What's New in Public Transportation

Newest podcast episode , released by Monash University in Australia

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R) is seeking a Supervisory Librarian (Managing Director of the National Transportation Library). This position is part of OST-R’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The NTL, established under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, is responsible for collaborating with federal and other transportation librarie...

Transportation agencies that manage federally funded programs and projects are responsible for ensuring that their plans, programs, policies, services, and investments benefit everyone in their jurisdictions equitably. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Research Report 214: Equity Analysis in Regional Transportation Planning Processes, Volume 1: Guide is designed to help Metrop...

TRB standing committees will be reviewing submissions for the 2021 TRB Annual Meeting and potential publication in the Transportation Research Record (TRR). We welcome submissions on all modes of transportation and relevant transportation-related research. Because of committee restructuring, individual committees will not be issuing Calls for Paper this year. However, in addition to the general...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to complete the development and implementation of the Intercity Bus Atlas (ICBA) as an ongoing, comprehensive and publicly available inventory of intercity bus services. In particular, research is needed to populate the ICBA with General Transit Feed Specification data. Proposals are due August 20, 20...

The TRB Technical Activities Division’s Standing Committee on Public Involvement in Transportation is holding its 14th annual John and Jane Q. Public Communications Contest. TRB seeks best practices in successfully communicating with John and Jane Q. Public during disruptive, crisis situations that affect the transportation industry. The John and Jane Q. Public Communications contest recog...

Are you curious about who rides public transit, when they ride it, and what factors contribute to increasing ridership? TRB is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM Eastern that will explore public transit ridership trends. The presenter will discuss bus and rail services in urban and suburban areas, focusing on what has changed in the past several years. She w...

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...

Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox Demonstration: Fair Value Commuting, Final Report , released by the U.S. Federal Transit Administration

Status of Public Transit in Ohio , released by the Ohio Department of Transportation

The importance of safety cannot be overstated and requires continued shifts in the approach to safety management within the public transportation industry. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's pre-publication of TCRP Research Report 218: Characteristics and Elements of Non-Punitive Employee Safety Reporting Systems for Public Transportation compiles the best practices used in non-puni...

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...

Cleaning and Disinfecting Transit Vehicles and Facilities During a Contagious Virus Pandemic , released by The American Public Transportation Association (APTA)

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...

Frequently Asked Questions from FTA Grantees Regarding Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) , released by the U.S. Federal Transit Administration

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...

Thousands of Native American women and girls disappear or are killed each year. These women and girls vanish from tribal lands, rural communities, and cities with no official accounting. TRB will conduct a webinar on Wednesday, July 29, 2020 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM Eastern that will explore the unique mobility patterns of Native Americans as they travel from rural tribal territories to urban c...

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 zero‐emission bus (ZEB) market, including Battery Electric Buses and Fuel Cell Electric Buses, has seen significant growth in recent years. ZEBs do not rely on fossil fuels for operation and have zero harmful tailpipe emissions, improving local air quality. The increase in market interest has also helped decrease product pricing. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's pre-publicatio...

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.

Considering diversity issues in corporate recruitment of CEOs is the focus of the TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Report 148: Practical Resources for Recruiting Minorities for Chief Executive Officers at Public Transportation Agencies . The report provides strategies to recruit minorities for CEO positions and offers resources to assist governing boards of public transportation ...

States and localities are beginning to recognize and act on the connection between health and transportation. TRB hosted a webinar on Monday, June 29, 2020 from 2:00 to 3:00 PM Eastern that discussed how to leverage transportation projects to support positive health outcomes. New opportunities are developing within transportation agencies to better integrate public health concepts into transpor...

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...

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://...

Measuring the Economic Benefits of Rural and Small Urban Transit Services in Greater Minnesota , released by the Minnesota Department of Transportation

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...

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are hosting Best Safety and Hygiene Practices for Public Workspaces in COVID-19 on June 23, 2020 from 2:00 to 3:00 PM Eastern. This webinar will explore the challenges of operating workplaces with a public interaction component in the COVID-19 environment. These facilities are complex environments and include museums, cafeterias, gif...