Rebecca Brewster reflects on ATRI career before retirement

For more than three decades, Rebecca Brewster’s research work has helped bring clarity to the trucking industry’s most pressing concerns and has informed policy decisions on everything from traffic bottlenecks to driver hours of service. Brewster, the longtime president and chief operating officer of the American Transportation Research Institute, officially steps down in February. In an interview with Transport Topics, she reflected on the unexpected turns that brought her into trucking and the research she hopes will help guide its future. Brewster’s career has grown alongside ATRI, the nonprofit research arm of American Trucking Associations. She joined in 1993, when it was known as ATA Foundation, before its 2001 rebranding to clarify its research mission. State and local governments have used its data to guide decisions on reducing traffic congestion, while federal agencies and Congress have considered its findings when crafting regulations and legislation. For Brewster, two areas stand out: truck bottlenecks and hours-of-service rules. She believes ATRI’s annual bottleneck rankings have helped push states to tackle congestion. The Jane Byrne Interchange near downtown Chicago, formerly known as the Circle Interchange, topped the list for three consecutive years. After a lengthy overhaul of that freeway interchange, ATRI recorded a nearly 25% improvement in truck speeds, she said. Image Page Siplon will succeed Brewster when she retires in February. (Karen Foote/American Trucking Associations) “The outcome was very positive not only for the trucking industry but every motorist who has to drive through there,” Brewster said. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours-of-service rules offered another, more complicated research subject. The rules…

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