Banner photo by Sonny Cohen @ Flickr.

Transport Chicago is an annual conference that provides a forum for the exchange of knowledge in transportation research, policies, and practice. The conference, first held in 1986, explores a broad range of transportation modes and issues. This event regularly attracts over 200 academics and professionals from the Chicago region and beyond, offering an excellent opportunity for the transportation community to make connections and share experiences.

Each year, Transport Chicago strives to:

• Foster relationships between the academic community and practitioners in the public and private sectors and help establish academic and non-academic research agendas
• Encourage members of the transportation community to present papers on current topics in transportation research
• Foster dissemination of information on local transportation planning, policy, and programs

The history of Transport Chicago dates back to 1986, when the first conference, then known as the Metropolitan Conference on Public Transportation Research (MCPTR), was held. Founders recognized the importance of knowledge-sharing within the transportation community, and wanted to organize an event that would be easily accessible for researchers and practitioners based in the Chicago area.

Since its beginning, the conference has been organized by a volunteer committee as a one-day event featuring paper presentations, a keynote speaker, a lunch speaker or panel, and a closing reception. The addition of a student paper competition and a poster session has expanded opportunities for participation.

The conference was sponsored by the University of Chicago from 1986 to 1988, and by the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1989 to 1992. The MCPTR was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in 1993, and has become financially self-sustaining. Over the years, the conference program has evolved to include an increasing number of practice-oriented papers and coverage of a broader range of transport modes. The name “Transport Chicago” was adopted in 2000 to reflect the conference’s expansion in scope.