A tradition since 2012, the Washington, DC TransportationCamp was held the Saturday before TRB, bringing people from across the country (and beyond) to the Arlington campus of George Mason University. The team at Mobility Lab wrote a series of blog posts showing the variety of topics covered.

This first summary, “A glimpse of TransportationCamp: An intellectual feast for transit geeks,”” said TransportationCamp was a “smorgasbord of wonderful topics and discussion.”

“Transit needs to find its voice if it wants to finally score touchdowns” was inspired by the “At the Movies” session.

Futurism was a topic of conversation at “Could flying solar pods over Boston become transportation’s silver bullet?”

One new thing this year was attendees’ exposure to the many new dockless bikeshare systems: “Dockless bikeshare may be more than a fad, say TransportationCampers”

The survey sent to attendees got its own wrap-up: “How could TransportationCamp improve? Attendees give some suggestions.”

The wide variety of topics makes TransportationCamp a unique event. And every year sees new events organized by teams across the country. Later in 2018 we’ll have TransportationCamps in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and Ithaca.

And of course we look forward to welcoming everyone back to DC in 2019. See you next January!

The team at Mobility Lab interviewed participants of TransportationCamp DC 2016, asking them about the most exciting things they’re working on.

Hear from Tim Papandreou, Tien-Tien Chan, Jenny O’Brien, Darren Buck, Todd Litman, Michael Schade, Stephanie Dock, Pete Gould, Dennis Leach, Alli Henry, Beverly Scott, Howard Jennings, and Paul Mackie.

Excited for more? There are four upcoming TransportationCamps coming up: Boston in April, Boulder in May, and Kansas City and Houston in June.

The 2015 TransportationCamp in DC was a big success, with 416 people attending from all over the country (and beyond). Our sponsors at Mobility Lab have created two videos from interviews that were made during the event:

And be sure to read Amy Eagleburger’s summary, “Best Conference Ever:” TransportationCamp’s Lab-Like Setting Energizes Attendees. If you can’t wait for the 2016 Transportion Camp, don’t forget about TransportationCamp NE 2015 coming up April 11.

A great time was had by all. Watch the video above to find out what people said about TransportationCamp DC. 2014. And here are some more money quotes.

“Tremendous creativity.” – Dennis Leach, Arlington County (Va.) Department of Environmental Services

“People … being very candid.” “Immediacy.” – Frank Hebbert, OpenPlans

“There are so many good ideas.” – Arnd Batzner, Mobility Car Sharing

“How we can actually engage the public, the community, the elected officials in better ways using technology.” – Timothy Papandreou, San Francisco MTA

“Build open-source tools.” – Kevin Webb, Conveyal

“Better transport to better medical facilities. Better transport to work, so more employers come in to town and wages go up.” – Esther Dyson, HICCup

“Make the case for transit through the business community.” – Kelley Coyner, Northern Virginia Transportation Commission “Giving [transit employees] a boost in the field.” – Shin-pei Tsay, TransitCenter

“Triumphs and follies in open transport [in developing countries].” – Holly Krambeck and Qu Li, World Bank

“Convergence of public and private is complicating things, but also keeping government on its toes.” – Gabe Klein, Transportation Expert

“Transportation … as an instrument to creating better cities.” – David Bragdon, TransitCenter

“Anybody who cares about mobility should definitely come to TransportationCamp.” – Joung Lee, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

Joung Lee from AASHTO attends TransportationCamp D.C. each year because of the inspiring crowd of “practically-oriented folks who just want to get the job done.” To get the funding needed for transportation will take this kind of energy and creativity, he says.