(Source: USDOT)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA)  and the U.S. Department of Transportation today announced the first national standards to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve fuel efficiency of heavy-duty trucks and buses. This comprehensive national program is projected to reduce GHG emissions by nearly 250 million metric tons and save 500 million barrels of oil over the lives of the vehicles produced within the program’s first five years.

EPA and DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are proposing new standards for three categories of heavy trucks: combination tractors, heavy-duty pickups and vans, and vocational vehicles. The categories were established to address specific challenges for manufacturers in each area.  For combination tractors, the agencies are proposing engine and vehicle standards that begin in the 2014 model year and achieve up to a 20 percent reduction in CO2 emissions and fuel consumption by 2018 model year.  For heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans, the agencies are proposing separate gasoline and diesel truck standards which phase in starting in the 2014 model year and achieve up to a 10 percent reduction for gasoline vehicles and 15 percent reduction for diesel vehicles by 2018 model year (12 and 17 percent respectively if accounting for air conditioning leakage). Lastly, for vocational vehicles, the agencies are proposing engine and vehicle standards starting in the 2014 model year which would achieve up to a 10 percent reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 2018 model year.

Overall, NHTSA and EPA estimate that the heavy-duty national program would provide $41 billion in net benefits over the lifetime of model year 2014 to 2018 vehicles. With the potential for significant fuel efficiency gains, ranging from seven to 20 percent, drivers and operators could expect to net significant savings over the long-term. For example, it is estimated an operator of a semi truck could pay for the technology upgrades in under a year, and save as much as $74,000 over the truck’s useful life. Vehicles with lower annual miles would typically experience longer payback periods, up to four or five years, but would still reap cost-savings.

EPA and NHTSA are providing a 60-day comment period that begins when the proposal is published in the Federal Register.  The proposal and information about how to submit comments is at: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/regulations.htm and http://www.nhtsa.gov/fuel-economy .

Click here read the USDOT presser on this issue.

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Job Title: Internal Tolling Auditor

Opening Date/Time: Thu. 10/14/10 12:00 AM Pacific Time

Closing Date/Time: Fri. 11/19/10 11:59 PM Pacific Time

Salary: $57,384.00 – $73,596.00 Annually

Job Type: Full Time – Permanent

Location: Thurston County – Lacey, Washington

Department: Washington State Dept. of Transportation

In many jobs to be successful means following an already existing system. To be successful in this job, you will have to innovate and lead. Within the Agency, the Internal Audit Office works to help management evaluate and improve internal controls, risk management, and the internal governance processes. While tolling is a prominent part of transportation funding on the East Coast and in Europe, it is relatively new on the West Coast, especially in Washington State. WSDOT currently tolls the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the SR 167 HOT lanes. However, as the demand for increased traffic efficiency grows, WSDOT is significantly expanding its Tolling Program with preparations underway to toll SR 520, and develop a statewide Customer Service Center for all toll facilities. As tolling expands in Washington State, so too will the need for experienced audit professionals to advise management by independently planning, conducting, and managing accountability , financial and compliance audit engagements.

This position plays an important role in conducting or overseeing the risk-based internal audits of the Tolling Program and advises management of the impacts of internal control weaknesses and noncompliance and recommends alternative actions. Not just anyone can do this job. In the spirit of full disclosure, WSDOT auditors are tasked with helping to build and maintain an internal control system that demonstrates accountability to a somewhat skeptical public. This requires hard work, travel, acute attention to detail, innovation, and tenacity. However, the rewards of knowing that your work is helping to build successful and accountable tolling in Washington State and furthering the mission of WSDOT, is priceless. So ask yourself, are you ready to take on this role?

The successful candidate will perform the following tasks:

• Manage the Internal Audit Office’s Tolling Audit Program and serve as the primary auditor. This position works independently, reporting to the Assistant Director of Internal Audit.
• Plan and conduct individual audit and consulting engagements and prepare reports.
• Participate in preparing the annual work plan for the Internal Audit Office.
• Provide recommendations that will improve accountability or which will bring an organization into legal compliance.
• Evaluate actions determined by management to correct deficiencies identified in prior audit reports and management reviews.
• May direct the audit work of external audit firms. May act as the liaison from the Department to external audit groups.
• May oversee the work of subordinate audit specialists.
• Advise on Business Rules and Standard Operating Procedures, as necessary, for the Statewide Customer Service Center and Tolling Facilities.

At WSDOT, our top-performing employees come in many different forms; however an ideal candidate will look something like this:

• A bachelor’s degree in Finance, Audit, Business Administration or a closely related field.
• Information technology (IT) audit experience to include reviewing controls of IT processes, applications, networks, or platforms.
• Experience evaluating and communicating best practices in IT controls in environments similar to tolling.
• Certification in one or more of the following: Certified Public Accountant (CPA); Certified Internal Auditor (CIA); Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA); and by having a minimum of four years professional auditing experience demonstrating progressive development of skills and responsibilities.
• A master’s degree in a related field will also be given consideration.
• Experience with auditing practices and procedures, including principles and methods of effective internal controls .
• Knowledge of accounting theory and practice for governments and commercial enterprises.
• Fully understand the Institute of Internal Auditor Standards and Government Auditing Standards.
• Knowledge of techniques in management and supervision.
• Effective communication both orally and in writing.
• Ability to lead discussions and support audit staff presenting results of internal audit engagements to agency management or private firms.
• Acute attention to detail.
• Ability to travel to all areas in Washington State, and at times, outside of the state, remaining overnight for up to five consecutive days or longer. Arrange for transporting equipment and other items for work.
• A valid Washington State Driver’s License (or the ability to get one) and the ability to drive a state vehicle to meetings and events.
• Ability to work varied schedules.

Application assessment will be ongoing and the hiring authority reserves the right to offer the position at any time during the recruitment process. It is to the applicant’s advantage to apply as early as possible.

Be prepared to provide references at the time of interview.

Click here to learn more and apply.

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(Source: The London Evening Standard)

Image Courtesy:Alex Lentati via The London Evening Standard

These figures from the London Ambulance Service about the special cycle crews, set up to respond to 999 calls in heavy traffic, are quite impressive:

(1) The average response time is now five minutes but can be as short as just 60 seconds

(2) Created savings including £300,000 in fuel – the equivalent of 20,000 ambulance journeys.
(3) Treated 50,000 patients since they were first piloted 10 years ago and freed up an estimated 5,000 ambulance hours a year, the equivalent of having an extra two vehicles staffed with two paramedics.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: AP via Yahoo News )

The number of people dying on the nation’s roads has fallen to its lowest level in six decades, helped by a combination of seat belts, safer cars and tougher enforcement of drunken driving laws.

The Transportation Department said late Wednesday that traffic deaths fell 9.7 percent in 2009 to 33,808, the lowest number since 1950. In 2008, an estimated 37,423 people died on the highways.

Forty-one states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico saw reductions in highway fatalities, led by Florida with 422 fewer deaths and Texas, down 405.

The motor vehicle fatality rate — the number of deaths per 100 million miles traveled — is the lowest ever: 1.13 deaths in 2009, down from 1.26 in 2008, DOT says, even as Americans were driving 0.2% more than in 2008.

The annual highway safety report also reported the following stats:

• _ Motorcycle fatalities broke 11 years of annual increases, falling by 16 percent, from 5,312 in 2008 to 4,462 in 2009.
• _ The number of people injured in motor vehicle crashes fell for a 10th consecutive year.
• _ Alcohol-impaired driving deaths declined 7.4 percent in 2009 to 10,839 deaths, compared with 11,711 in 2008.

Note:  I commend the efforts of the USDOT’s leadership (Secretary, the Administrators, staff, etc) in ensuring that our nation’s roads are safe for the citizens.   The multi-pronged approach taken by various administrations within the Department, including targeted campaigns towards drunk driving, texting while driving, etc., are paying big dividends, as evidenced by these dramatic reduction in fatalities.  Also, we have to recognize the efforts of the vehicle manufacturers for making their vehicles a lot safer than what they were in the decades before. Many vehicles in today’s market sport great active and passive systems compared to the cars of yesteryears, which help greatly in reducing the risk of fatal injuries to the occupants during an accident.  The role of local enforcement agencies should also be appreciated in this remarkable effort.  Apart from the obvious safety benefits, there are many other associated benefits at the societal and personal level – reduction in associated costs such as repair costs, travel time savings, insurance costs, etc.  In all, as a society we are progressing well but we still have a long way to go.  Let’s not forget that we are still losing thousands of people on our roads and that only means one thing – we cannot slow down our efforts!

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Source: The Economist

Car-sharing programs have been gaining a lot of popularity and building up momentum over the years, especially in urban environments such as Washington, DC, NYC, etc.  The Economist has done a good coverage of the growing trend and here are some of the interesting nuggets that caught my attention:

• One rental car can take the place of 15 owned vehicles
• By 2016 the market will be worth $6 billion a year, half of that in America, with a total of some 10m users
• Zipcar already has 400,000 members, mostly in America where it is thought to have 80% of the market.
• A car owner doing 12,000 miles (19,000km) a year can save $1,834 by shifting to a car-sharing service

Car-sharing started in Europe and spread to America in the late 1990s, when the first venture opened in Portland, Oregon, a traditional hangout of tree-huggers. For years it was organised by small co-operatives, often supported by local government. It still has a green tinge. One in five new cars added to club fleets is electric; such cars are good for short-range, urban use. But sharing is no longer small.

Frost & Sullivan, a market-research firm, estimates that by 2016 the market will be worth $6 billion a year, half of that in America, with a total of some 10m users. Outside America, most of the growth is in Britain and other north European countries such as Germany. The market leader is a company called Zipcar, founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is now headed for a public listing. Zipcar already has 400,000 members, mostly in America where it is thought to have 80% of the market. It recently bought Streetcar, the market leader in London, though competition authorities are still scrutinising that deal.

The sharing trend is now seeping into another prominent area of transportation – the bicycles.  Many cities around the world, including London and Washington, DC,  are beginning to install innovative bike-sharing programs that offer a great advantage for those who prefer to check the city by biking than by driving.   Looks like the “sharing” trend is only going to intensity in the years ahead given the state of our poor economies and shrinking wallets! the societal, ecological and environmental benefits resulting from such sharing schemes are definitely a big plus for many more cities to consider implementing such schemes for car as well as bikes.   After all didn’t we  already know the saying  “Sharing is Caring”.

Click here to read the entire article.

[polldaddy poll=3731727]

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(Source: Wall Street Journal)

It Can Cost More to Fly to Hartford Than Barcelona. What Airlines Consider in Setting Prices.  I have always wondered about this issue.  And am glad that someone is trying to answer this.

Image Courtesy: WSJ.com

Airline ticket prices often seem like a brain-teaser with little logic. From Chicago, a flight to Miami is more than twice as far as a flight to Memphis, but the shorter Memphis flight costs 25% more on average. Fly to Washington, D.C., from Hartford, Conn., and the average fare is nearly three times as high as if you flew to nearby Baltimore from Hartford, according to government data for the first quarter of this year.

The fares travelers pay typically have little relation to how far you fly, even though airline costs are largely dependent on the length of a flight. Long trips often cost less than short trips. Flights of the same time and distance can have radically different prices.

The price you pay for a ticket is driven by a number of variables: competition, types of passengers, the route and operating costs. But the biggest factor, by far, is whether discount airlines fly in a market. Low-cost carriers often set the price in markets because competitors feel compelled to match that price or risk losing customers and flying empty seats. And when they aren’t there, big airlines behave radically differently when setting prices.

Click here to read the entire article.

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(Source: CNN)

You thought you had a bad time on the road? Wait till you see this one and start thanking all the gods that are out there.  Here are some snippets about this epic, mother of all traffic jams that ever happened on Earth.

The gridlock, which started August 14, involves thousands of trucks between the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the Chinese capital of Beijing.

The back-up stretches over 62 miles on the Beijing-Tibet Expressway. What’s worse, officials are saying that the jam could continue for up to a month (Sept. 13, the projected completion project for some of the projects causing this delay).

Reason cited: “Insufficient traffic capacity on the National Expressway 110 caused by maintenance construction since August 19 is the major cause of the congestion,” a Beijing Traffic Management Bureau spokesman told the Beijing-based Global Times.

Other undesired outcomes borne from this mess: Bored drivers playing cards to pass time, and enterprising local vendors doling out instant noodles for as much as 4-times the actual cost.

If this is not interesting enough, China continues to add 10-million vehicles to its already exploding traffic on the roads.  It will be interesting to see how the Chinese manage their economic wealth while battling the traffic mess around their mega cities.

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(Source: Edmunds.com,  Green Car Congress & Federal Times)

Image Courtesy: via Apture

The US government’s General Services Administration (GSA) this summer took delivery of the first of more than 5,600 hybrid vehicles ordered earlier this year, and will make the vehicles—almost all of which are Ford Fusion hybrids—available to various federal agencies under GSA lease agreements as they are delivered.

GSA previously purchased 1,600 hybrid vehicles using revenue from the sale of older vehicles that agencies exchanged last year when they received funds for new vehicles through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009.

GSA director of Motor Vehicle Management Bill Toth noted, however, that each Fusion hybrid costs $11,214 more than the fleet’s “non-hybrid alternative” sedan, a 2010 Chrysler Avenger.

But due to the $11,214 hybrid premium of the fuel-efficient Fusion, Toth said, he doesn’t “know that we’ll see the numbers we’ve seen in the last two years continue at that pace without some sort of infusion of capital.

“They’re very expensive vehicles and when you look at meeting your mission … and one [vehicle] is $10,000 cheaper than the other, capital’s limited. It’s tough to make that jump,” he said.

Almost all of the hybrids the GSA purchased are 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrids , a mid-sized sedan that’s second in class in fuel efficiency only to the Toyota Prius. The Fusion get 39 mpg in combined city and highway driving and emits 4.8 tons of carbon dioxide annually, or 2.7 tons less than the nonhybrid version.

The vehicles will be placed in clusters near where manufacturers are delivering them to ensure that the vehicles can be serviced by mechanics trained in the new technology, Toth said.

Charging stations will be installed where the vehicles will be housed, and GSA is exploring the potential to partner with industry or other users to share the expense of installing the stations. GSA also hopes to pilot different energy sources for the stations, including solar and wind power in addition to standard electric power, he said.

Click here to read more.

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has released the latest issue of its annual statistical compendium designed to characterize transportation activity and explore data on other factors that influence transportation energy use.

Published by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, this report is designed for use as a desk-top reference.  The Data Book represents an assembly and display of statistics and information that characterize transportation activity, andpresents data on other factors that influence transportation energy use. The purpose of this document is to present relevant statistical data in the form of tables and graphs. The latest edition of the Data Book is available to a larger audience via the Internet (cta.ornl.gov/data).
This edition of the Data Book has 12 chapters which focus on various aspects of the transportation industry.  The sources used represent the latest available data. There are also three appendices which include detailed source information forsome tables, measures of conversion, and the definition of Census divisions and regions. A glossary of terms and a title index are also included for the reader’s convenience.

Information on ordering printed copies of the report is available online.