Unless you’ve experienced the multi-day event firsthand, it’s hard to grasp the sheer scale of the Transportation Research Board’s annual meetings. More than 13,000 transportation professionals converged on Washington, D.C.’s convention center to participate in hundreds of sessions and workshops this month. Navigating the event can be daunting, with attendees having to decide which of the more than 4,000 presentations and 600 workshops and sessions to attend.

I skipped some of the technical sessions such as the “Long-Term Performance and Leachability Assessment of Geopolymer-Treated Base Stabilized Using Full-Depth Reclamation Techniques” and gravitated toward more planning and policy-related topics such as how transportation agencies are employing artificial intelligence, the results of low-income reduced transit fare programs, and remote work’s impact on mobility and land use.

Remarkably, most of the conference is organized by the more than 8,000 people who volunteer on TRB’s technical committees and panels. If you attended TRB’s History Subcommittee, you would have learned about US DOT’s Archives, the history of intercity bus services, and most relevant to Eno’s supporters and friends — some of the resources that you can find on our website.

Eno’s Historical Materials

Here is what the History Subcommittee members found most valuable about Eno’s historical resources.

You can start by going to Eno’s resource page which has links to Eno Transportation Weekly, webinars, original research reports, publications, historical documents, as well as academic journals published by Eno.

Our research library, allows you to sort through our reports and publications by tag (issue, and mode), author, and date.

Above: a screenshot of the research library and content filters.

Eno’s historical documents include fascinating materials, such as a 1943 report that laid the groundwork for President Roosevelt’s executive order granting the Secretary of War control over the nation’s private railroads during World War II.

Eno published the highly regarded Traffic Quarterly and Transportation Quarterly between 1947 and 1983. The tables of contents from two issues, published a decade apart, are shown below.

Eno has been publishing an article about every U.S. president relating to transportation innovations in a fascinating series, titled “From Lighthouses to Electric Chargers.”

We started with George Washington and you will soon be able to read articles written by presidential advisors and US DOT secretaries who worked for Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.

Our archives of Eno Transportation Weekly (ETW) articles contain very relevant materials. For example, articles from January 2017 include:
• President Donald Trump Emphasizes Infrastructure in Inaugural Address
• Key Takeaways from Chao’s Confirmation Hearing
• Trump Announces Formation of Infrastructure Council
• Final Performance Measure Rule Issued With Other “Midnight Rules”

You can read some of our multi-part series about transportation history such as:
• Conversation With Alan Boyd, the First U.S. Secretary of Transportation
• Pre-1960s Attempts to Create a US DOT
• The First Time the Highway Trust Fund Went Broke
• Amtrak at 50
• Transit’s First Fiscal Cliff – The Fight for Operating Subsidies

And, Eno also has also published numerous articles about transportation history that will enlighten readers about current issues, such as
• History of the Tolling Ban on Federal-Aid Highways
• Origins of “Buy American” and “Hire American” Policies
• History of Mass Transit Discretionary Grants
• History of the Secretary’s Ability to Approve (or Disapprove) Projects