Transportation Research Board 2016 Annual Report (2016)

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TRB 2016 Annual Report | 41 oversight Activities The Executive Office supports the work of the TRB Executive Committee, which provides policy direction to TRB programs and activities in ac- cord with the policies of the National Academies. The Executive Office oversees the implementa- tion of the TRB strategic plan, as approved by the TRB Executive Committee, to pursue the fol- lowing goals: 1. Develop and implement processes to identify and address emerging and critical transportation issues in a strategic and proactive manner. 2. Involve a broader cross section of stakehold- ers and constituencies in TRB programs and activities. 3. Conduct strategic reviews of the portfolio of TRB legacy programs and products and introduce activities to meet critical marketplace needs. 4. Apply systematic approaches for identify- ing and tracking the impacts of TRB’s research programs. th e t r b e x ec u t i v e o f f i c e provides policy and operational guidance for pro- grams and activities; oversees committee and panel appointments and report review; supplies staff support to the Executive Committee and its Subcommittee for National Research Council (NRC) Oversight throughout the report review process; provides support and direction for hu- man resources issues, staffing needs, informa- tion technology services, and the TRB Minority Student Fellows Program; develops and directs the Board’s communications and outreach ef- forts; operates a bibliographic database of trans- portation research and provides library reference services; and maintains liaison with the executive offices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Board’s parent institution. The Executive Office also manages the editing, production, design, and publication of many TRB reports, including its journal series, magazine, policy studies, and other titles. TRB Executive Director Neil Pedersen, with Immediate Past Chair Daniel Sperling (right), updates the Execu- tive Committee on TRB’s progress on its strategic plan. (Photo: Risdon Photography) The Executive Committee Task Force on Public Health brings together a broad cross section of stakeholders, from transportation to medicine. (Photo: Risdon Photography) executive office

42 | TRB 2016 Annual Report tion by Hispanic, African American, and Native American students in the Annual Meeting, TRB committees and activities, and transportation research.1 The program provides expenses for students from 14 eligible institutions to attend the Annual Meeting and present research. Since the program began in 2010, 83 graduate and un- dergraduate students have participated, with a record number of 26 attending the 2016 Annual Meeting, and 21 selected for 2017. publicAtions TRB disseminates transportation research results and technical information through an array of publications assessing the state of the practice in specific areas, addressing major national trans- portation policy issues, and identifying research needs. TRB publishes the majority of its titles electronically, some exclusively in electronic format. TRB books and reports span the range of transportation functions, disciplines, and modes. The TRB Publications Office produces titles in the following series: ▪ Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board gathers technical papers that have been accepted for publication 1 www.trb.org/abouttrb/minoritystudent.aspx. 5. Strengthen the long-term financial stability of TRB by augmenting traditional federal and feder- ally derived sources of funding. 6. Develop and implement coordinated ap- proaches to communicate information on TRB activities and products that address emerging and critical issues. 7. Provide TRB staff with the knowledge, re- sources, and tools necessary to meet and ex- ceed the expectations of TRB stakeholders and customers. Appointments And report review Oversight of committee and panel appointments and of report review is the responsibility of the Executive Committee’s Subcommittee for NRC Oversight (SNO), which ensures that TRB meets institutional standards and that its activities are appropriate for the National Academies of Sci- ences, Engineering, and Medicine. As part of this oversight, the subcommittee monitors the Board’s progress in expanding the participation of minorities and women on TRB committees and panels. Susan Hanson chairs the subcom- mittee and represents TRB as an ex officio mem- ber on the NRC Governing Board. The Executive Office processes the Board’s large volume of committee and panel appoint- ments and maintains committee membership records. It also manages the institutional report review process according to established guide- lines. This review process, designed to ensure the independent, rigorous review of reports, is a hallmark of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. minority student fellows progrAm With support from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, the TRB Minority Student Fel- lows Program seeks to increase the participa- Iftin Thompson, Iowa State University, and Corey Harper, Carnegie Mellon University, at the Young Professionals Reception at the TRB 2016 Annual Meeting. (Photo: Risdon Photography) Subcommittee for NRC Oversight (SNO) members for 2016 (left to right): James M. Crites, Executive Com- mittee Chair; Scott Bennett, Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department; Susan Hanson, SNO Chair; Neil Pedersen, TRB Executive Director; Daniel Sperling, University of California, Davis; Paul Trombino III, Executive Committee Vice Chair; and John Halikowski, Arizona Department of Transportation. (Photo: Risdon Photography) Susan Hanson Chair, Subcommittee for NRC Oversight Neil J. Pedersen Executive Director Russell W. Houston Associate Executive Director Mark R. Norman Director, Development and Strategic Initiatives

TRB 2016 Annual Report | 43 of transportation professionals, book summaries, and highlights of TRB activities also are included. In 2016, TR News published theme issues on the renaissance in bus transportation, new issues in aviation research, and transportation knowledge management. Selected features are posted on the TRB website, and the full issue is made accessible on the web on a four-month delay.3 ▪ Special Reports contain the results of TRB pol- icy studies on issues of national importance in transportation. These studies—many conducted at the request of federal agencies or of the U.S. Congress—focus on a variety of complex, often controversial, topics. Special reports published in 2016 included the print and final online versions of Modernizing Freight Rail Regulation; Between Public and Private Mobility: Examining the Rise of Technology-Enabled Transportation Services; Inter- regional Travel: A New Perspective for Policy Making; Strengthening the Safety Culture of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry, along with a summary version, Beyond Compliance; and Application of Real-Time Monitoring to Offshore Oil and Gas Operations. All 3 www.trb.org/Publications/PubsTRNewsMagazine.aspx. through a rigorous peer review process refereed by TRB technical committees. In 2016, the Board published 64 volumes containing 834 papers grouped by subject. TRR Online, a subscription and pay-per-view service, includes all journal papers published since 1996, providing access to approximately 16,000 papers in the TRR series.2 The service allows all visitors to identify papers of interest and to review the abstracts. Access to the full papers is available to TRR Online subscrib- ers and to employees of TRB sponsors; papers also may be purchased individually. In 2016, ap- proximately 170 papers accepted for publication without revision were edited, typeset, and posted to TRR Online between January 4 and March 31; the papers represented the first installments of 46 volumes. In addition, TRB assigned the digital object identifiers, or DOIs—which locate a paper more reliably than a web address or a search by title or author—soon after submittal, allowing authors to cite papers in advance of publication. In June, TRB announced plans to publish the journal exclusively online, starting in 2017. More changes are planned for 2017 to accelerate the release of journal papers and to increase the cita- tions rating, as well as to upgrade the journal in accordance with industry standards. ▪ The bimonthly magazine TR News features timely articles on innovative and state-of-the-art research and practice in all modes of transporta- tion. The Research Pays Off series, news items of interest to the transportation community, profiles 2 www.trb.org/Finance/TRRJournalOnline1.aspx. Marcella Carnes, Florida A&M University, shares her research on carbon fiber bonded to concrete for rehabilitation. Carnes was one of 26 Minority Student Fellows presenting research at the 2016 Annual Meeting. (Photo: Risdon Photography)

44 | TRB 2016 Annual Report ▪ Miscellaneous Reports include special publica- tions. The sixth, completely revised and updated edition of the Highway Capacity Manual, subtitled A Guide for Multimodal Mobility Analysis,8 and the Access Management Application Guidelines9 were released in the last quarter of 2016. In addition, the Cooperative Research Pro- grams produced an array of titles in several pub- lications series. For a list of all TRB publications, see pages 54–56. communicAtions TRB has undertaken a variety of initiatives to im- prove the communication and public awareness of transportation issues and to enhance the dis- semination of research findings worldwide. Communications milestones for 2016 includ- ed the following: ▪ Adoption of a strategic marketing and com- munications plan, featuring development of a new brochure, PowerPoint template, handouts, and introductory videos; ▪ Adoption of a social media strategic plan, which has stimulated engagement and growth on Twitter, with 16,300 followers; Facebook, with 6,000 likes; and LinkedIn, with 2,981 followers;10 ▪ Reaching 64,000 subscribers to the NASEM TRB E-Newsletter;11 8 www.trb.org/publications/hcm6e.aspx. 9 www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/175418.aspx.. 10 www.trb.org/ElectronicSessions/Twitter.aspx. 11 www.trb.org/Publications/PubsTRBENewsletter.aspx. current and selected out-of-print special reports are posted on the Board’s website.4 ▪ Conference Proceedings assemble formal pa- pers, presentations, and summaries of discus- sions from TRB conferences and workshops. A summary report on the fourth European Union– U.S. symposium, on transportation resilience in response to climate change, appeared in the Conference Proceedings series.5 Titles released in the Conference Proceedings on the Web series included Automated and Connected Vehicles, sum- marizing a University Transportation Centers conference, and Transportation Systems Perfor- mance Measurement and Data, highlighting pre- sentations at an international conference.6 ▪ Transportation Research E-Circulars collect re- search problem statements, reports, and techni- cal information from the work of TRB Technical Activities committees. Titles this year covered such topics as sustainability, resilience to climate change and extreme weather events, transforma- tional technologies, the future locomotive, light rail transit, access management in other nations, roadside safety design, freight fluidity perfor- mance measures, and asphalt mixture design. Circulars are available exclusively in electronic format on the TRB website.7 4 www.trb.org/Publications/PubsPolicyStudiesSpecialReports. aspx. 5 www.trb.org/Publications/PubsConferencesandWorkshops ConferenceProceedings.aspx. 6 www.trb.org/Publications/PubsConferencesandWorkshops Web.aspx. 7 www.trb.org/Publications/PubsTransportationResearchCircu- lars.aspx. Theme issues of the bimonthly magazine TR News allow for in-depth exploration of research on a single topic; (above) Technical Activities Council member Hyun-A Park scans the theme issue on Transportation and Public Health, distributed at an Executive Committee policy session. (Photo: Risdon Photography) The sixth edition of the Highway Capacity Manual was released in November 2016.

TRB 2016 Annual Report | 45 processes. This new system was integrated with MyTRB, a portal that provides technical standing committee leaders with a suite of online tools to manage committees. MyTRB also allows com- mittee members and other volunteers to main- tain their own profiles and contact information. During 2016, the IT group continued to develop the Annual Meeting system in response to user feedback. Transportation Research Information Services TRIS continues to develop and maintain the TRIS databases: ▪ TRID is a comprehensive bibliographic data- base containing more than 1.1 million records of citations and abstracts of transportation research in all modes and disciplines.14 The records com- prise published or ongoing research in English, German, French, or Spanish; more than 197,000 records link to full-text publications. All the TRIS databases are available free of charge on TRB’s website. ▪ The Publications Index includes 68,000 ci- tations and abstracts for all TRB, Highway Re- search Board (HRB), Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP), and Marine Board publications 14 http://trid.trb.org. ▪ Attracting an average of 400,000 visits per month to TRB’s website, www.TRB.org, with visi- tors almost evenly split between first-timers and returnees; ▪ Production of some 98 webinars attended by a total of more than 33,000 people;12 and ▪ Creation of 14 TRB Straight to Recordings— on-demand webinars—that averaged more than 370 views.13 informAtion technology And reseArch services The responsibilities of the Information Technol- ogy (IT) and Research Services group include cus- tomer support for internal and external users of TRB’s software systems; software enhancement and development; server and website monitor- ing and security; general IT support activities, such as training, documentation, and trouble- shooting; producing and managing the Trans- portation Research Information Services (TRIS) databases; and managing the TRB Library. Information Technology TRB relies on several software systems to meet program requirements: to maintain committee records, build and maintain TRB’s extensive web- site, build and make available the TRIS biblio- graphic databases, support the Annual Meeting paper submittal and peer review process, and help manage and monitor the progress of Coop- erative Research Programs projects and products. In 2015, TRB introduced a new system to manage the Annual Meeting paper submission, paper peer review, and program development 12 www.trb.org/ElectronicSessions/ConferenceRecordings.aspx. 13 www.trb.org/electronicsessions/str.aspx. Communication of TRB’s strategic initiatives included handouts and brochures as well as a social media plan. End User Support Specialist Alan Rezaei helps acquaint an Annual Meeting attendee with MyTRB. (Photo: Risdon Photography)

46 | TRB 2016 Annual Report Staff News Phyllis D. Barber-Gray, Publishing Services Man- ager, retired in July after 53 years of invaluable contributions to the production and quality of TRB publications. Jennifer J. Weeks was promoted to Publishing Projects Manager, and Lea M. Camarda was promoted to Editor. Joining the Publications Office were Linda Dziobek, as Senior Editor–Journal Project Manager, and James A. Parker, as Senior Editorial Assistant. The IT and Information Resources department added Gareth Driver as Help Desk–Business Sys- tems Associate. since 1923.15 Records contain links to available full-text documents and to ordering information. ▪ The Research Needs Statements database is a dynamic collection of highest-priority topics developed by TRB technical standing commit- tees.16 The database serves as a tool for reviewing research needs, setting research priorities, and identifying gaps in current research. More than 1,200 statements are posted. ▪ Research in Progress (RiP) is a database of more than 14,000 records of active or recent- ly completed research projects.17 The current awareness service notifies users about new and updated project records in specified subject ar- eas. TRID offers users an option for searching the RiP database or the RiP and TRID databases simultaneously. ▪ The Practice-Ready Papers database of some 3,000 records helps practitioners easily find TRB Annual Meeting and journal papers identified by peer reviewers as presenting research results im- mediately applicable to problems or issues.18 The database links to the full text of papers since 2006 and to abstracts from 1998 to 2005. TRB Library The TRB Library provides research and reference services to TRB sponsors, committee members, and staff. The library subscribes to more than 400 serial titles and contains the complete collection of TRB, HRB, SHRP, and Marine Board publi- cations. The library participates in the Eastern Transportation Knowledge Network and in the National Transportation Knowledge Network. 15 http://pubsindex.trb.org. 16 http://rns.trb.org. 17 http://rip.trb.org. 18 www.trb.org/Publications/PubsPracticeReadyPapersBack- ground.aspx. Phyllis D. Barber-Gray