The November-December 2020 issue of TR News —with a cover feature on the development of a Recycled Material Web Map—is available in hard copy and digital copy for subscribers. For those who are not subscribers, the table of contents is available. Other feature articles in the issue include "Living with Transformational Technologies and Other Surprises," "Asphalt Recycling: History of Recycled Mate...

If combined with public transit and increased in scale, shared modes of transportation, such as ride-hailing, scooter sharing and bike sharing, can enhance mobility, equity, and sustainability in metropolitan areas. Cities, transit agencies, and shared mobility providers should collaborate in goal-setting, experimentation, testing, and implementation. These are among the findings in TRB Special Re...

Small gasoline-powered aircraft are the single largest emitter of lead in the United States, as other major emission sources such as automobile gasoline have been previously addressed. A highly toxic substance that can result in an array of negative health effects in humans, lead is added to aviation gasoline to meet the performance and safety requirements of a sizable portion of the country’s gas...

In comparison to the levels of public interest and attention, there is little research to help understand the major obstacles and constraints encountered by women travelers and women working in transportation industries. TRB's Transportation Research Circular E-C268: Insights, Inclusion, and Impact: Framing the Future for Women in Transportation details the 2019 Women’s Issues in Transportation Co...

This annual report presents a summary of progress on investigations conducted as part of the Rail Safety Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (Rail Safety IDEA) program sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration and overseen by the Transportation Safety IDEA Program Committee. The  Rail Safety IDEA  program provides funding for projects that promote innovative approaches to i...

The September–October 2020 issue of TRB's magazine is now available in full online. Themed “Embracing the Future,” the issue celebrates TRB’s centennial with articles forecasting the future of transportation. Authors present outlooks that are multimodal, creative, diverse, inclusive, and thought-provoking, offering a pause point for transportation researchers, policy makers, and practitioners as t...

The year 2020’s raging coronavirus pandemic and reckoning with long-standing racial injustice led to widespread disruption and suffering, social unrest, and renewed calls for an accounting of our fragmented public health system and troubled history of racial inequity. The crises of 2020 transcend transportation yet also raise fundamental questions for it along with other sectors of our society and...

The 2020 Annual Report summarizes TRB’s accomplishments in each of its major program areas and how TRB has served the nation and the global transportation professional community throughout 2020. TRB provides leadership in transportation improvements and innovation through trusted, timely, impartial, and evidence-based information exchange, research, and advice regarding all modes of transportation...

As unmanned systems (UxS) continue to develop and be used by other military services and federal agencies, the U.S. Coast Guard should proceed more aggressively and deliberately in taking advantage of UxS advancements, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The Coast Guard should also produce a high-level strategy with critica...

Management of traffic signal systems is a critical function for many transportation agencies.  Thanks to advancements in technology, it is now possible to collect large amounts of data at signalized intersections, leading to the development of dozens of performance measures. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's  NCHRP Research Report 954: Performance-Based Management o...

In the airport industry, potential applications for blockchain include security and identification, flight data management, safety and maintenance, baggage and cargo tracking, regulatory compliance, and more. Promising blockchain applications specific to COVID-19 include passenger health verification and contact tracing, facilitating a contactless passenger experience, and tracking the movement of...

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  TCRP Research Report 218: Characteristics and Elements of Nonpunitive Employee Safety Reporting Systems for Public Transportation compiles the best practices used in nonpunitive employee safe...

Highway agencies have traditionally managed the safety improvement process by identifying and correcting high-crash locations (“hot-spots”), where concentrations of crashes and, often, patterns of crashes of similar types, were found. However, when crashes are evaluated over too short a period of time (3 years or less), locations may be identified as hot-spots simply due to the random nature of wh...

Traditional approaches to safety have focused on identifying high-crash locations and implementing projects to address predominant concerns at these locations. The systemic approach to safety is a method of safety management that typically involves lower unit cost safety improvements that are widely implemented based on high risk factors. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCH...

One critical need for monitoring and improving transportation rail safety is early-stage pre-catastrophic-failure detection of rail breakage, or emerging faults under trains. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 36: Onboard High-Bandwidth Fiber-Optic Sensing System for Broken Rail Detection details the development of an innovative onboar...

Transit workers experience more health and safety problems than the general workforce, primarily as a result of a combination of physical demands, environmental factors, and stresses related to their jobs. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Research Report 217: Improving the Health and Safety of Transit Workers with Corresponding Impacts on the Bottom Line focuses on the prevalenc...

The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's IDEA Program Announcement 2021 describes the IDEA programs and how they are administered, provides instructions and documents for submitting proposals for funding, and lists general research topics derived from program goals.

In March 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released a policy statement supporting the development of fully integrated transportation networks. The policy is to “incorporate safe and convenient walking and bicycle facilities into transportation projects.” The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Synthesis 558: Availability and Use of Pedestrian Infrastructure Da...

Advanced warning of brake problems can lead to benefits in increased transit safety and operating efficiencies. Transit safety will be improved through fewer accidents and injuries due to brake failures. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Transit IDEA Final Report 94: Evaluation of Transit Vehicle Brake Inspection through Ultrasonic Emissions Analysis details a new...

Understanding pandemics, their impacts to transportation, and potential effective response has become more important, not only for the response to COVID-19, but also if, as the World Health Organization warns, we are now “living in a time of viruses.” TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program and Transit Cooperative Research Program have jointly issued this pre-publication draft of NCHRP...

Safety is of principal concern of the railway industry, and track alignment irregularities can pose risks to the safe operation of trains. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 41: Vibration-based Longitudinal Rail Stress Estimation Exploiting Acoustic Measurement and Machine Learning explores an innovative approach for stress state predi...

The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP WebResource 9: Airport Emergency Plan Development Tool is an online tool that produces airport-specific airport emergency plans (AEPs) in a format consistent with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Advisory Circular 150/5200-31C. The tool provides a user-friendly, sequential, and interactive format to create the plan, and includes introductory...

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has proven a formidable adversary worldwide, with tremendous impact on the United States. The transportation system is an essential element of our response to this pandemic but has also been significantly impacted across all modes, both passenger and goods movement. This environment is where research is needed most. TRB's Transportation Research Circular E-C267: Summary of T...

Understanding pandemics, their impacts to transportation, and potential effective response has become more important, not only for the response to COVID-19, but also if, as the World Health Organization warns, we are now “living in a time of viruses.” TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program and Transit Cooperative Research Program have jointly issued this pre-publication draft of NCHRP...

The availability of transportation influences the ability of individuals to access health care, whether in urban, suburban or rural areas. Those lacking appropriate or available transportation miss health care appointments, resulting in delays in receiving medical interventions that can lead to poorer health outcomes. This in turn contributes to the rising cost of health care. The TRB Transit Coop...

The collection and sharing of data are essential in an airport’s risk management process. The data can allow the airport to benchmark against the industry, monitor performance, and proactively understand trends. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Research Report 222: Collecting and Sharing of Operations and Safety Data identifies data sources, best practices, and the challenges as...

Transportation Research Record (TRR) will be publishing a special, open-access issue featuring research relating to COVID-19 and transportation. In addition to papers submitted for TRBAM 2021 and recommended by TRB committees, we are also accepting additional submissions until October 31. We invite papers that address all aspects of pandemic-related effects on transportation, including: The COVID-...

Although researchers have developed instrumentation for scour detection around bridge piers, the current state-of-the-art practice relies upon visual inspection by divers. As a potential alternative to the traditional methods, this research explored the possibilities of using non-contact and remote sensing-based laser ranging technique for scour mapping and monitoring. The TRB IDEA (Innovations De...

With the advent and increasing prevalence of driverless train operation, dispatch centers are becoming more central to reliable and safe transportation worldwide. Dispatchers are, however, highly susceptible to the detrimental effects of sleepiness and related impairment of work performance. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 40: Using...

Around the United States and Canada, both transit agencies and the unions representing operators have recognized the serious impact of limited restroom access and begun to negotiate ways to address this problem. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Research Report 216: Improving the Safety, Health, and Productivity of Transit Operators Through Adequate Restroom Access presents a cat...