(Source: Logos Blog)

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Bellingham, WA – Equipment purchases at Logos Bible Software typically include laptops, servers, and networking gear. So company president Bob Pritchett was surprised to see an IT department purchase request that included everything necessary to set up a bicycle repair shop.

“It was a great idea. Many of our employees bike to work, and others go for rides during the day. Having a fully-equipped bike shop on site is a great way to encourage healthy habits that are good for the environment, too,” said Pritchett.

With more than 170 employees, Logos has a number of serious cyclists who work on their own bikes. Their willingness to help co-workers with everything from simple repairs to getting a long-unused bike back into shape is encouraging more employees to trade four wheels for two.

“Since installing the bike shop, I’ve been super motivated to ride to work,” said Jim Straatman, Logos’ IT manager.  “Also, my bike is running exceptionally smooth now that I have a place to work on it.”

Bellingham is a cyclist’s paradise, surrounded by bike lanes, mountain trails, and cliff-side drives. Logos’ on-site lockers and showers made it easy for employees to add their commute to their list of regular rides. The new bike shop and a bike-friendly downtown location provide a great motivation for those who haven’t ridden since childhood to get rolling again.

Logos Bible Software’s bike shop consists of an 8-foot workbench, a bike stand, and a peg board full of tools. The total investment was around $1,500, and occupies less than 100 square feet.
“In the space of a single office, and for less than it would cost to cater lunch for the company, we’ve been able to make a healthy investment that our employees really appreciate,” said Pritchett. “By making it easier to fix little things like a flat tire or squealing brakes, we’re getting more of us up from our desks and out of our cars.”

Hopefully Logos will see a big response from employees next Friday, and lots of folks will bike in to work.  For added motivation, that Friday will also be the day of Logos’ annual Chili Cookoff.  I am sure folks can enjoy an extra helping of chili without any guilt, knowing that there is an option to bike away the extra pounds on the way home from work.

Note:  Way to go, Logos! I only hope that other companies around the country would follow/adopt such practices, which not only contribute to a healthly way of life for  the employees but they also add to our country’s efforts to cut pollution from automobiles.  TransportGooru appreciates Logos’ efforts to assist its biking populace!

(Source: American Public Transportation Association via More Riders)

Many transportation industry minds are wondering what is the tangible benefits from all this investment in transit? After spending nearly one billion dollars through their public transportation agencies, what do the taxpayers stand to reap?

 According to a new report by the American Public Transportation Association, 30,000 jobs (besides better public transportation).   That comes out to one new job for every $33,333 in spending. Not bad at all, as economic development projects go.   

The study report released on April 29th shows that investing in public transportation provides jobs to the American workers who may need them the most.  Job Impacts of Spending on Public Transportation: an Update shows that two-thirds (67 percent) of the jobs created by capital investment in the public transit industry replaces lost blue-collar jobs with “green jobs” in the public transit sector.  The Economic Development Research Group prepared the study for the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). 

Overall, the study shows an investment of one billion dollars in public transportation supports and creates 30,000 jobs in a variety of sectors.  Based on these projections, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which provides $8.4 billion for public transportation projects, will create approximately 252,000 jobs for Americans and help transit systems meet the steadily growing demand for public transit services.  APTA released the study at the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing Recovery Act: 10-Week Progress Report for Transportation and Infrastructure Programs.

“The ultimate goal in any economic recovery plan should be to not create just any type of job, but rather to invest in and focus on areas particularly hit hard by the economic downturn,” said William W. Millar, APTA president.  “The investment in public transit not only produces green jobs but also provides for a more sustainable transportation system that will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and lessen the transportation sector’s impact on the environment.”

The study reveals that two out of three (67 percent) of these new construction and manufacturing “green jobs” resulting from public transit capital investment typically fall in the category of Blue-Collar Semi-Skilled (59 percent) and Blue-Collar Skilled (8 percent).  These jobs include positions in manufacturing, service, repair worker, drivers, crew, ticket agents and construction. 

In addition, 33 percent of the new jobs as a result of public transit investment fall in the White-Collar Skilled (32 percent) or White Collar Semi-Skilled (1 percent) category.  These jobs include clerical, managerial and technical engineers.

Some of the key findings from this study are here:

• The rate for federal funding of public transportation reflects a specific mix of capital investment and preventive maintenance funding as allowable by law.  Under current federal law, an estimated 30,000 jobs are supported per billion dollars of spending.

• The national rate can vary from of 24,000 to 41,000 jobs per billion dollars of spending, depending on the spending mix.  The lower figure holds for spending on capital investments (vehicles and facilities), while the higher figure holds for spending on transit system operations. In reality, it is not logical to spend money on vehicles and not use them, nor is it logical to operate vehicles forever without any purchases of new equipment.  For these reasons, the average rate is a more meaningful number.

• Looking across the entire $47 billion spent on public transportation in the US each year, there is an average rate of approximately 36,000 jobs per billion dollars of public transportation spending (i.e., 36 jobs per million dollars of spending).  This figure is based on the national mix of public transportation spending as of 2007.  It includes a direct effect of spending in transportation related manufacturing, construction and operations as well as orders to suppliers or by re-spending of worker income on consumer purchases.

The rate of jobs supported per billion dollars of spending will continue to change every year, as prices change and technologies evolve. 

Click here to read the entire report in HTML & to download a copy of the report in PDF format.  For those who like to stay without leaving this window, here is a read-only copy of the PDF report.

Monday, May 4, 2009 – ISSN 1529-1057

Join the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association in Denver, CO to learn about best practices from around the world in Incident Management and Emergency Response. Sessions will explore the most effective tools and communication methods available to promote toll facility safety and security, maintain operations in the face of disruption, and effectively communicate with customers during all phases of an incident – from prevention to recovery. Other topics include crisis management during special events, Post Traumatic Distress Disorder and psychological impacts to employees, the role of engineering and maintenance in prevention and safety, and business continuity during disasters. Visit IBTTA’s website to view the preliminary agenda and register today! 

AVIATION

1) Colorado Airport May Get Cameras, Not New Tower

FAA committee expected to decide if Aspen airport can extend runway without new tower by using cutting-edge remote camera system.

Link to story in the Aspen Daily News:

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/134390

2) Airlines Seek to Reassure Passengers in Outbreak

Link to story in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/business/global/04iht-air.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

3) Air Force Flight Over Lower Manhattan Showed Bad Taste, Worse Communication

Link to column in The Star-Ledger:

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2009/05/communication_coach_flight_sho.html 

GPS / NAVIGATION

4) Navigon Leaves North American GPS Market

Link to CNET News story:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10232879-48.html

5) New GPS Satellite’s Problems Indicated

Link to story in GPS World:

http://sidt.gpsworld.com/gpssidt/Latest+News/New-GPS-Satellites-Problems-Indicated/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/596465?contextCategoryId=33831

6) Smarter GPS to Let Cell Phones Point the Way

Link to story in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/automobiles/03DASHTOP.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

OTHER

7) With Twitter as Your Tour Guide, Hitting Los Angeles’ Hot Spots is a Breeze

Link to story in USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2009-04-30-twitter-tips_N.htm 

RAILROADS

8) Union Pacific Makes a Game of Risk

Link to story from CIO:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/043009-union-pacific-makes-a-game.html

ROADWAYS

9) Massive 14th Street Bridge Project to Begin in Washington, DC

Residents are questioning why the District didn’t give more advanced notice.
Link to story and video on WJLA-TV:

http://www.news8.net/news/stories/0409/618465.html

10) San Francisco to Try ‘Smart’ Meters

Link to story in The Examiner:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Muni-Port-team-up-to-try-smart-meters-44202792.html

TELEMATICS

11) Telematics Still an Option for Repair Shops to Consider

Link to story in Motor Age:

http://motorage.search-autoparts.com/motorage/Business+%26+Management+Solutions/Telematics-still-an-option-for-repair-shops-to-con/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/596366?contextCategoryId=2827

TRANSIT

12) Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority Lets Residents Comment on Transit Plan by Phone

Link to story in the St. Petersburg Times:

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article997254.ece

13) Advertising Company Delivers Ads Between Stop Announcements on Buses and Trains

Link to story in BtoB:

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090504/HOLD/305049983/1155#seenit  (scroll down to third article)

14) Googling the Future

Google Transit changes the way riders find their routes and alters the way they think about public transportation.

Link to story in More Riders Magazine:

http://www.trilliumtransit.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/googling-the-future.pdf

TRAVELER INFORMATION / TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT

15) Minnesota Firm Keeps the Wheels Turning

Image Sensing Systems designs software and equipment that helps to deal with traffic trouble spots around the world.
Link to column in the Star Tribune:

http://www.startribune.com/business/44190017.html?elr=KArks:DCiU1OiP:DiiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

16) What Use are Traffic Reports?

What are the chances of getting a radio traffic report that is actually relevant to your current car journey?

Link to BBC News story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8029704.stm

Job Posting

 –  SHRP 2 Implementation Lead Program Manager – Federal Highway Administration – Washington, DC

http://tinyurl.com/cr3u8v

Upcoming Events

ITS Strategic Planning Workshop – National Harbor, Maryland – June 4

http://www.itsa.org/ITS_Strategic_Planning.html 

Today in Transportation History

1859 **150^th anniversary** – The Cornwall Railway opened in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwall_Railway

=============================================================================================

The Transportation Communications Newsletter is published electronically Monday through Friday. 

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TCN archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications

Questions, comments about the TCN?  Please write the editor, Bernie Wagenblast at i95berniew@aol.com.   

© 2009 Bernie Wagenblast

GM Hires Adviser to Help Sell Saturn

(Source & Image: LA Times)

Drivers are turning to alternative fuels and cutting consumption.

 

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: The Infrastructurist)

The so-called peak oil debate has taken many twists and turns over the years. After long being an oddball survivalist preoccupation, the debate gathered mainstream momentum a few years ago as oil prices began a long ascent from around $30 per barrel to $147, where they topped out last summer. By the time a barrel of West Texas crude was rising eight bucks a day, scarcity seemed like the best and only explanation–that no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t pump enough oil to meet demand.  OPEC cut production, inventories rose, and it seemed like, in fact, we had plenty of oil for the foreseeable future and the whole thing had just been hedge fund shenanigans.

Maybe not, Raymond James now cautions. “We believe that the oil market has already crossed over to the downward sloping side” of all-time total production, say analysts at the financial services company. While cautioning that nobody but historians can be sure, they believe production peaked in 2007 for non-OPEC countries (Russia, Norway, Mexico, etc.) and last year for OPEC (Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, etc.). “It is entirely intuitive to conclude that if both OPEC and non-OPEC production posted declines against the backdrop of $100/bbl oil–when the obvious economic incentive was to pump at full blast–those declines had to have come for involuntary reasons such as the inherent geological limits of oil fields.” In other words, we had a perfect environment for testing the peak oil hypothesis, and the results are in. We’ve peaked.

My reponse? Yawn. We’re all unemployed Prius drivers anyway these days. Oil is an anachronism.

The biggest immediate crisis would be in transporation, because that’s where most of our oil goes. When gas hit $4 per gallon last spring, the financial strain was hitting the breaking point for many households–particularly outer suburban households. The arrangement of many American cities started to look insane: Working class people commuting 50 miles by car each way to their jobs?

The answers in this scenario would have to be rapid. No 30-year development plans. Instead: find cheap and efficient ways of getting lots of people around, and find them pronto. As a start, that would mean making it much easier for people to ride bikes, take trains, and form van pools.

Peak oil has always been an eye-roller in the establishment debate. It’s not clear that Obama has ever even been *asked* about it.

(Source: Washington Post)

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

A Word of Advise from TransportGooru:

1).  Dear Fight Club Members, it is already a painful experience commuting by DC’s Metro rail during the peak hours.  And you people make it worse by getting into such silly fights without knowing that we are all terribly inconvenienced by your immature behavior.  If you really feel like duking it out, wait till you get to your stop and start jumping at each other.  

2). Dear Dr. Gridlock,  for your kind attention the suggestion to dial 9-1-1 or to use a cellphone to call out from a DC metro tunnel is “INVALID”.  The metro system didn’t realize the concept of “security” when it leased out the licenses only to Verizon, which means cellphone users with other carrers like AT&T, Sprint, etc are sitting ducks until they resurface from the tunnel to an above ground station or section of the track.  Talking about Social Equity and DC Metro makes me mad!  All damn tax payers paid for the system and how come Metro decided to lease out the lines only to the previleged Verzion customers?  This is a DUMB policy and only validates eagerness to remain out of touch and incredibly partial & discreminatory!

(Source: Ars Technica) & TeamSilverback)

Google has been granted its patent for a data center that floats on the ocean. Though the patent mostly describes how such a thing would work, it also addresses the use of wave and tidal power, as well as water cooling to even land-based data centers that are nearby.

The majority of the patent deals with the logistics of ship-based data centers, though it also examines the use of wave power, tidal power, and seawater for providing electricity and cooling to land-based data centers that are close enough to water.

Of course, there’s nothing to stop Google from deploying a floating data center powered by conventional fuel sources, but such a vessel would be more limited by range or fuel capacity. Not only would it have to carry enough fuel to power itself, it would also have to make sure to power the systems it carries. Using a water-based generator would not only be more practical and efficient, it’s also a significantly greener solution.

Despite the patent, however, Google may not be the first company to send its data centers out to sea. A Silicon Valley startup called International Data Security (IDS) announced in January of 2008 its intent to set up a fleet of data-serving cargo ships. These ships would not only come with standard storage services, but also with amenities such as private offices, overnight accommodations, and galley services. The first ship was scheduled to set sail (or rather, hang out in San Francisco’s Pier 50) in April of 2008, but according to a blog post by IDS partner Silverback Migration Solutions, that plan got pushed to third quarter 2008 and we were unable to find any further information on the project.

The Silverback blog alos outlines a few interetsing points.  The value proposition for ship based datacenters is very similar to that of land based datacenters, with a few noteable exceptions:

–Current market demand for data center space continues to outpace
supply, and using ships as data centers can reduce time to market by as
much as 65%.

–Cap-Ex costs to bring a ship into data center operation is
approximately 2/3 that of a land-based facility.

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

General Motors Corp. is expected this week to accelerate talks with the United Auto Workers union and move toward closing about 2,600 dealerships.

 The giant auto maker also is likely this month to approach banks holding secured debt, hoping to work out terms to ease the company’s debt burden.

Reaching agreement on these fronts is critical if GM is to restructure outside of bankruptcy court.

The company has new leverage as it re-engages in talks, thanks to the bankruptcy filing last week by Chrysler LLC. But differences between the two auto makers mean that leverage can take GM only so far.

“The move with Chrysler signals to the GM creditors that bankruptcy is a viable option,” said Lewis Rosenbloom, a bankruptcy lawyer with Dewey & LeBoeuf. Mr. Rosenbloom’s firm does extensive work for GM and Chrysler. “The government is not just going to throw money at this without getting a consensual accord, so I think this is a harbinger of things to come.”

The Treasury Department has given GM until June to work out a restructuring plan and has indicated it may push the company into bankruptcy if the necessary deals don’t materialize.

GM’s hopes of staying out of court hinge on its ability to convince thousands of unsecured bondholders, owed $27 billion, to accept a small equity stake in the company in exchange for forgiving most of the debt. Several bondholders have said the equity exchange will fail if the terms aren’t sweetened.

 Here is the Scaled Composites’ annoucement about the test: