This is a must attend event for those interested/involved in public transit policy!  Here’s a great opportunity to expand your professional network and hear from industry experts on a variety of public transportation hot topics.

Young Professionals in Transportation (YPT) members are being offered a 50% discount on conference registration.  To take advantage, when you register, be sure to use the discount code “YPT”.

What: Making Connections is a day-long conference for public transportation professionals to strengthen the national dialogue on public transit advocacy, policy and workforce development.

When and Where: Thursday, March 17, 2011 at the Hilton Hotel Washington DC/Silver Spring (Metro-accessible).

For full details, visit the conference registration website at http://mc2011.eventbrite.com or see the attached informational flyer.  The conference host is also seeking a small number of volunteers (in particular, students, but all inquiries are welcome) to help staff the event in return for free registration.  Contact event organizer and YPT member Aimee Custis at acustis@transportcenter.org for more information.

General flyer – National Transit ConferenceDownload flyer – National Transit Conference

This is a good opportunity for students/emerging professionals who are interested in these issues.  See http://ecpaplanning.org/2011/01/ecpa-call-for-essays-from-emergin-professionals/ for full details.

(Source: Time.com)

Recent Events

FHWA Selects Vulnerability and Risk Assessment Pilot Locations. FHWA has selected five applicants to pilot a draft conceptual model for conducting climate change vulnerability and risk assessment of transportation infrastructure. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (San Francisco Bay), New Jersey DOT/North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (Coastal and Central New Jersey), Virginia DOT (Hampton Roads), Washington State DOT (State of Washington), and Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization (Island of Oahu) were selected to conduct the pilots over the next year. Based on the feedback received through the pilots, FHWA will revise and finalize the model for national application.

FHWA Launches Beta Version of Sustainability Tool. The Sustainable Highways Self-Evaluation Tool can help transportation agencies make highway projects and programs more sustainable. The tool is modeled after similar evaluation systems, such as GreenRoads, GreenLites, and I-Last for roads, and LEEDs for buildings. It provides a practical tool for integrating sustainability best practices into transportation projects and programs. Climate change considerations (GHG emissions and climate effects) are incorporated as elements of the tool. This is a beta version of the tool, and the site is still under development, so it will evolve as additional components are added or updated. We encourage you to try out the website, and we welcome any feedback.

FHWA Summary of Climate Language in Transportation Plans posted. Climate Change – Model Language in Transportation Plans provides excerpts from various MPO and DOT transportation plans that illustrate how climate change considerations have been integrated into the documents. Agencies that are looking for ideas about how to incorporate climate change into their transportation plans could find the model language very useful.

Report Provides Estimates of GHG Emissions in Transportation Construction, Maintenance, and Operations Activities. This NCHRP 25-25 Task 58 “Quick-Turnaround” research includes a spreadsheet tool to provide estimates of GHG emissions from transportation agencies’ construction, maintenance, and operations activities. The research also includes a synthesis of current research on the topic and identifies research gaps. A TRB webinar presentation with the principal investigator of the project is scheduled for November 10 (see below).

DOT and EPA Propose GHG Standards for Truck and Buses. On October 25, NHTSA and EPA proposed the first-ever fuel economy and GHG emissions standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses. The new heavy-duty national program (or HD National Program) for model years 2014-2018 would potentially reduce GHG emissions by nearly 250 million metric tons over the life of the vehicles. The HD National Program was developed in response to President Obama’s memo to agency heads at DOT, DOE, EPA, and NHTSA on improving energy security issued in May. Much information on the proposal, including the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, a fact sheet, a draft EIS, a draft regulatory impact analysis and more is available on the NHTSA’s Fuel Economy Website.

DOT and EPA Publish NOI on 2017-2025 CAFE and GHG Emissions Standards. In an October 13 Federal Register Notice, NHTSA and EPA published a joint Notice of Intent and to develop fuel economy standards for 2017-2025 model year vehicles and an accompanying technical assessment report. The NOI does not propose specific standards but is the first step in the longer rulemaking process and discusses key elements of the program. A final rule is expected by July 31, 2012. As with the rulemaking for model years 2010-2016, EPA and NHTSA have committed to work closely with the California Air Resources Board to coordinate requirements and allow for a single, nationwide fleet. The accompanying technical report includes an initial assessment of the expected technology costs, effectiveness, and lead time to implementation. It also includes assessments on electric vehicle and hydrogen infrastructure and impacts on the economy and auto manufacturing jobs. For more information, see NHTSA’s Fuel Economy Website.

USDOT Releases Sustainability Plan and Progress Report.USDOT has released its Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan, a required report on the agency’s progress implementing E.O. 13514. The plan establishes a goal of 12.3 percent reduction in GHG emissions by 2020. DOT identified three program areas to achieve sustainability goals listed in the plan: sustainable facilities and fleet, sustainable acquisition, and sustainable technology. Sustainability performance plans from other agencies are also available on the CEQ website.

Columbia Law School Creates Databases of Climate Change in EISs. Columbia Law School has compiled and posted two databases of recent environmental studies that include consideration of climate change impacts. The first includes EISs submitted under NEPA. The second includes EISs submitted under CEQA, California’s environmental act. The databases are searchable by project type, lead agency, and State.

EPA, DOT, and HUD Release Partnership Progress Report. This document reports on the first year of the HUD/DOT/EPA Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities. The agencies are coordinating investments and aligning policies with the goal to help create more livable communities. For example, DOT used EPA and HUD’s expertise in the review of applications for Recovery Act TIGER grants. Twenty-two of the projects were selected because they would increase transportation choice, promoting livability principles. DOT and HUD also teamed up for a joint TIGER II-Community Challenge Grant Program that will award up to $75 million to support local planning activities that integrate transportation, housing, and economic development. And FTA and HUD developed a Mixed-Income Transit Oriented Development Action Guide to assist local governments foster diverse housing choices near transit stations available to a mix of incomes. These efforts and more are detailed in the report.

Federal Climate Change Adaptation Task Force Releases Progress Report. On October 5, CEQ released the report: Progress Report of the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force: Recommended Actions in Support of a National Adaptation Strategy. The report discusses the role of the federal government in adapting to climate change, federal policy goals, and next steps. To implement a goal to encourage and mainstream adaptation planning across the federal government, the Task Force recommends federal agencies employ a flexible framework for agency adaptation planning:

• Set a mandate with clear objectives and metrics;
• Understand how climate is changing;
• Apply to mission and operations;
• Develop, prioritize, and implement actions;
• Evaluate and learn; and
• Build awareness and skills.

USDOT and FHWA are active in the Task Force. While FHWA has incorporated many elements of the flexible framework to its own activities, the Vulnerability and Risk Assessment Pilots discussed at the top of this newsletter are serving as FHWA’s pilot of the flexible framework. Read about all of the Task Force’s policy goals and recommended implementation strategies in the report.

State News

CAPCOA Releases Resource on Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Measures. The California Air Pollution Control Officers Association released this Resource for Local Government to Assess Emissions Reductions from Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Measures. It includes calculation methodologies for 50 transportation measures. Information includes a range of effectiveness, detailed description, applicability (urban, suburban, rural), calculation method, inputs, assumptions, examples, and literature references for the measures.

Announcements

Seeking Pilot Projects for Sustainable Transportation Design Tool. The Sustainable Transportation Access Rating System (STARS) is a life-cycle, performance-based design and rating system helping transportation projects to improve access, reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions and improve cost-effectiveness. STARS is seeking pilot projects to testVersion 1.0.STARS was developed by a partnership between the North American Sustainable Transportation Council, Portland (OR) Bureau of Transportation and the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. For more information on STARS please contact Peter Hurley, Portland Bureau of Transportation Project Manager, at 503.823.5007 or peter.t.hurley@portlandoregon.gov.

AASHTO/FHWA Webinar: “How can state DOTs communicate climate change and energy challenges to the public?” Thursday, December 2 at 2:00-3:30 p.m. ET. Edward Maibach of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University will give a presentation on “Global Warming’s Six Americas,” a market segmentation analysis of different groups of Americans and their views on climate change: Alarmed; Concerned; Cautious; Disengaged: Doubtful; and Dismissive. Based on an awareness of different views about climate change, the webinar will focus on ways that state DOTs and other transportation organizations can communicate with the public about climate change and energy issues. The webinar will also include discussion of the state DOT role in communicating about climate change with other state and Federal agencies. Registration is free and open to all.

If you have any suggestions for inclusion in future issues of Transportation and Climate Change News, or if someone forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like to receive it directly in the future, please send your suggestions or request to Becky Lupes at Rebecca.Lupes@dot.gov

(Source: EMBARQ)

Research led by EMBARQ’s Senior Transport Engineer Dario Hidalgo provides key findings and lessons learned from a comprehensive review of major bus improvements in 13 Latin American and Asian cities.

“Modernizing Public Transport,” a 40-page report released in October 2010, is based on research and interviews with planners and public officials in cities and transport agencies around the world.

The report reviews and synthesizes information regarding challenges experienced by transport system decision makers in three key areas: planning, implementation and operations. In order to assist urban transport planners and implementing agencies, the study also provides recommendations on avoiding or mitigating similar difficulties when introducing bus reforms in developing world cities.

The report looks at transportation in 13 cities and will present in-depth case studies of nine of the cities. The first two case studies—profiling Leon and Guadalajara, Mexico—will be available by the end of October. The remaining seven case studies will be published by the end of November, including Bogota and Pereira, Colombia; Curitiba, Brazil; Guayaquil and Quito, Ecuador; Mexico City, Mexico; and Santiago, Chile. The other cities covered in the report are Sao Paulo, Brazil; Beijing, China; Ahmedabad, India; and Jakarta, Indonesia.

Also, don’t forget to check out the two-part Q&A with Dario Hidalgo on TheCityFix.com.   For those who are interested, you can access the official press release here.

Click here to learn more about EMBARQ and it’s awesome work across the globe.

Related articles

• Q&A with Dario Hidalgo, Part 1: Modernizing Public Transportation (thecityfix.com)
• The Future of Urban Sustainable Mobility: Go Beyond the Car (thecityfix.com)
• Cities in Focus: Curitiba (thecityfix.com)
• Q&A with Dario Hidalgo, Part 2: Modernizing Public Transportation (thecityfix.com)
• The Importance of Sustainable Mobility in Megacities (thecityfix.com)
• Megacities on the Move: Scenarios for the Future of Sustainable Urban Mobility (thecityfix.com)
• The Future of Sustainable Urban Mobility: Integrate, Integrate, Integrate (thecityfix.com)

(Source: Copenhagenize via Treehugger)

Image courtesy: Mikael Colville-Andersen via Copenhagenize.com

This one image says a thousand words, and many of them indicate how a society is thoughtful, accommodative, encouraging and appreciative of its citizens’ efforts to use alternative modes of transportation, even during the punishing winter weather conditions.    Our beloved bike blogger, Mikael Colville-Andersen at  Copenhagenize.com, writes about the snow-removal practices in Copenhagen, Denmark,  where the focus is also given not only to travel lanes for cars and trucks but also for those bike lanes in the city.  Copenhagen,  as many of us know, has one of the highest number of bicycle commuters, who regularly use these bike lanes to get around the city.  You may ask but why snow-removal for bike lanes is a priority in the winter? Here is what Mikael has to say on his blog about this:

The result? Clear channels on which the bicycle traffic can move. Prioritizing the bike lanes is, of course, a great and necessary way to encourage people to ride bicycles all through the year. On the other hand, it is also a practical necessity. If the bicycle lanes weren’t cleared, a whole lot of people on the day after a snowstorm wouldn’t ride.Tens of thousands. They would seek alternatives. Cars, perhaps, but mostly public transport. Imagine the complications of having tens of thousands of people suddenly show up at train stations and bus stops. A logistical nightmare. So keeping the bike lanes clear is an important factor in keeping Copenhagen moving.

Hope other cities, especially the ones in the US (DC/NYC) realize the importance of keeping the snow off the bike lanes. Click here to read Mikael’s blog post and a few more awesome pictures from his collection.

Related articles

• A Picture Is Worth: Snow Removal In Copenhagen (treehugger.com)
• Copenhagen Cargo Bikes (streetfilms.org)
• copenhagen to berlin – in a box bike (ask.metafilter.com)
• Copenhagen to build superhighway for bikes (americablog.com)
• Copenhagen plans bike superhighways (grist.org)

(Source: AFP via Yahoo)

A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 302 miles per hour (486 kilometers per hour) Friday during a test run of a yet-to-be opened link between Beijing and Shanghai, state media said.

The Xinhua News Agency said it was the fastest speed recorded by an unmodified conventional commercial train. Other types of trains in other countries have traveled faster.

A specially modified French TGV train reached 357.2 mph (574.8 kph) during a 2007 test, while a Japanese magnetically levitated train sped to 361 mph (581 kph) in 2003.

State television footage showed the sleek white train whipping past green farm fields in eastern China. It reached the top speed on a segment of the 824-mile (1,318-kilometer) -long line between Zaozhuang city in Shandong province and Bengbu city in Anhui province, Xinhua said.

Click here to read the entire article.

Note: I can’t help myself marvel at how different the conditions are for High Speed Rail deployment in two different ends of the globe – China vs. USA.  Here is a story that outlines how a  political game played in Washington is wreaking havoc to any chances of deploying a successful high-speed rail network.  While American politicians are embroiled in petty politics, Beijing’s communist rulers have already bought into he value of investing in such a network, especially with an exploding demand for transportation in the decades ahead as the nation’s wealth increases, and are determined to show their commitment to a successful, wide-spread deployment.  It makes one thing clear  – we in the West are not really lacking in ideas and ambitions; our pitfalls (and therefore the poor performance in a competitive economy) are in our inability to come together and look at common good beyond party lines. Somehow we managed to convince, not just the nation but the entire world, a $744+Billions war  (an utterly unprovoked and unnecessary war whose costs are still climbing at a giddying pace) is worth bleeding for in terms of national security.  But somehow we are not willing to look past our differences to come together and execute a project that is only going to make us better. Why are our politicians adamant to not realize that such modern infrastructure projects are good for our nation’s economic security in the long run? Oh well, its gotta be the Democracy that we are trying to export as a successful model.

Related articles

• China passenger train hits 300 mph, breaks record (sfgate.com)
• China Unveils World’s Fastest High Speed Train (huffingtonpost.com)
• China Passenger Train Breaks World Record (abcnews.go.com)
• China claims new passenger train speed record (ctv.ca)
• Chinese passenger train sets new world speed record after reaching 302mph (dailymail.co.uk)
• imabonehead: China passenger train hits 300 mph, breaks record – Yahoo! News (news.yahoo.com)
• Chinese train sets speed record, Xinhua reports (cnn.com)
• Chinese passenger train breaks world speed record (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Chinese passenger train breaks world speed record (foxnews.com)
• Chinese passenger train reaches 302mph, claims speed record for unmodified trains (engadget.com)

(Source: AFP via Yahoo)

Copenhagen, one of the world’s most bicycle-friendly cities, has begun turning its extensive network of cycle paths into bike highways in an effort to push more commuters to leave their cars at home.

Considered one of Europe’s two “bicycle capitals” along with Amsterdam, Copenhagen counts more bicycles than people and cycling is so popular that its numerous bike paths can become congested.

Two-wheeler traffic jams are especially regular on the main Noerrebrogade thoroughfare used by around 36,000 cyclists a day.

• The currently jammed bike paths will be widened up to four metres (yards) on either side of the road, which will itself will be reserved for buses only.
• The goal is to hike the percentage of suburban commuters cycling to and from the city from the 37 percent it is today to over 50 percent by 2015.
• Within the city, 55 percent of all commuters already travel by bike, according to the municipality.
• Already Copenhagen stands out among other European capitals for its cycling infrastructure, counting more than 390 kilometres (242 miles) of bike paths.
• Between 2006 and 2010, it spent 250 million kroner (33.6 million euros) in bike infrastructure and an extra 75 million kroner were allotted for 2011.
• The first two city-to-suburb bicycle highways are due to open at the end of 2011 and reach a distance of 15 kilometres from central Copenhagen, while a third, going as far as 20 kilometres from the capital’s centre, will be put into service in 2012.

Click here to read the entire story.

Related articles

• Copenhagen plans bike superhighways (grist.org)
• Copenhagen to build superhighway for bikes (americablog.com)
• How Portland Is Planning to Become the First World-class Bike City in America (alternet.org)
• Transition and solutions – Nov 28 (energybulletin.net)
• 10 Cool Bike Stories (planetsave.com)
• Copenhagen to Residents: “You’re Safer On a Bike Than On a Sofa” (treehugger.com)
• The Bay Area Versus Amsterdam: Which Cycling Mecca Is Tops? (treehugger.com)
• Experiencing Copenhagen and Denmark on Two Wheels (denmark-travel.suite101.com)
• The Bay Area Versus Amsterdam: Which Cycling Mecca Is Tops? (treehugger.com)
• Should Sidewalks and Bike Paths Have a Designated Slowpoke Lane? (treehugger.com)
• Blog – Cyclists Pedal Faster On Wednesdays, Reveals Smart Bike Data (technologyreview.com)

(Source: Bridging the Gap)

The latest edition of the United Nations Climate Change Conference CoP 16 opened its doors in Cancun, Mexico on November 29th  (duration – Nov 29th thru Dec 10) and our friends at Transport 2012 have created a compilation of side-events related to transportation issues at this conference.  Transportgooru is glad to share this with its readers (hoping some of you are already in Cancun, Mexico attending this event). Please check the Transport2012 website for an updated list:

“Bridging the Gap: Pathways for Transport in the Post 2012 Process‘ is an initiative of GTZ, TRL, UITP, ITDP and Veolia Transport created to tackle CO₂emissions from land transport and to integrate this major contributor to climate change into the international climate negotiation process. Click here to learn more about Bridging the Gap.

(source: Washington Post’s Federal Eye)

This is very disconcerting, to say the least. But I’m glad at ths ame time they are working to fix the problem.

Federal agents responsible for driving nuclear weapons and other sensitive materials sometimes got drunk and were detained by police while on the job, according to a new watchdog report.

A report released Monday by the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General found 16 alcohol-related incidents between 2007 and 2009 involving personnel with the National Nuclear Security Administration‘s Office of Surface Transportation (OST). About 600 OST agents are responsible for safely transporting or shipping nuclear weapons and other materials across the country.

Two incidents involved extended overnight missions where OST agents parked convoy vehicles in safe harbor before checking in at nearby hotels, the report said. In separate incidents, an agent was arrested in 2007 for public intoxication while two agents were handcuffed and temporarily detained by police officers in 2009, according to the report.

Click here to read the entire story.