The Transportation Research Institute (TRI) began its operations in October 1977. It serves as a center and framework of cooperation for faculty members from various Technion units whose research covers a wide spectrum of transportation subjects. This research, largely financed by state funds, is primarily directed at solving problems of crucial national importance: road safety, traffic congestion, energy and environmental issues, transportation planning, transportation systems analysis and road maintenance. The research areas incorporate about 30 faculty members from the Faculties of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Agricultural Engineering, Architecture and Town Planning, Medicine, Industrial Engineering and Management, and Materials Engineering. Active researchers, including engineers, psychologists and statisticians, have also been partly employed at the TRI, conducting research into transportation-related subjects. The services of the Institute include a library and laboratories, as well as a three-person administrative staff. The Institute also promotes relations with commercial and industrial organizations in Israel, and initiates projects with commercial and industrial potential, thus combining basic and applied research. The Institute disseminates information on transportation, road safety and other topics covered by the research activities, through technical meetings and seminars and through distribution of research reports and abstracts to hundreds of subscribers.
The Institute has gained recognition in Israel and abroad as leading in the transportation research areas of its expertise (described below). The main achievements and accumulated benefits from the research projects have yielded strong results in improving road safety, transport infrastructure, traffic control, and environmental quality.
In recent years the Institute has set itself as an important goal to raise public understanding and awareness of the fields of transportation and road safety using the researchable capabilities of the Institute’s researchers.
In 2007 in the framework of the Institute the ” The Ran Naor Road Safety Center ” was established. Ran Naor’s family initiated the establishment of the research center and also assured its ongoing activity in the following years. The goals of the research center are:
a. To challenge and support, by means of research and high academic knowledge, the civil, governmental and the industrial activity of the prevention of road accidents.
b. To create leadership of researchers that deal with interdisciplinary research of road safety.
c. To guide the development, implementation and integration of knowledge and new technology to promote the safety in transportation systems.
d. To support and assist in training students and professionals dealing with road safety.