National Institute for Transportation and Communities

This page serves as a homebase for our coverage of the 2020 Transportation Research Board (TRB) annual conference. Check back here for ongoing updates, as well as our Twitter and Facebook.

• NITC GUIDE TO TRB (PDF): Our printable schedule of where all of our NITC researchers will be presenting at lectures, poster sessions, and workshops.

• NITC RECEPTION AT TRB: Join us for transportation bingo and networking on Monday, January 13 (8:00 –10:30 PM) nearby at Fadó Irish Pub.

• NITC STUDENT AWARD AT CUTC BANQUET: We’ll be celebrating our 2019 NITC “Student of the Year,"  Samuel Jensen of the University of Arizona, at the annual CUTC Banquet.

NITC AT TRB 2020 HIGHLIGHTS

Below is a small sampling of the expertise NITC is bringing to TRB 2020. For the ...

The 11th annual Transportation and Communities Summit 2019, held at Portland State University (PSU) on September 19–20, drew attendees from 14 states across the U.S. Over 250 people joined us for the Summit day, and nearly 60 took part in the deep-dive workshop day. We hope the event offered new opportunities for collaboration and synergy between researchers, practitioners, and community members.

• Download the presentations 
• See the full schedule
• See photos from the event

Peter DeFazio, the U.S. Representative for Oregon's 4th congressional district, kicked off the day with a video welcome message for the summit attendees, followed on the main stage by TREC director and urban planning faculty Jennifer Dill. 

At lunchtime Ben Wellington, the data storyteller behind the popular quantitative analysis blog...

The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) program has released its 2019 general research request for proposals. Faculty at NITC's partner universities* are invited to submit abstracts by March 29, 2019.

Through funding provided by the U.S. DOT, we will award up to $1,000,000 to research projects that support NITC’s theme: improving mobility of people and goods to build strong communities. Our theme includes a few key topics:

• Increasing access to opportunities
• Improving multi-modal planning and shared use of infrastructure
• Advancing innovation and smart cities
• Developing data, models, and tools

2019 RESEARCH PRIORITIES

The NITC Advisory Board has provided input into several research priorities that relate to multimodal transportation data and the transportation-land use-housing connection. NITC is prioritizing the funding of proposals that directly addresses research questions related to:

Developing Data, Models and Tools. Agencies are confronting a plethora of new mobility options along with new data sources to support transportation research, planning, and analysis. Several priority research areas have been identified to increase understanding: 

• Collection of multimodal...

Garrett Stephens, Oregon Institute of Technology

Garrett Stephens is Oregon Tech's 2018-19 ITE Student Chapter President and has held civil engineering internships at Kiewit and Lane County Public Works. He was interested in civil engineering from a young age, and has recently decided to pursue a graduate degree with a focus on transportation.

LinkedIn

Tell us about yourself?

My name is Garrett Stephens and I am from the Clackamas/Damascus area outside of Portland, Oregon. Growing up, my family owned our own retail paint business where I worked when needed and developed a strong sense of ownership in anything I did. My college career started when I was 16 years old through an early college options program between the homeschool program I was enrolled in and Clackamas Community College. This program allowed me to really step out and develop leadership skills through the classes I took. Outside of academia, I am an avid outdoorsman and love all that Oregon has to offer.

What and/or who has most significantly influenced your path in transportation?