Transportation in a World That Is Gray, Delayed, Small, and Female
Joseph F. Coughlin, founder and director of the MIT AgeLab, discussed how an aging American population will shape the nation's transportation system.
Automobiles
How Much Time Do Americans Spend Behind the Wheel?
U.S. DOT Volpe Center Chief Economist Don Pickrell and a team of Volpe Center data experts recently completed an in-depth study for the Federal Highway Administration to produce detailed statistics on travel speeds and vehicle hours traveled that can provide new levels of insight into how...
Leveraging the Space Above Our Heads and the Emergent eVTOL Market
Getting stuck in traffic isn’t just a nuisance. On an aggregate level, traffic can have major financial impacts for cities and countries. Aviation innovator Carl C. Dietrich, PhD, co-founder and chief technology officer of Terrafugia, explains the potential to use the space right above our heads...
This Long-Range Transportation Plan is a First for the National Park Service
To provide service-wide guidance on maintaining and improving various transportation assets, the National Park Service recently released its first National Long-Range Transportation Plan, a 20-year vision plan that a team of Volpe planners helped develop.
Putting Safety in the Driver's Seat
Technology is advancing, societal trends are changing, and new visions for self-driving vehicles are emerging. Harry Lightsey of General Motors provides the manufacturer's perspective on how self-driving cars are putting safety in the driver's seat as part of The Ongoing Transformation of the...
Safer at Any Speed: Cybersafety for Connected Vehicles
Joshua Corman, the second speaker in Volpe's 2017 series, The Ongoing Transformation of the Global Transportation System, discussed cybersafety in an increasingly hackable world.
The Life-Saving Potential of Pedestrian Detection Systems Infographic
The U.S. DOT Volpe Center, on behalf of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, developed and applied a methodology to estimate the safety benefits of pedestrian crash avoidance and mitigation technologies—or PCAM systems. View the infographic to learn more.
How an Automated Car Platoon Works
With emerging automated driving technology, self-driving cars may soon have the capability to form a platoon on a highway, which could improve travel time, increase lane capacity, and reduce congestion. A car platooning proof-of-concept was tested and evaluated at a U.S. Army facility in Maryland....How Effective Are Pedestrian Detection Systems in Cars?
As pedestrian detection technology becomes integrated into the cars we drive, we must ask: How effective are these systems in preventing pedestrian crashes and injuries? How do we measure safety? A team of advanced vehicle experts at U.S. DOT’s Volpe Center conducted a study to find out.
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...