By Vince Wenhao Zhang, USC MPL 2016

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) held its 95th Annual Meeting from January 10–14, 2016 in Washington D.C. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Over 12,000 professionals in the field of transportation from around the globe were attracted to attend this annual event. During the meeting, more than 5,000 presentations were given in nearly 800 sessions and workshops, covering all modes of transportation and topics of interest to practitioners of various sectors as well as those from academia. Top transportation issues of 2015 were discussed in these presentations, and the new prospects and challenges of 2016 were forecasted. 

The TRB Annual Meeting provides more than a key venue for industry thinkers to debate and collaborate, as it also serves as an opportunity for METRANS to share its contributions to transportation on the national stage; multiple METRANS researchers and partners were present at this year’s conference. Marlon Boarnet, METRANS Associate Director and Director of Graduate Programs in Urban Planning at the University of Southern California (USC) Price School, contributed to two poster sessions: "Structural Equation Modeling Analysis of the Impact of Urban Form and Gasoline Prices on Vehicle Use:  Application to Southern California" and "Local Demographic Projections and Traffic Safety:  Integrating Census, CA Department of Public Health, and Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System Data." Boarnet also presented his work in "Daily Travel Variability, Travel Survey Duration:  Moving Beyond the Single Day Convention." Geraldine Knatz, METRANS researcher and USC Professor of the Practice of Policy and Engineering at Price School of Public Policy and the Viterbi School of Engineering, presented her research, "International Trade Driving the Future Economy:  Ports/Shipping Perspective," to the Technical Activities Council and Policy and Organization Group. Shadi Saadeh of California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) presided over a session of presentations, titled "Experimental & Numerical Modeling of Asphalt Mixtures & Pavements." METRANS Associate Director and Center for International Trade and Transportation Executive Director Thomas O'Brien also contributed two presentations: "Building a National Network for the Transportation Workforce: Job Needs and Priorities by Region US Transportation Job Needs and Priorities" and "Language Diversity Challenges in the Emerging Transportation Maintenance and Operations Workforce." 

In addition to the paper and poster presentations, TRB included other METRANS-related activities. These included a meeting of the MetroFreight team with participants from Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Seoul and Gothenburg; and meetings involving leadership from METRANS' newest center, the Southwest Transportation Workforce, and representatives from a number of transportation related organizations including the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), the US Chamber of Commerce, and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

“I look forward to TRB every year because it gathers the best transportation minds in the world in one location,” O’Brien notes, “I also like the opportunity it provides for students and young professionals to get valuable feedback on their research and other work. The week started with the Council of University Transportation Centers Awards Banquet, where this year Arnold Valdez was recognized as the METRANS Student of the Year.”

Having received the award at the meeting, Arnold Valdez shared his thoughts about the event as a first-time attendee, “There was much excitement and optimism about the FAST act that funds transportation. Many of the TRB committees were budgeting for projects that they have been putting off.” He also commented that many of the presentations on autonomous vehicles were quite popular; they were very well attended by individuals from all sectors. 

Since attending his first TRB Annual Meeting in 1995, Professor Marlon Boarnet was surprised by how the field has transformed over the years.  He shared, “The 2016 TRB meeting was, in some ways, a technology conference.  The biggest sponsors were technology companies, and concepts like big data, autonomous vehicles, and information were ubiquitous in the sessions and in the exhibitions.  Our field is changing rapidly, and the TRB conference was a great example of how timeline topics -- economic analysis, pricing, mode choice, governance, administration -- must be combined with the opportunities created by new technology.”

Vince Wenhao Zhang

Vince Zhang is a second-year Master of Planning student at the USC Price School.  He is interested in topics such as urban design, sustainable planning, and public transportation.  His expected date of graduation is May 2016.  He can be reached at [email protected].