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...

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...

Transit reliability is critical to the operation and attractiveness of public transportation services. With the current unprecedented evolution in transportation services, including new competition from mobility service providers such as Uber and Lyft, improving transit reliability has taken on an even greater level of importance. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's pre-publication d...

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...

Transit agencies are beginning to harness the value of external data, but challenges remain. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's  TCRP Research Report 213: Data Sharing Guidance for Public Transit Agencies – Now and in the Future is designed to help agencies make decisions about sharing their data, including how to evaluate benefits, costs, and risks. Many transit agencies have ...

Stray current and stray current–induced corrosion remain concerns among transit agencies, electrolysis committees, utility owners, providers, and electric railway carriers across the globe. It is easier to implement stray current isolation, mitigation, and collection options on a newer transit system with proper foresight and planning by following the logical sequence of the design process than...

Demand-responsive transportation (DRT) can produce benefits — fewer empty seats, lower cost per passenger, less delay for customers — to both passengers and transportation service providers, particularly the public and private nonprofit agencies that finance DRT services with public funds. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Research Report 210: Development of Transactional Data...

Transit ridership is down across all modes except commuter rail and demand response. Bus ridership is down the most in mid-size cities (populations of 200,000 – 500,000), and, after six years of consecutive decline, it is at its lowest point overall since the 1970s. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Research Report 209: Analysis of Recent Public Transit Ridership Trends presen...

Transit-priority projects seek to improve transit service quality and mobility and to increase transit ridership. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Research Report 208: Strategic Communications to Improve Support for Transit-Priority Projects: Report and Toolkit presents and analyzes the communication approaches used by cities and transit agencies in the delivery of transit-pr...

As transit agencies, local governments, and citizens look for ways to improve existing, and start new, transit service, many of them are turning to the Quick-Build (Tactical Urbanism) methodology. This approach uses inexpensive, temporary materials and short-term tactics as a way of implementing projects in the short-term, while longer-term planning takes place. The TRB Transit Cooperative...

Transit state of good repair (SGR) is a critical area within the U.S. transit industry. All transit agencies, large or small, regardless of region of the country or modes operated, face challenges in maintaining their physical assets in good repair, and many are in a situation where the funds available for rehabilitating and replacing existing capital assets are insufficient for achieving SGR. ...

A sustainable transit agency provides environmental, social, and economic benefits to the communities it serves. Transit agency efforts to quantify these benefits have focused primarily on environmental sustainability. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has developed guidance for transit agencies on how to use performance measures to quantify transit’s impact on environmenta...

Public transit agencies are increasingly partnering with mobility service providers. Among these providers are transportation network companies (TNCs), which include companies like Uber and Lyft and are the specific focus of this research effort. The transit industry has produced research to describe primary considerations transit agencies should have in mind for partnerships with TNCs, but exi...

Medical literature has identified transportation as a factor in missed and shortened dialysis treatments, which leads to negative health outcomes. These adverse outcomes include, among others, increased hospitalizations because patients do not receive their scheduled treatments. For public transportation agencies, dialysis transportation has become a critical concern as increasing numbers of in...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Research Report 202: Handbook for Examining the Effects of Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Brokerages on Transportation Coordination provides background information and describes the different models available to states for providing non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) for Medicaid beneficiaries. The handbook also discusses why huma...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Research Report 201: Understanding Changes in Demographics, Preferences, and Markets for Public Transportation explores how changes in demographics, traveler preferences, and markets for public transportation affect transit ridership in the present and the future. The report explores how an individual’s demographics affect their long-term values...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Research Report 200: Contracting Commuter Rail Services, Volume 2: Commuter Rail System Profiles describes the 31 commuter rail services in North America and the various delivery approaches, and documents a broad range of strategies and approaches for managing the operation and maintenance issues associated with the contracting of commuter rail ...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Research Report 200: Contracting Commuter Rail Services, Volume 1: Guidebook is the first of a two-volume set that provides an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of each potential approach for providing commuter rail service. The guidebook includes an overview of the primary functions for commuter rail delivery—train operations, disp...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Research Report 199: Transit Technical Training, Volume 2: Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Implementing Best and Innovative Training provides public transportation agencies with best practices, strategies, and resources to assist with the implementation of effective and innovative training programs and techniques for frontline employees. TCRP Re...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Research Report 199: Transit Technical Training, Volume 1: Guide to Applying Best Practices and Sharing Resources documents the best models of technical training programs serving U.S. and international transportation agencies and related industries. A product of this research also includes a training resource catalog to help transit agencies pro...