(Source: Wired)

The awesome folks at Wired recently covered the AirVenture aviation show @ Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  Check out the excerpts below from the Wired article.

OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — For one week every year, the air traffic control tower at the small airport here is the busiest in the world. And today is the busiest day of all for the hand-picked all-star crew of controllers who will handle more than 3,000 flights in just 10 hours.

On a normal day, Wittman Regional Airport might see a few hundred take-offs and landings. But more than 10,000 aircraft from around the world descend on Oshkosh for the week-long AirVenture aviation show. On a slow day the controllers might direct 1,500 flights. Some days see more than 2,000. But with many of those who arrived early in the week heading home — and those coming in for the weekend arriving — Thursday is usually the busiest day of the week.

On this day last year, the tower directed 3,035 flights in just 10 hours. That’s about 400 more than the crew at Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport — usually the busiest in the world — handled on the same day, and the flights coming into Atlanta were spread out over 24 hours. Oshkosh tower manager and veteran controller Wanda Adelman told Wired.com there are some bragging rights that come with the job here, “we actually beat O’Hare” she says referring to the Chicago airport which is the busiest in the region, “we beat Atlanta too, but nobody cares about Atlanta. They just want to know that we beat O’Hare.”

They get a bright pink polo shirt that is one of the most sought-after prizes of their profession.

It’s a carefully choreographed ballet that requires the utmost attention from both the controllers and the pilots, who must read a 32-page guideline (.pdf) of the procedure. Flying into or out of Wittman during AirVenture can be unnerving for the uninitiated, as pilots often find themselves flying much closer to other airplanes than they typically would.

Inside, there are two teams of controllers at any given time. Each team has two people. One keeps watch over the airfield and the airspace through binoculars and relays information to the other person, who communicates with the pilots.

Click here to read the entire article and to check out some more awesome pictures.

(Source: AP via Yahoo; Freep & Photo Courtesy: TOBY TALBOT/Associated Press via Free)

The Obama administration promised on Friday that the financially strapped “cash for clunkers” program will be good at least through the day.

Less than four days after launching a popular cash-for-clunkers program, the Obama administration warned Congress the plan already had burned through its $950-million budget, setting off a rush for more money while leaving thousands of dealers and consumers in the lurch.

A White House official told the Free Press late Thursday that all valid deals made under the program so far would be honored, saying it had not been suspended. But administration sources could not say what car buyers hoping to trade their clunker for a new vehicle should do today.

The House is set to adjourn today for a monthlong recess, but Michigan lawmakers and administration officials were pushing for an emergency infusion of cash today. A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said any request would be “quickly reviewed.”

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said he got the word from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood as members of the Ohio and Michigancongressional delegations huddled on Capitol Hill to discuss ways to keep the popular program going.

“Beyond Friday,” Levin said, “depends on whether the administration can find some money.”

One participant in the meeting said they were examining possible funding sources and whether there were any glitches in the computer system. The participant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talk, said they were also studying how many dealers had enrolled in the system.

Through Wednesday afternoon, more than 23,000 dealer franchises were participating, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The administration dispatched Brian Deese, a top adviser to the Treasury’s auto task force, to the Hill meeting.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said about 40,000 new vehicles had been purchased through the program but dealers estimate another 200,000 vehicles have been sold in transactions that have not yet been completed through the program.

Earl Stewart, who owns a Toyota dealership in North Palm Beach, Fla., said the changing messages on the program has created confusion among his customers and his staff. Stewart’s accounting department also could only enter about a dozen of the 47 sales he made into the government Web site set up to handle the transactions, leaving him wondering if he will get refunded for the remaining vouchers.

Click here to read the entire article.

Breaking News Update:

The Detroit Free Press reports that the U.S. House will vote on $2 billion in additional funding for the cash-for-clunkers program this afternoon.

Michigan lawmakers huddled in the Capitol this morning with a White House official discussing ways to get the cash-for-clunkers program under control. The program is still under way, they said.

While the Obama administration said the plan was not suspended, it doesn’t know how many deals have been made under the program and whether the $950 million available to the plan is enough to cover the deals already made.

The administration may consider whether money from the economic stimulus plan can be diverted to the program.

Click here to read the  update.

The report evaluates incremental reductions in U.S. carbon emissions that could occur within the transportation sector as a result of a variety of transportation- and land use-related actions and strategies to minimize auto use. The report finds that land use strategies will produce the most emission reductions of all 50 strategies analyzed by the report.

Focusing solely on energy-efficient vehicles and cleaner fuels will not address the problem of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to this recent report. A key finding indicates that the U.S. could cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by as much as 24 percent by 2050, without road pricing strategies, through changes to current transportation systems and operations, travel behavior, land use patterns and regulatory strategies.

With pricing measures such as pay-as-you-go drive insurance, direct fees for vehicle miles traveled, carbon pricing or increased gasoline tax, GHG emissions reductions could be as high as 41 to 52 percent.

The research, prepared by Cambridge Systematics, Inc., focuses on strategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled and improve the efficiency of the transportation network. Land use is one of nine categories of strategies considered by Moving Cooler, along with transportation pricing and taxes, public transportation improvements, non-motorized transport such as walking and biking, regulations to moderate vehicle use and speed, intelligent systems, expanded highway capacity and more efficient freight movement. The effectiveness of each strategy in cutting greenhouse gas emissions is measured against a baseline that represents current trends.

Moving Cooler outlines a number of bundled strategies for discouraging travel in personal vehicles:

• create more transportation -efficient land use patterns
• encourage greater levels of walking and bicycling as alternatives to driving
• support ride-sharing, car-sharing, and other efficient commuting strategies
• subsidize public transportation fares, expanded routes and new infrastructure
• improve intelligent transportation systems to make better use of the existing capacity and encourage more efficient driving
• expand capacity and relieve bottlenecks to reduce congestion

But none of these steps will be as effective as establishing “strong economy-wide pricing measures.” For example, adding $0.60 to the price of a gallon of gasoline, starting in 2015 and increasing to $1.25 per gallon in 2050 could result in a 17 percent reduction of GHG in 2050, according to the study. If we introduced a fee similar to current European fuel taxes, starting at $2.40 a gallon in 2015 and jumping to $5.00 a gallon in 2050, we could see a 28 percent reduction in 2050. (These fees presumably would be added to the market price for gasoline.)

Moving Cooler points out that economy-wide pricing measures — such as an increase in the gasoline tax, carbon pricing, and pay-as-you-drive insurance – would produce the most significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, due to the likelihood of substantial shifts in driving behavior mandated by the high costs. However, outside of these pricing measures, the land use strategies produce the most emission reductions of any of the other strategies analyzed. Moreover, the costs of implementing such changes in development patterns are offset by the substantial savings in the cost of vehicle ownership and maintenance, the report adds.

The study’s authors say these pricing measures would have two effects: to cut back on vehicle miles traveled and to accelerate implementation and purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles—like hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and electric cars.

Moving Cooler cites multiple benefits derived from combining concentrated, mixed-use land development strategies and non-motorized transportation strategies to reduce auto dependency: “The combined effect of more compact land use, improved transit service and improved bicycle and pedestrian conditions would be to improve mobility by non-automobile modes…Increased opportunities for walking and biking will lead to improvements in public health, and exercise and activity levels increase. Finally, denser development can lead to energy and greenhouse gas savings through decreased building use, in addition to transportation efficiencies.”

Click here to read the Executive Summary or here to download the the entire report in PDF.

Sponsored by URISA and the National Center for Transit Research (NCTR)

URISA and the University of South Florida’s National Center for Transit Research at the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) are pleased to announce a new partnership to present the 2009 GIS in Transit Conference, taking place Hilton Bayfront in the waterfront district of downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, November 16-18, 2009.

The Conference Committee has organized an educational program based upon the abstracts submitted through a Call for Participation. Abstracts were submitted within these general topic categories: Applications, Tools, Data, and Management & Policy.

Preliminary Conference Schedule

Monday, November 16, 2009

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Registration

Early Rate (if Registered by October 5, 2009)

• Full Registration:
  URISA Member – $275
  Non-Member – $300

Regular Rate (if registered after October 5, 2009)

• Full Registration:
  URISA Member – $350
  Non-Members – $375

Pre-Conference Workshops: $195

Conference Sponsors

The National Center for Transit Research (NCTR) is located at the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida.  NCTR strives to make public transportation and alternative forms of transportation, including managed lanes, safe, effective, efficient, desirable, and secure. The goals of NCTR are: to minimize traffic congestion, maximize mobility options, promote safety and security, improve the environment, and enhance community sustainability. This will be accomplished by conducting applied and advanced research, energetically disseminating the results, and expanding the workforce of transportation professionals through education and training to address the challenges and opportunities of the future.  The National Transit GIS Conference is one of the many efforts by NCTR to forward its goals.  For more about NCTR please visit: www.nctr.usf.edu.

The 2009 GIS in Transit Conference is proudly endorsed by:

For more information, please visit: http://www.urisa.org/gis_transit

IEEE VNC 2009 is a new conference established with the merger of IEEE V2VCOM and IEEE AutoNet Workshops under IEEE ITS Society and IEEE ComSoc.

• 2009.07.27
  Submissions deadline extended to August 10. This is a final extension.
• 2009.07.06
  Submissions are now being accepted on the PaperCept site.

(Source: Bernie Wagenblast’s Transportation Communications Newsletter)

(Source: Washington Post & AASHTO)

Supporters garnered the necessary two-thirds support to push through the stop-gap measure intended to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through September 30, the end of the fiscal year. The vote was 363 to 68.

The government estimates the account could run dry within several weeks without an emergency infusion of cash. The fund provides states with about $40 billion per year in transportation construction funding.

Trust fund disbursements are separate from the billions in economic stimulus money dedicated to states for transportation projects.

The Senate is expected to act on the temporary trust fund measure before the end of next week, and lawmakers plan to address a longer-term remedy after their August recess.

During the 40 minutes of House floor debate this afternoon, supporters argued the Highway Trust Fund needs additional funding immediately to prevent the payment slowdown to states, which could cause states to then curtail their road construction activity. Opponents contended the transfer is not paid for by any new revenue source and that Congress needs to stop bailing out the Highway Trust Fund. Congress sent the fund an additional $8 billion last September when a similar funding crisis developed due to lower revenue in the trust fund than had been projected as a result of Americans driving less during the economic recession and thus paying less in gasoline and diesel taxes as well as in heavy-truck taxes.

The House bill approved today contains no extension of authority for federal surface transportation programs, which is scheduled to lapse Sept. 30 at the end of this fiscal year. While House leaders have been pushing a full six-year authorization measure, the Obama administration and the Senate have favored a temporary extension of current authority for 18 months. Today’s House vote means Congress will have to face the authorization question in September after returning from the summer recess.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-MN, said during today’s floor debate that he regrets Congress must take action to shore up the Highway Trust Fund. But the drop in vehicle miles traveled experienced over the past year and a half has left the trust fund short of its revenue projections, necessitating an infusion, he said. Oberstar’s six-year, $500 billion authorization measure has been approved by subcommittee but not been brought up before the full T&I Committee yet because there is no agreement with the House Ways and Means Committee on how to raise the extra revenue needed to pay for it.

Click here to read the entire article.

Friday, July 24, 2009 – ISSN 1529-1057

AVIATION

1) EU Ombudsman Urges Air Passenger Language Provision

Link to story on EurActiv:

http://www.euractiv.com/en/culture/ombudsman-urges-air-passenger-language-provision/article-184356

GPS / NAVIGATION

2) Nissan Car Monitors GPS for Road Dangers Ahead

Link to IDG News Service story:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135881/Nissan_car_monitors_GPS_for_road_dangers_ahead

SAFETY / SECURITY

3) US Transportation Security Administration Deploys New Screening Pilot Technology on Connecticut-Long Island Ferry

Link to UPI story:

http://www.upi.com/Security_Industry/2009/07/24/TSA-deploys-new-screening-tech-for-pilot/UPI-18341248450159/

4) Cash-Strapped States Raid 911 Funds

Link to AP story:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iHDteg76KJLCUu-wFV8VBrOpIJFQD99KB2T80

TRANSIT

5) Circuit at DC Metro Crash Site Began Malfunctioning in Late ’07, NTSB Says

Link to story and video in The Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/23/AR2009072301575.html

6) DC Metro Response Undermines Rider Confidence

Agency is focused on engineering in response to crisis but vastly underestimating the amount of information they need to share with the public.

Link to column in The Washington Post:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/getthere/2009/07/metro_creating_morale_problem.html?hpid=topnews

VEHICLES

7) Virtual Co-driver Means Safer Trucks

Link to story on Transport News Network:

http://www.tnn.co.uk/Manufacturers/plonearticle.2009-07-24.2284464932

News Releases

1) BART Includes Train Lengths on Real-Time Arrival Sites

Job Postings

– Transportation Specialist, GS-2101-13/14 EG – Federal Highway Administration – Washington, DC

http://tinyurl.com/nqp25k

Upcoming Events

GIS in Transit Conference – November 16-18 – St. Petersburg, Florida

http://www.urisa.org/gis_transit

Friday Bonus

Here’s the 21^st Century version of Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal.

http://manhattanairport.org/

Today in Transportation History

1969 **40^th anniversary** – Apollo 11 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean.

http://space.about.com/library/video/blvidapollo11_reclip02.htm

=========================================================================TheTransportation Communications Newsletter is published electronically Monday through Friday.

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© 2009 Bernie Wagenblast