Archive for March, 2009

Transit Funding Solutions, Parisian Edition

March 5, 2009 at 6:30 pm

paris-ad100

(Source: StreetsBlog)

We want mass transit in American cities, right? Right. So how are we going to pay for it?paris-metro-cite

Today on the Streetsblog Network, Yonah Freemark at The Transport Politic suggests looking across the Atlantic for some answers to that question, taking New York’s MTA and Paris’s RATP as examples of the differing approaches in the U.S. and in Europe. His detailed analysis of the funding of the Parisian transit authority, which relies in large part on payroll taxes and to a much greater extent than the MTA on government subsidies, leads him to a couple of conclusions, among them:

So, on the surface level, [the Parisian transit authority] appears to be funded much like the MTA, with funds coming from dedicated taxes and from government subsidies. There are two important differences, however: one, revenue from the taxes that pay for transportation in Paris are less likely to vary significantly during economic downturns; two, the government subsidies are designed to compensate when tax revenue falls short.

Click here to read the entire article.

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1st International Summit on the State of the Connected Vehicle – April 16-17 – Detroit

March 5, 2009 at 6:21 pm

The Connected Vehicle Trade Association in conjunction with the Michigan Department of Transportation and SAE International is hosting The FirstInternational Summit on the State of the Connected Vehicle with a Primary Focus on Policy and Strategy for Deployment. The first day will emphasis policy,funding, issues and strategies to accelerate deployments regionally andinternationally, and the second half day will address near term business opportunities. The Summit will be held on April 16-17, 2009 at Cobo Hall inDetroit, Michigan.  The Summit brings together senior executives and policy officials fromgovernment and industry with responsibility for the deployment and operation ofConnected Vehicle programs systems and products. Presenters from Europe,Asia and North America will provide perspectives from their respectiveregions. In addition, major corporate business leaders from automotive companies, the technology supplier community and communication companieswill discuss the business and partnering opportunities in this rapidly evolving environment. This event will bring together the international public and private sector leadership with responsibility for deployment in the connected vehicle environment. 

For more information, visit:  http://www.sae.org/events/scv/

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Bernie’s Transportation Communications Newsletter – March 5, 2009

March 5, 2009 at 6:10 pm

Thursday, March 5, 2009 — ISSN 1529-1057

Register Today and Prepare for the Approaching Recovery: IBTTA’s Workshop on Managing in an Era of Changing Economic Times, April 19-21, 2009 in San Francisco, CA 

Join IBTTA in San Francisco for power-packed educational sessions and walk away with a world of knowledge on better managing your organization today and preparing for the approaching economic recovery. Learn how global issues are affecting your organization and the toll industry, the goals and efforts of the U.S. stimulus program, how to build a cost-conscious culture and make tough decisions, how to position your agency for unique opportunities during this slowdown, solid financing strategies and more. This is one meeting you don’t want to miss! Visit IBTTA’s website to view the preliminary agenda, make your travel arrangements and register today!

AVIATION

1) BWI Airport Uses Twitter to Update @travelers

Link to story on IntoMobile:

http://www.intomobile.com/2009/03/04/bwi-airport-uses-twitter-to-update-travelers.html

Link to BWI Twitter page:  http://twitter.com/BWI_Airport

2) Hong Kong Airline Apologizes for Airport Tantrum Video

Link to AP story:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gJFHKJTt041ELxDCYFvCwvDOevswD96NPQDO0

Link to YouTube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbVw7entkxg

RAILROADS

3) Locomotive Cameras May Follow Metrolink Crash Probe

Link to Bloomberg News story:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUbV7DHy9GxM

SAFETY / SECURITY

4) NTSB Official Sees Threat in Cell Phone Use by Train Crews

Link to AP story:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j3Z45uDic1fZCfx8hT1T0-Qqd0cwD96NHLMG0

TELEMATICS

 

5) Organic Grocer Uses Tech to Reduce Carbon Footprint

Telematics solution features real-time vehicle tracking, mileage information, SMS messaging and live traffic information.

Link to story in Progressive Grocer:

http://www.progressivegrocer.com/progressivegrocer/content_display/supermarket-industry-news/e3ib7a02a35762c94344de1767457f865d8

TRANSIT

6) Lynchburg, Virginia Area’s Mass Transit Maps Now a Click Away

Link to story in The News & Advance:

http://www.newsadvance.com/lna/news/local/article/lynchburg_areas_mass_transit_maps_now_a_click_away/14067/  

News Releases

1) New Mexico DOT Announces New Hotline to Take Reports of Fraud, Waste, Abuse or Misconduct

2) 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung: Bilingualism in Public Transport

Solicitation

 –  Call for Tenders – Framework Contract to Provide Technical, Legal and Organizational Support for Implementation of ITS Action Plan – European Commission

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/tenders/2009_en.htm

Upcoming Events

1st International Summit on the State of the Connected Vehicle – April 16-17 – Detroit

http://www.sae.org/events/scv/

Today in Transportation History

1979 **30th anniversary** – Voyage 1 made its closest approach to Jupiter.

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/planetary.html

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

The Transportation Communications Newsletter is published electronically Monday through Friday. 

To subscribe send an e-mail to:  TCNL-subscribe@googlegroups.com

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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

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California may soon require smog checks for motorcycles

March 5, 2009 at 6:06 pm

California may soon require smog checks for motorcycles

(Source:  AutoBlogGreen)

Back on February 26th, California State Senator Fran Pavley introduced legislation that would “amend Section 44011 of, and to add Section 44012.5 to, the Health and Safety Code, relating to air pollution.” All right, what’s that mean? Basically, this legislation would require motorcycle owners in California to get smog checks for their motorcycles once every two years. The law would cover all motorcycles model year 2000 or newer and, if passed, would go into effect on January 1st, 2012. 

Click here to read the rest ofthe article.
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Turning around a struggling airline: An interview with the CEO of Malaysia Airlines

March 5, 2009 at 5:54 pm

(Source: McKinsey Quarterly)

Idris Jala led the state-controlled carrier from the brink of bankruptcy to record-breaking profits. Now he wants it to become what he calls a “five-star value carrier.”

When Idris Jala became CEO at Malaysia Airlines, his goal was to keep the carrier flying. Now he wants to create a new breed of air service. Much has happened in the intervening three years.

Malaysia Airlines, the Southeast Asian country’s national carrier, was less than four months away from running out of cash when Jala took charge, in December 2005. The state-controlled airline had been struggling for some time, but inadequate yield management, an inefficient network, and poor cost control finally brought it to its knees that year, when it posted a 1.7 billion ringgit ($500 million) loss.

Yet in 2007, the airline earned record annual profits of 851 million ringgit. Such a swing would be remarkable for any company, much less one facing the hurdles common with state ownership: a large number of stakeholders, intense public scrutiny, competing priorities, insufficient freedom to operate commercially, and a host of legacy personnel challenges. Now Jala aspires to turn Malaysia Airlines into a “five-star value carrier.”

Click here to read the rest of this interesting interview (Free registration will allow you to read tNo more fearhe entire article).

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Number of the Day: More Than Half of All Vehicles Trips to Work in US are 11 Miles or Less

March 5, 2009 at 5:35 pm

(Source: Treehugger)

driving to work photo

11 Miles — According to the 2001 Nationwide Household Travel Survey (NHTS), 58%of all vehicle trips to work are less than 11 miles (17.7 kilometers).

37% — Vehicle trips to work that are 5 miles (8 kilometers) and less represent 37%, according to the same survey.

21% — Trips between 6 and 10 miles (9.6 to 16 kilometers) represent 21%.

Click here to read the entire article.

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A day of air travel over North America, and what it means for rail

March 5, 2009 at 1:14 pm

(Source: Wired Magazine, Transportation for America, Streetsblog)

From Wired Magazine via Aaron of Streetsblog comes this amazing map and video that shows a day of air travel over North America. Using data from the Federal Aviation Administration and a service called FlightView that tracks airline travel each day, artist Aaron Koblin created this Google map that shows 24 hours of airline travel on August 12, 2008.

Aaron Koblin Airline Travel

There’s also a breathtaking movie version of this same map, that shows the flights in real time through the course of the day.

The sheer number of airplanes traveling over the United States is simply mind boggling. On this day chronicled in the map, the FAA tracked 205,000 flights in U.S. airspace. Anyone who has ever traveled by plane knows that we have plenty of air above our country, but the problem is the fact that too many of them need to be in specific pieces of air at the same time. Or traveling through the same crowded airports.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Ready, Set, Go! Paving the Way for Plug-In Vehicles

March 5, 2009 at 1:03 pm

(Source:  Rocky Mountain Institute Via Tree Hugger)

plug in vehicle photo

Image credit:RMI

President Obama has set the goal of adding one million plug-in vehicles to the country’s fleet by 2015. And while the recently passed stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, contained some very generous incentives for plug-in vehicles, much work remains to be done.

One million is one half of a percent of the fleet—a good start, but a small start. How do we make sure the first million are a screaming success, and that we accelerate to 10 million, and 100 million soon?

Rocky Mountain Institute believes the solution lies with preparing our cities and communities, and we recently launched Project Get Ready to speed up the transition.

Getting ready for plug-ins isn’t going to be a massive overhaul, but it does require some planning, and targeted shifts in several important sectors. Examples include changing electrical code to allow for charging spots, creating special electricity pricing for plug-ins, and teaching citizens what to expect from a plugged-in lifestyle.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Obama administration works on U.S. fuel rule

March 5, 2009 at 12:57 pm

State standards could be supplanted

(Source: Freep.com, Detriot Free Press)

WASHINGTON — Even as his administration moves toward allowing California and other states to set limits on vehicle fuel economy, President Barack Obama has begun crafting a new national standard that will likely supplant the states’ efforts.Hello again, cheap gas

The moves would allow the president to fulfill a campaign promise to let the California limits take effect while addressing the chorus of concerns from a financially beleaguered U.S. auto industry about meeting a so-called patchwork of state-level greenhouse gas controls, in addition to federal fuel economy rules.

The rules are different but the effect is similar — greater fuel efficiency from vehicles leads to reduced emissions.

The administration has raised the idea for a national limit as part of its talks with Detroit automakers and suppliers for additional aid, an administration official said Wednesday.

“The president believes that one national policy for autos would provide the industry with certainty while achieving our environmental and energy independence goals,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The California rules would have little immediate effect on automakers if adopted, but the standards would toughen annually through 2020.It´s the economy, stupid!

Click here to read the entire article.

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Putting U.S. Cars on the High Road to Recovery

March 5, 2009 at 12:44 pm

(Source:  The Brookings Institution)

Chrysler and General Motors have now presented their recovery plans to Washington. The plans, like the public debate about the future of the industry, focus mainly on short-term issues such as financial restructuring.

However, it is crucial that the automakers and the government also address the underlying impediments to their long-term viability. 

During the grilling the automakers received on Capitol Hill in November and December, commentators on both the right and the left misdiagnosed these impediments. 

To some on the right, the Detroit firms’ biggest problem is labor costs. But these labor costs are less than 10 percent of vehicle cost. In any case, the companies and the United Autoworkers Union are already addressing retiree health care and pension costs, the major source of the labor cost difference between the Detroit Three and Japanese manufacturers. 

Some on the left assert that the major problem is the firms’ failure to make fuel-efficient cars. During the long era of cheap gasoline, though, it was wrong to blame the companies for making the SUVs consumers desired. 

Instead, the Detroit automakers’ long-term problems lie in two areas that have rarely entered the public debate: uneven product quality and lagging innovation. 

Click here to read the entire article.
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