Deen, Thomas B.

Born in 1928, Thomas Blackburn Deen, a graduate of the University of Kentucky, began his career as a highway traffic engineer. Early in his career, Deen pioneered the development and application of methods for analyzing urban transportation problems and designing urban transit systems. These computer-based analytical methods were used to evaluate and select the lines that today make up the Washington, D.C. area Metrorail system. Deen served as Director of Planning for the National Capital Transportation Agency from 1960 to 1964, and Executive Director of the National Research Council Transportation Research Board (TRB) from 1980 to 1994. At the TRB, Deen supervised policy studies on critical national transportation issues, such as the 55 mile per hour speed limit, school bus safety, air passenger service and safety since deregulation, intelligent vehicles, and high-speed rail. He was responsible for all of TRB's activities including its sponsorship of some 260 technical committees and panels, research retrieval systems, in house research, and state-sponsored cooperative research programs.

From the guide to the Thomas B. Deen papers, 1957-1995, (George Mason University. Special Collections and Archives.)

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