The U.S. DOT’s ITS Professional Capacity Building Program, in the ITS Joint Program Office, partners with training providers and industry associations to develop and deliver ITS-related training.  This email provides an update on several training opportunities from the Consortium for ITS Training and Education:

Consortium for ITS Training and Education (CITE)

Improve your skills and become more resourceful via CITE’s upcoming blended course offerings; includes discussion board forums which provides students with a strong sense of community.  Each course runs approximately 6-8 weeks.

Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) Equipment and Operations – (June 22 through July 31, 2012) http://www.citeconsortium.org/courses/RWIS-blended.html

Adverse weather is our common enemy in road maintenance, traffic, and emergency operations. Transportation agencies are well aware of the operational and logistical challenges of such weather. Many agencies are fighting this age-old battle by implementing Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS). The goal of this course is not only to discuss RWIS initiatives and considerations but also explore individual state and local deployment challenges through workshops, exercises, and self-assessments, which will leave participants with an action plan tailored for their specific needs.

Principles and Tools of Road Weather Management – (September through October, 2012) http://www.citeconsortium.org/courses/RoadWeatherMgmt_Blended.html

Through this course, participants are exposed to various strategies for addressing road weather problems, including Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) and the development of crosscutting decision support systems to respond effectively to weather situations. This course is part of the Specialized Learning Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) curriculum established by the ITS Professional Capacity Building (PCB) program.

Weather Responsive Traffic Management (WRTM) * New (October through December, 2012) http://www.citeconsortium.org/courses/WRTM-blended.html

This course provides information and guidance to transportation system managers and operators to help them effectively manage traffic flow and operations during adverse weather conditions. At the end of the course, participants will understand the WRTM concepts framework strategies and be able to describe the types of data, analysis tools, and performance monitoring necessary to effectively manage traffic during weather events.

If you are interested in taking either of these courses, please contact Denise Twisdale (301-403-4592) or Kathy Frankle (410-414-2925).  All course materials are on-line but students have access to course instructors through three pre-scheduled conference calls.  Cost is $250 each, $550 for all three (3); free for state, local and Federal employees (sponsor code F2012).  Register today; don’t delay! http://www.citeconsortium.org/registration.html

via Mashable.com

Who knew middle schoolers are this bad.. A bunch of 12-15yr old kids harassed a 69-yr old bus monitor in Greece, NY and somehow the video tape made its way to the interwebs.. Like in many cases, the activist hive minds on the web have kicked off a campaign to raise funds to send this poor old lady on a vacation and also start planning actively on how to get the kids repent their action.. The following Story, curated by Ben Doernberg documents the incident and the outpouring of support from the internet and the media. It will be interesting to see how this story ends – I somehow think it will be safe to assume there will be some suspensions involved when it is all said and done.

(via autobloggreen)

It is always an awesome sight to see how machines build another machine.  As it happens, I can’t help but think if this venture succeeds, that would mark the first time Detroit really faced a serious challenge from Silicon Valley.. June 22nd, the announced delivery date for first batch of customers (other than the ones who got the Founder series) is just few days away and let’s see what is going to happen.. Hit or miss, you gotta love the boldness of Elon Musk to enter into this venture and fight the carmarking heavyweights of Detroit and other global auto industry powerhouses.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s ITS Professional Capacity Building Program (ITS PCB) is offering free online ITS standards training. The 18-module series is aimed at practitioners in state and local highway agencies and transit agencies who seek the skills needed to procure, implement, and operate ITS standards-based devices and equipment. Consultants, system designers and integrators, and system testers will also find the training informative and are welcome to view the modules. Modules are FREE and can be viewed anytime on the ITS PCB website: http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/standardstraining.

Training Modules

Here is a storify post by George Kelley about the recent fire on San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) that stranded commuters and the reactions on twitter.

Via Reddit

I cannot imagine a US citizen/resident uttering these words to a cop in uniform on his/her beat: “…why are you not wearing a seat belt? remove the mobile phone, you are on duty & in the official car, stop breaking the rules…” That’s exactly what is being told to a couple of cops in Russia and they comply, POLITELY!

I have had the privilege of listening to Bryan in person at many industry-related events over the years but never heard some of the things he has shared in this awesome interview with Channel Next Cast. He goes into details about his entry into the business and how his company is innovating the transportation data to solve the congestion, in addition to offering excellent advice for wanna-be innovators & entrepreneurs. It is truly refreshing to see a dynamic youngster like him bring the much needed innovation and fresh, outside the box thinking towards solving the age old transportation problems – primarily congestion.

One interesting fact that I liked from Bryan’s interview: He is not a fan of red light cameras (like most of us) and he thinks traffic congestion problems can be solved for the large part in the next 10 years. Hmmm!

For those interested, here is a graphic from today’s Wall Street Journal article that covers INRIX and other start-ups working on transportation-related “big data“.

Image Courtesy: Wall Street Journal

Summary of the interview (made available by ChannelNextCast on YouTube.com):

Bryan Mistele wants to eliminate one of society’s biggest issues — traffic. How’s he going to do it? Find out in this episode of nextcast.

Growing up, Bryan knew he wanted to run his own tech company. After spending time in high school working with electrical engineers, he wrote down a life goal: start and be CEO of a two hundred person tech company. Now with 300 employees, he and his team at INRIX are tackling the ever-present problem of traffic. Bryan tells Jeff how they’re making this worldwide problem completely personal, by optimizing technology and getting people where they want to go. He also shares his secrets of success with Jeff — the perfect combination of persistence and naivete. * When Brian left Microsoft, he thought INRIX would be completely funded within a month. Twelve months and 70 rejections later, his company finally came to life. He credits this with a healthy balance of persistence and naivete. “Venture capitalists all told us we would be crushed…now we are the leader.”
* He also says he owes much of his success to wisdom gained in his early years, working at an electrical engineering firm. Following their advice of finding a partner who shares your career goals led him to the wife who encouraged him to persevere in the face of VC rejection. “If I hadn’t had that person in my life I never would have gotten off the ground,” he says. * It’s always been Bryan’s dream to run his own tech company, from the time he wrote it down as a life goal at age 16. He noted that in a big company, your future is tied to someone bringing you along up with them. Now, as a CEO, “whether it succeeds or fails, it’s up to me…and I like that.”
* Is this a trend? Our second nextcast guest who says he’d eliminate traffic cameras, Bryan explains that they actually cause more accidents than they prevent. What other improvements to the world of traffic does Bryan have to offer? We’re less than a decade away from seeing them all come to life.

(Source: via Gizmodo)

This strangely intriguing video was a submission to the Bike Shorts film competition.

Bicycle Sounds from Stephen Meierding on Vimeo.

A short film created using bicycle parts.

Created by Stephen Meierding
Opening Title Design: Mark Mccormic
Camera Assistants: Shelly Rangsiyakl, Johnny Huttenberger, Jesalee Go

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV7ppqSzfuY&hd=1′]

It all started 79 years ago on June 6.  A bloke named Richard Hollingshead debuted movies in an outdoor setting. As cited in WebProNews  “Hollingshead’s drive-in opened in New Jersey, June 6, 1933, on Admiral Wilson Boulevard at the Airport Circle in Pennsauken, a short distance from Cooper River Park.”  And today Google has unveiled an awesome doodle on its home page to celebrate this milestone that brought together movie watching & transportation together for the first time.  Of course, some people are upset that Google decided to put aside the other historic milestone on this nation’s calendar – D Day, which also happened on the very same day! But hey, I’m quite okay with this this one!