The transportation community kicks off each year by learning about new research and sharing paradigm-changing ideas at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting.

Volpe staff from across our organization were proud to play a role among the 5,000 presentations and nearly 800 sessions and workshops covering all transportation modes at TRB’s 95^th Annual Meeting, held January 10 to 14, 2016, in Washington, D.C.

Following are examples of the cross-modal work that Volpe staff presented and discussed at the TRB Annual Meeting. Each of these examples supports at least one of Volpe’s six emerging issues for transportation in 2016.

Air Quality

• Gina Solman presented the Congestion, Mitigation, and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) toolkit. Solman and other Volpe researchers developed an easy-to-use CMAQ tool interface, based on consistent, robust methodologies, to help transportation professionals quantify the benefits of reducing emissions.  

Future Technologies

• Alan Chachich participated in an automated vehicle workshop where he reported the findings from a breakout session on cybersecurity from the Automated Vehicle Symposium. 
   
• David Perlman and Anita Kim presented an overview of automated vehicle policy research at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
   
• Elizabeth Machek and Dan Bogard presented a poster titled “Identifying Critical Technical and Policy Milestones for Realization of Automated Vehicle Use Cases.” Machek and Bogard also presented at a session titled “Preparing, Planning, and Assessing Readiness of the Next Generation of Intelligent Transportation Systems.”
   
• Matt Cuddy presented on how transportation system management and operations concepts apply to smart cities.
   
• Michael Scarpino led a discussion at a workshop on leveraging the resources and stakeholders of the Clean Cities Program for using alternative fuels across modes.
   
• Dr. Scott Smith presented his poster “A Framework for Estimating the Transportation System Impacts of Automated Vehicle Technologies.”

Safety

• Adrian Hellman led the Energy Efficiency Technologies for Rail Transportation technical session.
   
• David Tyrell presented a paper on rail passenger equipment glazing integrity research.
   
• Ted Sussmann co-chaired a session that featured research on new inspection technologies, including a case study of a corridor improvement project for the Amtrak Downeaster extension from Portland to Brunswick, Maine, with an analysis of the influence of inspections on safety trends and sensor technology.
   
• Emily Nodine presented the goals, methodology, and key findings of a naturalistic study of truck following behavior.
   

• John Wojtowicz served as a panelist and discussed Volpe’s research of Delaware’s resiliency to hazmat and other contraband, including human trafficking, and identified technology gaps used to ensure the safety and security of multimodal freight and passenger movements. 

• Mikio Yanagisawa presented the results of Volpe research on vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) crash avoidance technologies. The presentation included current research tasks related to V2P crash avoidance safety and detailed the potential safety improvements of new V2P crash avoidance technologies.
   
• Dr. Stephanie Chase, Dr. Scott Gabree, Bianka Mejia, Cassandra Cantu, Justyne Hodgen, and Danielle Hiltunen participated in the Railroad Trespassing and Right-of-Way Fatality Prevention panel session. The panel of international experts discussed the latest global efforts in preventing suicides and trespassing, including training staff to intervene, the impact of media reports, and opportunities for engagement with the mental health community.

Transportation Planning

• Ben Rasmussen presented on scenario planning for resilience and sustainability at the Dynamic Network Modeling session.

  

• Logan Nash presented on digital transit information for national park visitors.
   
• Lora Chajka-Cadin and Margaret Petrella presented findings from the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) Program evaluation, conducted on behalf of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The evaluation analyzed key impacts of the NHTS Program, including the breadth and depth of data use; how NHTS impacts policy, legislative, and regulatory decision-making; responsiveness of NHTS to its user community; and program challenges.
   
• Margaret Petrella and Lauren Deaderick presented a poster on the Collaborative Visitor Transportation Survey project in support of FHWA Western Federal Lands Highway Division.
   
• Alex Linthicum presented on safety performance measures for Alaska long-range transportation planning. For this work, Volpe used novel data sources to derive a truly multimodal baseline of transportation injuries and fatalities—including those resulting from snow machine and off-road vehicle usage, which are not captured in typical transportation safety data sets.