Bernie’s Transportation Communications Newsletter – Feb 24, 2009

February 24, 2009 at 8:25 pm

Transportation Communications Newsletter

 Tuesday, February 24, 2009 — ISSN 1529-1057

 


 Register Today for IBTTA’s Toll Road Summit of Australia, New Zealand & the Asia Pacific Rim, March 15-18, 2009 in Sydney, Australia 

  If you are interested in public-private partnerships, innovations in customer service and next generation technologies, you need to attend this meeting! Join IBTTA and ITS Australia in Sydney, Australia and learn about the explosive growth of tolling in Australia, New Zealand and the countries in the Asia Pacific Rim. Learn about toll concessions and operations, including the political, regulatory, public affairs and customer service aspects of startup and mature facilities, and lessons learned from successive implementation of all electronic toll collection. Visit IBTTA’s website to view the preliminary agenda, make your travel arrangements and register today

 AVIATION

 1) Final FAA-Weather Service Decision Delayed Again

Link to column in The Washington Post:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/02/post_4.html

 2) New Technology May Prevent Bird Strikes

Link to ABC News story:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/Travel/story?id=6940435&page=1

 PARKING

 3) ‘Smart’ Parking Meters Catching on Across US

Link to story in USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2009-02-23-smartmeters_N.htm

 ROADWAYS

 4) The Bridge to Smart Technology

Smart technology that makes infrastructure safer and more efficient is ready just in time for a flood of government spending.

Link to story and video in BusinessWeek:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_09/b4121042656141.htm?chan=rss_topEmailedStories_ssi_5

 5) Let’s Stimulate Smart Highways

Link to commentary in Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/23/stimulus-transportation-hov-opinions-contributors_hot_highways.html

 SAFETY / SECURITY

 6) Privacy, Identity, and the Use of RFID and RF-Enabled Smart Card Technology

Link to story in Smart Card Talk:

http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/newsletter-200902-feature?issue=200902

 TRANSIT

 7) Utah Transit Authority Showcases Open Payment System

Link to story in Government Technology:

http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/621904

Link to further information from the UTA:

http://www.rideuta.com/ridingUTA/amenities/electronicFare.aspx

 8) Updates from APTA’s Marketing & Communications Workshop

Link to blogs:

http://blog.apta.com/?cat=1

 9) Light Rail Vehicle Collisions with Vehicles at Signalized Intersections

Link to report from the Transportation Research Board:

http://www.trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=10004

 News Releases

1) Economic Downturn Favors Cheaper Navigation Form Factors

2) US Departments of Defense, Transportation, and Homeland Security Release 2008 Federal Radionavigation Plan

3) QNX Changes the Rules for In-Vehicle Software Development

4) ATX to Seek Local Partners to Expand European Telematics

 Upcoming Events

Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Bus Safety Summit – March 5-6 – Arlington, Virginia

http://www.cvsa.org/events/Bus%20Summit%20Online_revised%20021009.pdf

 Today in Transportation History

1909 **100th anniversary** – The Hudson Motor Car Company was founded.

http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/2005/11/01/hmn_feature11.html

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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 ati95berniew@aol.com.   

© 2009 Bernie Wagenblast

ITS Canada Annual Conference and General Meeting 2009

February 24, 2009 at 2:19 pm
   
 
Home

ITS Canada Annual Conference and General Meeting 2009

    May 10 to 13, 2009 / Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
www.itscanada.ca/edmonton2009

 

Plans are now in high gear for ITS Canada’s Annual Conference 2009. 
The Conference will be held in the heart of downtown Edmonton. 
The theme of the event will be
ITS – Transportation Solutions for Growth and Sustainability“.

Sponsor and exhibitor information is attached.

Book today to enjoy all the benefits of this event that draws international participation!
For questions, please call ITS Canada at (905) 471-2970.

 

Delegate Registration
Program
Technical Tour
Hotel
Exhibit
Sponsor
Social Events
Companions Program
 


[ipaper id=12791619]

Strengthening Our Infrastructure for a Sustainable Future

February 24, 2009 at 1:46 pm

(Source: Brookings Institution)

Bruce Katz, Vice President and Director, Metropolitan Policy Program

National Governors Association Winter Meeting

Good afternoon everyone.   

I want to commend NGA and Governor Rendell for dedicating such a substantial portion of your winter meeting to the topic of infrastructure. This is a topic that is routinely relegated to specialists in the field – whether they are civil engineers, or heads of your state DOT’s, or advocates.

As national leaders like Governor Rendell and his co-chairs at the Building America’s Future coalition—Governor Schwarzenegger and Mayor Bloomberg—so eloquently and effectively point out is that infrastructure needs to be moved to the front burner of our national policy conversations. Not just as a problem that needs to be dealt with, but also as a key solution to the economic, energy, and environmental challenges we face and it’s a principle driver of our nation’s prosperity.    

It turns out that hard times are the right time to focus on infrastructure. 

Now there are those who naturally see the current situation and want to spend more to repair our deficient infrastructure, to address our major gateways and corridors, to make transit more the norm than the exception. 

But this is not just about more spending. First and foremost we need reform, then we need to invest.

So let me begin with my first point: after years and years of benign neglect, infrastructure is truly getting public hearing.

First, as we all know, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that the President signed into law last Tuesday provides a lot of money for infrastructure.

Click here to read the entire speech.
Power Point Presentations from this event are listed below:
[ipaper id=12791076]

Stimulus Puts High-Speed Rail On The Fast Track

February 24, 2009 at 1:16 pm

(Source: NPR)

A map of designated high-speed rail corridors

 

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says high-speed rail could be a signature issue for Obama. “I do think this is the transformational issue for this administration when it comes to transportation,” LaHood said. “I think President Obama would like to be known as the high-speed rail president, and I think he can be.”

LaHood has sent Obama a memo outlining a half-dozen rail corridors across the country that could be in line to get some of the high-speed rail mon,ey.

The state that may be furthest along in planning is California, where voters approved a $9 billion bond issue last fall for high speed trains. Quentin Kopp, a former judge who is chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, expects a lot of the federal money to wind up in the California system, which would link the state’s largest cities.

Click here to read the entire article.

TRB Newsletter – Feb 24, 2009

February 24, 2009 at 11:35 am

[ipaper id=12787170]

Training programmes for heavy motor vehicle drivers

February 24, 2009 at 1:12 am

(Source: Times of India)

MARGAO: Western India Automobile Association (WIAA) in association with the road safety cell of the Ministry of surface transport organized training programmes and heath camps for heavy motor vehicle drivers at various places in South Goa recently.  The free refresher training course cum health camp for drivers which concluded on Saturday at the Kings School, Mugalli-Margao, was supported by the regional transportauthority of Goa. 

Yogesh Ambe, general manager (road safety) WIAA, Mumbai, informed TOI that the central ministry had allotted grants to take up such courses for drivers in Goa. “WIAA conducted free health camps and training course for drivers of BPCL, HPCL besides drivers at mines in Maina, Shigao, Sanvordem and heavy vehicle drivers at Vasco and Margao, with the support of Baba Naik of Tata Motors. Health camps for vision, blood grouping and general health checks besides issuing a free personal accident insurance policy of Rs 1 lakh each to all participants,” said Ambe. 

Click here to read the entire article.

Let’s Stimulate Smart Highways

February 24, 2009 at 1:05 am

(Source: Forbes.com)

California’s HOT expressways are on the rise but need our government’s financial support.

The “stimulus” legislation just signed into law by President Obama includes billions of dollars for transportation and infrastructure, with little regard as to whether the projects meet any serious national or regional need other than supposedly creating or “saving” jobs.

Like other goods and services in a market economy, transportation and infrastructure projects should respond to the public’s willingness to pay, not to politicians’ eagerness to spend. If the Obama administration really wants “change,” as it claims, it should change the way transportation projects are selected and financed, emphasizing market-based approaches. A good place to start would be with the $27.5 billion the stimulus bill proposes spending on highway, bridge and road projects.

If Washington insists on spending more on highways, it should at least spend it intelligently, rather than throwing it willy-nilly at projects politicians have declared “shovel-ready.”

An example of smart spending would be urban networks of “high-occupancy or toll” (HOT) expressways that accomplish specific objectives, such as increasing accessibility and reducing congestion and air pollution.

Click here to read the entire article.

Truck traffic revives interest in marine shipping

February 24, 2009 at 1:00 am

 

(Source: AP via Forbes.com)

An older idea is experiencing a rebirth thanks to the truck traffic that increasingly chokes America’s highways: shift more of U.S. freight burden to boats that can traverse rivers, lakes, canals and coastal waters.

Increased concerns about fuel prices and global warming in recent years have revived interest in marine highways from the Erie Canal to the Chesapeake Bay to the coastal waters off Oregon, Massachusetts and Texas.

Proponents envision further expansion of the country’s 25,000 miles (40,230 kilometers) of navigational waterways by making greater use of the coasts and inland routes, such as the St. Lawrence Seaway (other-otc: STLS.PK – news people ), the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

A significant expansion of the marine highway system faces several obstacles:

Many locks haven’t been updated in decades to accommodate increased freight traffic. Replacing America’s lock system would cost an estimated $125 billion.

Click here to read the entire article.

From Ireland: Many green issues of greater concern here than globally

February 24, 2009 at 12:54 am

(Source: Irish Times)

IRISH PEOPLE are more concerned about climate change issues than many other countries and they claim to have an extremely high recycling rate, a global survey has found.

The research was commissioned by marketing consultancy Accenture and involved 10,733 consumers in 22 countries including Europe, the US, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Argentina, Chile and South Africa.

Some 87 per cent of Irish people surveyed said they were concerned about climate change, compared with 83 per cent globally. And 96 per cent of Irish respondents claimed to recycle paper or plastic goods compared with 87 per cent globally. Some 93 per cent of Irish people surveyed said they shut down electric devices instead of leaving them on stand-by, compared with 87 per cent globally.

However, Ireland lagged behind in other areas, with 62 per cent saying they would avoid taking the car in favour of using communal transport, compared with 69 per cent globally. Just 21 per cent of Irish respondents said they used alternative energy such as solar or wind power, compared with 28 per cent globally. And 65 per cent of Irish respondents said they avoided buying goods requiring long-distance transportation compared with 71 per cent globally.

Click here to read the entire article.

No kissing please, we’re British

February 24, 2009 at 12:50 am

(Source: Agence France-Presse via NationalPost.com)

No kissing, and while we're at it, we're not so sure about that hat either.Picture: No kissing, and while we’re at it, we’re not so sure about that hat either.

WARRINGTON, England– A British train station has erected a no kissing sign to stop lovers going full steam ahead with their over-amorous farewells.

Commuters have been told: if you want to get up to that kind of business, do it in the car park.

The sign has gone up at the drop-off point at Warrington Bank Quay station in the town of Warrington, between Liverpool and Manchester in northwest England.

A man in a hat and a woman with a curly-looking hair-do puckering up show people where they cannot get down to some full-on lip-locking before boarding the 07:22 to Llandudno.

A similar kissing permitted sign has also been erected in a zone where smooching is considered tolerable.

Click here to read the entire article.