What's New in Planning and Forecasting

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...

The TRB 2021 Annual Meeting and TRB’s flagship journal, Transportation Research Record (TRR), invite research papers addressing Racial Inequity and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Paper submissions are due August 1, 2020. Racial Inequity Transportation can play a key role in addressing, as well as intensifying, the racial disparity that exists is in our society. We invite research that examines the tran...

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...

Extreme weather events and a changing climate increasingly boost costs to transportation agencies and to the traveling public. While Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are taking into account changing climate and extreme weather when making infrastructure decisions, they typically are not using a formal set of tools or cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) to address climate resilience because they ma...

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...

The original name of the Standing Technical Committee on Urban Freight Transportation was the Urban Goods Movement Committee when it was formed in 1975. Freight transportation planning in urban areas was not common at that time except in a few large urban areas. In the 1980s  the committee experienced an increased participation by the private sector in committee activities.  Also in t...

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...

The fixed-base operator (FBO) industry provides aeronautical services to a wide spectrum of aircraft operators at airports. The term FBO is defined by the FAA as “a business granted the right by the airport sponsor to operate on an airport and provide aeronautical services . . .” The most basic FBO offers its customers self-service fueling, as well as a set of core services such as use of hanga...

Building Transport Modelling Management and Capability in Australasian Road and Transport Agencies: Simulation and Intersection Models , released by Austroads

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) has issued a request for proposals to produce a legal research digest that includes lessons learned from transit agencies, sample provisions from third party contracts and intergovernmental agreements to address legal issues, links to transactional documents, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) guidance, instructive court or arbitration decisio...

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...

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 Transportation Research Board’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) has selected winners for its annual University Design Competition for Addressing Airport Needs . Now in its 14th year, the prestigious competition encourages students to design innovative and practical solutions to challenges at airports. Four first-place winners were chosen across four technical challenge areas: Ai...

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...

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is hosting a virtual workshop on June 23, 2020, titled “COVID-19 and Black Communities.” To register for this event, please visit the registration page . To learn more information, including the agenda, please visit the web page . The workshop will also be recorded for those unable to join live. Members of the Roundtable on Black Me...

With all the news justifiably vying for your attention, has the 2020 United States Census flown under your radar? Searching National Academies Press or the Transportation Research Record (TRR) for reports that cite Census or ACS data yields thousands of results. “Census data is the basic building block for transportation analysis,” says Krishnan Viswanathan of Cambridge Systematics and a TRB vo...

The Standing Technical Committee on Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems, formally recognized as a committee by TRB is interested in the design, collection, analysis, and reporting of transportation supply and demand data and the information systems needed to support the application of that data in urban and metropolitan transportation planning efforts. A challenge for the urban tr...

Next steps for practitioners to take. Impacts on managed lanes. Security planning. Travel behavior and telework trends. Those are just a handful of the resources now available on the COVID-19 transportation resources website available from TRB and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

According to Dr. Susan Shaheen, Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering; and Co-Director, Transportation Sustainability Research Center, UC Berkeley, "Transportation is arguably experiencing its most transformative evolution since the introduction of the automobile. Concerns about climate change, the global pandemic, an economic recession, and social equity are converging with dramatic te...

How will future vehicle Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) fleet scenarios affect emissions of criteria pollutants, mobile source air toxics, and greenhouse gases? TRB conducted a webinar on Tuesday, June 30 that discussed research on future vehicle fleet scenarios’ effect on emissions. Presenters reviewed literature and modeling analysis on U.S. ZEV adoption. The work provides insights encouraging ...

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 ...

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://...

The American Association of State Highway Officials, the Bureau of Public Roads, and the National Academy of Sciences signed the three-party agreement officially creating the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) on June 19, 1962. The states funded NCHRP through dedicating 4.5 percent of their federal aid designated by law for planning and research—also known as the 1½ percent f...

Roadway roundabouts are enjoying some time in the spotlight. Although many people associate them with merry old England, they are very much an American phenomenon as well. A recent TRB National Cooperative Highway Program (NCHRP) analysis on roundabouts focused on their use in crash prediction models and methods in Development of Roundabout Crash Prediction Models and Methods . By examining a v...

A video created as part of TRB’s Centennial celebration has been named the winner of three 2020 Telly Awards, which annually showcase the best work created within television and across all types of video production. The video, titled Your Future in Transportation , highlights the excitement, challenges, and fulfillment that those who select transportation as their career can expect to enjoy. Fo...

Slope failures pose serious risks for state transportation agencies and federal agencies that own or maintain roads, highways, and/or adjacent property. Many transportation agencies have adopted unstable slope management programs and standards as part of a larger effort to provide an efficient and effective methodology to prevent or control landslides or rockfalls. The TRB National Cooperative ...

Concrete bridges were included in the focus areas of the first bridge committee, the Committee on Bridges, established in 1949 in the Department of Highway Design of the Highway Research Board. The Committee on Bridges held its first meeting in May 1950 in Washington, D.C. At that meeting the committee developed plans for a session on highway structures for the January 1951 HRB Annual Meeting. ...