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Policy & Planning

Last-Mile Delivery: The Holy Grail of Freight Logistics

Matthias Winkenbach of MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics discusses solutions to delivering goods and services to dense urban centers, and the complex dynamism of cities that impacts urban last-mile distribution.

Global Railway Alliance for Suicide Prevention (GRASP)

The Federal Railroad Administration worked with U.S. DOT's Volpe Center and the Association of American Railroads to convene a group of international experts who specialize in suicide prevention on the rail system. This group, known as the Global Railway Alliance for Suicide Prevention (GRASP), has...

The Cambridge Science Festival Comes to U.S. DOT’s Volpe Center

Science lovers of all ages gathered recently at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center to attend transportation events as part of the Cambridge Science Festival, an annual 10-day event that engages an estimated 50,000 people with science, technology, engineering, and math. Find out...

Railroad Trespassing and Suicide Prevention Program

Over the past decade, research from rail suicide prevention experts in Europe, Canada, and Australia has illuminated strategies that can reduce rail suicides. Volpe and the Federal Railroad Administration built on this global research to develop a program with six focus areas to identify ways to...

Awardees Announced for U.S. DOT’s SBIR FY17.1 Solicitation

On March 21, the U.S. DOT SBIR program announced 15 recommendations for awards for SBIR’s fiscal year 17.1 solicitation. The awarded small businesses competed in a field that included 106 proposals for 9 research topics. The selected small businesses are conducting important research, leading to...

A Look Back on 2016 with Volpe’s Annual Accomplishments

Each year, Volpe collaborates with the U.S. Department of Transportation, other federal agencies, and the broader transportation community on hundreds of projects that shape how people and goods move throughout the U.S. and abroad. Our Annual Accomplishments report highlights some of Volpe’s...

National Transportation Noise Map Released

To better understand transportation sound levels, a Volpe Center team developed a simplified noise modeling tool for the Bureau of Transportation Statistics that makes it easy to track trends in noise levels over time. The tool was released on March 21.

Government at the Speed of Silicon Valley

To create major new technologies like self-driving cars, rather than focusing on an end result or product, it’s much more effective to focus on creating prototypes—“very much a Silicon Valley approach,” said J. Christian Gerdes, U.S. DOT’s first chief innovation officer, who...