In the fall of 2015, Eno and ICF International organized a workshop in conjunction with the Federal Highway Administration. This workshop was intended to explore technological advances in transportation and highlight potential policy implications. As part of that workshop, Eno and ICF jointly authored a white paper that describes potentially transformational technological innovations.

Technology has been rapidly changing society, the economy, and the way people live, work, and interact with each other. Driven in part by smartphones, a substantial increase in inexpensive computing power, and “the Internet of things,” technologies are fundamentally changing access to information and services. Within the transportation sector, the implications of new technologies and models of transportation service delivery are broad and are likely to transform the way people and goods move over the coming decades. Given the life-cycle of planning and the range of impacts of transportation investments, understanding these changes and their potential implications are important to consider when forming federal, state, and local transportation policies.

Categories of technological innovation explored in the white paper include:

1. Autonomous and semi-autonomous driving capabilities;
2. New technology enabled models of taxi services and public transit;
3. Technology affecting freight and urban goods movement;
4. New forms of technology-enabled shared use mobility; and
5. Advances in traveler information, transportation system operations, and 
travel demand management.

The white paper is now available for researchers, policymakers, and experts to help better understand the policy implications of the current and coming changes to transportation.