Last month, I attended the TRB 2024 Annual Meeting. The conference, which was held in DC, was a lot of fun. The graduate student researcher working with me was able to present our work as a poster. Additionally, although I didn't meet as many people whom I had not met before, this was a good opportunity for me to deepen connections with people with whom I had connected more briefly in past conferences in person or remotely. In particular, these included people working like me at the intersection of transportation & disability as well as people working in the autonomous vehicle industry. Strengthening connections with people in the former group was especially important to me because of the relevance of my work, how few of us there are in the US, and being able to feel like I am part of a group of like-minded academic researchers (given that I lead so much of my work essentially alone in the context of academic researchers). Strengthening connections with people in the latter group was important to me because of recent turbulence in the space of autonomous vehicles and the need for consistent pushes for inclusion of people with disabilities as users of such vehicles.
