What's New in Law

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released a fact sheet provides an overview of data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and General Estimates System for a variety of areas including restraint use, children pedestrians, and bicyclists.

TRB is sponsoring the 52nd Annual Workshop on Transportation Law on July 21-24, 2013, in Nashville, Tennessee. The workshop is designed to bring together lawyers from federal, state, and local agencies and the private sector who work in all areas of transportation law.  Attendees will have the opportunity to share ideas and learn from the experiences of their colleagues. Adv...

TRB standing committees have issued  calls for papers for the TRB 93rd Annual Meeting, January 12-16, 2014, in Washington, D.C, and the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (TRR). While papers addressing any relevant aspect of transportation research will be considered, some committees are soliciting papers in specific subject areas to help potential...

The 2013 series marks the 50th year of TRB’s peer-reviewed journal, which debuted as the Highway Research Record in 1963; became the Transportation Research Record in 1974, with Number 480; and added the subtitle, Journal of the Transportation Research Board, in 2000, with Number 1653. In all, TRB has published more than 25,000 papers in volumes of the TRR Journal and continues to build on its ...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Legal Research Digest 59: Enforceability of Local Hire Preference Programs highlights considerations that public agencies and community groups ought to take into account when contemplating what may be the best course of action when deciding whether to implement local hire programs. Local hire programs are generally defined as programs ...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Legal Research Digest 58: Legal Issues Surrounding the Use of Digital Intellectual Property on Design and Construction Projects is designed to provide an understanding of various legal issues surrounding the use of building information models on transportation design and construction projects. Those legal issues include ownership; upda...

The National Conference of State Legislatures has released a summary of states’ legislative action of occupant protection, distracted driving, driver licensing, impaired driving, aggressive driving, speed limits, motorcycle helmets, automated enforcement, school bus safety, and pedestrian and bicycle safety.

The World Health Organization has released a report that presents information on road safety—such as road traffic deaths and road safety laws—from 182 countries.

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 18: Buy America Requirements for Federally Funded Airports discusses the legislative history pertaining to Buy America, the applicable federal regulations, and how it has been applied at airports. The report includes suggested guidance that airport counsel may find useful as it pertains to airport construction and equipment...

The Maryland Department of Transportation has released a report that develops preliminary specifications for high-quality pervious concrete suitable for use in Maryland State Highway Administration projects.

The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators has released the latest issue of its newsletter designed to disseminate industry news and information on technological developments relevant to the motor vehicle community.

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 19: Legal Issues Related to Developing Safety Management Systems and Safety Risk Management at U.S. Airports explores the basics of a safety management systems (SMS); discusses the concept of a “just culture;” highlights efforts to implement SMS at airports and in other industries such as maritime, patient safety, and oil a...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Research Results Digest 16: Legal Aspects of Airport Programs is a digest of the background and status of ACRP Project 11-01, Legal Aspects of Airport Programs.

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 17: State and Federal Regulations that May Affect Initiatives to Reduce Airports’ GHG Emissions addresses issues that are relevant to implementing greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation measures at airports. The report also provides a compilation of carbon reduction initiatives at airports that distinguish between green building r...

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has released a report that covers key developments in the past year that have affected international seaborne trade, shipping, the world fleet, ports, freight markets, and transport-related regulatory and legal frameworks.

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Legal Research Digest 42: Transit Agency Intergovernmental Agreements: Common Issues and Solutions explores transit-related issues that have the potential to require intensive and time-consuming negotiations related to the development of intergovernmental agreements (IOMs) and memoranda of understandings (MOUs). The print version of the digest i...

TRB conducted a webinar on Wednesday, November 14, 2012, from 12:00 PM ET to 1:30 PM ET that featured research conducted by TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) on approaches to airport privatization, airport ownership and governance, and state-specific airport legislation to help airports operate in an efficient, competitive, and financially viable way. View the recorded webinar ....

The Governors Highway Safety Association has released a report that discusses states’ efforts to address teen driver safety in areas such as strengthening graduated driver licensing laws, engaging teens in understanding and addressing driving risks, and garnering consistent media coverage of teen driving.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released a report that summarizes the status of impaired driving offenses and laws as well as alcoholic beverage control efforts for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

TRB conducted a webinar on October 11, 2012, from 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. ET that explored how new highway legislation, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), impacts transportation within the tribal lands of Native Americans. The webinar has been recorded and is available on our website . During this webinar, practitioners of federal Indian transportation law will discuss major ch...

TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Legal Research Digest 41: Transit Labor 13(c) Employee Protection Digest synthesizes the transit 13(c) decisions issued since publication of Selected Studies in Transportation Law (SSTL) Volume 6 , Transit Labor 13(c) Decisions (49 U.S.C. 5333(b)). The digest also includes the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Employee Protection Digest—a digest of d...

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report that explores the status of obstacles identified in GAO’s 2008 report to integrate Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the national airspace system.  The report also addresses the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s progress in meeting its congressional requirements for UAS and highlights emerging issues related to UAS.

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 16: Procurement of Airport Development and Planning Contracts provides guidance on how to determine which requirements apply to any given procurement process. The report also includes an overview of the consequences for noncompliance with procurement laws or regulations in order to help airports better understand the inhere...

The Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota has released a report that explores the extent to which cellular-based, non-Global Positioning System (GPS) software may successfully aggregate vehicle miles traveled (VMT) without infringing on drivers’ privacy.

Austroads has released a report that may provide assistance to asset management practitioners when addressing claims for compensation brought by road users against road authorities in Australia.  There is no fee to download a copy of the report after registering on the website. 

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 15: Compilation of State Airport Authorizing Legislation presents information pertaining to each state’s airport-specific legislation, including laws establishing, developing, operating, expanding, and funding airports. The compilation focuses on legislation expressly applicable to public airports rather than legislation ap...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Legal Research Digest 40: Issues Involving Surety for Public Transportation Projects reviews applicable federal law, provides examples of state and local laws, and highlights industry practices related to surety. The digest also examines surety issues and industry practices in various types of construction and other public transportation project...

The National Conference of State Legislatures has released a chart that highlights those states that have statutes regarding motorists passing bicyclists and provides a brief summary of each state’s statute on motorists passing bicyclists.

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies has released a report that reviews the public perception of automatic speed enforcement (ASE) and examines the legal and related political obstacles for deploying ASE in Minnesota.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has released the latest version of its monthly newsletter that covers state and federal transportation news, trends, and analysis.