TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 4: Autonomous Vehicle Action Plan (AVAP) develops awareness of the legislative landscape and the foundational laws and regulations that may need to be prioritized for modification for Connected and Automated Driving Systems (C/ADSs) technologies. The A...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 3: Legal Modification Prioritization and Harmonization Analysis identifies how and when regulations and laws will need to be modified to facilitate the implementation of Connected and Automated Driving Systems (C/ADSs)-equipped vehicles. The report als...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 2: State Legal and Regulatory Audit assists state agencies as they work to adapt their legal programs to reflect the realities of Connected and Automated Driving Systems (C/ADSs)—a term that in this report encompasses both vehicle connectivity and an A...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 6: Implementation Plan provides a technical memorandum on how to put the research findings and products into practice; identifies possible institutions that might take leadership in applying the research findings/products; and identifies issues affecti...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 5: Developing the Autonomous Vehicle Action Plan provides technical background on developing Volumes 1 through 4 of NCHRP Web-Only Document 253. It includes further background on terminology and definitions used in the suite of reports; legal and regul...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 253: Implications of Connected and Automated Driving Systems, Vol. 1: Legal Landscape explores federal, state, and international legal activities and practices regarding Connected and Automated Vehicles and Highly Automated Vehicles (C/AV/HAVs): Section 1 reviews United States federal activities within the sphere of r...

TRB E-Circular 236: National Academies–TRB Forum on Preparing for Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility summarizes the deliberations of a TRB forum launched in early 2018 to facilitate evidence-based research needed to deploy automated vehicle technologies in a manner and timeframe that informs policy to meet long-term goals. The deployments of automated vehicles, shared mobility services, and...

TRB's Rail Safety Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Program has released its final report for Project 31: Modeling and Validation of Standards for a Sleeping Compartment on Accessible Passenger Rail Vehicles. This report explored designs for accessible sleeping compartments on single level and bi-level intercity trains that accommodate up to four passengers traveling together in...

The September-October 2018 edition of the TR News explores the impacts of the 2017 solar eclipse on traffic. Articles also focus on connected and automated vehicles, automated transit applications, and data-driven project selection. 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 transportation. It also i...

TRB's Rail Safety Innovations Deserving Exporatory Analysis (IDEA) program has released Safety Report 32: Railroad Bridge Inspections for Maintenance and Replacement Prioritization Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with Laser Scanning Capabilities. Measuring bridge movement under trains in the field is difficult and expensive because a fixed reference point is not normally available, thus c...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Research Report 195: Broadening Understanding of the Interplay Among Public Transit, Shared Mobility, and Personal Automobiles explores the effects of app-based transportation network companies on the cities in which they operate, including on public transit ridership, single-occupancy vehicle trips, and traffic congestion. Built upon the findin...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 879: Optimal Replacement Cycles of Highway Operations Equipment acts as a handbook on equipment replacement concepts and an instruction manual for making cost-effective replacement decisions. The research report presents a process for determining replacement needs for highway operations equipment, identifying candidate ...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Synthesis 89: Clean Vehicles, Fuels, and Practices for Airport Private Ground Transportation Providers documents effective approaches and reviews best practices employed by airports to encourage different types of private ground transportation providers to run more environmentally friendly operations. The report summarizes the experiences of pub...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 515: Practices for Preventing Roadway Departures identifies and summarizes practices being used by state departments of transportation (DOTs) to prevent roadway departure crashes and to identify the data-driven advantages and disadvantages of these practices. More than half of all traffic fatalities result from roadway depart...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board has released 18 early access papers addressing vehicles and equipment topics, including: An Investigation of Battery Electric Vehicle Driving and Charging Behaviors Using Vehicle Usage Data Collected in Shanghai, China ( link ) Modeling Surface Temperatures for Snow-Covered Roads: A Case Study for a Heated Paveme...

TRB's E-Circular 232: Automated Vehicle Symposium 2017: Summary of a Symposium highlights the themes from an event that took place on July 11–13, 2017 in San Francisco, California. The event explored the development, testing, building, and deployment of autonomous vehicles (AVs). The 2017 AVS provided the opportunity for communication, collaboration, and information sharing on a wide range of t...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Web-Only Document 71: A Transit Agency Guide to Evaluating Secondary Train Detection/Protection Systems in Communications-Based Train Control Systems provides a practical approach to evaluating the appropriate level of secondary train detection/protection systems (STD/PS) for a given communications-based train control system application. In term...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 130: Battery Electric Buses—State of the Practice documents current practices of transit systems in the planning, procurement, infrastructure installation, operation, and maintenance of battery electric buses (BEBs). The synthesis is intended for transit agencies that are interested in understanding the potential benefits and challenge...

To keep pace with accelerating rate of research distribution, the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board is now publishing articles as soon as they are finalized. The latest papers to be published are as follows: Use of a Laser Diffractometer to Obtain the Particle Size Distribution of Fine-Grained Soils Interstate Speed Profiles Conditioning and Testing Pr...

TRB Special Report 324: Designing Safety Regulations for High-Hazard Industries, examines key factors relevant to government safety regulators when choosing among regulatory design types, particularly for preventing low-frequency, high consequence events. In such contexts, safety regulations are often scrutinized after an incident, but their effectiveness can be inherently difficult to assess w...

The full edition of the July–August 2017  TR News  magazine is now available.  Moving research into practice is the theme of feature articles in this edition. Authors describe today’s successes, present a systematic approach that has proved effective at a state department of transportation, describe federal programs encouraging innovations at the state level, discuss initiatives ...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 862: Guide to Deploying Clean Truck Freight Strategies provides decision makers with a guide to assist in the potential deployment of fuel-efficient and low-emission truck freight strategies. The guide includes an analytical tool  and a user manual to identify and evaluate appropriate strategies that can be deploye...

The full edition of the May-June 2017 TR News is now available. This edition 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 ...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 32: Evolving Law on Airport Implications by Unmanned Aerial Systems provides guidance to enhance understanding of the basic legal and operational issues presented by civil unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and evaluates best practices for managing these issues. The digest covers background on UAS uses, applications, regulation...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) has released Final Report 181: Development of Small Specimen Geometry for Asphalt Mixture Performance Testing. The use of small specimen geometries in Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester (AMPT) offer a means to measure as-built pavement layers. Small specimen geometries may improve the e...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 239: Impacts of Laws and Regulations on CV and AV Technology Introduction in Transit Operations explores the potential barriers imposed by operating policies, agency regulations, and governmental laws relative to the transit environment. Without adjustment, the combination of new technology with old rules could result...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has released  Strategies to Advance Automated and Connected Vehicles: Briefing Document. It is intended for state, regional, and local agency and political decision makers who are framing public policy making for these transformational technologies. The briefing document makes the case for taking action in spite of uncertainties a...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 845: Advancing Automated and Connected Vehicles: Policy and Planning Strategies for State and Local Transportation Agencies assesses policy and planning strategies at the state, regional, and local levels that could influence private-sector automated vehicle (AV) and connected vehicle (CV) choices to positively affect s...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Synthesis 85: Alternative Fuels in Airport Fleets is designed to assist airport operators in analyzing complex procurement, operational, and environmental decisions when considering alternative fuels in airport fleets. Airports own and contract fleets to transport passengers, staff, and goods by on- and off-road vehicles. Although most transport...

A featured article in the May-June 2017 issue of the TR News examines how to develop appropriate evaluation frameworks that account for the integration of new technologies into the infrastructure in order to accurately value the current highway system. 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 trans...