Racism has been overt in transportation. For example, the segregation of races on intercity trains led to the infamous 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” Supreme Court doctrine that stood for more than half a century. While many discriminatory policies have been reversed by the courts and in constitutional amendments, their impacts on society have not been fully remedied and persist. TRB’s Racial Equity Addendum to Critical Issues in Transportation  is intended to be a step in the process ...

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 economy. In this addendum to Critical Issues in Transportation 2019 , the Transportation Research Board (TRB...

Critical Issues in Transportation 2019 now includes addendums focused on COVID-19 and racial equity . In this report, which is updated periodically by the TRB Executive Committee, a series of challenging questions are posed to explore issues and opportunities that may arise 10 to 20 years into the future. These questions, 63 in all, have been organized into 12 topic areas and provide a way to frame future areas of research, policy analysis, and debate. Critical issues identified in this report deserve a...

Careers in science, engineering, and medicine offer opportunities to advance knowledge, contribute to the well-being of communities, and support the security, prosperity, and health in the United States. But many women do not pursue or persist in these careers, or advance to leadership positions - not because they lack the talent or aspirations, but because they face barriers, including: implicit and explicit bias; sexual harassment; unequal access to funding and resources; pay inequity; higher teaching ...

The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has released a report that examines the nation’s minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and identifies promising programs and effective strategies that have the highest potential return on investment for the nation by increasing the quantity and quality MSI STEM graduates. This study also provides critical information and perspective about the importance of MSIs to other stakeholders in the nation’s system of higher education and the organizations...

The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report Framing the Challenge of Urban Flooding in the United States examines real-world examples of the economic and social impacts of flooding in specific metropolitan areas. This report identifies commonalities and variances among the case study metropolitan areas in terms of causes, adverse impacts, unexpected problems in recovery, or effective mitigation strategies, as well as key themes of urban flooding. It also relates causes and actions ...

The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report Building and Measuring Community Resilience: Actions for Communities and the Gulf Research Program summarizes the existing portfolio of relevant or related resilience measurement efforts and notes gaps and challenges associated with them. It describes how some communities build and measure resilience and offers four key actions that communities may take to build and measure their resilience. This report also provides recommendations to th...

The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda assesses the benefits, risks, and “sustainable scale potential” for “negative emissions technologies” (NETs) and sequestration. This report also defines the essential components of a research and development program, including its estimated costs and potential impact. To achieve goals for climate and economic growth, NETs that remove and sequester carbon dioxide...

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has released a report that builds on a 2009 comprehensive report on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Stormwater Program that covered all sectors of the program. This report focus on industrial stormwater monitoring and management. Industrial stormwater is derived from precipitation and/or runoff that comes in contact with industrial manufacturing, processing, storage, or material overburden and then runs offsite and enters drainage system...

The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has released a report that explores how to engage today’s middle and high school students in doing science and engineering through an analysis of evidence and examples. The report provides guidance for teachers, administrators, creators of instructional resources, and leaders in teacher professional learning on how to support students as they make sense of phenomena, gather and analyze data/information, construct explanations and design solution...