Trump Prompts Restructuring of Transportation Research Board in “Unprecedented Overreach”

The transportation division of the National Academy of Sciences, the Transportation Research Board (TRB), is restructuring to avoid scrutiny from the Trump administration, announcing it will dissolve committees related to climate, sustainability, equity, and cities. David Meyer reports on the changes for Streetsblog USA.

According to an email sent to committee members by TRB Executive Director Victoria Sheehan and Technical Activities Division Director Ann Brach, “In recent months, additional direction from the federal government has further impacted how TRB administers its work. We are streamlining and strengthening our committee structure to better reflect national priorities.” The TRB website now lists less than half the number of committees it previously had.

TRB was formed to help develop new transportation-related technologies in the early days of the automobile. “Today, it serves as a coordinating body for states and municipalities to come together to fund shared research interests, which range from topics as obscure as moose crashes to ones as high-profile as the safety benefits of new automobile technology.” 

The changes are likely to have a chilling effect on transportation and road safety research as a whole. According to David Zipper, a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative, “If TRB no longer provides space for a given topic to be showcased — like, for example, gender-based research or bike lanes or climate — that's a massive disincentive for a 27-year-old PhD student to consider investigating that issue in their dissertation or in their research.”