the innovative application of these big and emerging da...

TRB is sponsoring the Innovations in Freight Data Workshop in Spring 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. For questions, contact Tom ...

TRB's inaugural Careers in Motion Networking Fair takes place on January 7, 2018 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center during the 2018 TRB Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The event provides an opportunity for prospective employers from a wide range of sectors and modes to meet with transportation professionals interested in working for their organizations. TR...

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has released the latest issue of its bi-monthly Innovator newsletter, which is designed to help advance widespread implementation of innovations and technologies in the highway community and help chronicle a nationwide movement to improve the way highways are built. Articles in this issue feature: Prefabricated Bridge in Arizona Permitting Process and Pro...

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released a report that investigates the potential effects of in-vehicle messages to communicate work zone events to the driver. The research was comprised of literature reviews, a survey, and a driving simulation. The purpose of the study is to understand how to mitigate risks for drivers and crews in work zones.

The May-June 2017 edition of the TR News explores the role of transportation in economic development. Articles feature information about benefit-cost analysis, freight production models, transportation satellite accounts, and right sizing strategies. The TR News is TRB's bimonthly magazine featuring timely articles on innovative and state-of-the-art research and practice in all modes of transpo...

The European Transport Safety Council has released a report that assesses the current state of data collection and reporting on work-related road safety (WRRS) collisions. This report also examines the legal frameworks for WRRS with examples of good practice from various countries. The purpose of the study is to offer policies that may reduce deaths and injuries from WRRS.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released its latest newsletter that features announcements, updates, and information about new publications and projects from the Transportation Secure Data Center (TSDC). This edition highlights TRB’s call for papers about Innovative Travel Survey Analyses Using Data from the TSDC; examples of recently completed publications that have leveraged TSDC...

TRB conducted a webinar on Monday, July 17, 2017 from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM ET that featured research from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP)’s Synthesis 501 : Pavement Management Systems: Putting Data to Work. This webinar examined current pavement management practices, focusing primarily on the types of systems, data analysis and performance modeling, and how data is used...

The California Department of Transportation has released a report that illustrates a system that was developed to provide relevant and timely information to first responders. The system allows responders to provide information on the incident to others in the organization. The purpose of the project is to migrate the current responder system to the latest computing and communications technologi...

TRB is sponsoring National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) Data for Transportation Applications Workshop May 15-16, 2018 in Washington, D.C. The NHTS allows analysis of daily travel by all modes, including characteristics of the persons traveling and their households, their vehicles, and their trips. This workshop, held every 5-6 years, explores how NHTS data has been used to support key transpo...

TRB is cosponsoring the 5th Florida Automated Vehicles (FAV) Summit on November 14-15, 2017 in Tampa, Florida. The Summit addresses technologies, operations, and policy issues surrounding autonomous vehicles, including public transportation issues. The summit explores activities undertaken by Florida and other state departments of transportation to create the climate for the implementation and ...

TRB's Transportation Research E-Circular 222: Automated Vehicles Symposium 2016 presents the proceedings from the Automated Vehicle Symposium (AVS) on July 19-21, 2016 in San Francisco, California. The 2016 AVS provided the opportunity for communication, collaboration, and information sharing on a wide range of topics, including potential public policy, safety and security, ethics, and equity c...

The International Transport Forum has released a report that examines how cities can manage the challenges of geographical scale and of transition to shared mobility services. The report explores how shared mobility can improve accessibility for users with impairments, and analyses the impacts of these services on the use of existing high-capacity public transportation and on access to jobs acr...

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released a report that explains development of two separate systems that can identify lane-specific shockwave or queuing conditions on the freeway, and use existing intelligent lane control signals to warn motorists upstream for rear-end collision prevention.