What's New in Law

We're happy to note that more than a third of President Joe Biden's appointees to key U.S. Department of Transportation leadership positions have volunteered their service to or have engaged with TRB in the past. See the full list of appointees.

TRB is pleased to announce the third episode of our new podcast, Transportation Explorers. The series gives voice to the many volunteers of the Transportation Research Board and other leading transportation experts. The co-hosts explore the latest and most critical research and innovations in transportation. In this episode, Susan Shaheen of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the Univer...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has undeniably changed our normal routines and established practices. These changes, along with ongoing advancements in technology, may present opportunities to offer better mobility options to a wider segment of the American population than ever before. If carefully combined with public transit and substantially scaled up, the concept of offering con...

The November-December 2020 issue of TR News —with a cover feature on the development of a Recycled Material Web Map—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 "Living with Transformational Technologies and Other Surprises," "Asphalt Recycling: History of Recycled M...

The January 2021 TRB Annual Meeting is generating headlines from press and participants alike. Catch up on your reading, watching, and listening!       Video   Kittelson & Associates, Inc. TRB 2021 - Conversation with Kittelson Cambridge Systematics TRB 100th Anniversary Celebration         Podcast AASHTO's ETAP Podcast Environmental Topics at the Vir...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to (1) develop a register of risks to state and local transportation agencies and their constituents posed by the emerging technologies of Connected and Automated vehicles, electric vehicles, Mobility on Demand/Mobility as a Service, and Advanced Air Mobility, (2) recommend approaches agencies can use...

Download the TRB Annual Meeting mobile app before the 100th Annual Meeting. To download the app, search “TRB 2021” in the Apple Store or Google Play. When opening the app for the first time, enter the same email address used to register for the Annual Meeting to unlock the app. The app provides registered attendees with the ability to search the full schedule of events, program participants, ex...

Resource pages for the 2021 TRB Annual Meeting are available. Visit this page for information about how to participate in the virtual meeting , the the online program , mobile app  (available in late December), and other information . The TRB 100th Annual Meeting will be conducted as a virtual event  throughout January 2021. Exact dates are January 5-8, 11-15, 21-22, and 25-29. Regis...

TRB is pleased to announce the second episode of our new podcast, Transportation Explorers. The series gives voice to the many volunteers of the Transportation Research Board and other leading transportation experts. The co-hosts explore the latest and most critical research and innovations in transportation. In this episode, Katie Turnbull of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute discusse...

TRB thanks its  2021 Annual Meeting exhibitors . Please make sure to schedule time to visit some of the more than 130 virtual exhibits to learn about the goods, services, and potential solutions that are available to help address changes you are facing. Exhibit Hours “Live” Hours : Exhibits will be listed as “live” from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM Eastern Time each day, during the dates of the TRB...

TCRP is seeking panel nominations for the approved FY 2021 research projects . Descriptions are available of FY 2021 projects for which RFPs are expected to be issued. Please nominate yourself or other candidates to serve on the expert panels of these research projects online at MyTRB . These panels will develop requests for proposals, select contractors, and review draft deliverables. Nominati...

Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx discusses growing up in Charlotte, N.C., where freeways that were essentially walls cut his neighborhood off from the rest of the world. Neighborhoods like this – “on the other side of the tracks” – all over the country saw their economic values decrease without any real restitution. Foxx talks about how the lessons of the past can inform how we...

The Transportation Research Board thanks its 2021 TRB 100th Annual Meeting Patrons who are showing their support for transportation research and innovation, and aiding TRB in its mission to provide leadership in transportation innovation and progress through research and information exchange. TRB's 100th Annual Meeting program will cover all transportation modes, addressing topics of interest t...

TRB is pleased to announce our new podcast, Transportation Explorers. The series gives voice to the many volunteers of the Transportation Research Board and other leading transportation experts. The co-hosts explore the latest and most critical research and innovations in transportation. Listen to the first episode, with former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx discussing equity iss...

Are you curious about what a virtual TRB Annual Meeting might look like? Hear from TRB Executive Director Neil Pedersen, TRB Technical Activities Division Director Ann Brach, and TRB volunteer Sandra Larson of Stanley Consultants. From sessions to keynotes and everything in between, they give you the highlights of what's coming throughout January 2021. The meeting's exact dates are January 5-8,...

The September–October 2020 issue of TRB's magazine is now available in full online. Themed “Embracing the Future,” the issue celebrates TRB’s centennial with articles forecasting the future of transportation. Authors present outlooks that are multimodal, creative, diverse, inclusive, and thought-provoking, offering a pause point for transportation researchers, policy makers, and practitioners a...

The year 2020’s raging coronavirus pandemic and reckoning with long-standing racial injustice led to widespread disruption and suffering, social unrest, and renewed calls for an accounting of our fragmented public health system and troubled history of racial inequity. The crises of 2020 transcend transportation yet also raise fundamental questions for it along with other sectors of our society ...

The 2020 Annual Report summarizes TRB’s accomplishments in each of its major program areas and how TRB has served the nation and the global transportation professional community throughout 2020. TRB provides leadership in transportation improvements and innovation through trusted, timely, impartial, and evidence-based information exchange, research, and advice regarding all modes of transportat...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) is seeking potential synthesis study topics for the 2021 TCRP Synthesis Program. TCRP will fund seven (7) new synthesis topics. Anyone may propose topics. A synthesis study documents current practice and experience for specific public transportation topics.   The following factors are considered in the selection process for new topics. The ...

The TRB Minority Student Fellows Program, now in its twelfth year, promotes minority participation in transportation and in TRB. The program welcomes 25 students from 17 minority-serving institutions. Students in this cohort represent a range of engineering, planning, and social science majors and will present their research on a similar range of topics. Please stop by their presentations to of...

Hello Russell,   Please assign a placeholder URL for NCHRP Research Report 915: Relationship Between Erodibility and Properties of Soils.   We need this so that an Excel spreadsheet that will accompany the report can direct readers to the Inquiry Operation Manual for the spreadsheet, which is included in the report.   Thanks,   Janet   Janet McNaughton Senior Editor Co...

On behalf of the TRB Executive Committee, the thousands of volunteers involved in TRB committees and research panels, and the TRB staff, we are pleased to report on the work done in 2020, the 100th year of the Transportation Research Board. The past year has been one of unprecedented challenges, but also one of major accomplishments as evidenced in our 2020 Annual Report . This year has demons...

Christopher Blasie, Emerging Technology Leader, Collins Aerospace let us know that "TRB has really opened my mind to explore new horizons in the transportation industry." Thank you Christopher for participating in TRB's Centennial Celebration and to everyone else that has made submissions to the "Tell Us 'Our' Story" centennial activity. To read all the responses to December's question visit th...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to evaluate and present viable paths and strategies for implementing road usage charging at the state, multi-state, and regional levels that generate revenues that could supplement, and/or may ultimately replace, motor fuel taxes as the primary funding source for surface transportation. Proposals are ...

In a normal year, ITS America hosts a member cocktail reception one evening during the TRB Annual Meeting. Since the in-person meeting has gone virtual next month, the organization used part of what it budgets for the TRBAM event instead as a contribution to the TRB Minority Student Fellows Program . The TRB program seeks to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the transportati...

TRB turns 100 on November 11, 2020. You are invited to join your colleagues listed below who have contributed to the TRB Century Club to support activities that will mark the anniversary; promote the value of transportation research; and celebrate the achievements of TRB’s volunteers, sponsors, affiliates, and staff. Details on the Century Club and a link to contribute is available at https://...

U.S. airports that receive assistance from the federal government are required to comply with a number of obligations imposed by federal law. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Legal Research Digest 21: Compilation of DOT and FAA Airport Legal Determinations and Opinion Letters as of December 31, 2018 covers legal matters that include the reasonableness of contractual terms, le...

At TRB's 100th Annual Meeting in January 2021, more than 20 Spotlight Sessions will focus on this year's theme, "Launching a New Century of Mobility and Quality of Life." Specific sessions about equity in transportation will focus on: women and gender in transportation, mobility for older adults and people with disabilities, exploring the impacts of overpolicing BIPOC mobility in the U.S., Nati...

TRB is requesting that presentations for the virtual Annual Meeting, to be held in January 2021, be pre-recorded. Information on how to pre-record can be found here . The deadline for making an appointment to record with our Virtual Platform vendor is December 28. Presenters can also pre-record themselves and upload their videos to the MyTRB website. All recordings must be provided by January 2...

Sidewalks are a much more complicated element of our transportation networks than they seem. Pedestrian facilities can range from sidewalks to ramps, to signals, to off-road hiking trails, and even infrastructure that connects to transit stops or shared bikes or scooter services. Over the past decade, state departments of transportation (DOTs) have worked in response to a federal U.S. DOT poli...