January Sets the Tone

The culmination of a year’s efforts in the transportation business comes to a head every January. Every January brings the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting. At the heart of this meeting are over 11,000 transportation professionals covering every mode of transportation as well as every discipline contributing to the field. For the past three January’s, making the trek to Washington, DC has been a ritual. And every year, I along with many others, emerge with new ideas and fresh perspective on the happenings in our field.

From the exterior it seems like a standard conference, with a nice shiny program filled with educational presentations and workshops, as well as a vendor display area. But as the past three years have progressed, it has grown into so much more for me.

I am a new addition in this field. But at the Annual Meeting, there are people who have been working in transportation for decades, in addition to the hordes in the peak of their career, and the others who, like me, are relatively new. This, of course, means that the networking opportunities are second to none. But opportunities to learn outside of the list of sessions and committee meetings abound.

Despite budget cuts and unpredictable actions from governments, the mood at the Annual Meeting always seems to be a positive and progressive one. There is always this overwhelming feeling that we are still going to find a way to keep moving. There is also this feeling that we will accomplish these great things by working together.

Cold weather aside, January sets the tone for the rest of the year for us transportation wonks. And if the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting was any indication, 2012 is going to be another great year.