Top Ten Takeaways from the 2022 TRB Conference
I recently attended the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) 101st Annual Meeting at the Washington DC Convention Center. As always, the technical sessions, workshops, and committee meetings provided an opportunity to find out about the latest in both transportation research as well as project deployments and demonstrations. The TRB conference is also the primary venue in which USDOT executives present the Government’s goals and objectives for the year as well as policy direction. As has been typical for me, my activities were tied to the ITS, Vehicle-Highway Automation, Freeway Operations, Managed Lanes, and Regional Transportation Systems Management and Operations (RTSMO) Committees.
With the recent signing of the $1.2 Trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), formerly the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), there was much discussion about how the new law would impact both policy and infrastructure. There was also much discussion on how the pandemic has impacted transportation.
Here then, are my Top Ten Takeaways from the TRB Conference:
1) Equity and opportunity are specific goals identified in the BIL and many of the underlying themes presented at TRB focused on how specific transportation solutions can benefit disadvantaged communities, including enhancing the availability and convenience of transit as well as micromobility solutions such as eScooters.
2) Reconnecting communities: Specifically includes removal/downscaling of urban freeways to reconnect neighborhoods divided physically, economically, and racially by the freeway years ago. Typically done as “Complete Streets” in conjunction with upgraded transit, pedestrian, and bicycle access.
3) Enhancing real-time decision support for regional traffic management: Building on its Integrated Corridor Management and Active Transportation and Demand Management (ATDM) initiatives, FHWA has encouraged, and some states have been developing, a variety of real-time information platforms and data sharing for automating traffic control strategies (such as signal timing, rerouting, incident management, hard shoulder running, transit service modifications) based on real-time congestion, incidents, weather or other events.
4) Better harnessing the use of vehicle automation: Two tracks for vehicle automation have emerged. One, for private/passenger vehicles, utilizes automated driving assistance systems (ADAS), including adaptive cruise control, lane keep and/or lane change assistance, automatic braking (the latter mandated by NHTSA as of 9/1/22). A second track provides more highly-automated and in some cases driverless applications that may include microtransit services (including low-speed automated shuttles), bus rapid transit, highway truck platooning, and small-scale delivery vehicles, as well as both sidewalk delivery robots and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, aka drones).
5) Automated vehicle safety continues to be an issue: One missed opportunity with the BIL was to provide states and automated vehicle developers a path toward standardizing AV testing and safety certification across the country. However, USDOT has developed a “Center of Excellence on New Mobility and Automated Vehicles” (CENMAV) that will address connected automation activities and safety, as well as other aspects of mobility. Additionally, the FHWA CARMA program is continuing its program to test integrated automation and V2X communications in a traffic management environment.
6) Vehicle connectivity is evolving to a mobility information and data focus. With more automated features standard or available in modern vehicles to assist in preventing collisions, the original premise of “connected vehicles” (instantaneous communications between vehicles on a collision course) became less critical. Most connected vehicle developments now focus on collecting real-time vehicle data as well as traffic management data through the Cloud, using cellular-based wireless vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. To this end, the FCC in 2020 both reduced the dedicated wireless bandwidth for transportation safety communications and tacitly endorsed the use of cellular V2X communications instead of the dedicated wireless standard that had been under development for some 15 years. The BIL provides funding for agencies that deployed Connected Vehicle demonstration and deployment initiatives to convert their systems to cellular V2X communications.
7) The transportation workforce is evolving and will need to expand. While much has been said about vehicle automation potentially reducing the need for truck and bus drivers in the future, both the pandemic and the evolution of technology have resulted in shortages of freight and intermodal workers and a lack of trained staff to support emerging automated vehicles and connected technologies. Workforce development and training initiatives in different areas of transportation will be critical and are key elements in the BIL.
8) Electric vehicles and related charging infrastructure: The market for electric vehicles has grown in the US, though it is still well behind China and the EU in terms of EV adoption. However, the BIL provides for a significant U.S. investment in electric-powered government vehicle fleets, as well as electric transit buses, and importantly, at least 500,000 new public EV charging locations. Development of criteria for location, design, and implementation of public EV charging stations in currently-underserved areas will be critical in the near future.
9) Reinvention of Public Transit: Infrastructure-heavy, downtown-focused Metro systems have experienced a major ridership drop-off as more white-collar staff work from home, and micromobility/walking becomes a viable option for residents of higher-density communities. Transit is increasingly focusing on 1) Emphasizing service for transit-dependent users and their workplaces; 2) Potential zero-fare zones or system-wide zero-fare systems, particularly as fares account for relatively low revenues and the regional economic benefits of increased ridership with zero-fare could potentially offset the loss in fare revenues.
10) “Safe System Approach” to Safety. USDOT is focusing on a Safe System Approach to address its “Vision Zero” concept of safety. The approach assumes that neither human error nor the occurrence of crashes can be 100% eliminated, but that the goal is to eliminate fatalities or serious injuries. The five elements of the approach include safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads, and post-crash care in an “integrated and holistic manner” (FHWA, 2022). To do this, implementing traffic management strategies that safely manage traffic flow and travel speeds, reduce conflicting movements, and successfully protect pedestrians and bicyclists should be combined with driver safety education and improvements made to vehicles themselves to avert collision and protect their occupants.