Submit Your Paper to the TRB Annual Meeting

The submission site is now open! Papers can address any topic in transportation and do not have to be in response to a specific Call for Papers. Follow the requirements listed in the instructions for authors so your paper is not rejected due to a technicality. As always, the deadline for submission is August 1!

Monique Evans Joining TRB as Director, Cooperative Research Program

Monique Evans will start July 8 as Director of TRB's Cooperative Research Program, which includes units on highways, transit, airports, and behavioral traffic safety. She has served since 2018 as Director of the Federal Highway Administration's Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division. At FHWA, Evans helped lead more than 260 employees in delivering more than 200 annual road and bridge improvement projects on federal and tribal lands such as national parks, wildlife refuges, and Indian reservations. Before her last position, she had been with FHWA in various roles since 2010 and also spent 20 years at the Ohio Department of Transportation, including as its Administrator of the Office of Research and Development.

TRB Report on Landslides, Slope Failures is a Valuable Resource for State DOTs

After a crack developed on a major highway last week near Grand Teton National Park, the Wyoming Department of Transportation informed the press that “WYDOT engineers, surveyors, and geologists mobilized quickly to try to maintain highway viability as long as possible, but catastrophic failure could not be avoided."

A landslide resulted. Thankfully nobody was injured before WYDOT took action to close the road. Although state departments of transportation (DOTs) have a duty to maintain highways in a condition reasonably safe for travel, they are not required to ensure absolute safety.

These and other concepts are covered in a 2020 report from TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program about liability issues associated with highway slope failures. The report, authored by Tim Wyatt for TRB, is a valuable resource for other state DOTs as they manage rockfalls or landslides like the one in the Tetons.

Job Openings at TRB

• Program Officer, Program Officer, Program Officer, and Program Officer. These positions play a crucial role in the execution and management of projects primarily within TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program. The roles will collaborate closely with NCHRP Senior Program Officers to contribute to the successful execution of projects.
• Editor. This position reads and evaluates articles and other materials and documents to determine the extent of editorial problems and shortcomings with the major focus of the work being the editing of TR News magazine articles for an audience of transportation professionals and stakeholders.
• Senior Program Assistant. This position performs routine and complex clerical and administrative tasks including word processing, copying, faxing, filing, answering and screening calls and emails, writing and editing correspondence, and compiling and coordinating mailings. The role also creates, maintains, and updates records, databases, and files, and more.

There are many other job opportunities at the National Academies.

Artificial Intelligence Presents Opportunities for State, Local DOTs

AI has revolutionized various areas in departments of transportation (DOTs), including traffic management and optimization. Through predictive analytics and real-time data processing, AI systems show promise in alleviating congestion, reducing travel times, and enhancing overall safety by alerting drivers to potential hazards. AI-driven simulations are also used for testing and improving transportation systems, saving time and resources that would otherwise be needed for physical tests.

Artificial Intelligence Opportunities for State and Local DOTs: A Research Roadmap (NCHRP Web-Only Document 403) was released this past week by TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program and details possible steps for state and local DOTs to adopt AI in their pipelines.

Proritizing Law Enforcement on Key Corridors Could Reduce Unsafe Driving

Since 2019, U.S. law-enforcement agencies have experienced limited staffing and low recruitment, which makes it difficult to prioritize the places where they can proactively stop unsafe drivers before crashes occur. A new study in TRB's Transportation Research Record journal identifies roadway factors that influence unsafe driving behaviors and could allow police to better prioritize troublesome corridors. The research is further explored in an article by Sage Perspectives.

It's difficult to use pop culture or humorous messages on dynamic highway signage that everyone will understand clearly, said Gerald Ullman, lead author of a 2022 report from TRB's Behavioral Traffic Safety Cooperative Research Program, in Stateline.

Cutting public transit service could lead to a "doom spiral" resulting in a collapse of the system, according to new research published in TRB's Transportation Research Record journal and reported on by Montreal City News, TechXplore, McGill University.