(Source: Times of India)

If you crib about American politicians breaking the rule of law, you have to meet Mr. Najot Sidhu, a colorful politician in India and a current Member of Parliament. He was also one of the celebrated cricketers from a decade ago.  Though he has been involved in a series of egregious violations over his colorful career, he somehow managed to get away. Until now.  But what he did today deserves serious jail punishment.  Let’s see what he did.

Today, Mr. Sidhu kidnapped a security guard at a Toll Plaza! Yep.  You heard me right.  According to reports seen on leading Indian newspaper Times of India, it all began when the guard, Chenchu Ramaiah, allegedly hurled a stick at Sidhu’s car which whizzed past the Venkatachalam toll plaza at Tallampadu village in Doravarisatram mandal without showing any ID proof or payment of toll fee. This led to a crack in the windshield. An enraged Sidhu came back to the plaza, overpowered Ramaiah and another guard and bundled them into his vehicle.  If that is not enough, Mr. Sidhu and his entourage drove to a meeting with the two kidnapped toll plaza staff. Local police who were alerted about the situation, intervened and tried to pacify the politician. Click here to read the entire article.

Wait a minute!  Did I hear the word pacify? Is this how police in India are now expected to treat a kidnapper?  Isn’t the role of police to arrest such offenders and take them to court? I may be wrong here but I see the actions of Mr. Sidhu are plain breach of law and it can be summarized as a kidnapping and he should be dealt with accordingly.  Would the police be “pacifying” a kidnapper had the roles been reversed here – i.e., if the toll plaza guards kidnapped Sidhu and drove him away, and held him against his will for a couple of hours? Would the police be treating the Toll Plaza guards the same way they did with Mr. Sidhu?  Arrest his ass and throw him in JAIL! Let him stand in-front of a judge and explain his actions (oh, also don’t forget to prosecute the guards for damaging the vehicle too). If I’m a multinational firm interested in investing in India’s infrastructure such a situation would make me think twice. Incidents of this kind simply undermine investor confidence and erode any faith in the rule of law for citizens and foreigners alike.

For one, this is not what people expect from their elected leadership.  India’s Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh and the opposition party leader (BJP party, to which Mr. Sidhu belongs), should come out strongly and condemn this action publicly If anything, reprimand Mr. Sidhu for his actions and set an example.  What’s more appalling are the actions of his party man, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu, who is another prominent opposition politician.  Mr. Naidu, knowing all well what Sidhu did, intervened to broker peace between the police and Mr. Sidhu instead of letting the police carry out their duty.  Press reports say that Mr. Naidu requested the police not to register case against anyone, including Mr. Sidhu.  Whattt!  Mr. Naidu should apologize to the people of his state for his actions and offer all assistance to the police to investigate this case.  That is the least these politicians and government officials can do to show the citizens of India that the law is the same for everyone – be it a minister or a commoner on the street. Anyone who breaches the law should/will be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.  Failure to prosecute Mr. Sidhu would only reinforce the current sentiment among the public – if an offender is powerful or a wealthy politician he can get away with anything.

Note to Sidhu: Mr. Sidhu, you are not definitely the type of leader that India deserves.  Your actions are shameful and your theatrics are even more offensive.  Stop behaving like a petulant child and behave like a political leader that people want.  After all, there are many young kids who grow up aspiring to be you and I hope you don’t lead them astray with such questionable behavior. Next time you approach a toll plaza, make sure to slow down and pay your toll. I’m positive the Indian taxpayers are paying you a handsome salary for your services as a Member of Parliament and you can definitely afford to pay a couple of hundred rupees for a service that everyone else pays.  If you do not like slowing down or paying tolls, try catching a bus or even better a train. Oh, and above all don’t forget to render an apology to the poor workers at the Toll Plaza who toil in the baking hot weather all day long just to make ends meet.

Note to the Toll Plaza operators: For crying out loud, install barricades or some other measures to prevent such toll booth violations. If anything, use electronic surveillance equipment to capture the offenders and collect the money electronically.  But don’t encourage your staff to throw a stick or a stone at a fast moving vehicle. It’s not only dangerous to the occupants of the vehicle but can also result in such situations where the offenders can get into a quarrel with the enforcers. Work with the police to resolve such violations and please do not encourage your staff to take matters in their own hands.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), Research and Innovative Technology Administration will be hosting a free public webinar on December 9, 2011 to discuss plans for a certificate management entity (CME) to support a trusted and secure connected vehicle environment.  During the webinar U.S. DOT will be seeking input on a set of high-level, alternative organizational structures for the CME.

Webinar Details:

The webinar will take place December 9, 2011 from 1:00 – 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. During the call the U.S. DOT will present results from an early analysis of organizational models. This analysis will describe the functions that need to be performed by a CME; identify key constraints as well as institutional and policy requirements; model how those functions may be organized; and present a high level assessment of these organizational models against a set of evaluation criteria.

Draft documentation of the analysis will be posted for comment at the following location on or before December 9, 2011 at www.its.dot.gov. Interested stakeholders are asked to submit comments about the analysis by the end of the day on December 14, 2011. Written comments may be submitted to:  itscme@dot.gov. This is not an official docket. Stakeholders will have additional opportunities to provide input in to this project at later stages, including via a public meeting planned for March 2012.

Background:

Through 2014, the primary focus of the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Joint Program Office is a research initiative focused on developing rapid and secure wireless communications and trusted data exchanges among vehicles, roadside infrastructure, and passengers’ personal communications devices.  This innovative use of wireless communications provides the  foundation for a connected environment for transportation that is intended to enable a multitude of applications to enhance surface transportation safety, mobility, and environmental performance.

In the end state, users need to have assurance that the system offers trusted and secure communications. That is the fundamental purpose of the Certificate Management System (or Certificate Management Entities): to ensure that participants and their vehicles receive digital certificates that allow them to be trusted actors within the system and to access meaningful and trusted data that is generated by others. If trust in the communications breaks down, then trust in the overall connected environment erodes and users become reluctant to use it or rely on it. Trust can be violated in several ways:

• Security of communications: If communications are not considered secure, users will be less likely to trust the data that is generated by or accessible through the system.
• Private data is compromised: If technical and policy solutions are not in place to protect private data or users perceive that their private data could be made available to unauthorized third parties without their awareness and consent, they will not participate.
• Corrupt or inaccurate data: If the data  can be altered or corrupted through malicious misbehavior by hackers, it may cause more safety problems than fixes.

The current study aims to analyze alternative operational models that describe potential organizational designs, institutional capabilities, and policies of a Certificate Management System. It also assesses the needs for operation, maintenance, and system enhancements over time. (This study is an institutional analysis only, not a technical analysis, and it is not intended to develop a system design.)

Persons planning to attend the webinar should use the following link:  http://www.itsa.org/policywebinarregistration  by December 5, 2011.  For additional questions, please contact Adam Hopps at (202) 680-0091.

(Source: Good)

An interesting graphic. Hopefully the share of Transit rises in the years ahead along with other non-car options.  What is most appalling is that biking has only 0.99%  share of the pie.  LA needs to go a long way in moving its people away from cars.

Click image to enlarge

(Source: Open.NASA)

What an amazing and inspiring project by the Brits!  The Bloodhound Supersonic Car project is currently underway in UK and its primary objective (as stated in the project website)  is to inspire the next generation to pursue careers in science, engineering, technology and maths – by demonstrating how they can be harnessed to achieve the seemingly impossible by building a car that is 12.8 meters long, weighs 6.4 tons, and cruises on high grade aluminum wheels and reach 0–>1050mph in 40 secs on land.  Whew!!! Below is an extract from Open.NASA blog.  Wishing the project team all the very best in their mission to notch a new land speed record.

Image Courtesy: Bloodhound SSC

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From zero to 1,050 miles per hour, the team behind the Bloodhound SuperSonic Car is taking the everyone along for the ride on their engineering adventure to break the world land speed record in 2013. The project is a huge challenge that will produce untold technology spin-offs and aims to inspire the next generation of engineers around the world through openness and engagement.

Project Director Richard Noble and his team are building a car that will go zero to 1,050 miles per hour (mph) in 40 seconds. Named after Britain’s 1950s Bloodhound Missile Project, the Bloodhound Supersonic Car (SSC) car is 12.8 meters long, weighs 6.4 tons, and cruises on high grade aluminum wheels, which will experience radial stresses of up to 50,000 times the force of gravity at full speed.

The project is risky, dangerous, and unprecedented. Focused on building the safest car possible, Noble’s Bloodhound team intends to overthrow the current FIA World Land Speed Record by 30 percent. “It’s such a huge leap, of course we’re going to get into trouble,” said Noble. “We’re going to learn an awful lot as we develop it.”

Click here to read more.

(Source: Hell For Leather)

As a former devil who rode on two wheels, this video makes me gasp for air. The balance and control required to pull off the moves with this degree of difficulty by French stunt ace Jorian Ponomareff is simply breathtaking.  This video has all the ingredients to make it go viral (it has already registered a 445K hits on YouTube –  incredibly beautiful slow motion camera work, nice music and a lot of extreme motoring talent.  Add to the mix a smattering of French (heard in the making of the stunt) and a beautiful blonde girl strutting her style with a pair of jean shorts – now you have everything to make this a compelling video! If you still find a few minutes, check out other stunt videos on Jorian’s Facebook page.

This guest post by Brendan Halleman, a fellow transportation professional, offers a paper that examines the merits of establishing a National Infrastructure Bank. As you are probably aware, the public discussion around this has been highly politicized and my note merely tries to put quantified elements on the table.

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

Note: Brendan Halleman is a Project Consultant – Communications & Knowledge Management and has extensive experience in the transportation industry.  Check out his profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/bhalleman. All opinions expressed in this guest post are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the positions of www.Transportgooru.com.

(Source: via Betacity)

 According to this infographic from Denver bikes, four of five dollars you spend on your car leave your local economy.  To keep 130k transportation dollars in your local economy your city would need to reduce car ownership by 15k cars.  Which could mean 15k more bike owners, and bike money stays 100 percent local which makes good business sense.

Some may argue this as fun,  but this is nothing but stupidity and hands down dangerous (not just for him but also for any driver trying to navigate his vehicle through these flooded roads).