Attendees experienced the wide open spaces and the big skies of Montana as they transversed the heavily traveled, curvy two-lane roads to Yellowstone National Park. The influx of people from all economic levels, traveling many miles of roads through tribal lands and rural communities, has a huge impact on regional transportation costs, mobility and safety. Many other rural areas across the country share these transportation challenges: lack of alternate routes, limited public transportation, limited communication options, wildlife on the roadway, and difficult driving conditions. CUTC Summer Meeting host SURTCOM demonstrated how UTCs are forging partnerships with public/private agencies, NGOs, and their communities to overcome fiscal and institutional obstacles, and implement creative solutions to address some of the most critical issues of our time, like expanding transportation access and reducing road fatalities.

Every bit of land in the United States was home to Native Americans (American Indians) and Alaska Natives. Tribes have retained sovereignty over the lands that they live on today and reserved rights in areas outside of their current land base. Many Tribes have treaties with the US and are the subjects of federal executive orders, statutes, and regulations. In addition tribes have relationships with states, counties and local governments. This session will discuss the issues faced by Native Americans and Alaska Natives and how we can work together to help solve their transportation challenges.

Margo Hill / TR-NEWS

Ron Hall

Nathan Belz

As we work to improve safety in our nation’s transportation sector, we need to realize that there are differences in the challenges faced in rural and urban areas. Traveling to Big Sky, Montana will give you a firsthand glimpse of some of the rural issues, including narrow curvy roads, low shoulder, wildlife crossings, and lack of cellular service. This session will further compare the unique challenges of addressing safety in rural versus urban areas.

Hilary Isebrands

Jamie Sullivan

Rob Ament

The COVID-19 pandemic brought in significant challenges to our lives, from the means we travel and work to the ways we communicate and learn. College teaching is not exceptional. Over the past three years, new teaching concepts, methods, and technologies have been broadly investigated to address the teaching challenges at universities. This workshop intends to bring university educators together to share success stories and brainstorm for solutions on transportation course delivery and other educational activities.

Ali Maher

Lily Elefteriadou

Steve Muench

Laurence Rilett

The COVID-19 pandemic led to stay at home orders and shutdowns that greatly reduced the number of vehicles on our roadways. As people began spending more time outside, closing lanes or entire sections of streets for more outdoor activities, particularly in large urban areas, became common. This session will examine how our transportation system changed during the pandemic and which changes may be permanent, and which may simply have been a “blip on the radar”.

Cole Kopca

Bahar Dadoshova / Xiao Li

Rachel Liu