Document Library

Throughout its more than 25-year history, the Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM) has compiled the state of the practice based on peer-reviewed research published by the Transportation Research Board and others. The TCQSM provides transportation practitioners of varying levels of experience and responsibility information, techniques, and resources to support the planning, design, and operation of transit services, facilities, and systems. While the TCQSM’s methods represent the best available knowledge at the time of publication, they do not establish policies regarding desirable or appropriate levels of quality of service or capacity for transit services, facilities, or systems.

TCRP Research Report 262: Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual, 4th edition, includes updated statistics, transit agency application examples, and photographs. The manual incorporates emerging mobility options such as microtransit and low-speed automated vehicles, with expanded coverage of widely adopted technologies such as bus and ferry electrification. This edition updates key concepts related to modes and services, operations, and quality of service. Additional updates address topics including quality of service measures and applications, bus transit, demand-responsive transit, rail transit, ferry transit, and transit stops and stations.

Truck parking is a nationwide issue that has intensified with the growth of e-commerce and freight demand. Although federal and state agencies assess needs and construct rest areas, local governments strongly influence parking availability through land use policies, zoning, and enforcement. Safe and adequate truck parking supports freight efficiency, roadway safety, and public health; yet many local jurisdictions lack the resources and guidance needed to address this issue proactively.

NCHRP Research Report 1175: Developing a Guide for Local Truck Parking Regulations, produced by TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program, explores the factors influencing local truck parking decisions, identifies associated challenges and opportunities, and provides actionable resources to help local governments plan for and regulate truck parking more effectively.

The project that led to NCHRP Research Report 1175 also produced NCHRP Web-Only Document 446: Guide for Local Truck Parking Regulations. This companion guide presents a solutions toolbox and a range of model truck parking and staging ordinances, rules, and regulations suitable for consideration and adoption by local municipalities. The guide also addresses truck parking needs, as well as funding opportunities and related resources.

A guide describing the process of integrating telematics risk analysis to improve safety planning and decision-making. TRA uses physics and AI-based tools to measure patterns of risk on the road. Unlike traditional traffic safety data systems that rely on historical trends, TRA analyzes roadway behaviors, such as phone handling, speeding, hard braking, and aggressive cornering as they are happening. This anonymized, aggregated information is then combined to form predictive safety indicators and assess risk. Insurance companies have used this process to predict risks for decades. The same opportunity to better predict risk and make smarter choices on how to prevent crashes and save lives is now available to the highway safety community. By tracking actual patterns of risk, SHSOs can actively deploy TRA to build, implement, and evaluate their THSPs.

For this report, new mobility services are defined as innovative transportation services that redefine how people and goods move within the existing transportation system. Examples include micromobility (shared bikes and scooters), car-sharing, ride-hailing, microtransit, and modern goods delivery services. Revenue measures applied to new mobility services can help agencies that own and manage the transportation system fund staff, technology improvements, and right-of-way modifications. Pricing strategies can also help manage demand for both the services themselves and the public spaces they use. Some new mobility services may merit subsidies because they advance community transportation goals. However, decision-makers are often unaware of the full range of revenue-related tools available to them.

NCHRP Research Report 1165: Revenue-Related Tools for New Mobility, produced by TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program, includes a decision-making framework and examples of best practices to assist those who manage or fund surface transportation networks as they explore ways to subsidize, charge, or assess new mobility services. The report describes the framework for evaluating revenue-related tools for new mobility and explains how to apply the framework. The report also examines promising and innovative revenue models.

Shared-use mobility (SUM) services—commonly associated with urban areas—encompass ridesharing, carsharing, ride-hailing, microtransit, mobility-on-demand, vanpool services and systems, and other forms of transportation shared among users. However, small urban, rural, and frontier areas interested in implementing SUM services to improve mobility and accessibility in their communities face challenges such as limited transportation options, greater travel distances, fewer resources, and minimal infrastructure.

NCHRP Research Report 1171: Public Transit and Ride Sharing for Rural, Tribal, and Frontier Agencies: A Guide, produced by TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program, explores the integration of SUM services with public transportation options in less-populated areas. The guide synthesizes notable SUM practices and lessons learned from transit agencies and other transportation providers. Topics addressed in the guide include goal setting, local coordination, policy development, regulations and permitting, service partnerships, technology and infrastructure, marketing and customer education, and performance measures.

The full research effort behind NCHRP Research Report 1171 is documented in NCHRP Web-Only Document 443: Public Transit and Ride Sharing for Rural, Tribal, and Frontier Agencies: Research into Coordination.

Many women’s travel experiences relate directly to their disproportionate share of caregiving responsibilities. Travelers supervising dependents are more likely to need access to multiple destinations and may have more belongings in tow. Because dependents are unlikely to be commuting adults, travel during off-peak hours is more common, and paying multiple fares can increase the financial burden. Additionally, safety is a greater concern for women, both when they are traveling alone and when they are traveling with dependents, especially children.

TCRP Research Report 265: Addressing Travel Needs of Women and Families on Public Transportation, produced by TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program, presents a set of practical tools to help transit agencies better understand their riders, use existing data more effectively, assess how well they are serving women and families, build internal support for these efforts, and identify service planning, vehicle, and station design strategies that benefit women and families. The eight tools are organized into three stages: Understand Your Riders, Build Internal Capacity, and Deploy Your Tactics.

Subsurface utilities, buried from inches to many feet below roadways and rights-of way, pose significant challenges because they are not visible and cannot be assessed through visual inspection. Their location, condition, ownership, and impact on cost and schedule must instead be determined through specialized investigation methods and stakeholder coordination. Utility data depiction is the primary means of communication, yet it is often inconsistent, with varying stakeholder expectations.

NCHRP Research Report 1180: Depicting Utility Facilities in Design Plans: A Guide, produced by TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program, provides a set of guidelines for transportation agencies on depicting utility data from various sources. These guidelines support design decision-making, utility conflict identification and resolution, and consistent depiction practices. The scope includes both existing and proposed utility facilities. The guide is intended to support both 2-D and 3-D formats, recognizing that agencies vary in their access to and proficiency with different software tools.

The same project that developed NCHRP Research Report 1180 also produced NCHRP Web-Only Document 449: Developing a Guide to Depicting Utility Facilities in Design Plans. This companion document summarizes the research conducted to develop the guide.

A myriad of common barriers can hinder research projects from achieving implementation. Within transportation agencies, many of these barriers are associated with organizational challenges, disconnected research outcomes, and workforce constraints. Organizational challenges arise from structures and processes that may not support effective research implementation. Disconnected research outcomes can lead end users to be unwilling to adopt those outcomes in their daily practice. Workforce constraints related to research implementation may involve staff capacity, skill sets, and levels of interest within both the agency’s research department and among the intended beneficiaries of the research outcomes.

NCHRP Research Report 1179: Overcoming Barriers to Implementing Research Outcomes, produced by TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program, provides a toolkit of strategies to improve the implementation of research outcomes and maximize their impact. The toolkit introduces a common language for describing research and its implementation and presents a series of frameworks that demonstrate alternative approaches to implementation planning. It also outlines strategies for overcoming the most commonly cited barriers to implementing research outcomes.

Red-tinted bus lanes are defined as lanes featuring red-colored pavement intended to enhance the visibility of locations, station stops, or travel lanes reserved exclusively for public transit vehicles or multimodal facilities where public transit is the primary mode. Although red-tinted bus lanes have been implemented in several cities, there is relatively limited documentation on their impacts, operational challenges, and other information valuable to agencies interested in implementing them.

TCRP Synthesis 188: Red-Tinted Bus Lane Experience, produced by TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program, documents the current state of practice for the implementation and performance of red-tinted bus lanes in North America. The report addresses topics such as planning, design, and implementation; materials; operations and enforcement; and system impacts. It also provides guidance and lessons learned from agencies that have implemented and operate red-tinted bus lanes.

This research presents a quantitative framework to help agencies evaluate trade-offs between safety, efficiency, and equity when redesigning urban streets for multimodal operations and connected/automated vehicle (CAV) integration. The study introduces two complementary tools: a Network Fundamental Diagram (NFD)-based optimization model for system-level performance planning and a multi-agent simulation platform that evaluates real-world interactions among vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, micromobility, and emerging modes.

Practitioners will gain insight into how to move beyond qualitative Complete Streets guidance by applying measurable objectives—including accessibility gaps, sufficiency thresholds, and maximin equity principles—to corridor and network design. The framework also incorporates advanced safety metrics (e.g., Time-to-Collision and impact severity) to evaluate both conflict likelihood and consequence. Case studies demonstrate how agencies can transparently compare design alternatives and make evidence-based decisions when trade-offs are unavoidable.

Alternative URLs for accessing the report:

https://figshare.com/articles/preprint/Making_CAV_Deployments_Compatible_with_Complete_Streets_Objectives_for_Safe_and_Efficient_Operation_Phase_II/31021405?file=60862168

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/i5ozwm8a4tlje16u6hwjq/Making-CAV-Deployments-Compatible-with-Complete-Streets-Objectives-for-Safe-and-Efficient-Operation-Phase-II-Final-Report.pdf?rlkey=yajzaiq1q36osh1zkiclhv69w&e=1&st=8ofgbte4&dl=0

PIARC: Impact of the Development of Active Transport Modes in Road Tunnels – Current Situation Report and Case Studies examines the growing integration of active transportation modes—such as pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users—within road tunnel environments. As cities seek to improve mobility, accessibility, and emissions outcomes, tunnel owners and operators face new safety, design, and operational challenges when authorizing active modes in these confined facilities. This international report compiles and evaluates case studies from around the world, highlighting how tunnels are being constructed or retrofitted to safely accommodate active users through infrastructure adaptations, equipment upgrades, and revised operational procedures.

The document categorizes examples into four approaches: tunnels with safety galleries usable by active modes, tunnels with protected spaces for active users, tunnels with specific geometric or operational adaptations, and tunnels dedicated entirely to active mobility. Drawing on global expert contributions, the report outlines the state of practice and identifies key considerations for safety, risk management, and coordination with emergency services. It provides a foundation for future recommendations to guide decision-making by tunnel owners, designers, safety professionals, and transportation agencies considering active mode integration.

This project leverages connected intelligent transportation technologies to enhance the safety of vulnerable road users (VRUs) within evolving urban road systems. This project targets three fundamental barriers: the lack of high-fidelity experimental platforms, localization failures in GNSS-denied areas, and insufficient trajectory prediction for heterogeneous agents. Our goal is to develop an integrated cooperative system that combines virtual reality, wireless communication, and physics-informed learning. To achieve this, we develop Sky-Drive, a distributed multi -agent simulation platform that enables human -in-the-loop interaction testing. Furthermore, the project implements a cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X)-based cooperative localization framework to ensure lane-level accuracy and a kinematics-aware multigraph attention network for precise motion forecasting. The output of this project provides a comprehensive technological foundation for enabling the safe and equitable coexistence of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and VRUs in mixed traffic environments.