The TRB Committee on Transportation Issues in Major U.S. Cities (ABE30) invites papers on “Transportation Issues and Solutions in Major Cities.”

Urban environments present distinct and complex policy, planning, and operating challenges to meet the needs of large volumes of pedestrians, bicycles, transit trips, private vehicles, and freight movements across a variety of surface transportation assets in an equitable, economical, and sustainable manner.  In order to examine and explore transportation issues in major cities, emerging cities and urban environments in both the United States and internationally, the Major Cities Committee is soliciting papers that could explore, but are not limited to, research in the following topic areas:

• Vision Zero and Multimodal Safety – Cities are quickly implementing Vision Zero policies, to ensure the safety of all transportation mode users across a variety of engineering, education, and enforcement strategies, but there is a gap in the literature as to the effectiveness of such policies, particularly in the North American context. This paper call seeks to fill this gap with empirical research on multimodal safety outcomes in a Vision Zero context.

• Changing Cities – A confluence of factors – such as renewed growth and interest in urban living, aging baby boomers, shifting travel priorities for the Millennial generation, and technologies that are disrupting traditional travel modes – has forced cities to reexamine their traditional roles. This call seeks papers which explore policy initiatives cities should be implementing now to be ready for the future, best practices for working with private partners, how technology could promote or hinder a city’s multimodal focus, and/or speak to the role of government with respect 21^st century urban transportation issues.

• Rethinking the Use of the Public Right-of-Way – Use of public right-of-way is no longer limited to automobile travel, parking, and sidewalks. Due to increased demands upon this space, cities are beginning to rethink this asset.  This paper call seeks to understand the wide range of public right-of-way uses, their effectiveness, their ability to negotiate needs of different public right-of-way users (pedestrian, freight, bicyclists, drivers, transit, etc.), and any associated cultural changes within the governmental process.

• Increasing Innovation and Experimentation – Rather than relying upon decades-old engineering guidelines, cities are beginning to experiment and collect empirical data as to what works – and what doesn’t – in urban contexts. This paper call seeks to advance new design standards, performance measures, techniques, and practices with research on innovative, urban transportation and public realm projects.

• Rapidly Improving Technology and a Wealth of “Big Data” – Technology and the wealth of new data now available are having a profound impact on the planning, operations, maintenance, and communication functions of multi-modal travel in cities. This call seeks papers on how cities of the future could benefit from: the systems and data analytics strategies emerging from this space and/or data practices cities should establish (e.g. policies with respect to private companies, open data).

• Urban Transportation Innovations – Major cities face unique challenges in transportation. The transportation issues in the largest cities are at a scale that calls for different solutions – new technologies, new thinking on how to move people and freight, and planning for major events. This call seeks papers which seek to explore new innovations (technological, policy, physical, design, or other) in urban transportation and what this could mean for those who live, work, and play in urban areas.