Why America’s Roads and Bridges Need TRIP’s Data with David Kirby
At the ATSSA Conference 2026, Gavin Jenkins, Senior Managing Editor for Roads & Bridges, sits down with David Kirby, Executive Director of the Transportation Research Board (TRIP), to discuss why investing in America’s roads and bridges is so important.
Kirby explains how TRIP provides advocates and policymakers with the data they need to persuade elected officials and make informed decisions. He also talks about TRIP’s work on the numbers behind America’s Infrastructure Report Card from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), showing the current state of the nation’s infrastructure and where improvements are still needed.
About the Author
Gavin Jenkins, Head of Content
Head of Content
Gavin Jenkins is an award-winning journalist based in Pittsburgh. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, VICE, Narrative.ly, Prevention, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Beijing Review.
In 2020, two stories he wrote for Pitt Med Magazine earned three Golden Quill Awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania. “Surviving Survival” won Excellence in Corporate, Marketing and Promotional Communications – Written, Medical/Health, while “Oct. 27, 2018: Pittsburgh’s Darkest Day, and the Mass Casualty Response” won Excellence in Written Journalism, Magazines – Medical/Health, as well as the Ray Sprigle Memorial Award: Magazines, a Best in Show award.
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 2003, he covered sports for the Bedford Gazette, in Bedford, Pa., and the Martinsville Bulletin, in Martinsville, Va. In 2006, he returned to Pittsburgh to write for Trib Total Media. Based out of the Kittanning Leader Times, he worked for the Trib for two years, and then he moved to Shenzhen, China, to teach English and freelance. After two years in China, he earned an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Pittsburgh.
When he's not at work, he's usually playing with his border-collie mix, Bob.