<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="https://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
    <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
    <atom:link href="https://rip.trb.org/Record/RSS?s=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" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
    <description></description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
    <image>
      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
      <url>https://rip.trb.org/Images/PageHeader-wTitle-RIP.jpg</url>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
    </image>
    <item>
      <title>Streamlining the Registration Process for Motor Carriers</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2593941</link>
      <description><![CDATA[KRS 186.040 now authorizes interstate motor carriers to register commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) at or above 44,001 lb. directly with the Division of Motor Carriers (DMC). Despite this change, the county clerk in the county where a vehicle is registered still receives $30 of the registration fee. This change effectively consolidates the license plate and International Registration Plan processes. While DMC administrators and county clerks are working with software vendors and the KAVIS team to integrate these processes, doing so has introduced logistical challenges. As these processes continue to evolve, DMC administrators want to analyze how other states process CMV registrations, especially for apportioned vehicles.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 2025 11:32:35 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2593941</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Chameleon Carriers Study</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2417076</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) developed terms (e.g., chameleon carrier, reincarnated carrier, suspected alias) to describe forms of fraud carriers engage in to evade accountability, but they are not used consistently. Variation among states in definitions, statutes, regulations, and methods of taking enforcement actions against chameleon or chameleon-like carriers, have significant consequences for Kentucky’s highway safety and Road Fund. Division of Motor Carriers administrators need additional information on how other states address chameleon or chameleon-like carriers so they can better situate Kentucky’s current approach and determine whether changes are needed. The study’s findings can be used by the Department of Vehicle Regulation and Kentucky State Police to determine if policies and procedures governing enforcement against chameleon carriers should be made.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 12 Aug 2024 13:26:35 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2417076</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>ACRP Policy and Planning Products Update - PHASE II</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2244238</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Since its inception, the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) has produced hundreds of research reports, tools, databases, and other products. Recognizing the dynamic nature of the airport industry and the need to ensure that the program’s products reflect the latest in practice, ACRP developed a systematic process to identify products most in need of updating. Phase I reviewed ACRP’s policy and planning products (some produced more than 10 years ago) and prioritized a list of needed updates. Some of the criteria used in the decision-making are how integral the obsolete or missing content was to the integrity/usefulness of the product, the overall interest in the original publication (based on downloads), if updates are urgently needed for the product to continue to be useful to the industry, and how broadly applicable the updates will be for the U.S. airport industry. The panel reviewed that list and selected four products for updating. 

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this research are to update ACRP Report 98: Understanding Airline and Passenger Choice in Multi-Airport Regions, ACRP Report 132: The Role of U.S. Airports in the National Economy, ACRP Report 142: Effects of Airline Industry Changes on Small- and Non-Hub Airports, and ACRP Research Report 161: Guidelines for Improving Airport Services for International Customers. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 11 Sep 2023 21:03:39 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2244238</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Tool to Assess Effectiveness of Intermodal Facility Location and Carrier Collaboration</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2196816</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This study is focused on the design and operation of a freight network that supports carrier collaboration where two or more carriers form an alliance and share pick-up and delivery of jobs. In carrier collaboration, it is assumed that carriers can retain some of the pickup and delivery jobs they receive from clients while releasing the rest of the jobs to a common pool. A two-stage model and framework for the application of this model in the real-world are developed. The stage-1 model is for strategic planning and the stage-2 model is for operational planning. The strategic model uses demand forecasts to determine the intermodal terminal (IMT) locations and provides the pickup and delivery jobs to the operational model. The strategic model is used for long term planning, whereas the operational model is used for short term planning. The realized/actual shipping data from the operational model can provide feedback to the forecasting model to update supply and demand forecasts. The updated supply and demand forecasts are used to re-evaluate the long-term plan by opening or closing IMT locations as deemed necessary by the decision makers. The objective of the multi-period strategic model is to determine the number and location of IMTs that minimize the total relevant transportation and operational costs. The objective of the operational model is to jointly determine the optimal allocation of jobs from the common pool to the carriers and pickup/delivery routes for each truck. Numerical experiments are conducted using hypothetical networks for both models. Findings from the strategic model show regions with higher supply or demand of freight volume tend to have higher utilized IMTs and impact the total network cost the most. The sensitivity analysis for budget shows that intermodal shipping share and total network cost converge at a point and the model does not add new IMTs. The alternate optimal solutions show the tradeoff between intermodal shipping share and total network cost with budget investment in opening IMTs. Findings from the operational model confirm the expectation that carrier collaboration can yield a significant reduction in the total cost of serving all pickup and delivery jobs. The cost savings from the collaboration is dependent on the spatial distribution of the nodes in the network, network size, the distance between carrier depots, percentage of pooled jobs, size of the overlapping region of carriers, and the number of jobs in the overlapping region.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:24:13 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2196816</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Methods to Identify Problematic Carriers and Prevent Infrastructure Damage</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2150891</link>
      <description><![CDATA[To establish the current use and availability of datasets, method of access and integration nuances related to oversize/overweight trucking operations in Massachusetts, as well as violation types and rates for these vehicles.

Compile a comprehensive classification of relevant existing data sources, fields, and their framework of interoperability from state agencies and departments including but not limited to: MassDOT Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) Division citation, licensed drivers, registered vehicles, and crash data, as well as Massachusetts State Police (MSP) SafetyNet Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) crash and inspection data. Furthermore, MassDOT datasets including (but not limited to) overweight/size permits, freight restrictions, roadway inventory, and toll records would be examined for potential inclusion. Develop recommendations and procedures for the preferred utilization of shared datasets from multiple departments and agencies to enable MassDOT to identify and analyze height and/or weight restricted Massachusetts transportation infrastructure, and to prevent damage from problematic use by commercial carriers.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Apr 2023 10:09:29 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2150891</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Item Response Theory (IRT)</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2100886</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Section 5221 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation ACE (FAST Act) required the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to conduct a study of the Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) program and its SMS. On June 27, 2017, the NASEM panel issued a report titled “Improving Motor Carrier Safety Measurement,” which argues for FMCSA to adopt a more statistically principled approach. In response to the NASEM recommendation and the corresponding corrective action plan, FMCSA initiated a Correlation Study, a multi-year effort focused on developing and evaluating an IRT model to determine if the statistical rigor and complexity of IRT yields sufficient benefits compared to SMS to be integrated into the Agency’s prioritization process.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 18 Jan 2023 11:17:32 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2100886</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Synthesis of Information Related to Airport Practices. Topic S01-29. Airport Practices for Onboarding a New Passenger Airline</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2077895</link>
      <description><![CDATA[ACRP Synthesis 134: Airport Practices for Onboarding a New Passenger Airline, from TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program, describes airport practices and approaches as to how airport staff prepare to onboard a new passenger airline.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 07 Dec 2022 17:13:48 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2077895</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Synthesis of Information Related to Airport Practices. Topic S01-27. State of Airport Loyalty Programs</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1897245</link>
      <description><![CDATA[ACRP Synthesis 131: State of Airport Loyalty Programs, from TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program, provides a comprehensive overview of the current status of U.S. airport loyalty programs.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 14 Dec 2021 13:18:11 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1897245</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Evaluation of Electronic Enforcement of Motor Carrier Compliance and Safety</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1896778</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This research will be used to identify if electronic enforcement operations will improve the state’s safety and compliance rates enough to offset any monetary investment requirements. In order to determine whether the return on investment for electronic enforcement makes good business sense to Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), the following objectives must be met: (1) determine the current state of electronic enforcement in the United States and what challenges exist for implementation by ODOT; (2) develop an understanding of how Motor Carriers and the public perceive electronic enforcement; (3) identify the safety improvements and other benefits seen in states currently using electronic enforcement; (4) learn what worked well and what didn’t from states currently utilizing electronic enforcement; and (5) list out what technology would benefit Oregon the most and where it should be located to maximize the investment.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2021 14:19:03 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1896778</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SPR-4606: Overweight Divisible Loads: Permit Administration and Impact on Indiana’s Road Infrastructure and Safety</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1858257</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The study will provide information to Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to support deliverables to the legislature. It will also determine the actual infrastructure performance at permitted routes; and identify any need to revise permit fees to incentivize user behavior. The study will measure the anticipated changes in infrastructure consumption due to any fee changes, document impacts of fee structures on shippers, and explore financial levers to facilitate permitting. Deliverables will include a permit Calculator (for carriers) to calculate benefits of axle addition, and a dashboard (for INDOT) to monitor permitting impacts. Finally, carriers will be surveyed for their perspectives and possible responses
to future overweight (OW)-permitting initiatives.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jun 2021 15:38:06 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1858257</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Selecting, Procuring, and Implementing Airport Capital Project Delivery Methods</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1645859</link>
      <description><![CDATA[ACRP Report 21: A Guidebook for Selecting Airport Capital Project Delivery Methods explores various project delivery methods for major airport capital projects. Since this was published in 2009, delivery methods that were considered alternative are now common, there are hybrid approaches, other methods are emerging, and there are lessons to be learned from these examples.

The selection of a project delivery method is one of many decisions to be made for an airport capital project. Others include the implementation of the delivery method and the procurement strategy. Implementation of the selected delivery method includes decisions on financing, management structure, cost, cash flow, and others. 

The project delivery strategy must also consider risks, so that risks are assumed by the most appropriate party. This requires understanding the risks for each delivery method and related procurement strategy. The procurement strategy must focus on selection of the delivery team, which represents the best combination of qualifications, approach, and cost. It should also include provisions for competitive pricing during project implementation.

Considerations must also include the impact on airport staff that will likely affect every discipline and department of the airport (e.g., planning and development, engineering, airport operations, finance, and legal). It’s necessary to understand how each delivery method will impact the workload of staff and the skills required to successfully implement the project.

Understanding of the different factors and implications that go into the decision-making process will allow airports to make a more informed, risk-based decision on the delivery project method and procurement strategy that will best meet its objectives.

The objective of this research is to develop a guidebook for the assessment, selection, procurement, and implementation of project delivery methods applicable at airports of all sizes. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 12 Aug 2019 20:17:26 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1645859</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Impact of Ride-sharing in New York City</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1607556</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The project will develop a citywide data-driven transportation simulation modeling framework for probabilistic assessment of the associated mode-shift and resulting environmental, social and economic impacts of ride-sharing solutions (e.g. UberPOOL, Lyft shared etc) on urban transportation system in New York City efficiently leveraging available partial transportation data. The impacts in question include: travel time cut for passengers, reduction of traffic, gas consumption/ emissions by type (CO, NOx, PM2.5), travel time/cost savings for passengers, increased earnings for Lyft and Uber drivers, jobs for for-hire-vehicle drivers. Once developed, the new framework is readily applicable to the predictive assessment of the impacts of many other transportation pricing and policy decisions, such as Manhattan congestion charge which is scheduled to come into effect by January 2019 – additional use case depicting it will be provided. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 22 May 2019 13:23:05 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1607556</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Simulation and Analytical Evaluation of Bus Redesign Alternatives in Transit Deserts with Ride-hail Presence</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1607545</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project will undertake the evaluation of the Brooklyn bus network redesign proposed by Eric Goldwyn and colleagues at the Marron Institute. It will include specific attention to the presence of ride hail fleets (through analytical models and exploratory consideration of MATSim extensions) in justifying stop spacing and route allocations, particularly for areas regarded as transit deserts where the local population is especially vulnerable to vicious cycles impacting transit performance. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 22 May 2019 12:55:06 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1607545</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>ASCENT Project 35 - Airline Flight Data Examination to Improve Flight Performance Modeling</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1502386</link>
      <description><![CDATA[No abstract provided.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 16 Feb 2018 13:19:24 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1502386</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Expert Support for Improving Motor Carrier Safety Measurement</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1497932</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Once established and funded on an ongoing basis, an independent committee appointed by the President of the NAS will assist FMCSA in developing and testing an IRT model to measure motor carrier safety.  In addition, the standing committee will solicit input from stakeholders and provide advice to FMCSA in the implementation of the other five recommendations.  
Once established, the standing committee will meet quarterly, and on an ad-hoc basis if needed, to review FMCSA’s progress in implementing its action plan and to provide guidance and advice. This standing committee will a) assist FMCSA in refining its analysis methodologies; b) assist in identifying and utilizing current research in the transportation and related communities; c) review the effectiveness results of the IRT model and provide advice; and d) promote transparency in FMCSA’s analysis and prioritization activities. 
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 17 Jan 2018 12:38:10 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1497932</guid>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>