2026 National Mobility Summit:
Advancing the Movement of People and Goods

June 8, 2026
University of Southern California Capital Campus, Washington, D.C.
Express Interest to Attend

Hotel and registration information will be posted soon.

The 2026 National Mobility Summit will convene leaders from the U.S. Department of Transportation, state and local government agencies, congressional offices, industry partners, and University Transportation Centers (UTCs) within the USDOT strategic area of Improving the Mobility of People and Goods to advance a shared national objective: strengthening the mobility of people and goods as a foundation for economic competitiveness, supply chain resilience, and quality of life across the United States.

Organized by the National Center for Understanding Future Travel Behavior and Demand (TBD Center), in collaboration with the National Center for Sustainable Transportation and eight Regional and Tier-1 UTCs, the Summit is designed not merely as a research showcase, but as a coordinated national platform for advancing mobility system performance.

The program will highlight research innovations, deployment strategies, and technology-driven solutions that enhance performance across highway, transit, freight, rail, maritime, and emerging transportation systems – while explicitly linking innovation to measurable system performance.

The United States faces structural shifts in travel demand, rapid growth in freight activity, evolving logistics models, digital transformation of infrastructure systems, and persistent rural connectivity challenges. In this environment, mobility innovation must be performance-driven, deployment-ready, and nationally coordinated.

The Summit is organized by TBD National Center, in close collaboration with the UTCs advancing mobility nationwide, including: NCST, PacTrans, PSR UTC, CR2C2, CMMM, FERSC, MarTREC, R-SEAT, and SMARTER Center.

Summit Focus Areas
Travel Demand Forecasting Understanding and forecasting changing travel demand in the context of telework, e-commerce, automation, and demographic change.
Rural & Regional Connectivity Strengthening rural and regional connectivity to ensure equitable access and economic opportunity.
Freight & Supply Chain Improving freight, port, and urban logistics operations to enhance supply chain reliability and global competitiveness.
Data & AI Integration Leveraging data fusion, artificial intelligence, and digital infrastructure to modernize decision-making and performance management.
Multimodal Performance Advancing multimodal system performance, resilience, and reliability across interconnected networks.
Draft Agenda
As of March 3, 2026  |  Additional speakers to be announced
8:30 AM
Doors Open & Check-In
9:00 AM
USDOT Welcome – Establishing the National Stakes
Why this conversation matters now.
A senior USDOT representative opens by framing mobility as foundational to economic competitiveness, supply chain resilience, rural access, and global leadership.
Speaker
To Be Announced
9:05 AM
Welcome & Summit Framing
What this Summit is designed to accomplish.
This framing positions the Summit not as a research showcase, but as a national coordination platform focused on deployment, performance measurement, and cross-sector alignment.
Speakers
Dr. Chandra Bhat – Director, TBD Center
Participating UTC Directors
9:20 AM
Keynote – Where the Future of Mobility Is Headed: A Strategic Vision
Digital infrastructure modernization
AI and data integration
Automation and emerging mobility systems
Research ecosystems supporting deployment
Maintaining U.S. global competitiveness
Keynote Speaker
To Be Announced
9:50 AM
Break
10:00 AM
Panel 1 – Delivering Results: Aligning Leadership to Strengthen the Movement of People and Goods
From Federal to Local, Public to Private.
How federal, state, regional/local, and industry leaders can align investment, policy, and performance frameworks to strengthen the mobility of people and goods in an era of rapid technological change and fiscal scrutiny.
Aligning federal program goals with state-, regional-, and local-level delivery realities
Performance-based investment strategies under constrained fiscal conditions
Strengthening freight corridors and supply chain resilience
Furthering public-private coordination
Advancing digital infrastructure and data governance
Accelerating deployment of UTC-developed innovations
Balancing mobility performance, safety, environmental stewardship, and economic competitiveness
Panelists/Speakers
To Be Announced
11:00 AM
Panel 2 – Technology, Travel Behavior, and the Built/Digital Environment
How we modernize decision-making tools to match a changing mobility landscape.
Examining how behavioral shifts, telework, e-commerce, AI, digital infrastructure, and integrated data systems are reshaping long-term demand patterns and infrastructure investment decisions.
Integrating probe data, freight data, transit data, and traditional travel surveys into unified decision platforms
AI-enabled trip forecasting and system performance modeling
Measuring long-term impacts of telework and digital substitution
Ensuring environmental sustainability while maintaining economic competitiveness
Supporting USDOT priorities related to data-driven decision-making, system reliability, and innovation deployment
Panelists/Speakers
To Be Announced
11:45 AM
Lunch
12:30 PM
Fireside Chat – From Innovation to Implementation: Delivering Multimodal Mobility Performance
How federal programs operationalize innovation into measurable outcomes.
This strategic conversation will focus on bridging innovation and operations in areas such as freight corridor programs, port and supply chain resilience initiatives, rural connectivity funding, and performance-based planning requirements, and translating research into deployable policy tools.
Speaker
To Be Announced
1:00 PM
Panel 3 – Panel 3: Urban Logistics, Curb Operations, and Ports and Supply Chain Performance
How we strengthen national economic competitiveness through supply chain system efficiency.
Examining how freight, port, and urban logistics systems can be modernized to improve reliability, reduce congestion, and strengthen national supply chain resilience.
Managing last-mile delivery and curb access in dense urban environments
Micro-consolidation hubs and off-hour delivery programs
Freight data integration and reliability performance metrics
Port connectivity, maritime resilience, and landside congestion mitigation
Automated trucking readiness and freight corridor modernization
Strengthening domestic supply chain security and global competitiveness
Panelists/Speakers
To Be Announced
1:45 PM
Break
2:00 PM
Panel 4 – Rural & Regional Multimodal Mobility Systems
Ensuring mobility innovation serves the entire nation, not just major metros.
Strategies to strengthen connectivity, safety, and multimodal access across rural, regional, and underserved communities.
Enhancing multimodal connectivity in rural corridors
On-demand transit and micromobility coordination
First/last-mile solutions in low-density settings
Integrating roadway, air, and maritime services for regional access
Corridor-level performance optimization and safety improvements
Technology deployment in rural and tribal communities
Panelists/Speakers
To Be Announced
2:45 PM
Panel 5 – UTC Directors Roundtable: Building a National Mobility Research & Deployment Agenda
Turning dialogue into a coordinated national roadmap.
All UTC Directors will synthesize insights from the day’s discussions into a focused implementation roadmap organized around three coordinated national mobility initiatives.
Group 1: Nationally integrated, data-enabled mobility performance architecture – TBD, NCST, PacTrans, SMARTER Directors
Group 2: Resilience in freight, logistics & supply chain pathways – FERSC, MarTREC, PSR Directors
Group 3: Connectivity and multimodal integration in rural and regional networks – CR2C2, R-SEAT, CMMM Directors
Panelists/Speakers
All Participating UTC Directors
3:45 PM
Summit Synthesis & Next Steps
What happens next.
Commitment to sustained federal-state-academic coordination to ensure that mobility innovation translates into measurable national performance gains.
Speaker
Dr. Chandra Bhat – Director, TBD Center
4:00 PM
Networking Reception
Participating University Transportation Centers
  • TBD National Center – National Center for Understanding Future Travel Behavior and Demand
  • NCST – National Center for Sustainable Transportation
  • PacTrans – Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium
  • PSR UTC – Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center
  • CR2C2 – Center for Regional and Rural Connected Communities
  • CMMM – Center for Multi-Modal Mobility in Urban, Rural and Tribal Areas
  • FERSC – Center for Freight Transportation for Efficient and Resilient Supply Chain
  • MarTREC – Maritime Transportation Research and Education Center
  • R-SEAT – Rural Safe, Efficient, and Advanced Transportation
  • SMARTER Center – Safety and Mobility Advancements Regional Transportation and Economics Research Center
TBD National Center NCST PacTrans PSR UTC CR2C2 CMMM FERSC MarTREC R-SEAT SMARTER Center

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