Current Focus Areas

Transportation Economics Research Needs

• Economic Issues Surrounding Automated and Connected Vehicles
• Taxi Usage, Pricing and Urban Transport
• Economic Principles in Advance Disaster Planning
• Issues Relating to Privatizing Roads in the United States
• Risk Assessment

To participate in any of these research areas, please fill out the form on the Research page.

On Going Activities

Sign up here to volunteer for any of these activities.

Membership Activities

One aspect of keeping a group of volunteers interested in the committee is to try to incorporate additional fun events into our meetings. We have a working group formed to look for opportunities to get together outside of the formal TRB meeting rooms:

Membership Activities - Paula Dowell, Jon Skolnik, Brian Alstadt, Rimon Rafiah, Holly Krambeck, and Jonathan Peters.

Economic Evaluation

There is a general heightened awareness of allocating funds to the uses where they are most effective. Therefore, the committee's commitment to disseminating best transportation economics analysis practices, including BCA, is finding more receptive audiences. As such, we will continue to:

1. Find events (conferences, meetings, workshops, etc.) where we can interject some transportation economics focused content into the event. We have a working group that focuses on identifying such events and working with the host of the event to accomplish this objective. Working group members include:

   Papers, Sessions, and Conferences - Jim Gillespie, Nadia Gkritza, Katherine Harback, Nancy Bergeron, Adrian Moore, and Darren Timothy.

2. Co-sponsor sessions at TRB events with other committees to reach out to their members.
3. Foster and encourage our committee liaisons (listed below) to actively seek out opportunities similar to those mentioned in above.

Committee Liaisons

Committee Number	Committee Name	Liaison(s)
A0030T	Task Force on Data for Decisions and Performance Measures	Nancy Bergeron
ABC30	Performance Measurement	Valentin Vulov
ABC40	Transportation Asset Management	Rimon Rafiah
ABE10	Revenue and Finance	Brian Weatherford
ABE25	Congestion Pricing	Brian Weatherford
ABE30	Transportation Issues in Major US Cities	Rabinder Bains
ABE50	Transportation Demand Management	Sisinnio Concas
ADA50	Transportation Planning, Programming and Systems Evaluation	Shiva K. Shrestha
ADB10	Travel Behavior and Values	Lei Zhang
ADB40	Transportation Demand Forecasting	Lei Zhang
ADC10	Environmental Analysis in Transportation
ADD10	Transportation and Economic Development	Brian Weatherford / Nadia Gkritza
ADD20	Social and Economic Factors of Transportation	Rabinder Bains
ADD30	Transportation and Land Development	Kara Kockelman
ADD40	Transportation and Sustainability
ADD50	Environmental Justice in Transportation
ABH15	Intelligent Transportation Systems	Peter Rafferty
AHB35	HOV, HOT, and MLs	Mark Burris
ANB20	Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation	Nancy Bergeron
APO50	Bus Transit Systems
ATO10	Freight Transportation Economics and Regulation	Victor Aragonés / Nadia Gkritza
AHB10	Regional Transportation Systems Management and Operations	Valentin Vulov
AVO40	Aviation Economics and Forecasting	Katherine Harback

Technology Transfer

The committee recently took over the BCA website (formerly on CalTrans servers, now at bca.transportationeconomics.org) and has greatly enhanced our own committee website (www.transportationeconomics.org). The committee's internet working group includes:

Internet Website/Webmaster - Sabya Misha with help from Peter Rafferty, Valentin Vulov, Sara Khoeini and Shanjiang Zhu.

The committee's communication coordinator (Sabya Misha) is a member of this working group which helps to keep the website coordinated with all of our other activities.

The committee's BCA working group (who both help with the BCA website, but also work on BCA research and best practices) includes:

Benefit Cost Analysis (Website and Practical Practice of) - headed by Chris Williges and Lei Zhang with help from: Sabyasachee Mishra, Rabinder Bains, James Hunt, Brian Weatherford, David Hartgen, Todd Litman, Patrick McLaughlin, Roberto Agosta, William Denning, Wayne Berman, Daniel Hodge, Rimon Rafiah, Curtis Morgan, Peter Rafferty, Sarah Dammen, Carlos Carrion, Hollie Cairns, Paula Dowell, and Nancy Bergeron.

Additionally, we post the minutes of each meeting on the committee's website. The committee secretary (Gui Shearin with help from Rabinder Bains) is charged with taking the minutes.

Other technology transfer items are noted above (under budgetary environment). Finally, we also use the TRB paper publishing process to transfer technology. The two members in charge of the paper review process working group are:

Paper Review - Nancy Bergeron.

Outreach and Collaboration

• Extend and encourage the application of economic concepts, perspectives, and methods on major issues in transportation (including TRB's Critical Issues) by:
  • Preparing new research problem statements based on emerging issues, including joint sponsorship with other committees on crosscutting issues;

    Research Coordinator - Lei Zhang
    Research Needs Statements - Lei Zhang

  • Maintaining a compendium of ongoing research projects and reporting on their status at the annual meeting;
  • The committee chair writing to committee members and friends about three times per year;
  • Marketing and enhancing this committee website in order for it to be a one-stop site for information pertaining to transportation economics and benefit-cost analysis developments, activities, and best practices case examples.
• Illuminate the many applications of economic analysis to transportation decisions by:
  • Identifying potential topics for presentations at committee meetings;
  • Considering opportunities for special events that focus on transportation economics; assigning a task force to plan and carry out each special event (see the working group "Papers, Sessions, and Conferences" above).

Knowledge Transfer and Program Support

• Work synergistically with related economics committees (ADD10, ABE10, ABE25, ATO10) to reinforce the use of economic concepts and methods, and strengthen and enhance the application of economic concepts and methods in those committees not primarily concerned with economics by:
  • Actively seeking out co-sponsoring opportunities with other TRB committees for sessions and events including crosscutting issues;
  • Foster research collaboration with other committees through joint subcommittees. Current joint-subcommittees include:
    • Joint Subcommittee on the Economics of Pricing, Darren Timothy, Chair, in conjunction with ABE25 - Congestion Pricing.
    • Joint Subcommittee on Parking Pricing, Rachel Weinberger, Chair, in conjunction with ABE50 - Transportation Demand Management.
    • Joint Subcommittee on Public-Private Partnerships, Jennifer Mayer, Chair, in conjunction with ABE10 - Revenue and Finance, ALO10 - Transportation Law Committee, and AFH15 - Project Delivery Methods Committee.
    • Joint Subcommittee on Risk and Resilience in Assessment and Planning, Silvana Croope, Chair
  • Maintaining a list of co-sponsored research, conferences, and sessions, and make the list available on the Transportation Economics Website.
• Ensure we maintain a focus on the goals and objectives of the committee. This includes continuous improvement and monitoring of our strategic plan. Valentin Vulov is heading this effort.

Research and Technical Development

• Improve the quality of TRB papers applying economics in transportation by:
  • Developing a one-page call for papers every March.
  • Focus on generating Research Needs Statements and maintaining the RNS database.
• Encourage significant involvement of the committee's diverse and young members thru key appointments to sub-committee chairs and working task groups.

Planning

Two working groups help with planning the summer meeting:

1. Technical activities - sessions/presentations
   Volunteers: Darren Timothy, Jonathan Skolnick, Karen White
2. Social activities subcommittee
   Volunteers: Adrian Moore, Jonathan Skolnick