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    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
    <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <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>
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      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Improving Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) for Rural Application</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2709239</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Benefit-cost analysis (BCA) is a requirement for U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) discretionary grant programs and plays a significant role in project evaluation and funding decisions. Rural and small urban communities often face challenges in preparing competitive BCAs due to limited technical capacity, data availability, and methodologies that may not fully capture the benefits of rural transportation investments.

Rural transportation projects can provide benefits related to economic connectivity, freight movement, access to essential services, and system resiliency, which may not be fully reflected in conventional BCA approaches. In addition, smaller communities and regional organizations may lack the staff expertise, tools, or resources needed to complete BCA requirements for funding applications.

The objective of this research is to develop a guide to help state departments of transportation (DOTs) improve BCA methods and practices for rural and small metropolitan transportation projects. The research will identify methodological and data gaps in current BCA approaches, evaluate barriers faced by smaller communities in completing BCAs, and develop tools to support effective and competitive project evaluation processes.

Potential research tasks include:

Reviewing current BCA methods, tools, and data sources used for rural and small metropolitan transportation projects.

Identifying rural transportation project benefits that may not be adequately represented in existing BCA methodologies.

Evaluating challenges faced by rural and small metropolitan communities in preparing BCAs for discretionary funding applications.

Assessing opportunities for additional data tools, technical assistance, training resources, and simplified analytical approaches.

Developing guidance and example applications for incorporating rural transportation benefits into BCA processes.

Identifying implementation strategies to support state DOTs and other agencies in preparing more effective BCAs for transportation funding programs.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:51:11 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2709239</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Automated Transit Networks (ATN) – An Update on the State of the Industry and Prospects for the Future</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2431547</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This research project explores the current state and future potential of Automated Transit Networks (ATNs), a transportation system utilizing autonomous, driverless vehicles on dedicated guideways. ATNs represent a promising solution to urban transportation challenges, including traffic congestion, sustainability, and equitable access to mobility. The project involves a comprehensive review of existing academic and industry research on ATNs, engagement with key stakeholders such as transportation operators, urban planners, and policymakers, and the analysis of 2-3 real-world case studies of ATN deployments. 

The goal of the research is to assess the operational, technological, and societal implications of integrating ATNs into existing urban transit systems. The project will identify key challenges and opportunities for ATNs in improving urban mobility, reducing emissions, and ensuring equitable access to transportation. The findings will provide valuable insights for cities, policymakers, and industry stakeholders looking to explore or implement ATN solutions. By investigating the feasibility and potential benefits of ATNs, this research will contribute to advancing sustainable, efficient, and accessible transportation networks, supporting broader transportation policy goals related to equity, climate, and economic competitiveness.

USDOT Priorities:

This project aligns closely with USDOT’s RD&T strategic goals, particularly in supporting Equity, with additional emphases on Climate and Sustainability, and Economic Strength and Global Competitiveness. By analyzing ATNs, this research contributes to advancing equitable transportation access by exploring innovative transit systems that could provide cost-effective, reliable, and accessible mobility solutions to underserved populations. The integration of ATNs with existing urban transit infrastructure offers a transformative approach to reducing urban congestion, which supports climate goals by lowering emissions and improving energy efficiency. The project also addresses economic competitiveness by examining the potential of ATNs to stimulate technological advancements and new business models in the transit sector. Through stakeholder engagement and case study analysis, the project is conducting breakthrough research that identifies practical pathways for integrating ATNs into urban transportation systems, offering insights into how these networks can address both current and future mobility challenges​]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:43:58 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2431547</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Long‐term Transportation Management Strategies in the Context of Low‐density Development at the Urban Fringe
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2006263</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project aims to develop informed management strategies for urban transportation systems, incorporating exhaustive, essential factors affecting urban transformation scenarios due to low‐density development at the urban fringe. This project will apply a standardized SBA that will be developmentally applied by integrating a decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). The standardized SBA is multidisciplinary and top‐down approach for this project to forecast important and uncertain factors related to transportation management strategies for sustainable urban growth under different future urban transformation scenarios. DEMATEL is used to analyze the cause effect relationships among factors and accounts for the inherent fuzziness of survey results to improve the reliability of project results (e.g., scenarios and strategies for each scenario). The specific objectives of the proposed project are: (1) develop a list of factors that influence the uncertainty of optimal transportation management strategies related to urban growth; (2) create urban transformation scenarios, assessing the performance impacts and uncertainty degrees of the factors; (3) determine the optimal transportation management strategies for each scenario; and (4) develop a decision‐making support tool for a transportation agency to utilize to determine the best‐fit transportation management strategies.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 12 Aug 2022 13:22:03 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2006263</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Understand the Diverted and Induced Demand of UAM</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1763977</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Traffic congestion and consequent excessive air pollutant emissions are leading sustainability issue in the United States. Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is an emerging concept proposed in recent years that uses electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs), which is expected to offer an alternative way of transporting passengers and goods in urban areas with significantly improved mobility by making use of low-altitude airspace. Also, eVTOLs generate zero air pollutant emissions during operations. If the electricity (or partial of the electricity) comes from clean and renewable resources and eVTOLs are used efficiently, then UAM is also expected to be an environmentally friendly transportation mode. 
In current limited references, authors assumed simplified mode choice decisions for estimating diverted demand from existing ground transportation modes, and also did not estimate induced demand that could be caused by the system performance improvement due to the introduction of UAM. Such induced demand includes induced ground traffic demand due to mitigated traffic congestion and induced demand of UAM service due to improved mobility. 
In this study, the research team will design a stated preference survey questionnaire to investigate the potential of UAM in context of relieving ground congestion, willingness to pay, and mode shift. First, the current research aims to design an exploratory framework that will contribute to understanding how to approach the analysis of diverted and induced demand in case of UAM. Second, it will provide more insights on the factors (both psychological attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics) that will play a role in the adoption of UAM. Third, the study will explore how daily commute times and congestion status in respondents’ current locations relate to the willingness to pay for UAM and willingness to use UAM.
To answer the abovementioned research questions, both qualitative and quantitate analysis will be performed. The qualitative approach will allow to capture, analyze, and explain the behavioral component of study while the quantitative methods such as advanced statistical and econometric models will provide additional insights into the relationship between dependent variable of interest and independent variables.
Lastly, utility functions with expanded transportation mode choices will be explored to estimate diverted demand and induced demand. 
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 15 Jan 2021 14:48:34 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1763977</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Safety of the Urban Freight System: Key Performance Indicators</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1672453</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Shortened delivery windows and technological advances in logistics are reshaping freight in urban areas and bringing new safety concerns to the fore. North Carolina has seen increases in freight trips and will likely see new modes for last-mile delivery introduced in coming years. As urban freight volumes rise, governments and firms are looking for creative city logistics strategies that allow for fast, reliable, and safe freight deliveries. But the impacts of urban goods movement on road safety are under-studied. While many urban areas have a goal of improving the safety of freight delivery, there is little existing information on how the delivery of goods in metropolitan areas impacts road safety for freight operators and all road users. This project addresses this critical gap in urban freight road safety information by 1) identifying a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the safety of NC’s Urban Freight System, 2) quantifying KPIs for NC and metropolitan areas, and 3) developing recommendations for future monitoring.  This project involves close coordination of the research team with LFD staff and stakeholders such as regional and statewide Freight Advisory Committees. LFD staff will facilitate connections with other department of transportation (DOT) units such as the Traffic Safety Unit and Transportation Mobility and Safety. The project will increase general practice knowledge of the safety of the urban freight system and strategies for monitoring this important issue moving forward.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 11 Dec 2019 15:54:20 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1672453</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Exploratory Modeling and Simulation Study</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1504896</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This is a non-personal services task order to support practical research on exploratory modeling and simulation effort. The objective of this study is to complement the current Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP) Exploratory Modelling and Analysis (EMA) effort. This task order seeks subject matter experts to illuminate interactions between transportation supply and demand on urban surface transportation system (especially at the corridor level) through exploratory modeling and simulation and gain insights of potential, possible, plausible, probable or preferred futures. Ultimately, the study contributes to an understanding of the impact that the rapid technological evolution has on the movement of people and goods on surface transportation system and the robust transportation decision making process.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 12 Mar 2018 10:26:15 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1504896</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Smart Bus System under Connected Vehicles Environment</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1353743</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This research proposes Smart Bus System (SBS) powered by bus-to-devices wireless communications technology including, but not limited to, 3G, 4G/LTE, Wi-Fi, Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), and Bluetooth. SBS is an innovative urban bus operation system integrated with Information Technology (IT) to enhance the efficiency of bus operation, to encourage bus ridership, and to improve the mobility and sustainability of urban transportation. SBS enables 1) a bus to take a shorter path to catch up the schedule when it is behind the schedule and no passengers need to get off or get on and 2) passengers to send a hold request so that the next transfer bus, if at all possible, waits for the transfer passenger. The proposed project will be initially conducted within a simulation environment realizing actual hardware devices such as traffic signal controller, mobile devices (e.g., smartphone, tablet PC), and virtual transit management center. The goal of this project is to demonstrate that the proposed innovative Smart Bus System can improve transit system reliability and increases ridership. The increased bus ridership likely decreases the number of passenger cars on roadway, thereby resulting in the improvement on mobility and air quality and fuel consumption. Thus, the potential benefits of the smart bus system will be gained from the aspects of both mobility and environment.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2015 01:00:34 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1353743</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Major Workforce Challenges Confronting New York City's Transit Industry</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1262506</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Given the size and complexity of urban transit in New York City and the importance of a high performing workforce to its successful functioning, the New York City Labor Market Information Service (NYCLMIS), housed within the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, proposes to work with the University Transportation Research Center to identify workforce issues that will have an impact on the urban transit workforce in the MTA service area and develop recommendations to address these issues. The research questions guiding the study are as follows: (1) How do the labor and management of New York City's transit system define their workforce challenges?  (2) How, if at all, do they differ from the workforce challenges noted by the U.S. Department of Transportation? This includes an examination of the three main issues mentioned above &amp;#8208;&amp;#8208; aging workforce, the competition for workers, and the skill sets needed to respond to changes in the industry. Attention will be given to similarities and differences in labor and management problem definitions. (3) What additional workforce issues uniquely apply to the New York City metropolitan area's urban transit workforce? These could relate to some of the areas examined by the Blue Ribbon Panel - organizational culture, employee availability and labor management relations - or others. (4) How is the industry addressing the issues identified? How are the management workforce issues being addressed? (5) What role do labor management relations play in preparing/upgrading the organized transit workforce?]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 17 Sep 2013 01:00:30 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1262506</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Do Investments in Urban Public Transit Improve Employment Outcomes for Residents? Evidence from Bogota, Columbia</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236614</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Transit advocates argue that good transit systems promote urban economic development by improving job matching between employers and workers who do not commute by car. As urban economies enter an era of high fuel prices, high traffic congestion, and increasing concern about our global climate, increasing numbers of commuters will be looking to alternatives to the private car, including transit. We aim to test the strength of the relationship between transit expansion and employment outcomes using the case of Bogotá, Colombia - a city that recently made an enormous investment in transit with economic development as an explicit goal. We focus on Bogotá because it presents a rare "natural experiment" in transit investment. We plan to employ a variety of empirical strategies using existing geocoded data from a labor market survey conducted each quarter from 2000-2005, along with information about the exact timing and location of the transit expansion over this same time period. The proposed research will provide the first empirical test of whether a real-world major investment in urban transit infrastructure actually improved employment outcomes across a city, and if so, for whom.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:49:59 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236614</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Metrics, Models and Data for Assessment of Resilience of Urban Infrastructure Systems</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236068</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Over the past century, our nation has experienced dramatic changes in demographics, and existing socio-technical systems have become more complex and increasingly networked. To complicate matters, our cyber-physical infrastructure has not been maintained, causing unexpected vulnerabilities and cascading failures (ASCE, 2009; AWWA, 2001). As extreme events frequency and magnitude of resulting disasters have increased, emergent behavior, unexpected performance response, and lack of resilience have been noted (Sanford Bernhardt and McNeil, 2008). While there is success in modeling complex response and predicting behaviors of our urban socio-technical networks under stress, the models have grown so complex that data is not available to validate the model predictions (NRC 2009). It is clear that we need to understand our socio-technical system dynamics and resilience at a fundamental level. Resilience is defined as the ability (sufficient capacity and/or flexibility) of a system to experience unexpected shocks or perturbations, and to respond and recover functionality at some acceptable level of performance or action. There is an urgent need for improved understanding of the genesis and evolution of resilience, in particular in urban transportation systems. This will allow the building and enhancement of social and ecological capital and community resilience, as well as to increase system adaptive capacity (including self-organization) and improve the cost-effectiveness of investments in infrastructure systems. An interdisciplinary approach is needed that captures attributes of the complex systems in a region. This requires assembling varied and deep information reflecting current and future conditions, response and usage so that we can expand our knowledge and validate the discoveries and predictions for system performance response. There is a to assemble and create information and modeling resources, develop a framework of variables and relationships that will support a cross-disciplinary and cross-sector exploration of resilience, and build knowledge as test theory and models are developed. In the long term, this will allow the answer to important questions including: What observations (evidence) can we make (identify) to indicate qualitatively whether a specific system or network will demonstrate resiliency? What metrics can be used to evaluate the capacity of a system or network for resilient response? How does resilience response develop, and what factors control or influence the development? Is it a process with thresholds, tipping points, state changes, or is it a continuous function? What can we understand about when investment or adaptive management is warranted to improve resiliency of a system or networks of interdependent systems? The research proposed here will focus on identifying the basic metrics and models that can be used to develop representations of performance response that can be used to define resilience in urban environments, and to bring together data resources that can be investigated to understand and validate the interactive behavior of our complex transportation infrastructure systems.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:40:29 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236068</guid>
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