Director Jennifer Dill’s message for February 2011

I've been going to the TRB Annual Meeting every year for at least 15 years, and sporadically before that. What stood out for me this year was the quantity and quality of research related to non-motorized transportation—walking and bicycling.  I'm in my second term as chair the TRB's Committee on Bicycle Transportation, so this is something I’ve been tracking for awhile. A few pieces of information came together that made me take note:

• I learned that the pedestrian and bicycle committees are among the top 20 committees in terms of number of papers submitted. The bicycle committee received a record number of papers this year: 57.
• Our committee received applications from over 50 people to fill a handful of committee member openings. The table for the pedestrian and bicycle committees at the new attendee reception was swamped with interested professionals and students.
• TRB staff shared with us that bicycle and pedestrian topics in their electronic newsletter often receive more hits or clicks than any other item.
• I presented the findings from my OTREC/city of Portland project with professor Chris Monsere that evaluated bike boxes at signalized intersections (http://www.theotrec.org/project/227) to a standing-room only crowd at the Marriott. The panel included four other research papers evaluating innovative bicycle infrastructure conducted by researchers at UNC, Northeastern, and Texas A&M. The quantity and quality of evaluations appears to be increasing, as more universities are partnering with cities to assess what works and what doesn't.
• Portland State University Ph.D. student Joe Broach presented his work on bicycle route choice modeling (conducted with professor John Gliebe and myself) and has received inquiries from modelers in Sacramento, CA, London, England and places in between to apply the findings. Portland State faculty Miguel Figliozzi, Linda George, Ashley Haire and Chris Monsere, and students Adam Moore, Christine Kendrick and Alex Bigazzi, presenting their work on the air pollution exposure along bicycle facilities (http://www.theotrec.org/project/442) have received similar inquiries from around the country.
• We are just completing admissions for our urban studies Ph.D. program and had a half-dozen strong applicants indicating an interest nonmotorized transportation. There are at least four current Ph.D. students in our program working on dissertations in this area.  There is also growing interest in these topics among the civil engineering students.

So, what does this all mean?  In an era of shrinking resources, increasing gas prices, and concerns over climate change, livability, and equity, more and higher quality research on bicycling and walking as transportation modes is even more important. Without solid evidence of the effectiveness of infrastructure and policies on safety and demand, these modes will continue to be "forgotten," as one former Federal Highway Administrator referred to them. From what I can tell, that’s unlikely to happen.