From its roots as a colonial college (chartered in 1766) and land-grant institution, Rutgers has developed into one of America's leading public research universities. New Jersey's state university fulfills its three-part mission of instruction, research and service by educating a diverse student body of over 48,000 on its three campuses, by creating new knowledge, and by contributing to the economic and cultural vitality of the state.

Rutgers’ engineering school has faculty active in transportation research in its Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. It is also home to the Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation, a federally funded Tier I University Transportation Center. It has advanced labs for non-destructive testing, fiber optics, and intelligent transportation systems. CAIT also serves as New Jersey’s center for FHWA’s Local Technical Assistance Program.

Rutgers is also active in transportation research through the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, which includes one of the nation’s leading programs in Urban Planning. The Bloustein School is also home to the Voorhees Transportation Center, which was created to facilitate informed public debate on critical transportation issues and to conduct research in areas not otherwise addressed by conventional sponsors. The Center specializes in identifying and exploring transportation linkages to other public policy areas, such as economic development, land use, political governance, finance and social policy. It is also host to the National Transit Institute, which was created by Congress in 1992 to design and deliver training and education programs for the nation’s transit industry.