Transportation Research Institute (TRI)

The Transportation Research Institute (TRI) began operating in October 1977 as an autonomous research unit at the Technion. As such, the Institute reports directly to the Technion’s Executive Vice President for Research. The Institute serves as a center for research activities of faculty members from various academic units in the broad area of transportation. The Institute functions as a framework for cooperation on transportation topics among the Technion units. Research at the institute is funded mainly by government agencies and is aimed at solving problems of national importance in the areas of road safety, traffic control, road infrastructure, transportation planning, and related energy and environment issues.

The Institute is recognized in Israel as well as around the world as a leader in the area of transportation research. Its members active collaborate and hold senior positions in some of the leading international organizations in the field. The activity of the Institute, as well as its research achievements, have greatly contributed to road safety improvement, transportation infrastructure, traffic control as well as to environmental issues.

The Shanghai University Rankings (shanghairanking.com) includes rankings of specific to research fields. In the field of Transportation, the Technion maintained its ranking among the world’s leading 150 universities. The Technion has held high positions continuously since the ranking of the Transportation field was started in 2017. This position is the fourth highest for the Technion in more than 50 research fields in exact sciences, engineering, life sciences, medicine and social sciences.

The Institute’s membership includes more than 30 faculty members from: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Architecture and Town Planning and Industrial engineering and management. An additional team of researchers – engineers, psychologists, statisticians and others – are also active in research projects in the field of transportation. Laboratories, computerized databases and an administrative staff support the research.

The Institute enjoys continuous connections with industrial bodies in Israel, aiming to deepen the cooperation in the field of its expertise and initiates projects with an industrial potential while integrating basic and applicable research. The institute also is active in information dissemination in its fields of research. This is done by organizing seminars and workshops as well as by distribution of its research abstracts and reports to hundreds of subscribers.

In recent years TRI has put forth the goal of raising public awareness and understanding of transportation and road safety issues using the research abilities of the its researchers.