What's New in Public Transportation

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 Transit Administration has released their monthly newsletter about the latest transit safety issues. This edition features information about a bus safety review, certification of rail transit State Safety Oversight (SSO) programs, and the next SSO quarterly call.

TRB is co-sponsoring the 18th IRF World Road Meeting 2017 on November 14-17, 2017 in New Delhi, India. The conference provides an outlet for sharing cutting-edge research, promising practices, and experiences from across the world and is intended to be a premier knowledge event for discussing important issues facing the road, transport and mobility sectors. The exhibition is intended to provide...

The Transportation Research Board is seeking nominations for the Sharon D. Banks Award for Humanitarian Leadership in Transportation . This TRB award, which recognizes excellence in people-oriented initiatives throughout transportation, was inaugurated in 2002 and is presented biennially. The next presentation of the award will be made during the Chairman’s Luncheon on January 10 2018, during t...

TRB is accepting papers for consideration as part of the program for the 97th TRB Annual Meeting , January 7–11, 2018, in Washington, D.C., and for publication in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (TRR) . All papers—whether for presentation at the 2018 TRB Annual Meeting or publication in the TRR —must be submitted in PDF format directly to  T...

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 Brookings Institution has released a handbook that provides guidance on how cities can become stronger by identifying and leveraging innovation districts, which are areas that economic development is clustered and accessible to all. These districts also offer options for active transportation, multimodal transportation, and accessibility to all parts of the district.

The Mineta Transportation Institute San Jose State University has released a report that summarizes a national public opinion poll about tax options for raising federal transportation revenues, with a focus on public transit. The tax options respondents were queried on were variations on raising the federal gas tax rate, creating a new mileage tax, and creating a new federal sales tax.

Monash University’s Institute of Transport Studies has released the latest issue of its bimonthly newsletter that is designed to highlight recently added items to the World Transit Research database.

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...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Research Report 191: Public Transportation Guidebook for Small- and Medium-Sized Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) serves as a resource to explore, evaluate, initiate, plan, and implement small- and medium-sized public-private partnership (P3) initiatives. The guidebook addresses why and when to consider P3s for small- and medium-sized initiativ...

TRB has released its requirements for submitting papers for presentation at the 2018 TRB Annual Meeting and/or publication in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board . This guide covers the organization and formatting of manuscripts for peer review and for publication, as well as instructions for submission. Papers that do not follow the guidelines will ...

This is the perfect time for your organization to show its support for transportation research and innovation by becoming a 2018 Annual Meeting Patron. Signing up now will provide your company maximum exposure and ensure it can take full advantage of all 2018 TRB Annual Meeting Patron benefits. To become an Annual Meeting Patron visit the online patron sales site or contact Patrice Davenport at...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Research Report 192: Decision-Making Toolbox to Plan and Manage Park-and-Ride Facilities for Public Transportation: Guidebook on Planning and Managing Park-and-Ride provides approaches to managing park-and-ride facilities, from developing the park-and-ride concept for a community to day-to-day management. Key themes include design, implementatio...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Web-Only Document 69: Decision-Making Toolbox to Plan and Manage Park-and-Ride Facilities for Public Transportation: Research Report and Transit Agency Case Studies supplements TCRP  Research Report 192 : Decision-Making Toolbox to Plan and Manage Park-and-Ride Facilities for Public Transportation: Guidebook on Planning and Managing Park-an...

Catherine T. Lawson, director of the Albany Visualization and Informatics Lab (AVAIL) at the State University of New York at Albany, is a featured volunteer in the September-October 2016 edition of the TR News . Dr. Lawson builds web-based tool suites for multimodal analysis, and her work has included a bus transit modeling suite for New Jersey Transit and the Metropolitan Transit Authority in ...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) has issued a request for proposals to develop a guidebook to help communities improve transportation to health care. The guidebook should include a research plan that outlines future research priorities that explore how transportation barriers affect patient health outcomes; technology used to facilitate transportation access to health care serv...

The International Transport Forum has released a report that investigates the convergence of public transportation and mobility solutions, such as ride services, car- and bicycle-sharing, app-enabled on-demand micro-bus services, and platforms that connect app-using travelers and drivers. The research examines the role of public authorities in ensuring this convergence supports commercial innov...

The latest edition of Research Pays Off explores how the Illinois Tollway has implemented research findings over the past 12 years, producing new standards and policies for pavements, materials, and recycling. The tollway recently reviewed the documentation of construction costs and found that the adoption of more innovative and sustainable material specifications saved an estimated $218.5 mill...

TRB conducted a webinar on Wednesday, June 7, 2017, from 2:00PM to 3:30PM ET that that features research from the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP)’s Report 190 : Guide to Value Capture Financing for Public Transportation Projects, and Report 191 : Public Transportation Guidebook for Small- and Medium-sized Public-Private Partnership (P3) Initiatives. Presenters discussed the best pra...

The U.S. Alternative Fuels Data Center of the U.S. Department of Energy has released a report that presents the results of the American Fuel Cell Bus Project, a demonstration of fuel cell electric buses (FCEB). The research compares the FCEB performance to that of conventional technology and tracks progress over time toward meeting the technical targets set by U.S. Department of Energy and the ...

TRB recorded a series of videos in April 2017 that examines how transit agencies are using the increasing amounts of data they collect to more effectively manage their operations and improve system performance. The videos present several case studies that explain the benefits from integrating high quality data management practices across departments; sharing important system information interna...

The World Bank has released a report that develops a methodology called the 3 Value (3V) Framework, which outlines a typology to facilitate transit-oriented development implementation at the metropolitan and urban scale in various contexts. The report provides examples of approaches taken by cities to align their economic, land use, and transport planning to generate jobs and high value.

The Mineta Transportation Institute at San José State University has released a report that uses a level of traffic stress (LTS) criteria to determine how the streets in selected study areas functioned for transportation modes such as bicycles, pedestrians, and bus transit. The research measures the quality and extent of the transit service area using a total travel time metric over the LTS net...

A featured article in the March-April 2017 issue of the TR News highlights photos from the 96th TRB Annual Meeting, January 8-12, 2017. The article features photographs of sessions, workshops, committee meetings, and awards. Bruce M. Smith, Apperson Crump PLC, and General Counsel, Memphis Area Transit Authority, delivered the delivered the 2017 Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lecture on “Ethical I...

A featured article in the March-April 2017 issue of the TR News highlights photos from the 96th TRB Annual Meeting, January 8-12, 2017. The article features photographs of sessions, workshops, committee meetings, and awards. Bruce M. Smith, Apperson Crump PLC, and General Counsel, Memphis Area Transit Authority, delivered the delivered the 2017 Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lecture on “Ethical I...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 129: Managing Extreme Weather at Bus Stops documents current practices of transit systems to determine methods and procedures used for maintaining transit stops and associated infrastructure during and following such weather events. This synthesis provides a state-of-the-practice report on transit systems' management of extreme weather...

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has released a report that investigates the creation of a transportation system that utilizes existing smart card and near field communications technology to integrate access to bus, rail, carsharing, bikesharing, secure bicycle parking, shuttles, and vehicular parking. The research may streamline the commuting process and encourage e...

Create or update your MyTRB profile now if you will be a credited author of a paper submitted for presentation at the 2018 TRB Annual Meeting 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 corr...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Legal Research Digest 50: Public Transit Emergency Preparedness Against Ebola and Other Infectious Diseases: Legal Issues examines responses to infectious disease epidemics and identifies legal issues that may be confronted by transit agencies. It considers federal and state laws and available court decisions affecting transit agencies’ response...