The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration announced this week it is seeking a Director for its Office of Program Administration, located in Washington, D.C. The Director in the Office of Program Administration will be tasked with providing executive leadership, policy direction, and oversight in guiding implementat

USDOT HQ, located at 1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ion of the Federal-aid highway program and MAP-21 legislative requirements. The successful candidate will oversee the development and implementation of the policies, regulations, parameters, and general guidance by which all division offices and state transportation departments carry out the Federal-aid highway program.

The position requires the Director to lead national transportation efforts and develop and implement national policies and performance standards to allow for a successful delivery of the Federal-aid highway program. The Director will also address program issues with members of Congress, state elected officials, and other executive departments as an FHWA representative.

Additional information on the position, including application instructions, is available here. Those interested may also contact Mark Harris in FHWA’s Office of Human Resources at 202-493-0955.

Click here for more information regarding this position

This is bat s**t crazy..Whew! French daredevil, Francois Gissy, set a new speed record on a bike – an astonishing 163mph, besting his own previous record of 150mph set in 2002. How did he do it – by strapping a hydrogen peroxide powered rocket to it!  Want to know something more crazier – it is still not the fastest bicycle speed record. While Gissy broke the record for rocket-powered bikes, he was still 4 MPH off the fastest cycling speed of 167 MPH that Dutch cyclist Fred Rompelberg set in 1995 while riding in a slipstream, sans rocket! Clearly, my life is quite boring. Read more here.

Image courtesy: Discovery News

Found this floating on my news feed.. Too cool to not share.. Enjoy!

Apart from the ability to show how cool you are, this new innovation from Monkey Light Pros (currently in Kickstarter), will make you  quite visible to motorists and other road users during the night time.. That said, I’m really not looking forward to the possibility of too many Nyan cats flooding our city streets..Hey, as long as it saves lives and gives you a reason to get on the bike, I’m all for it :)

Image via Gizmodo

Gadget/tech stuff blog Gizmodo offers the following details:

• It utilizes a quartet of LED-impregnated bars that fit along the the spokes inside of your wheel. As the wheel spins, the bars rotate and generate the 256-color animated GIFs by exploiting the persistence of vision effect.
• Each unit weighs just 500 grams and fits on a 26 to 29 inch rim using the standard 32 or 36 spoke pattern.
• The system can load up to 1000 frames in a variety of media formats (JPG, GIF, PNG, AVI, MPEG, MOV, QT, FLV) onto a web-based playlist for display (think about blitzing around the town with a different GIF every day! AWESOME!)
• Users can also download the Mac/Linux API to create custom light shows though the system comes preloaded with 10 animations.
• The integrated 7000mAh Li-ion battery supplies 3 – 8 hours of power at full brightness (up to 48 hours on lower settings).
• Cost: a single light system with a $700 and a pair for $1400. They’ll retail for $895 a pop if and when the program funds

Not sure what happened to this motorcyclist to create such a ruckus on the street.  But one thing is damn clear – he/she is not fit to operate a motor vehicle, EVER. Ridiculous!

 via Reddit

(Source: Imgur via Reddit)

A photo series that walks you through the story of a memorial built in a  remote corner of the globe.  It is beautiful and moving tribute to the victims of UTA Flight 772, a scheduled flight operating from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo to Paris CDG airport in France. On Tuesday, September 19th, 1989 the aircraft exploded over Niger in the Tenere region of the Sahara Desert. French investigators determined a suitcase bomb planted by Libyan terrorists to be the cause. All 170 people on board died. You will appreciate the efforts that went into building this memorial for the perished..

A new study from the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) led by Georgia Institute of Technology is looking at how transit agencies can use web-based tools including online polls and surveys, social media, mobile applications, and crowdsourcing to gather feedback from customers and other stakeholders. The project team is inviting transit operators to participate in a survey about their current and future uses of web-based feedback.

The survey is open to all transit agencies regardless of size or transportation modes offered. Even if the agency does not have a web-based presence, agencies insights will be valuable to the research effort. The final survey results will be incorporated into a report that will be published by the Transportation Research Board. This is a web-based survey that should take 10-15 minutes to complete and the survey deadline is May 31, 2013.

For queries please contact

Kari Watkins, the PI, by phone at (404) 385-4213 or email at kari.watkins@ce.gatech.edu.

Human subjects inquired can be directed Melanie Clark, Georgia Institute of Technology, at (404) 894-6942.

Here is the link for the survey http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1190592/5ac76b6bebb0

Source: Imgur

A bit of background: This image is part of a safety campaign by Canadian provincial agency Societe de l’assurance automobile (SAAQ) urging people to wear seat belts in the car. SAAQ (whose translation in English roughly equates to Quebec Automobile Insurance Corporation) developed a set of  posters,including the one below, for displaying in bars and restaurants from August 27 to September 23, 2012..

Very clever driving safety ad.. Source: Imgur via Reddit

Click here to see the other posters in this campaign.

Note: Application Deadline  Monday, May 13, 2013

This position is located in the Office of Transportation Management.  You will provide program management and program and technical support to federal field staff on various Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) and Transportation Systems Management and Operations initiatives.  You will be responsible for developing program strategies and for providing hands-on technical and program expertise to federal field staff in areas such as ITS architecture, standards, systems engineering.  The objective is for the specialist to ensure that federal field staff is equipped with the skills, knowledge, and information to

English: U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters – new building opened in Spring 2007 in Southeast Washington, near the Navy Yard and the new Nationals Ballpark. Español: La sede del Departamento de Transporte de los Estados Unidos Français : Le siège du Département des Transports des États-Unis – nouveau bâtiment ouvert au printemps 2007 au Sud-Est de Washington, près de Navy Yard et le nouveau Nationals Ballpark. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

effectively support ITS deployment and key ITS initiatives with state and local agencies.

The ideal candidate is a mid-career or seasoned professional with experience developing program strategies and providing technical and program expertise in areas such as ITS architecture, standards, systems engineering.

DUTIES:

As a Transportation Specialist, you will: