Transportation Research Board

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Transportation Research Board

Formation	1920; 104 years ago (1920)
Type	NGO
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Executive Director	Victoria Sheehan
Website	www.trb.org

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is a division of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. TRB's mission is to mobilize expertise, experience, and knowledge to anticipate and solve complex transportation-related challenges. For example, committees, researchers, and staff are currently focused on advancing resilient infrastructure, exploring transformational technology, and caring for the public’s health and safety.

As one of seven major divisions of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine,^[1] TRB research is objective and interdisciplinary. TRB hosts nearly 200 standing technical committees that address specific aspects of transport and the TRB Annual Meeting attracts thousands of transportation professionals.

History

The Transportation Research Board was established in 1920 as the "National Advisory Board on Highway Research" and changed its name to the "Highway Research Board" from 1925 until 1974, when it was renamed again as the "Transportation Research Board." It has commissioned ad-hoc research since 1950, became more involved in multi-modal transport in the 1960s, and continues to research across transportation modes.^[1]

Activities and organization

TRB accomplishes its mission through various activities, including the efforts of volunteers on approximately 170 standing technical committees and task forces along with volunteer panels and consensus committees, and maintains a database of transportation research. It publishes and disseminates reports and peer-reviewed technical papers presenting research findings, manages cooperative research programs, conducts special studies on transportation policy issues upon request from the U.S. Congress, government agencies, and other public and private sector organizations. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (TRR) publishes peer-reviewed papers presenting transportation research findings.

Additionally, TRB hosts its Annual Meeting in Washington DC every January, which in 2020 attracted over 14,000 transportation professionals from across the United States and around the world.^[2]

TRB's varied activities annually draw on over 8,000 engineers, planners, scientists, academics, and other transportation researchers from the public and private sectors, who volunteer expertise in the public interest by participating on TRB committees, panels, and task forces.^[1]

Publications and databases

Publications include the Highway Capacity Manual, the Transportation Research Record journal, and a bi-monthly magazine called TR News. A history of transportation research and of TRB was published in January 2020 called The Transportation Research Board, 1920–2020: Everyone Interested Is Invited.^[3] Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) offers several databases for researchers:

The TRID Database is an integrated database that combines the records from TRB's Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the OECD's Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database. TRID is the world's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic resource on transportation research information. It contains more than one million records of published and ongoing research, covering all modes and disciplines of transportation. More than 156,000 records contain links to full-text documents. The records in TRID are indexed with a standardized vocabulary from the Transportation Research Thesaurus (TRT) or the ITRD Thesaurus, depending on the source organization.^[4]
The Research in Progress (RiP) Database contains more than 12,400 current or recently completed transportation research projects, mostly those funded by the modal administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, state departments of Transportation (DOTs), University Transportation Centers, or by TRB's cooperative research programs.^[5]
Research Needs Statements (RNS) Database An important function of TRB is to stimulate research that addresses issues facing the transportation community. In support of this function, TRB Technical Activities standing committees identify, develop, and disseminate research need statements (RNS) for use by practitioners, researchers, and others.^[6]
The TRB Publications Index (Pubsindex) contains bibliographic information on almost 48,000 papers, articles, and reports published by the Highway Research Board, Transportation Research Board, Strategic Highway Research Program, and the Marine Board.^[7]
The Practice Ready Papers (PRP) Database] contains papers that are defined as those in which the research results presented and discussed making a contribution to the solution of current or future problems or issues for practitioners. Information presented in these papers is ready for immediate implementation or requires minimal additional research or implementation effort.^[8]

Funding

Although many of activities are requested and funded by Congress and federal agencies, TRB and the National Academies do not receive direct appropriations from the federal government. Programs receive support from state transportation departments, the various administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation and other federal agencies, industry associations, and other organizations and individuals interested in the development of transportation.

TRB offers selective research funding, notably, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP), and the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP). Each one of these programs has industry leaders who function as references while completing the project.^[9]