Registration for the 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) is now open. The three-day conference, held June 1-3, 2009 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland (just inside the Washington, DC metropolitan area), provides the intelligent transportation systems (ITS) industry with a forum to learn about and share insights on the latest advancements in ITS technologies.  Don’t miss this opportunity to find answers to your toughest transportation challenges, meet your legislators on Capitol Hill, see ITS solutions in action, and take home ideas for implementation, and learn from your peers. Be sure to take advantage of the early-bird registration rates which are available through March 31. Click here to register at the early bird rate or here for more information on the 2009 Annual Meeting.ITS America Annual Meeting 2009

Transportation Communications Newsletter

 Tuesday, March 3, 2009 — ISSN 1529-1057

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Registration Now Open for ITS America’s 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition

Registration for the 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) is now open. The three-day conference, held June 1-3, 2009 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland (just inside the Washington, DC metropolitan area), provides the intelligent transportation systems (ITS) industry with a forum to learn about and share insights on the latest advancements in ITS technologies.  Don’t miss this opportunity to find answers to your toughest transportation challenges, meet your legislators on Capitol Hill, see ITS solutions in action, and take home ideas for implementation, and learn from your peers. Be sure to take advantage of the early-bird registration rates which are available through March 31. Click here to register at the early bird rate or here for more information on the 2009 Annual Meeting.

AVIATION

1) Airports Court Airlines in Speed Dating Event

Link to story in The Dallas Morning News:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/030309dnbusdfw.3c2e364.html

Link to further information from Network USA 2009:  http://www.networkusa09.com/

GPS / NAVIGATION

2) Navigon Talks Up the Role of Voice in Safe Driving

New features on navigation devices include parking information and learning motorists’ driving styles.

Link to IDG News story:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/160465/navigon_talks_up_the_role_of_voice_in_safe_driving.html

Link to news release from Navigon:

http://navigonusa.com/about/press/default.aspx?d=2009-03-02b

3) Garmin Introduces Nuvi GPSs with Pedestrian Navigation

Link to story in PC Magazine:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2342262,00.asp

Link to news release from Garmin:

http://tinyurl.com/aaz3m3

4) TomTom Keeps Up with Tech, Costs

Link to story in Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/03/tomtom-gps-goddijn-markets-face-0303_geneva_21.html

OTHER

5) Council Formed to Improve Access to Emergency Phone Services

The N11/8XX Essential Services Interoperability Council will promote interoperability and access to the suite of services provided through N11 and 8XX numbers.

Link to story in Government Computer News:

http://gcn.com/articles/2009/03/03/nesic-formed.aspx

6) Add-On Software Apps Make iPhone a Great Travel Partner

Link to story in USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2009-03-02-iphone-travel-apps_N.htm

PUBLIC INFORMATION / EDUCATION

7) US Stimulus Projects to Feature New Emblem

Link to story in the Washington Business Journal:

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/03/02/daily42.html

ROADWAYS

8) Philippine Department of Transportation and Communications Launches Road Safety Program vs Giant Billboards

Link to story in The Daily Tribune:

http://www.tribune.net.ph/metro/20090303met2.html

SAFETY / SECURITY

9) Some Texas School Districts Seek End to Bus Evacuation Drills

Link to story in The Dallas Morning News:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/legislature/stories/DN-schoolbus_03met.ART0.State.Edition1.4a8b2b4.html

Link to further information from the National Transportation Safety Board:

http://www.ntsb.gov/events/journalist/lessons/LL_school_bus_training.pdf

TRAVELER INFORMATION / TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT

10) Tennessee DOT Investigates Massive Backup

Agency plans new Web site procedures to alert drivers and improved information on 511 system.

Link to story and video on WMC-TV:

http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?s=9932373

11) The View from Above: Take Mass Transit

A profile of New York City traffic reporter Tom Kaminski.

Link to story in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/nyregion/03experience.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Link to further information from WCBS-AM:

http://www.wcbs880.com/pages/2432.php?contentType=4&contentId=93014

VEHICLES

12) BMW Explores the New ‘Key’ to Payments

Carmaker hopes to use vehicle keys for purchases and other purposes.

Link to story in ContaclessNews:

http://www.contactlessnews.com/2009/03/03/bmw-explores-the-new-key-to-payments

News Releases

1) Hughes Telematics Completes Successful Testing in Europe with Its Aftermarket Solution in-Drive Device – Testing Fuels European Telematics Initiatives

2) Transite Technology Launches New Web Site and Marketing Initiatives

3) Connected Vehicle Proponents to Ask: Is It Time for Internet in Cars?

4) International Association of Fire Chiefs and SkyTerra Publish Information Paper on Communications Interoperability

5) Networks In Motion Strengthens Accuracy of Traffic Services on NAVBuilder Platform with Acquisition of TrafficGauge

 Upcoming Events

Maritime Security Forum – March 25 – New London, Connecticut

http://www.navysna.org/CGForum/Index.htm

Today in Transportation History

1879 **130^th anniversary** – The United States Geological Survey was created.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1050/

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The Transportation Communications Newsletter is published electronically Monday through Friday. 

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Questions, comments about the TCN?  Please write the editor, Bernie Wagenblast ati95berniew@aol.com.   

© 2009 Bernie Wagenblast

The U.S. Department of Transportation today awarded the United We Ride/Mobility for All Americans joint demonstration grants to the following recipients:

1.  Lower Savannah Council of Governments – $680,000 grant to provide enhanced, cost-effective transportation choices for older adults, people with disabilities and low-income populations in Aiken, SC.   The Lower Savannah Council of Governments is using the funding for planning and designing an expanded human service transportation network to include more human service transportation providers and vehicle tracking abilities such as global positioning systems (GPS) and to enable customers to receive information and manage their own trips through a toll-free number and web-based applications.

2.  Camden County Workforce Investment Board – $700,000 grant to provide enhanced, cost-effective transportation choices for older adults, people with disabilities and low-income populations in Camden County, NJ.   The Camden County Workforce Investment Board is using the funding for planning and designing a transportation brokerage system supported by a comprehensive set of transportation modes, and for promoting fixed-route public transportation usage for human service clients through accessibility improvement.

3.  Paducah Area Transit System – $1.4 million grant to provide enhanced, cost-effective transportation choices for older adults, people with disabilities and low-income populations in Paducah, KY.   The Paducah Area Transit System is using the funding for the expansion of an existing call center to cover a larger geographic area and provide around-the-clock access to traveler support.  The strengthened call center will add customer-oriented features, such as automated telephone and Internet-based trip reservations and management.

The United We Ride/Mobility for All Americans joint demonstration adopts a two-phased approach.  Eight sites were selected to in 2007 participate in Phase 1, which is system planning and design.  These three Phase 1 sites are selected to move forward to system deployment, the second phase of the program. 

Funding for the demonstration is provided by the Intelligent Transportation System Joint Program Office of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration in Partnership with the Federal Transit Administration

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (U.S. DOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) today announced the first of two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program solicitations for 2009.  Through this competitive program, the Department encourages the nation’s small, high-tech, innovative businesses to be a significant part of the federal government’s research and development efforts. Small businesses are invited to submit innovative research proposals that address high priority national transportation goals during the solicitation period, which runs from Feb. 13 through April 15.  The SBIR program is administered by RITA’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center on behalf of the U.S. DOT’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization.  The solicitation is available at http://www.volpe.dot.gov/sbir.  Contact: Kim Riddle (202) 366-5128.

(Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer)

President Obama has nominated one of Gov. Rendell’s top policy advisers to a leading post in the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Roy Kienitz, a deputy chief of staff for Rendell, has been nominated as the department’s undersecretary for policy.

The White House, in a news release issued late Friday, credited Kienitz with directing a number of major capital projects during his tenure with the commonwealth, including the expansion of the Convention Center and the Port of Philadelphia.

Kienitz was appointed by Rendell as his chief adviser on transportation, energy and environmental policy shortly after Rendell took office in 2003.

“He is one of the brightest, [most] hardworking, talented members of the administration. His defection to the Obama administration will be a loss,” said Rendell’s spokesman Chuck Ardo.

(Source: Forbes)

Smaller cars are coming, lots of them, but it’s far from clear that buyers want them.

Smaller cars are coming–we all know that. Domestic and foreign manufacturers are about to start a wave, pushed by expected higher fuel economy requirements. These smaller autos will crowd out new versions of the larger cars we have been buying. Automakers don’t have the wherewithall to build everything.

If your main concern is global warming or oil imports, this is good news. But here’s the problem: Americans have not had a love affair with smaller cars. As a rule they are less comfortable, less safe and less useful–carrying fewer passengers and a smaller load.

The danger here is that our auto sales could stay smaller for another decade if owners hang on to their old SUVs and Big Boy V8s, if they don’t like what the greens and government people say they should be buying.

The not-so-easy trick in small cars is making money off them. There are two ways. One is to make them expensive, like $30,000. But Americans think small cars mean cheap cars. Audi has a new small A1 for Europe but isn’t bringing it here, because at current exchange rates it would cost $25,000. Dealers say it’s too much: Small still means cheap.

Click here to read the entire commentary from Jerry Flint @ Forbes.

(Source: Forbes)

Automaker’s finance unit is believed to have requested $2 billion loan from Japanese state-backed bank.

Finding it difficult to raise money in the U.S., Toyota Motor is reportedly seeking emergency funding of about 200 billion yen ($2 billion) in dollars from a governmental institution in Japan to support its U.S. auto-financing operations.

Commercial banks have been cautious to grant loans amid the credit crunch, particularly to the slumping auto industry, and Toyota (nyse: TM – news –people ) and several of its financing affiliates have had their credit ratings reduced, hurting their ability to raise money on the capital markets. As a result, Toyota Financial Services, an auto-financing unit of Toyota Motor, is turning to the Japan Bank for International Cooperation as a last resort for low-interest dollar loans, various Japanese media reported Wednesday.

In response to the global financial turmoil, the government funded an emergency JBIC program late last year to provide loans and debt guarantees to help Japanese firms finance operations overseas.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Gizmodo.com)

(Source: Jalopnik)

 

As we stand waiting at the starter tree of the 2009 motorsports season, we’ve let our minds wander across the infinite expanses of Google Earth, finding these shots of the world’s top 15 race courses.

Formula 1 starts up next month, IndyCar the month after and NASCAR already snoozing away got us thinking about racing. Letting our minds wander across the blue globe of Google Earth let us come up with the following list of the world’s top 15 race courses. There’s 15 below. The 16th? That’s a bonus.

 

(Source: Gizmodo.com)