The first flight of NASA‘s hurricane airborne research mission is scheduled to take off from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 17. NASA’s DC-8 research aircraft will be making a planned five-hour flight along the Gulf Coast from western Florida to Louisiana primarily as a practice run for the many scientific instruments aboard.

Image Courtesy: NASA.gov - The NASA DC-8 airplane on the tarmac at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport in Florida on Aug. 15 as preparations continue for its part in the GRIP hurricane experiment. Credit: NASA/Paul E. Alers

The target for Tuesday’s “shakedown” flight is the remnants of Tropical Depression 5, a poorly organized storm system whose center is currently hugging the coasts of Mississippi and Louisiana and moving westward. While forecasters do not expect this storm system to strengthen significantly before it reaches landfall in Louisiana, the system offers the DC-8’s seven instrument teams an opportunity to try out their equipment on possible convective storms. Rainfall rates, wind speed and direction below the airplane to the surface, cloud droplet sizes, and aerosol particle sizes are just some of the information that these instruments will collect.

Read more on  NASA’s GRIP mission website.

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• NASA satellites investigate: Tropical Depression 5 may rise again (eurekalert.org)
• NASA to Fly into Hurricane Research This Summer (prnewswire.com)
• Warnings up for Tropical Depression 5 in the eastern Gulf of Mexico (physorg.com)

(Source: Free Insurance Quotes.org)

Can the U.S. replace 100 percent of its gas consumption with electricity? By this math, yes, we can:

Image Courtesy: FreeInsurancequotes.org

(Source: via Transportation Research Board Weekly E-Newsletter)

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released a report that explores the components of plug-in electric vehicle infrastructure, challenges and opportunities related to the design and deployment of the infrastructure, and the potential benefits.

I enjoy mountain biking for the escapism it provides: Disappear into woods, race down single-track paths, lean through turns, crank uphill, all to the audio of an adjacent rushing stream. In one session, I can commune with nature, jack up my adrenaline and check off my daily exercise obligation.

THIS STORY

So I never expected to find myself straddling a mountain bike beneath a roaring interstate overpass in Seattle, a city with enviable proximity to miles of legitimate bike trails.

But here – beneath 12 lanes of Interstate 5, at Exit 168A – a Seattle area cycling club has turned a former hangout for vagrants and junkies into an urban mountain bike park, complete with short trails, jumps, drops, teeter-totters and other so-called “features” designed to satisfy a range of biking abilities.

The I-5 Colonnade is what mountain bikers call a “skills park,” which means that you’re never more than a few feet away from a balance-beam-like log formation or a foot-wide ladder bridge or a “staircase” with 18-inch steps – all features that mountain bikers use to hone balance, jumping and control maneuvers.

via Test your mountain-biking skills in this downtown Seattle park.

(Source:  via Irish Times, NY Times, Guardian, UK)

On July 18th, Germany shut down its busiest Autobahn for celebrating life – appropriately titled “Still-Life A40”.  The “Still Life” festival on Sunday in the Ruhr region in western Germany offered some surreal images and video footage of the autobahn without cars and overrun with pedestrians.

A 37-mile stretch of Germany’s famous highway system, between Dortmund and Duisburg, was closed to motor vehicles for the street festival and replaced by a line of 20,000 tables, reports The Guardian. Around three million people attended the event.

The ambitious aim of “Still Life” was to change negative attitudes in Germany towards the Ruhr, a region known for the last six decades as the capital of smokestacks, steel mills, and soot.

Some five million people live in this urban sprawl of cities, where Duisburg runs into Essen into Bochum and on to Dortmund. Yesterday more than two million locals – every second resident – flooded the A40 expressway for this highlight of the 2010 European Capital of Culture in Essen and its Ruhr sister cities.

For one day the Ruhr was connected up with 20,000 tables and as many mini-parties from bowling clubs alongside school groups, scout troops and theatre troupes. A friendly festival on the otherwise hostile, anonymous Autobahn.

For kilometre after kilometre, the party kept on rolling. Strangers salsa danced in the sun near Duisburg and 100 newly wed brides in their gleaming white wedding dresses handed out red roses near Essen.

Television pictures from the air showed crowds milling around on a road where cars usually race along at speeds of 160 kph (100 mph) or more.

One lane of the autobahn, which crosses North Rhine-Westphalia state, was kept free for skaters and cyclists – and more than one million revellers brought bicycles, including the state premier, Hannelore Kraft.

There are no general speed limits on Germany’s autobahns. Cars often speed up to 200km per hour (125mph) or more. In dense or dangerous areas, drivers are often required to slow down to 120 km per hour (75mph).

Transportgooru Musings:  I wonder what is the total fuel savings from this shut down?  Does anyone have any idea of potential savings resulting from this event (fuel savings, CO2 Emissions reduction, etc).  Oh well, beyond the economic/monetary benefits, it is always wonderful to see the community getting a chance to explore their own infrastructure by foot and bicycle.  I dream of a day our Washington,DC’s infamous beltway shuts down once a year for a festivity like this, bringing together communities for a get together that celebrates the diversity of the region.  It would be nothing but a MASSIVE  hit and I’m sure my fellow American citizens would definitely celebrate this.  After all, the Americans know how to throw a party, better than anyone on earth.

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• Autobahn Party: German Highway Shut Down For ‘Still Life’ (huffingtonpost.com)
• Life’s a picnic on Germany’s autobahn (guardian.co.uk)
• Autobahn Closed for Festival (wheels.blogs.nytimes.com)
• No autos on the autobahn: Germans party on highway (sfgate.com)
• No Autos on the Autobahn: Germans Party on Highway (abcnews.go.com)
• Two Million Join Party on German Autobahn (abcnews.go.com)
• German motorway hosts huge party (bbc.co.uk)
• Life in the Fast Lane: Two Million Join Party on German Autobahn (spiegel.de)
• No autos on the autobahn: Germans party on highway (usatoday.com)
• Jim: Coffeed Up: Still Life Festival In Germany Germans party on the autobahn – eTurboNews.com (eturbonews.com)
• German autobahn closed for mass 60km picnic (newslite.tv)
• No autos on the autobahn: Germans party on highway (ctv.ca)
• Germans hold 60 km-long party on motorway (reuters.com)

(Source: Cooper Hewitt Design Blog)

Found this interesting article about NYC’s newly designed bike rack called NYC Hoop on the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Design Museum’s blog.

“Residents with an eye for detail will notice that the city’s newly designed bike rack, the NYC Hoop, is starting to make its presence felt on the streets, as the city tests various securing methods to both sidewalks and subway grates. Designers Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve (of Denmark’s Bettlelab) won the 2008 CityRacks Design Competition, coordinated by theNYCDOT in collaboration with the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum,Google, and Transportation Alternatives.”  This beautiful, easy to use dye cast piece of work is not only easy on the eye but also comes with a very small foot print, making it very suitable for a space crammed uber-Urban environment like NYC.

Interestingly enough, the article posted by Laura Forde notes that the Big Apple is moving ahead with wide-spread deployment plans for the Hoop – nearly 3000 of them..  That must be good news for the ever growing biking population of New York, which has seen tremendous jump in biking recently.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Do-Good Design (tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Bill’s Blog over at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum (core77.com)
• Design for the Other 90% (design-milk.com)
• The Best of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial (inhabitat.com)
• Cooper-Hewitt Showcases Design Projects That Could Change the World (treehugger.com)

(Source: ITS America Newsletter & White House Office of Urban Affairs)

Shelley Poticha - Image Courtesy: Planetizen

On Thursday, July 15, the White House Office of Urban Affairs will host a live chat with the leadership of the Sustainable Communities Partnership, an agreement between HUD, Transportation, and EPA to coordinate federal housing, transportation, and environmental investments. Last month, the Partnership released a joint notice of funding availability — $35 million in TIGER II Planning grants and $40 million in Sustainable Community Challenge grants — for local planning activities that integrate transportation, housing, and economic development. And, HUD also announced $100 million in funding for Sustainable Communities Regional Planning grant program that will support regional planning efforts that integrate housing, land use, economic development, and transportation.

What:
Sustainable Communities Live Chat

Who:
Shelley Poticha, Director of the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, HUD
Beth Osborne, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Policy, Department of Transportation
Tim Torma, Deputy Director of the Office of Sustainable Communities, EPA
Moderated by Derek Douglas, Special Assistant to the President on Urban Policy, White House

When:
2:00PM EST, Thursday, July 15, 2010

How:
Watch and participate at www.whitehouse.gov/live
Send questions in advance to Planetizen.

For more information on the partnership, read their latest blog that summarizes their work and accomplishments.

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• Building Our Cities Greener (whitehouse.gov)
• White House hosts web chat about urban sustainability- we urge you to join (agentgenius.com)
• USDOT and HUD Launch Collaborative Effort to Create Sustainable, Livable Communities That Integrate Transportation, Housing and Economic Development (greencarcongress.com)
• Grants Available For Sustainable Communities (cleantechies.com)
• Watch and Engage: A Conversation on Sustainable Communities (whitehouse.gov)

June 2010

Prepared by the Office of Planning, Environment and Realty Federal Highway Administration: www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep/climate/

To view PDF files, you need the Acrobat® Reader®.

Recent Events

Report Highlights Roadway Corridor Energy Efficiency Strategies. Environmental Corridor Management was prepared as part of the NCHRP 25-25 “quick turnaround” research. The chapter “the Energy Efficient Highway: How Efficient Are Our Corridors?” includes a lengthy and informative discussion of Oregon’s experiences implementing their Oregon Solar Highway program. Among numerous other sustainability strategies, the document also reports on experiences with:

• wind generation in highway rights of way
• solar powered LED and compact fluorescent lighting for signs,
• LED luminairs and signals,
• highly retroreflective sign material in place of sign lighting,
• increased energy efficiencies from operations,
• minimizing need for new construction via operational improvements,
• more efficient fleets, and
• recycled materials in roadway construction.

EPA Announces 2009 Clean Air Excellence Award Winners. Several of the 2009 winners have demonstrated or are working toward transportation greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The District Department of Transportation was recognized for launching the SmartBikeDC bike sharing program, and Car2Go and the city of Austin were recognized for their car sharing program. Sunline Transit Agency in CA was honored as the first agency to own and operate a hydrogen generating and dispensing station. They have upgraded the facility so that it can serve commercial customers as well as the transit agency’s own busses. More details on these and other award winning initiatives are available on EPA’s Clean Air Excellence Awards website.

FHWA/AASHTO Climate Change Adaptation Peer Exchange Report Released. FHWA with the support of AASHTO convened a peer exchange on current climate change adaptation activities and strategic needs in Schaumburg, Illinois, on December 8, 2009. This workshop included senior officials of state departments of transportation, FHWA headquarters and division offices and AASHTO. This report summarizes the results of the exchange, and is one of series of FHWA reports documenting the results of national peer exchanges on integrating climate change considerations into the transportation planning process.

State and Local News

Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States Launch Transportation and Climate Initiative. On June 16, 11 Northeast states and the District of Columbia launched a Transportation and Climate Change Initiative “to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, minimize our transportation system’s reliance on high-carbon fuels, promote sustainable growth, address the challenges of vehicle-miles traveled and help build the clean energy economy.” More information and a copy of the signed declaration of intent are available on the Georgetown Climate Center website.

MassDOT Announces Comprehensive Sustainable Transportation Initiative. On June 2, MassDOT launched GreenDOT, an effort to incorporate sustainability into all of the DOT’s activities. The initiative has a goal of reducing GHG emissions by over 2 million tons by 2020. The DOT aims to combat climate change by measures such as balancing highway expansion projects with projects that promote biking, walking, public transit, and smart growth. The DOT will also make investments in a green fleet and renewable power. The policy directive includes an illustrative list of the initiatives that MassDOT is implementing to achieve the GreenDOT goals. For more information, see the MassDOT Policy Directive or the press release.

New York City Panel on Climate Change Releases Adaptation Resources. The NPCC has released Climate Change Adaptation in New York City: Building a Risk Management Response, to provide a “foundation” for climate change adaptation in New York City and tools to start formulating an adaptation response. The document includes a brief analysis of NYC’s transit system vulnerabilities. NPCC’s eight step Adaptation Assessment Guidebook is included as Appendix B. And a workbook on “Incorporating Climate Change into Design and Performance Standards” is Appendix C.

California Air Resources Board Releases Draft Regional GHG Reduction Targets. CARB has released the draft GHG emission reduction targets for passenger vehicles for the state’s 18 MPOs as part of the implementation of SB 375. The 2020 and 2035 targets are expressed in per capita ghg emissions range compared to 2005 levels. The targets were informed by scenario planning analyses. As most of the infrastructure decisions affecting the 2020 network have already been made, the nearer term targets are based largely on operational improvements. Many MPOs also adjusted their 2020 forecasts to take the economic downturn into account. The four largest MPOs have a draft 2020 reduction target of 5-10 percent.

Announcements

FHWA Seeks Pilot Locations For Climate Vulnerability/Risk Assessment. FHWA is soliciting interested DOTs and MPOs to partner with us in piloting approaches to conduct climate change vulnerability and risk assessments of transportation infrastructure. The purpose of the pilots is twofold; 1) to assist State DOTs and MPOs more quickly advance existing adaptation assessment activities and 2) to assist FHWA in “test-driving” the model. Based on the feedback received through the pilots, FHWA will revise and finalize the model for national application. It is anticipated that 3-4 awards will be made at approximately $200,000 to $300,000 each. By Federal statute, a 50% non-Federal match is required for these funds to be awarded to the pilot areas. In-kind contributions such as staffing can be counted towards the match requirement. Applications are due to the relevant FHWA Division Office by July 30. For more information, see the solicitation announcement and the conceptual model which will soon be available on the FHWA Climate Change Activities Webpage.

FTA Seeks Applicants for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction Projects. FTA has $75 million in FY10 funds available in its Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) Program for grants to public agencies. The grants are for capital projects that reduce GHG emissions or energy use from public transit systems. Projects must request between $1,000,000 and $25,000,000. Applications for projects less than $1,000,000 may be applied for if they are part of a consolidated proposal submitted by the State DOT that, in total, meets or exceeds the $1,000,000 threshold. Applications are due August 11. For more information, see the announcement on the grants.gov website.

Northern Transportation and Air Quality Summit to be Held Aug 24-26 in Cambridge, MA. Registration is now open for NTAQS, the biennial Air Quality conference sponsored by FHWA and EPA Regions 1, 2, and 3. Several presentations on climate change are planned. The Boston MPO and NESCAUM are co-sponsors of this years’ event.

EPA Seeks 2010 Clean Air Excellence Award Nominations. In a June 21 Federal Register Notice, EPA issued a call for nominees to recognize efforts toward achieving cleaner air. These recognition awards are open to both the public and private sector. Applications must be postmarked by August 13.

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.

FHWA HQ Contacts in the Office of Planning, Environment & Realty:

Office of Natural and Human Environment, Sustainable Transport & Climate Change Team
Diane Turchetta, Acting Team Leader Diane.Turchetta@dot.gov
Kathy Daniel, Kathy.Daniel@dot.gov
John Davies, JohnG.Davies@dot.gov
Connie Hill Galloway, Connie.Hill@dot.gov
Robert Kafalenos, Robert.Kafalenos@dot.gov
Faiz Khan, Faiz.Khan@dot.gov
Becky Lupes, Rebecca.Lupes@dot.gov

Office of Planning
Robin Smith, Robin.Smith@dot.gov

Office of Project Development & Environmental Review
Shari Schaftlein, Shari.Schaftlein@dot.gov

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• AASHTO Launches Transportation and Climate Change Resource Center Website (greencarcongress.com)

(Source: Washington Post)

Everyone, say hello to “A Whale”, the  world’s largest oil-skimming vessel.  It is the newest addition to the fleet of vessels working in the oil spill cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Taiwanese-flagged former tanker named the “A Whale” is the length of 3 1/2 football fields and stands 10 stories high. It just emerged from an extensive retrofitting to prepare it specifically for the Gulf, where officials hope it will be able to suck up as much as 21 million gallons of oil-fouled water per day.

“It is absolutely gigantic. It’s unbelievable,” said Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor Ed Overton, who saw the ship last week in Norfolk, Va.

The ship looks like a typical tanker, but it takes in contaminated water through 12 vents on either side of the bow. The oil is then supposed to be separated from the water and transferred to another vessel. The water is channeled back into the sea.

Click here to read more about this floating giant on the high seas.

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• Day 68: Why isn’t the A-Whale in the Gulf yet? (hotair.com)
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Yesterday (June 15, 2010), I had the chance to attend “Online Engagement for Sustainable Urban Mobility”, a panel discussion and roundtable organized by EMBARQ, the sustainable transportation arm of the World Resources Institute, at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Part of a week-long citywide festival focused on technology and innovation, the event brought together citizen activists and representatives from government agencies and non-profits to discuss open data, online citizen engagement and collaboration – while looking at the nation’s capital as a case study.  The agenda, as seen on the invitation

How urban transportation can be made more sustainable through:

• Open Data
• Blogging and Citizen Journalism
• Government Transparency and Civic Engagement
• Citizen Collaboration

This was a great forum to share/listen best practices, lessons learned, failure stories and ideas of how to put theory into practice, as it relates to the following over-arching questions: What online tools exist in the D.C. area to make transportation more efficient, user-friendly and sustainable? What are some examples of Web-based innovation and collaboration in the D.C. transport sector? How can government, technology and civil society work together to improve the way we move around – by foot, by car, by bike, and by transit – in the nation’s capital?

The awesome panel consisted of the following individuals:

Moderator: Christian Madera (Columnist, Next American City)
Host: Erica Schlaikjer (Online Engagement Coordinator, EMBARQ)

Panelists:

• Bryan Sivak (Chief Technology Officer, District of Columbia)
• Lance Schine (Chief Information Officer, District Department of Transportation)
• David Alpert (Blogger, Greater Greater Washington)
• Justin Jouvenal (Web Editor, Postlocal.com)
• Nick Grossman (Director of Civic Works, OpenPlans)

Roundtable Discussion Leaders:

• Eric Gundersen (Development Seed)
• Harriet Tregoning (Office of Planning)
• Nat Bottigheimer (WMATA)
• Dan Silverman (Prince of Petworth)
• Zvi Band (FixMyCity DC)
• Philip Ashlock (OpenPlans)

Here are some  interesting observations worth sharing, courtesy of Moderator Christian Madera and fellow participant Kara Hadge, contributing author of New America Foundation’s Sustaining Democracy in a Digital Age blog,  who sat right next to me and offered great input to our discussion group.  For a detailed recap/summary, I seriously recommend you to check out Christian column on Next American City and Kara’s blog post titled Wired Cities .

• While the local city government has been at the forefront of releasing its municipal data for the public and developers to utilize, most of the region’s transportation falls under the jurisdiction of WMATA, the regional transit agency.
• DDOT is involved is now sharing an API for real-time location data for the city’s small fleet of circulator buses, and embarking on the use of QR codes on buses and shelters to assist both passengers and transit managers
• DC Circulator will shortly be launching an Open Data Challenge for developers, featuring three categories: Public Apps (Web and/or Mobile;), Visualization (currently there is no dashboard to monitor what’s happening on all lines), and an unknown internal app to be used by WMATA/DDOT.
• DC Capital Bikeshare #CaBi website  http://capital-bikeshare.appspot.com/ is expected to be launched soon
• DDOT is looking to add (someday) these MIT conceived futurisitic looking, networked, read again – networked, bus stops called Eyestop

In all, it was a great experience meeting and listing to some of the best minds in business about the use of social media tools and emerging opensource efforts in transportation.  Thanks to EMBARQ and the Digital Capital Week community for putting together this event.  I’ll certainly keep you informed of  other resources/products resulting from this event as they become available.