Nominations are now open through July 31 for TRB's most prestigious awards presented at the 2026 TRB Annual Meeting. See the nomination forms for:

• Sharon D. Banks Humanitarian Leadership in Transportation Award
• W.N. Carey, Jr. Distinguished Service Award
• Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service Award
• Robert E. Skinner, Jr. Distinguished Transportation Research Management Award

The paper-submission site is expected to open on July 1 and close on August 1, 2025. Submission guidelines will be posted soon. Please continue to check the website and TRB Weekly for updates.

Economic benefits of trail development may include growth in tourism and an increase in property values for adjacent owners. Individual trail users also benefit from reduced transportation costs, compared with motorized modes. To understand the role that these routes play in the transportation network, the SEDA Council of Governments metropolitan planning organization in central Pennsylvania purchased six TRAFx infrared trail counters and began to measure demand. Quantitative benefits—such as dollars raised through successful grant funding efforts supported by trail data or saved because of targeted maintenance needs—will be assessed across the trail authorities. Read more about this work at TR News.

TRB's Top Downloaded Publication in May: NCHRP Research Report 1043: Guide for Roundabouts (released June 1, 2023)

There are unique circumstances related to providing transportation to and within rural areas. As of 2022, when TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program released NCHRP Research Report 988: Rural Transportation Issues: Research Roadmap:

• Only 19% of the U.S. population live in rural areas, but approximately 47% of the nation’s motor vehicle fatalities occur in rural areas.
• More than 70% of the country’s roadway miles are in rural areas.
• These rural roadways are part of a rural transportation system that includes airports; railways; inland and coastal waterways; rural and intercity buses; and bicycle, pedestrian, and multi-use paths and trails.

It is crucial to continue identifying transportation-related issues faced by rural communities and the research needed to provide information and data to state departments of transportation and other public agencies that make infrastructure investment decisions. TRB and the National Academies have a new Connecting Rural Communities Collection designed to help in these efforts.

• CBS WDBJ (Ronaoke, VA): Teenagers drive safer with more practice, study says ... "A study backed by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and published [by TRB] concluded that teens drive more safely when given more practice. The study is the first of its kind to find 'statistically significant evidence' that increased driving practice for teen drivers during the learners permit phase can reduce crashes and close calls. Top Speed also covered the report.
• Government Executive: Transportation and healthcare: How government agencies are leveraging AI to improve critical public service delivery ... "The Philadelphia Parking Authority and the Transportation Research Board joined together to set up an AI-backed camera-assisted system to detect and automatically ticket offenders, with the hope of clearing bus lanes."