Roya Amjadi, US Department of Transportation, and David Banks, Duke University
Members of the ASA Transportation Statistics Interest Group (TSIG)—made up of statisticians, transportation professionals, engineers, urban planners, economists, and analysts who want to champion the use of statistics in transportation research and application—invite ASA members to join.
TSIG members meet twice a year, at the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in August and the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in January. They advocate for and research the use of strong statistical methodology for the collection, dissemination, and analysis of transportation data.
Examples of TSIG focus areas include the following:
- Automobile safety
- Autonomous vehicle safety
- Estimation of highway traffic flow
- Text analysis of incident reports
- Demand forecasting
- Fuel economy
- Survey methodology
- Survey analysis
Those who join TSIG will learn about important new data sets and study designs used in transportation research, make contacts with researchers and potential funding sources working in this area, share innovative ideas to improve transportation statistics, and contribute to the growing visibility of transportation statistics as an important subfield within the statistics profession.
TSIG aspires to become a leading organization of experts involved in the application of statistical methods to transportation-related issues. Joining will help the interest group become an ASA section while giving members the opportunity to collaborate with experts in transportation statistics, gain access to data and technical resources, network with future partners and employers, and participate in JSM. TSIG also organizes activities such as conferences, workshops, and roundtable discussions in cooperation with various ASA sections.
This year, TSIG partnered with several ASA sections to organize workshops and student paper competitions on transportation statistics. TSIG and the Government Statistics Section put together a joint webinar series on topics including highway safety, public health, active transportation, automated vehicles, climate change, and equity impacts of transportation. This webinar series started September 29 and will be held every two months.
TSIG also partnered with the Risk Analysis Section to produce a workshop and student paper competition in October.
More information about the workshops and student paper competitions can be found on the TSIG website.
For details about TSIG or to join, contact Roya Amjadi, TSIG chair.

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