(Sources: WSJ, NPR, LA Times)

Hundreds of auto dealers in the New York area have withdrawn from the government’s Cash for Clunkers program, citing delays in getting reimbursed by the government, a dealership group said Wednesday.  The Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, which represents dealerships in the New York metro area, said about half its 425 members have left the program because they cannot afford to offer more rebates. They’re also worried about getting repaid.

“(The government) needs to move the system forward and they need to start paying these dealers,” said Mark Schienberg, the group’s president. “This is a cash-dependent business.”

Many dealers have said they are worried they won’t get repaid at all, while others have waited so long to get reimbursed they don’t have the cash to fund any more rebates, Schienberg said.  Schienberg said the group’s dealers have been repaid for only about 2 percent of the clunkers deals they’ve made so far.

“The program is a great program in the sense that it’s creating a lot of floor traffic that a lot of dealers haven’t seen in a long time,” he said.  “But it’s in the hands of this enormous bureaucracy and regulatory agency,” he added. “If they don’t get out of their own way, this program is going to be a huge failure.”

In contrast, today’s LA Times article notes that in California, which tops the list of states in terms of clunker transactions, most dealerships appear to be sticking with the program. The frenzy of buyer interest that greeted the program when it kicked off July 24 has dropped considerably partly because of shortages of popular cars such as the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic and Ford Focus.

“The gold rush is over,” said Eric Choi, fleet manager at Hollywood Ford. “We’re still getting some business from it, but like every other dealer, we’re pretty much out of cars.”

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sought to reassure auto dealers Wednesday that they would be reimbursed for discounts given to customers under the program. With weeks-long delays in processing reimbursements, many dealers have feared the program’s $3 billion funding would run out before they received the money owed them.

An administration official said on Monday that the Transportation Department hoped to have 1,100 public and private sector workers processing the vouchers by the end of the week, up from a work force of about 350 through the end of last week.

Employees at a department service center in Oklahoma City have taken the lead in processing the vouchers, the official said, and workers have responded to calls for voluntary overtime to process the forms.

Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal reports that Obama administration will wind down its popular “cash for clunkers” incentive program on auto sales — and may do so as soon as early September, according to one person familiar with the matter.

When to end the program is a tricky question. The administration is closely watching the money remaining in the program, and expects there to be a surge in last-minute clunker deals once an end date is announced, said the person familiar with the matter. The administration wants to avoid having dealers agree to sales after all the funds have been used up, this person said.

Through Wednesday morning, dealers had submitted requests to be reimbursed for roughly 435,000 vouchers totaling more than $1.81 billion, though many of those hadn’t yet been approved.

The backlog at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also has dealers worried that authorities won’t know when the funding is gone, he said. “That has clearly been something that the industry has been constantly asking: When is it at $3 billion and one and there’s no money left? You need to have a soft landing kind of approach.”

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: BBC, TMC Net, US Infrastructure)

For the first time in more than a quarter-century, a new space vehicle stands ready in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. The Ares I-X rocket, its simulated crew module and launch abort system are assembled on a mobile launch platform at Kennedy in preparation for launch this fall.  Ares I rocket is a key component of Nasa’s next-generation space transportation system.

Image Courtesy: NASA

“More than three years of hard work with the NASA and contractor team has brought us to this historic moment,” said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager. “This flight test is a critical step in continuing our design process for the Ares vehicle and the first flight for the Constellation Program.” The Ares I-X is wired with more than 700 sensors to gather data during the two-and-a-half minute flight test. The launch will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I crew launch vehicle. The data collected during the launch will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the integrated Orion spacecraft and the Ares I rocket.

The Ares I rocket will be used to launch the Orion capsule, the next man-controlled space craft destined to take over from the Space Shuttle.

The craft was finished a few days ago with the final elements being constructed on the 13 August; them being the stacking of the simulated crew module and launch abort system on the mobile launcher platform. Below is the presser from NASA on this topic (courtesy of PRnewswire.com).

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — For the first time in more than a quarter-century a new space vehicle stands ready in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. The Ares I-X rocket, its simulated crew module and launch abort system are assembled on a mobile launch platform at Kennedy in preparation for launch this fall.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)

The final segments of the Ares I-X were stacked on Aug. 13, completing the 327-foot launch vehicle and providing the first look at the finished rocket’s distinctive shape. The Ares I-X flight test is targeted for Oct. 31.

“More than three years of hard work with the NASA and contractor team has brought us to this historic moment,” said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager. “This flight test is a critical step in continuing our design process for the Ares vehicle and the first flight for the Constellation Program.”

The Ares I-X is wired with more than 700 sensors to gather data during the two-and-a-half minute flight test. The launch will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I crew launch vehicle. The data collected during the launch will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the integrated Orion spacecraft and the Ares I rocket.

Now that the Ares I-X is assembled, numerous evaluations will be run on all the rocket systems, including complex instruments that will constantly measure the vehicle’s movements as it launches and the first stage separates. The evaluations include a process called “modal testing,” which will shake the stack slightly to test stiffness of the rocket, including the pinned and bolted joints.

Video B-roll of the Ares I-X will be available on NASA Television’s Video File feed. For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

To follow Ares I-X processing on Twitter, visit:

http://twitter.com/NASA_Ares_I_X

For more information about the Ares I-X and NASA’s next-generation spacecraft, visit.

http://www.nasa.gov/ares

Foreword: TransportGooru is thankful to Mr. Glenn Havinoviski, a great supporter and an occasional editorial contributor (See Glenn’s Career profile below) for this review.  Recently, Glenn traveled from Washington, DC to San Antonio for a business event.  Enroute , he was updating his LinkedIn.com status message which read “Glenn is attending the ITE meeting in San Antonio this week! And typing this while enjoying inflight wi-fi (free for now)…..”  In a few minutes of this update, I wrote to him asking if he would like to write a review of this in-flight service and he gladly agreed and offered to send his review upon return.  As promised, Glenn promptly sent his input and TransprtGooru is glad to share that with all of you.  Upon reading, please register your comments so that Glenn will get to know what you all thought of his review.

Review by: Glenn Havinoviski

Delta has been redeeming themselves lately with their competitive fares (compared to United) out of Washington Dulles Airport, an advantage slightly tarnished by the chronic delays and crowding at their hub in Atlanta. They are now entering the 21st Century thanks to their embracing of Internet access.

THE HISTORY

Wi-fi in the sky is not new. About 5 years ago, Lufthansa tried mid-air Internet access with the Connexion service by Boeing on 66 of its 80 long-range jets, on occasion even handing out one-hour-free cards at the gate in Frankfurt or on the plane. Of course, on an 8-hour flight, that only gets you so far. I recall it was about $18 per flight if you wanted it the whole time. The service, which worked well the times I used it, died about 3 years after it started, given Boeing could not make it profitable thanks to the cost of maintaining their magic satellites as well as the half-ton of equipment on each plane with the service. (It didn’t help that the US airlines were not in the wi-fi game at that point to help amortize those satellite costs.) Connexion was pretty fast for downloads (3 MBps) but uploads (at 128 kbps) were somewhat slow. Not having in-seat power on Lufty was a minus as well.

THE AIRLINES MOVE FORWARD

Fast forward to 2009. Airlines have discovered the concept of supply and demand (at the expense of the casual flyer), and now suddenly have resources even in today’s sickly economy.

Aircell offers the GoGo wireless service on American, Delta, Airtran and Virgin America using a network of ground stations instead of satellites (meaning other services are needed for overseas flights), and 1 TB servers on each plane with relatively low cost wiring and antennas throughout the craft. Gogo is a much more compact solution than Connexion. Aircell claims they can equip a plane overnight with all the GoGo equipment.

Airtran and Virgin America have it on all their planes, American is ramping up to include the service on most planes and Delta promises to put it on 300 domestic aircraft by the end of the year. Stingy United will offer GoGo only on its premium JFK-LAX and JFK-SFO services.

As for other services, Southwest, Alaska and JetBlue are trying out free wi-fi on a handful of planes. US Airways is a no-show in the Wi-Fi derby. In the meantime, Lufthansa is firing up its old Connexion infrastructure (including the satellites) with the help of T-Mobile.

MY EXPERIENCE

Delta’s service is $9.95 (flights < 3 hours) and $12.95 (flights > 3 hrs), but if you happen to be transferring in Atlanta, perky college-age guys and gals clad in black with GoGo Wireless duffel bags will hand you one or two cards inviting you to try it out for free for a day of travel (they expire 9/30). Three of the four Delta flights I was on had the wi-fi. All of those planes were MD-88’s. The one plane that didn’t was a 757 (which inexplicably had a video on board explaining how to use the non-existent wi-fi service on that plane).

On my trip to San Antonio, I changed in Atlanta and promptly received my freebie card from the perky co-ed. I used the service on the ATL-SAT leg and will report on it below. On the way back, they had the service but I didn’t have the freebie card and didn’t feel like paying $12.95, considering I had finished with the ITE meeting and pretty much took care of my emails with my iPhone while on the ground. At Atlanta a pair of freshly scrubbed college kids in Gogo black gave me two cards, which I’ve saved for future use (between now and 9/30 when they expire), given the lack of Wi-fi on the 757 which served the last leg of the trip, from ATL to IAD.

THE REVIEW

GOOD: I didn’t have to upload anything, so I couldn’t tell how slow that might be (as before, uploads are much slower than downloads). But I was able to handle emails, grab stuff off the web, and do a few electronic payments. Really just like my home network. Of course having it for free was whipped cream on my strawberry cheesecake.

BAD: MD-88’s do not carry power connections. As my battery on my Dell lasts for 5 hours, not a biggie. Unfortunately, as with every service you start from scratch with, you launch Internet Explorer and get taken to a welcome screen to GoGo, which in turn makes you go-go through 2-3 pages of info you have to fill out (name, email, the usual assorted data as well as credit card if you are paying to use the service, discount code if you have a card, and of course the disclaimer at the end you have to acknowledge). Also bad is that it’s not on every plane yet.

I did not tsubscribe to the wifi on my iPhone though, although it was a strong, accessible signal – it would have been another sign-up.

Overall though – kudos to the airlines for utilizing services which have lightened up on the on-board infrastructure for domestic travel. As long as they keep Skype and voice-based cellular service off planes, I’ll be a happy camper. Technology is good.

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About Glenn Havinoviski: Glenn is an Associate VP

, Transportation Systems at Iteris in Sterling, VA and is a registered PE.   Until recently, he was an Associate Vice President and ITS Group Director for HNTB Corporation in the Arlington, Virginia office. His 27 years of experience (25 in consulting, 2 in the public sector) include serving as both a practice builder and a practice leader, providing project management and technical leadership for ITS and traffic management projects in the US and abroad.Glenn N. Havinoviski, PE joined Iteris in Sterling, VA on July 6 as Associate VP, Transportation Systems, after serving as Associate Vice President and ITS Group Director for HNTB Corporation in the Arlington, Virginia office. His 27 years of experience (25 in consulting, 2 in the public sector) include serving as both a practice builder and a practice leader, providing project management and technical leadership for ITS and traffic management projects in the US and abroad.

(Source: Reuters via Yahoo, Times of India)

Shah Rukh Khan, 43, one of India’s best known actors, was enroute to Chicago for a parade to mark the Indian independence day on Saturday when he was pulled aside at Newark airport Friday, he said. The Indian Bollywood star said he felt angry and humiliated after he was detained and questioned at a U.S. airport, sparking an uproar in India among his fans.

“I was really hassled perhaps because of my name being Khan. These guys just wouldn’t let me through,” he said in a text message to reporters in India.

After a couple of hours’ interrogation, he was allowed to make a call, he said, and he got in touch with the Indian consulate who vouched for him and secured his release.

“Absolutely uncalled for, I think. I felt angry and humiliated,” said Khan, who had just finished a month-long shoot in the United States for his upcoming film “My Name is Khan,” which is about a Muslim man’s experience with racial profiling.

SRK, as the actor star is known by his popular acronym, was asked to indeed step aside for a ”secondary inspection” at Newark’s ironically named (in this context) Liberty International airport on Friday en route to an event to celebrate India’s Independence Day in Chicago, President Barack Obama’s hometown. But that was only after a ”primary inspection.”

A ”secondary inspection” is when the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officer manning the immigration counter asks a visitor (or even a US citizen) to move to a separate area for questioning if he cannot initially verify the visitor’s information or does not have all of the required documentation, so as to not hold up the rest of the queue.

Indian and US officials rushed into damage control mode after word came in from Khan’s family that that the actor had been ”detained” and Khan’s vast fan base went ballistic. Timothy Roemer, the new US ambassador in New Delhi whose first week on the job it is, said he was trying to ascertain what exactly had happened at Liberty, and that Shah Rukh Khan was a global icon whose film were much loved even by Americans and he was always welcome in the US.

But Khan, from all accounts, doesn’t feel so welcome and says he will review his plans to visit the US again. In a slew of media interviews after the incident, he said his papers were in order, it seemed to be a case of religious profiling, and the incident was a ”little embarrassing” for an entertainer of his stature.

The incident comes days after a US government panel, gratuitously in the eyes of many Indians, panned New Delhi for its “inadequate protection of religious minorities,” even as the US President and Secretary of State lavished praise on Indian democracy on the occasion of the country’s Independence Day on August 15. It also comes on the heels of the flap over security procedures former President APJ Abdul Kalam has been subjected to in violation of protocol.

But there is an American side to the story too. US officials who have spoken to this correspondent on the subject in the past feel that some Indian visitors are needlessly huffy about routine security procedures, and there is a broad cultural mismatch or misunderstanding between the two countries in their view of rules and authority. India, one official said, has too much of a ”VIP culture” that gives some people a false sense of privilege and entitlement that does not sit well in a world of ever increasing security threats. Even minor delays and inconveniences are exaggerated and conflated into major protocol breaches by some Indians.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Sources contributing to this hybrid report:  Streetsblog, Tree Hugger, The Huggington Post & Guardian, UK)

The US oil and gas lobby are planning to stage public events to give the appearance of a groundswell of public opinion against legislation that is key to Barack Obama’s climate change strategy, according to campaigners.

A key lobbying group will bankroll and organise 20 ”energy citizen” rallies in 20 states. An internal memo obtained recently by Greenpeace USA details polluting interests’ plans to launch a nationwide astroturf campaign attacking climate legislation at public events scheduled throughout the final weeks of recess before the Senate returns to debate the issue in September.

The email memo (shown below), which appears to come from the desk of American Petroleum Institute president Jack Gerard, asks API’s member companies to recruit employees, retirees, vendors and contractors to attend “Energy Citizen” rallies in key Congressional districts nationwide in the closing weeks of the August recess. Taking a page from the playbook of astroturf campaigners currently crashing health care town hall events across the country, API hopes to similarly sully productive communications between Congress members and their actual constituents at public events scheduled for the coming weeks.  Gerard states that API is ready to bus in company members and provide logistical support, and reveals that API has retained “a highly experienced events management company that has produced successful rallies for presidential campaigns, corporations and interest groups.”

“Our goal is to energise people and show them that they are not alone,” said Cathy Landry, for API, who confirmed that the memo was authentic.

The email from Gerard lays out ambitious plans to stage a series of lunchtime rallies to try to shape the climate bill that was passed by the house in June and will come before the Senate in September. “We must move aggressively,” it reads. Gerard called this a “sensitive” plan that puts a “human face” on opposition to climate and energy reform. The campaign plan places a special focus on 21 states picked by API for having “a significant industry presence” or “assets on the ground.”

The rally sites were chosen to exert maximum pressure on Democrats in conservative areas. The API also included talking points for the rallies – including figures on the costs of energy reform that were refuted weeks ago by the congressional budget office.

The API drive also points to a possible fracturing of the US Climate Action Partnership (Uscap), a broad coalition of corporations and energy organisations which was instrumental in drafting the Waxman-Markey climate change bill that passed in the House of Representatives in June.

Whether the oil-industry rallies will command even a fraction of the attention that the health care events are getting remains an open question. Most of the health “town halls” were organized by Democratic lawmakers as a forum to hear constituent concerns, while the “Energy Citizen” events — one of which appears to be slated for next week in Houston — would be purely private-sector productions.

Environmental groups’ advance knowledge of the anti-climate rallies, however, could lead to on-the-ground battles over the future of the climate bill. The ultimate intended audience for that showdown: Democratic senators who remain on the fence about regulating emissions.

The memo closes with a ‘for your eyes only’ plea: “Please treat this information as sensitive and ask those in your company to do so as well… we don’t want critics to know our game plan.”

TransportGooru Musings: What a pity! For the sake of money, people like Jack Gerard tend to ignore the growing threats of global warming and seem to care less about what can happen to the very planet they live .  They seem to be ready to even pledge their children’s future, let alone their own future by playing such “Games.”  Why does the oil lobby engage in such a thing?  Treehugger said it aptly:  “…is all to say, to ensure that anything that cramps the business-as-usual, carry us down the path to catastrophic climate through continued rampant use of fossil fuels, plans of the petroleum industry is pushed aside in continued favor of big profits.”

Or may be it is the fear of losing out to the growing environmental movement that is making people like Gerard to resort to such  measures to keep their business afloat.  With more people buying energy efficient cars and the Government making a big push for electric vehicle technology, there may soon be a day the oil companies will be left behind trying to peddle their gooey black mess to unsuspecting folks in rural pockets of America.

When that day arrives, you can imagine the price of oil crashing down!  It might someday sell for $10/barrel, if you are ready listen to this investment guru.  There is an interesting post on the Infrastructurist blog that features Robert Prechter, an investment guru with a fairly impressive record of prognostication, who says oil is headed below $10 a barrel (maybe as low as $4) and destined to stay there for a long time. This is just a week or so after the world’s leading energy economist declared that we should expect oil to cost perhaps a few hundred bucks a barrel in the not-too-distant future. So, only a one hundred-fold difference, or so. In gasoline prices, it’s the difference between $10 a gallon and 75 cents a gallon. Prechter relies on a form of analysis called the Elliot Wave. It’s based on the principle that the price history of an asset (oil in this case) can tell you something about where where its price is going in the future. It will be really fun to watch what happens to Jack & his band of brothers at API when that day of $10/Barrel arrives for big oil.

Click here to read the entire article.  Here is a copy of the above-mentioned e0mail (courtesy of Greenpeace, via desmogblog)

Best Practices Illustrating the Benefits of Planning for Operations

On August 13, 2009, the USDOT released six case studies that provide strong examples of how planners and operators in a variety of different-sized metropolitan regions have worked together to advance utilizing an objectives-driven, performance-based approach to significantly advance Operations program in their areas.

A strategic approach to planning for operations that is guided by specific objectives and regular performance measurement will help ensure that the most effective operations strategies are incorporated into transportation plans. In many regions around the country, agencies are already applying elements of this approach in a variety of ways. The case studies below are just some of the examples of where this is being done.These case studies illustrate the benefits of planning for operations

Case Studies

• Capital District Transportation Committee (Albany, New York area) – Placing the Congestion Management Process in the Context of Metropolitan Transportation Planning Goals and Objectives
• Denver Regional Council of Governments (Denver, Colorado area) – The Denver Region Traffic Signal System Improvement Program: Planning for Management and Operations
• Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area) – Planning for Congestion Management and Tracking Progress
• Metropolitan Transportation Commission (San Francisco Bay Area, California) – Developing Regional Objectives and Performance Measures to Improve System Operations
• Pima Association of Governments (Tucson, Arizona area) – Regional Concept for Transportation Operations Fosters Planning for Operations in the Tucson Metropolitan Area
• Wilmington Area Planning Council (Newark, Delaware area) – A Performance-Based Approach to Integrating Congestion Management into the Metropolitan Planning Process

Planning for Operations is a joint effort between operations and planning that encompasses the important institutional underpinnings needed for effective Regional Transportation Systems Management and Operations. For more information on planning for operations, please contact Rick Backlund at Richard.Backlund@dot.gov.