Roundabouts have seen unprecedented growth across the United States, from just a handful a decade ago to more than 2,000 and counting. National guidance had to keep pace with the needs of states and communities planning and implementing roundabouts, and NCHRP took a lead role.

TRB’s Conference Proceedings on the Web 5: Research on the Health and Wellness of Commercial Truck and Bus Drivers: Summary of an International Conference is the proceedings of a November 2010 conference held in Baltimore, Maryland. The proceedings highlight and document what transpired at the conference; summarize noteworthy issues and gaps in knowledge identified at the conference; and descri...

TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 15: Dedicated Revenue Mechanisms for Freight Transportation Investment explores methods that might be used to raise revenue to support government investment in freight transportation facilities, primarily for highway transportation. The report assesses revenue-generating mechanisms such as motor-vehicle fuel tax surcharges, vehi...

In regions across the nation, bridge engineers know that the next major seismic event is coming—maybe tomorrow, maybe centuries from now. DOTs have the critical charge of designing for earthquakes and protecting the lives of travelers.

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2265 consists of 28 papers that explore reducing side collisions of transit buses, injury risk in collisions involving buses, prevention of tractor–semitrailer rollovers, large-truck transportation alternatives, evaluating truck safety systems, factors associated with motorcycle crashes, and severity of moto...

TRB’s Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Synthesis 24: Distracted Driving Countermeasures for Commercial Vehicles examines driving distractions, as well as any protective (safety-enhancing) effects of particular devices. Distracted driving for commercial drivers is defined as attending to tasks not directly related to operating the vehicle.

TRB’s Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Synthesis 22: Safety Management in Small Motor Carriers explores small motor carriers' strengths and weaknesses in safety management, and identifies potentially effective safety practices.

TRB’s Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Synthesis 23: Operator Drug- and Alcohol-Testing Across Modes explores practices used to deter drug and alcohol use among operators within the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) regulated community. The report includes a brief history of the transportation workplace drug- and alcohol-testing program, the general approach,...

TRB’s Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Synthesis 21: Driver Selection Tests and Measurement synthesizes information on the use of tests, measurements, and other assessment methods used by commercial truck and bus companies in the driver selection process. The report also identifies and describes driver selection methods and instruments and their potential usefulness in...

TRB’s Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Research Results Digest 9: A Status Report describes the progress and status of the Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP). CTBSSP is a cooperative research program sponsored by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and administered by the Transportation Research Board. The program was authori...

TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Research Results Digest 3, NCFRP: A Status Report is a staff digest of the progress and status of the program. The NCFRP is a cooperative research program sponsored by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) and administered by the Transportation Research Board. The program was authorized in 2005 with the passage o...

TRB’s Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Synthesis 20: Potential Safety Benefits of Motor Carrier Operational Efficiencies addresses risk avoidance strategies and highlights their use and perceived safety effects. The report is designed to assist motor carriers in deploying their vehicles in ways that may minimize crash risk.

TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) and National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) have jointly released NCFRP Web-Only Document 3/NCHRP Web-Only Document 185: Truck Tolling: Understanding Industry Tradeoffs When Using or Avoiding Toll Facilities. The report explores the value that shippers, trucking companies, and truck drivers seek from toll roads.

TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) and National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) have jointly released NCFRP Web-Only Document 3/NCHRP Web-Only Document 185: Truck Tolling: Understanding Industry Tradeoffs When Using or Avoiding Toll Facilities. The report explores the value that shippers, trucking companies, and truck drivers seek from toll roads.

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 94: Innovative Rural Transit Services highlights transit and rural intercity bus service responses to changing rural community transportation needs. The report includes an emphasis on the innovative and/or entrepreneurial spirit, the innovator, and the conditions required for innovation.

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Research Results Digest 2: Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program: A Status Report provides an update on the industry-driven, applied research program that develops near-term, practical solutions to improve the information used in managing risk associated with the transportation of hazardous materials.

TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 12: Framework and Tools for Estimating Benefits of Specific Freight Network Investments provides a framework and tools designed to help estimate the private and public benefits of potential freight infrastructure investments. The evaluation framework is intended to assist public planning and decision-making processes regard...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 362: Review of Mexican Experience with the Regulation of Large Commercial Motor Vehicles reviews and summarizes the Mexican experience with changes in truck size and weight limits. The report also evaluates the potential applicability to size and weight limits in the United States.

TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 6: Impacts of Public Policy on the Freight Transportation System describes the numerous ways that government policy decisions can affect the freight system and, in turn, how understanding the differing concerns and priorities of governments is crucial to better consideration of the potential impacts of public policy.  The r...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 147: Toolkit for Estimating Demand for Rural Intercity Bus Services provides a sketch-planning guide and supporting CD-ROM–based tools that can be used to forecast demand for rural intercity bus services. The tools use several methods to estimate demand, and the report describes key considerations when estimating such demand. The CD-ROM i...

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Report 6: Feasibility of a Consolidated Security Credential for Persons Who Transport Hazardous Materials discusses the feasibility of consolidating several existing security credentials, which are necessary under current regulations and policies, into one credential for all transportation modes. The report evaluates the credentiali...

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Report 3: Guidebook for Conducting Local Hazardous Materials Commodity Flow Studies is designed to support risk assessment, emergency response preparedness, resource allocation, and analyses of hazardous commodity flows across jurisdictions. The guidebook updates the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Guidance for Conducting Hazard...

TRB’s Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Synthesis 19: Effects of Psychoactive Chemicals on Commercial Driver Health and Performance: Stimulants, Hypnotics, Nutritional, and Other Supplements identifies available information and research gaps relating to the use of chemical substances by commercial drivers and is intended to provide up-to-date information to inform decis...

TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 11: Truck Drayage Productivity Guide is designed to help improve drayage productivity and capacity while reducing emissions, costs, and port-area congestion at deepwater ports. The guide includes suggestions designed to help shippers, receivers, draymen, marine terminal operators, ocean carriers, and port authorities address ine...

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Report 4: Emerging Technologies Applicable to Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety and Security explores near-term (less than 5 years) and longer-term (5–10 years) technologies that are candidates for enhancing the safety and security of hazardous materials transportation for use by shippers, carriers, emergency responders, or ...

TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 10: Performance Measures for Freight Transportation explores a set of measures to gauge the performance of the freight transportation system. The measures are presented in the form of a freight system report card, which reports information in three formats, each increasingly detailed, to serve the needs of a wide variety of user...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2194 contains 13 papers that explore hours of service and truck crash risk, freeway truck lane restriction and differential speed limits, the condition of trucks and their crash involvement, noise level, whole-body vibration and air quality inside cabs of heavy-duty diesel trucks, type of motor carrier and d...

TRB’s Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Research Results Digest 8: A Status Report describes the progress and status of the Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP). CTBSSP is a cooperative research program sponsored by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and administered by the Transportation Research Board. The program was authori...

TRB Electronic Circular E-C146: Trucking 101: An Industry Primer is designed to provide a basic picture of the structure of the U.S. trucking industry for public officials, policy makers, engineers, administrators, planners, academic researchers, journalists, and anyone who needs to think about issues affecting, or affected by, trucking. The report emphasizes that many of the distinct parts of ...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2168 includes 16 papers that explore the discrete berth-scheduling problem; multimodal network analysis and vulnerability assessment; location choice model for logistic firms; agent-based combined traffic simulation of private cars and commercial vehicles; and shipper willingness to pay to increase environme...