Nuria Fernandez is the Recipient of the 2025 Frank Turner Award

Nuria Fernandez, Principal Consultant/CEO, AMDC Consulting, LLC, is the 2025 recipient of the Frank Turner Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Transportation. She is recognized for her significant contributions to the nation’s public transportation landscape during her more than 35-year career.

Flood-Forecasting Capabilities Can Be On the Rise With New NCHRP Report

Flooding is one of the most common and impactful hazards to transportation systems, as we're seeing this week in the wake of Hurricane Helene. State departments of transportation may use flood forecasts for a variety of reasons, including issuing internal flood-level notifications, directing field staff to flood locations, and issuing road closures. Flood forecasting can help DOTs prepare for events, have faster response times, and use resources efficiently.

Flood Forecasting for Transportation Resilience: A Guide (NCHRP Research Report 1131) was released this week by TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program. The authors seek to empower state DOTs with technical resources and organizational insights to better predict the timing and magnitude of flooding and enable advanced early warnings, reducing expensive damage to critical assets and enhancing roadway safety.

Find more resilience planning resources from TRB to strengthen your own preparations.

Evaluating How Fare-Free Transit May Be an Element of State DOT Offerings

Fare-free or zero-fare transit services have generated a great deal of interest in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Free fares unquestionably address transportation equity issues. Sustaining Zero-Fare Public Transit in a Post COVID-19 World: A Guide for State DOTs (NCHRP Research Report 1126), released this week by TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program, develops guidance and a tool to aid practitioners in the evaluation of fare-free transit services from a state DOT perspective.

Sustaining Zero-Fare Public Transit in a Post COVID-19 World: Conduct of Research Report (NCHRP Web-Only Document 409) was also released this week and provides additional information to the research report.

TRB's Top Downloaded Publication in September: Long Freight Trains: Ensuring Safe Operation, Mitigating Adverse Impacts (TRB Special Report 352) (released September 17, 2024)

Affordable, Effective Annual Meeting Advertising Opportunities

Use print or electronic advertising during the TRB Annual Meeting to get your organization's message in front of attendees. Rates for the printed program start at $895 and oportunities in the AM Express daily electronic newsletter begin at $930.

October 24 - Public Briefing for the Report: Emerging Hazards in Commercial Aviation - Ensuring Safety During Transformative Changes

Road safety guidance for states and municipalities and the establishment of a national road safety research center are among the recommendations from a recent TRB and National Academies consensus report, notes Smart Cities Dive. Also reporting on the publication, Digital Journal details how roads can become safer through research and action.