Blog

Tuesday morning at the TRB Annual Meeting, I attended a session entitled "Adoption of Emerging Mobility Services and Other Disruptive Technologies: An International Perspective". The presentations included discussion on technologies in use in cities in Latin America and Africa to organize the informal transportation options to reduce inefficiencies and some of the regulatory challenges.

At the TRB Annual Meeting, three of the four presentations in the Wednesday morning session entitled “Transportation Equity Analysis” discussed the challenges of reaching socioeconomically disadvantaged populations in light of recent suburbanization of poverty.

Tuesday afternoon here at the TRB Annual Meeting, I found myself in the subcommittee meeting on Health and Transportation. As much of my work prior to joining EBP was in the field of Health Economics, I am eager to become familiar with research at the intersection of health and transportation.

On Monday, January 13th at the TRB Annual Meeting, I attended a session entitled "Greener in More Ways: Economically Sustainable Funding and Financing Opportunities." In truth, this session seemed to have two main topics: funding for sustainability and sustainable funding. Through five very different presentations, this session highlighted some of the tensions faced by transportation professionals as they balance both financial and environmental goals.

It’s been a busy period of travel for me, starting with a scenario planning conference in Connecticut and moving onto a resilience conference in Washington, DC. During November 13th-15th, 2019, I took part in TRB’s 2nd International Conference on Resilience to Natural Hazards and Extreme Weather Events . Overall, the conference focused on best practices for adapting transportation networks to better withstand natural disasters.

Scenario planning – a flexible and indispensable methodology for considering alternative futures and identifying appropriate planning responses – is a growing area of practice for EDR Group. As we explain in our Emerging Topic page on scenario planning, it is a useful tool for guiding infrastructure investment plans in the face of uncertainty related to sea level rise, technology adoption, economic growth, and just about any uncertain factor you can imagine.

Departments of transportation increasingly use scenario planning to prepare for future changes that will affect the movement of people and goods. Scenario planning requires planners to prepare for a range of possible futures, considering topics like climate change, demographics, and emerging technology. Technological change is perhaps the most difficult issue to address given the wide uncertainty surrounding new mobility and the number of private operators involved in transportation.

Last week I attended the TRB Transportation Planning Applications Conference in Portland, OR. To those familiar with the TRB Annual Meeting, TRBAppcon (as it’s called) is a smaller and less formal event with a greater emphasis on showcasing practical techniques and approaches to transportation planning.

Kyle Schroeckenthaler of EDR Group is on assignment to the offices of our parent company, EBP, in Zurich for the summer months. While in Zurich, Kyle is working closely with the Resources, Energy and Climate division as well as the Transportation group to identify European and global best practices that could be beneficial to our US-based clients. Kyle’s visit will especially support EDR Group’s ability to provide a range and depth of services to clients on new mobility topics such as vehicle electrification and automated and connected technologies effect on transportation systems.