General
The Four Roles of Government in a New Mobility Operating System
The government role may change as transportation systems shift their thinking from mode-centric to user-centric. Harvard’s Stephen Goldsmith recently discussed his vision for a New Mobility Operating System as part of the Volpe Center’s 2018 speaker series, Transportation in the Age of...
Forecasting Freight Transportation Rates with MIT’s Chris Caplice
The market for buying freight transportation services is complex and can be challenging to forecast. There are traditional statistical forecasting models, and there are models that use artificial intelligence. MIT Center for Transportation Logistics Executive Director Chris Caplice, PhD,...
GIS Mapping of Rail Trespass and Suicide
The Volpe Center is using GIS mapping to study where trespass and suicide incidents occur along railroad rights-of-way, which may help the Federal Railroad Administration and rail carriers understand why a particular incident occurred and implement potential countermeasures.
Demographic and Environmental Characteristics of Rail Suicides
For FRA, rail operators, and communities to reduce rail suicides, they need to comprehensively understand the characteristics of such incidents. The U.S. DOT Volpe Center analyzed FRA data to produce a baseline measure of rail trespassing and suicide incidents. This baseline is the...
Trespasser Intent Determination
Every year, there are approximately 270 to 325 fatalities reported by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) that a state coroner or medical examiner determines to be a suicide. However, systems to determine whether a fatality is a suicide can vary by county. That nationwide inconsistency can...
New Guidebook Offers Strategies to Enhance Active Transportation at National Parks
Visitors to national parks are increasingly exploring natural and cultural resources in new ways, including through active transportation—by foot, bicycle, and other non-motorized modes. A new guidebook from the National Park Service (NPS) is helping parks, their partners, and nearby communities...
A Safer Way to Access Freight Locomotives
With support from the U.S. DOT SBIR program and the Federal Railroad Administration, GS Engineering developed and tested a system that makes accessing freight locomotives easier and safer for railroad engineers and workers.
Analytics and Artificial Intelligence in a Federal Framework That Encourages Transportation Innovation
A “growing torrent” of technology advances are poised to fundamentally change transportation, according to U.S. DOT Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy Derek Kan, who kicked off the Volpe Center’s 2018 speaker series, Transportation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Predictive...