What's New in Security and Emergencies

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 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) Report 740: A Transportation Guide for All-Hazards Emergency Evacuation focuses on the transportation aspects of evacuation, particularly large-scale, multijurisdictional evacuation. The guidance, strategies, and tools in NCHRP Report 740 are based on an all-hazards approach that has applicability to a wide range of “notice” and “no-no...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 196: Final Research Report: A Transportation Guide for All-Hazards Emergency Evacuation documents the development of the  NCHRP Report 740 that focuses on the transportation aspects of evacuation--particularly large-scale, multijurisdictional evacuation.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released a report that assesses the extent to which the transportation worker identification card pilot was complete, accurate, and reliable for informing Congress and the proposed reader rule for the card.

The Illinois Center for Transportation at the University of Illinois has released a report that discusses safety at rail grade crossings including pedestrian and non-motorized user behavior and attitudes toward safety at such crossings.

TRB is sponsoring the 2013 Transportation Hazards and Security Summit and Peer Exchange on August 19-23, 2013, in Irvine, California. The conference is designed to explore current and future research in transportation security and infrastructure protection. For additional information please contact  Stephan Parker or  Scott Brotemarkle of TRB.

The Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University has released a report that identifies and addresses security issues in high-speed rail (HSR) planning, including analyses of HSR attacks, attempted attacks, and plots against HSR systems.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to produce three products to be considered for use by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Special Committee on Transportation Security and Emergency Management. The products to be produced include the following: (1) the National Needs Assessment for Ensuring...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Web-Only Document 59: Using Pictograms to Make Transit Easier to Navigate for Customers with Communication Barriers explores whether pictograms–picture-based communication tools that use illustrations with few or no words–can be effective in communicating emergency information and behavioral modification to people with communication challenges&n...

A slideshow summary of the Transportation Research Board's pre- and post-September 11, 2001, transportation security activities is updated monthly.

Since September 11, 2001, 145 security-, emergency management-, and infrastructure protection-related planning and implementation projects have been initiated through programs managed by the Transportation Research Board (TRB). One hundred eleven of these projects have been completed; 24 projects are in progress; and 10 projects have contracts pending or are currently in development. This repor...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Synthesis 39: Airport Wildlife Population Management provides direct wildlife population control techniques for reducing wildlife collisions with aircraft. In addition, the report summarizes the ecological foundation of wildlife population control and management. ACRP Synthesis 39 is designed to supplement ACRP Synthesis 23 : Bird Harassmen...

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 U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General has released a report that evaluates the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s policies, processes, and resources to execute the Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness Grant Program.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has released a report that explains use of geographic information systems software in estimating and displaying storm surge data from road surfaces that have flooded in the past.

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2312 consists of 8 papers related to roundabouts and 9 papers that address different aspects of emergency evacuation. The roundabout papers examine crash prediction models for roundabouts on high-speed rural roadways; vehicular capacity at multilane roundabouts with consideration of pedestrian crossings; pub...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 160: Paratransit Emergency Preparedness and Operations Handbook includes guidance, strategies, tools, and resources to help paratransit service providers plan and prepare for, respond to, and recover from a range of emergencies. The guidance has applicability to urban, suburban, rural, and tribal paratransit operating environments. The pr...

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released a report that assesses data that the U.S. Transportation Security Administration has on its passenger screening canine program and the extent to which the canines have been deployed by using a risk-based approach.

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 is sponsoring the 15th Biennial Harbor Safety Committee and Area Maritime Security Committee Conference in August or September 2014, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The conference will explore best practices, innovations, and technology that address critical harbor and maritime safety and security issues. For additional information contact  Scott Brotemarkle of TRB.

The New Zealand Transport Agency has released a report that evaluates the significance of the fundamental frequencies of adjacent structures, spatially varying ground motions, and soil-structure interaction within bridges during a major earthquake.

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Report 9: A Compendium of Best Practices and Lessons Learned for Improving Local Community Recovery from Disastrous Hazardous Materials Transportation Incidents explores how local communities can develop or improve recovery planning and operations in response to hazardous materials transportation incidents.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released a report that assesses the extent to which the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has overseen and enforced the regulation requiring U.S. passenger rail agencies to report all potential threats and significant security concerns to TSA and the extent to which the agency has analyzed passenger rail security incidents to identify any...

The American Association of Port Authorities has released the latest issue of Seaports Magazine. This issue focuses on the shared responsibility of securing seaports.

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2283 consists of 14 papers that explore a heuristic scheme for heterogeneous vehicle routing problems; stochastic multicommodity emergency inventory management models; path-constrained traffic assignment; welfare effects of congestion pricing; stochastic model for estimation of time-varying arterial travel t...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Program Final Report for SHRP 2 Reliability IDEA Project L-15B: Proximity Information Resources for Special Events describes development of a mobile application to assist in management and communications during large events. A video is available  that showcases a demonstration of the ...

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCR) Web-Only Document 1: Current Hazardous Materials Transportation Research and Future Needs explores existing research, planned research, and research gaps; and includes list of potential research projects in the area of hazardous materials transportation research.

The RAND Corporation has released a report that evaluates the extent to which the Transportation Security Agency’s Risk Management Analysis Tool provides valid results for the agency’s risk assessment needs.