July 26, 2019 – With over 40,000 deaths attributed to on and off-road related vehicle incident in 2017 and 2018, vehicle related fatalities has made itself a persistent problem in the United States. The House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing on “Legislation to make cars in America Safer” on Wednesday, July 24.
April 12, 2019 – The House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit met April 9th for a hearing on street and highway safety.
March 11, 2019 – President Trump has released a fiscal year 2020 budget request today that calls for $84.1 billion in gross budgetary resources for the U.S. Department of Transportation today, a $3.5 billion decrease from 2019.
January 31, 2019 – After more than two years without a Federal Highway Administrator, a confirmation hearing was held on Tuesday for former National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Nicole R. Nason to fill the role.
December 21, 2018 – At 5:15 p.m. today – the Friday before Christmas – the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that it has determined that California’s state laws requiring minimum meal and rest breaks for truck drivers are preempted by federal hours-of-service laws. The determination by FMCSA came in response to petitions filed by the American Trucking Associations and the Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association.
December 20, 2018 – NHTSA issued a final rule Tuesday to streamline the process for considering automakers’ petitions for exemptions from federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) and federal bumper rules, saying it will help make the review process faster as automated vehicle technologies continue to evolve.
December 14, 2018 – TRB’s new report on the future of the Interstate Highway System falls short of the bold vision needed to solve the system’s intractable problems.
December 7, 2018 – Three years and two days after the enactment of the FAST Act, the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine released their study of the future of the Interstate Highway System commissioned by section 6021 of that law.
December 5, 2018 – The rapid introduction of micromobility, such as dockless scooters and bikes, in US cities is showing incredible promise to solve age-old city problems. While the permitting processes can be complex, here is a little advice for cities to consider on three critical areas.
December 5, 2018 – With time running out in the Senate, proponents of autonomous vehicles legislation released a much-revised draft version of the bill this week.
November 8, 2018 – Uber acknowledges in its newly released Voluntary Safety Self-Assessment (VSSA) that standard, measurable metrics are necessary to quantify the safety of automated vehicles.
November 2, 2018 – A public comment period for the SAFE Vehicles Rule proposal closed on October 26, with over 400,000 comments submitted on the NHTSA and EPA dockets.
October 25, 2018 – As cities begin to explore ways to accommodate new forms of mobility, outdated traffic laws and regulations must similarly shift to ensure everyone’s safety.
October 17, 2018 – The books are closed on fiscal year 2018 and they reveal that net U.S. Department of Transportation spending (outlays) decreased by $946 million in 2018 versus 2017. But all is not as it seems.
October 10, 2018 – One of the most popular terms in the autonomous vehicle world is the belief—or goal—that vehicles in the future will be “autonomous, electric and shared.” However, what has been virtually ignored is that one of these three elements—the shared part—is not like the others.
October 8, 2018 – The start of the fiscal year gives us a chance to look at the long-term cost of the financial obligations of the Highway Trust Fund and to separate them into the cost of old commitments versus new commitments.
October 5, 2018 – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released the annual estimate of fatalities from highway accidents in the United States for calendar year 2017, showing that fatalities decreased slightly after two years of increases.
October 4, 2018 – At a public event this morning, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao released her department’s long-awaited “AV 3.0” guidance document, formally called Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0.
September 26, 2018 – A panel of transportation and short-range communications experts argued this week that DSRC technology exists now and can provide safety benefits, and therefore should be implemented as soon and as ubiquitously as possible.
September 20, 2018 – The fact that long-discussed questions still dominate transportation technology hearings speaks to missed opportunities or inefficiencies in communicating with decision-makers and their offices.