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TRB
The Transportation
Research Board promotes innovation and progress in transportation
by encouraging research, communication and implementation activities.
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Congress established
the National Academy of Sciences in 1863 so "whenever called
upon by any department of the Government, [to] investigate, examine,
experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art…."
To keep pace with the growing importance of science and technology,
the NAS eventually expanded to include the National Research Council
(NRC) in 1916, the National Academy of Engineering in 1964, and the
Institute of Medicine in 1970. Collectively, these organizations are
called the National Academies. The Academies' service to government
has become so essential that Congress and the White House have issued
legislation and executive orders over the years that reaffirm its
unique role.
The Transportation
Research Board (TRB) is a unit of the NRC, a private, nonprofit institution
that is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of
Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. The Board's mission
is to promote innovation and progress in transportation by stimulating
and conducting research, facilitating the dissemination of information,
and encouraging the implementation of research results.
TRB fulfills this
mission through the work of its standing technical committees and
task forces addressing all modes and aspects of transportation; publication
and dissemination of reports and peer-reviewed technical papers on
research findings; administration of the National Cooperative Highway
Research Program (NCHRP) and the Transit Cooperative Research Program
(TCRP); conduct of special studies on transportation policy issues
at the request of the U.S. Congress and government agencies; operation
of an on-line computerized file of transportation research information;
and the hosting of an annual meeting that typically attracts 8,000
transportation professionals from throughout the United States and
abroad.
TRB's varied activities
annually draw on more than 4,000 engineers, scientists, and other
transportation researchers and practitioners from the public and private
sectors and academia, all of whom contribute their expertise in the
public interest. The Board is supported by state transportation departments,
the various administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation
and other federal agencies, industry associations, and other organizations
and individuals interested in the development of transportation.
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