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Transportation Research Board Executive Committee January 2021 COVID-19 ADDENDUM TO CRITICAL ISSUES IN TRANSPORTATION
ii PREFACE The year 2020âs raging coronavirus pandemic and reckoning with long-standing racial injustice led to widespread disruption and suffering, social unrest, and renewed calls for an accounting of our fragmented public health system and troubled history of racial inequity. The crises of 2020 transcend transportation yet also raise fundamental questions for it along with other sectors of our society and economy. In this addendum to Critical Issues in Transportation 2019, the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Executive Committee updates all of the critical issue topic areas to address the short-term and potential long-term effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on transportation. An additional addendum will be issued later in 2021 that delves much more deeply into the equity issue to probe and question transportationâs role in contributing to and redressing racial injustice. This project was approved by the Governing Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) in July 2020. Its purpose is to identify and discuss the transportation issues that have emerged or become more pronounced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened public concern about civil rights and the persistence of racism as expressed in the reactions to the police killings of African Americans in recent years. The TRB Executive Committee was charged with considering how the pandemic and transportationâs role in reducing or abetting racial disparities in the United States are creating new priority topics for transportation research, innovation, and policy resolution. The TRB Executive Committee is the authoring committee of this document. The Subcommittee on Planning and Policy Review guided its development and approved its content on behalf of the TRB Executive Committee. The insights and questions identified in these topics also reflect the work of other researchers and practitioners as described in the Acknowledgments section. This addendum was reviewed separately by anonymous peer reviewers according to the policies and procedures of the National Academies. Transportation provides essential support for our economy and lifestyles and reflects our national values as well as our shortcomings and aspirations. Research that helps us understand these interconnections can help us make better choices for the future. We invite the thousands of TRB researchers and practitioners to join us in pushing the boundaries of knowledge to address the vitally important issues raised in this document. Carlos Braceras, Chair, TRB Executive Committee, Utah Department of Transportation Dr. Katherine Turnbull, Chair, Subcommittee on Planning and Policy Review, Texas A&M University
iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many of the research questions in the COVID-19 section derive from a virtual brainstorming session hosted by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the U.S. Department of Transportation in April 2020 that involved 14 transportation researchers and practitioners. The TRB Executive Committee acknowledges and appreciates the contributions of these individuals: ⢠Paul Bingham, Director, Transportation Consulting, IHS Markit ⢠Carlos Braceras, Executive Director, Utah Department of Transportation; Chair, TRB Executive Committee ⢠Edward Comstock, Independent Consultant; Chair, Marine Board ⢠James Crites, President, James M. Crites LLC ⢠Dr. Andrew Dannenberg, Affiliate Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Science, and Affiliate Professor, Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington ⢠Nathaniel Ford, Chief Executive Officer, Jacksonville Transportation Authority ⢠Dr. Ram Pendyala, Professor, Arizona State University ⢠Thomas Prendergast, Executive Vice President and Transit Business Line Leader, AECOM ⢠Dr. Sandra Rosenbloom, Professor, The University of Texas at Austin ⢠Dr. Joseph Schofer, Professor and Associate Dean, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University ⢠Dr. Susan Shaheen, Professor, University of California, Berkeley; Vice Chair, TRB Executive Committee ⢠Anne Strauss-Wieder, Director, Freight Planning, North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority ⢠Dr. Martin Wachs, Professor Emeritus, Engineering and Planning, University of California, Los Angeles ⢠Dr. Johanna Zmud, Division Head, Multimodal Planning and Forecasting, Texas A&M Transportation Institute The National Academies thanks the following individuals for their review of this publication: ⢠Dr. Clive Brown, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ⢠Dr. Michael Manville, University of California, Los Angeles ⢠Dr. Patricia Mokhtarian, Georgia Institute of Technology ⢠Lance Neumann, Cambridge Systematics, Inc.
iv ⢠Dr. Steven Polzin, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, U.S. Department of Transportation ⢠Anne Strauss-Wieder, North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions and recommendations, nor did they see the final version of the publication before its release. The review of the publication was overseen by Robert F. Sproull (National Academy of Engineering), University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Sue McNeil, University of Delaware, Newark. They were responsible for making certain that an independent review of the publication was conducted in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of the publication rests solely with the TRB Executive Committee and the institution. TRB staff member Stephen Godwin drafted this document under the guidance of the Subcommittee on Planning and Policy Review and Karen Febey managed the peer-review process.
