The Transportation Research Board released several new Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) reports.

Report 148: Practical Resources for Recruiting Minorities for Chief Executive Officers at Public Transportation Agencies. This report provides recruitment and retention strategies for minorities to serve in chief executive officer (CEO) positions and offers resources to assist public transportation governing boards in the recruitment of minority CEOs. It also assesses the public transit industry’s recruitment processes for CEOs and provides a case for diversity that documents the benefits of minorities in public transportation leadership positions.

Report 149: Improving Safety-Related Rules Compliance in the Public Transportation Industry. This report identifies potential best practices for all elements of a comprehensive approach to safety-related rules compliance. The categories of best practices, which correspond to the elements of a safety-related rules compliance program, include screening and selecting employees, training and testing, communication, monitoring rules compliance, responding to noncompliance, and safety management. The report also outlines the features of a prototype safety reporting system for public transportation.

Synthesis 91: Use and Deployment of Mobile Device Technology for Real-Time Transit Information. This synthesis examines the use and deployment of real-time transit information on mobile devices. It explores the underlying technology required to generate the information to be disseminated; the mobile technology used for dissemination; characteristics of the information; resources required to successfully deploy information on mobile devices; and the contribution of mobile messaging to an overall agency communications strategy, including “information equity.”

Synthesis 92: Transit Asset Condition Reporting. This synthesis examines and documents the current state of the practice in transit asset condition management. It defines transit asset management as a strategic planning process that supports informed capital investment planning and programming. The objective is to provide public transit agencies and their federal, state, and local funding partners with a review of current practices to help encourage an industry-wide discussion on standards and the data needed to measure conditions and use the information in making effective investment decisions.

Copies of these reports are available online.