(Source: Business Week)

NewDealDesign and Better Place teamed up to create a car recharging tower called the Charge Spot, and won themselves an IDEA gold award

One day, recharging stations for electric cars might be much more common than gas stations. If NewDealDesign has its way, they won’t look at all the same, however. The San Francisco design shop has teamed up with e-car venture Better Place to create the Charge Spot, an electricity outlet that received the gold medal in 2009’s International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA a.k.a. Industrial Designers Society of America). The slender and sleek column looks a bit like a sidewalk traffic barrier with a blue plastic top. Amit calls it a “mini-tower of electric power.”

NewDealDesign, founded and financed by Gadi Amit, its president, borrowed from its experience with consumer-electronics clients such as Dell , Fujitsu, Nokia, and Palm to create the Charge Spot.

Better Place’s goal is to have these electricity outlets built wherever people might park their cars for long stretches—parking lots, garages, and streets. Motorists would plug one end of a heavy-duty extension cord into the top of the Charge Spot and the other into a port on their vehicles. Within six hours, their cars would be fully juiced and good to go. Shown below is an awesome cool video, courtesy of YouTube, demonstrating how the technology works)

The tower also houses digital electronics for recording charges and billing motorists’ accounts. The Charge Spot team, drawn from NewDealDesign’s staff of 12 designers, removed hinges and doors from the first prototypes, simplified the display screen, and changed some internal components, reducing cost to about one-tenth of earlier designs, says Paluska. Each spot can also charge two cars at once.

Better Place, established by Shai Agassi in Palo Alto, Calif., in 2007, is trying to create the infrastructure for battery-powered cars. It is also working with Renault-Nissan to design a new electric vehicle. First-generation recharging fixtures were patterned after gasoline pumps, with a power cord instead of a hose. NewDealDesign chose a different model: chargers for portable devices such as laptops, cell phones, and iPods.

“We want to make the electric vehicle a normal, widespread car, not just for the ‘crazy’ green guy,” says Amit, 46, who started NewDealDesign in 2000. Better Place launched the Charge Spot last December in Israel, where 900 of a planned 100,000 have been deployed in preparation for the upcoming launch of its electric vehicle.  Plans are afoot for  massive, worldwide deployment of these charging stations in many car-huggng cultures, including the US, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Austrlia.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Green Car Congress & GreenTechMedia)

A plug-in parallel hybrid electric terminal tractor used to move shipping containers and cargo within the port will be tested at a Port of Long Beach shipping terminal. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is coordinating the project among several ports and will also compile and analyze project data related to the tractor’s performance, including emissions, charging, diesel fuel reduction and other aspects.

Terminal tractors – vehicles that move massive cargo loads at seaports around the world – spend up to four-fifths of their time sitting still with their engines running, waiting to be put to use. Given that fact, why not retrofit the prevalent diesel-burning versions to make them plug-in hybrids?

US Hybrid Corporation performed the conversion which uses a 33 kWh Li-ion battery pack from GAIA. The truck is equipped with a 6.6 kW charger. EPRI expects the plug-in to have about 4 hours of electric operation, depending upon the duty cycle, said Andra Rogers, senior project manager of Electric Transportation at EPRI.

The equipment will be tested at SSA Container Terminal on Pier A at the Port of Long Beach for 3 months.

As a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) the tractor will be able to move containers weighing up to 95,000 pounds as its diesel counterparts can, but unlike diesels will not idle its engine when inactive. Over a year of full-time operation it is expected that the PHEV tractor would use 3,000 gallons of fuel per year less than a similar diesel and significantly reduce emissions.

It costs about $80,000 to convert a diesel terminal tractor to a plug-in hybrid, but a converted tractor will save about 80 percent of its fuel usage, or about 3,000 gallons of diesel a year, giving it a payback of about six years, EPRI estimates.

Ports, and the shipping industry they serve, aren’t as publicly visible sources of pollution as on-road cars and trucks. But the global shipping industry accounts for a significant share of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions – about 4.5 percent, according to a U.N. study reported by the Guardian newspaper last year.

Only a fraction of that can be contributed to on-shore activity at ports. Still, ports have been linked to high levels of pollution and contamination of nearby communities, and that’s led to government and industry action to clean them up, such as a $28 million project at the Port of Oakland, Calif. aimed at cutting diesel truck emission by up to 85 percent, the San Francisco Chronicle reported last month.

The three-month Port of Long Beach demonstration project is part of a one-year demonstration, during which the tractor will also be tested and evaluated at ports in Savannah, Ga., Mobile, Ala., Houston, and New York City.

Click here to read the entire article.

Date:  August 19, 2009

Time: 3:00 PM -4:30 PM EST

Speakers:

• Balaji Prabhakar, Stanford University
• Nicholas W. Ramfos, Director, Commuter Connections, National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board

This webinar will examine a project in India, led by Dr. Balaji Prabhakar, where a variety of payments and lottery awards were tested to encourage bus commuters to shift their schedules to just outside of peak periods. Dr. Prabhakar’s presentation will discuss the specific tests that were conducted and the results of each.

Closer to home, Dr. Prabhakar is also beginning to help try to solve some of Stanford University’s parking and commuting challenges in a policy climate that leaves little room for error¿the university is subjected to heavy penalties if the campus exceeds its allowance for peak-period car commuters.

Dr. Prabhakar has some very creative ideas for testing incentives related to parking at Stanford, which he plans to share in this Webinar, and the technological know-how to implement them and determine their effects.

The webinar will also provide a brief look at incentive programs implemented in the Washington DC metropolitan region to help reduce congestion. Nicholas Ramfos, the Director of the Commuter Connections program at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments will highlight incentives including a region-wide Guaranteed Ride Home Program, free consulting services and equipment lease reimbursements to employers that start or expand a telework program, and a new demonstration program that will be launched this fall which will pay commuters to carpool in designated congested corridors in the region. Nicholas Ramfos’ brief presentation will focus mostly on this newest demonstration program.

Click here to Register and for additional information on the event.

(Source: Natural Resources Defense Council)

America’s addiction to oil continues to threaten not only our national security and global environmental health, but also our economic viability. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) analyzed how heavily drivers in each state are affected by increases in oil prices and ranked states on their adoption of solutions to reduce their oil dependence — measures they are taking to lessen their vulnerability and to bolster America’s security. NRDC found that rising gas prices, combined with the economic downturn, are making people more vulnerable to changes in oil prices. But many states are taking significant steps to reduce oil dependence through smart clean-transportation policies.

Our analysis shows that:

• Oil dependence affects all states, but some drivers are hit harder economically than others.
• The trends in states’ vulnerability to oil price increases over the past couple of years are not encouraging — drivers in every state were more vulnerable in 2008 than they were in 2006.
• While some states are pioneering solutions and many are taking some action, a fair number of states are still taking few (if any) of the steps needed to reduce their oil dependence.

Image Courtesy: NRDC - Percent of Income Spent on Gasoline by the Average Driver, 2008

The NRDC report says that although some states are adopting strong measures to reduce their oil dependence, too many others are still taking little or no action. The solutions rankings in this report are based on the range of key actions that states can take to reduce oil dependence, with particular focus on policies that can have substantial impact and can be replicated by other states.

NRDC research shows that the 10 states doing the most to wean themselves from oil are:

1) California
2) Massachusetts
3) Washington
4) New Mexico
5) Connecticut
6) New York
7) New Jersey
8) Pennsylvania
9) Oregon
10) Florida

In contrast, the 10 states doing the least to reduce their oil dependence are:

1) West Virginia
2) Idaho
3) Wyoming
4) Mississippi
5) South Dakota
6) Oklahoma
7) Alabama
8) Arkansas
9) North Dakota
10) Alaska

Click here to download the full issue paper. A Fact Sheet developed by the study team can be downloaded here.

(Hat Tip: Elena Schor @ Streetsblog, Capitol Hill)

ITS World Congresses gather some 5,000 participants from around the world looking to share experiences and build networks. As a decision-maker, manufacturer, supplier or consultant within the private or public sector, the World Congress is an opportunity for you to learn more about what ITS can do to improve the efficiency of your operations. What’s more, it is an excellent opportunity to show the general public how ITS can help them in their daily lives.

Delegates will include representatives from:

• International organisations and national governments
• Regional, local and municipal authorities
• Security and safety organisations
• CEOs from industry
• Equipment manufacturers and suppliers
• Service developers and service providers
• Software developers and systems integrators
• Automotive and industrial designers
• Public transport and freight operators
• ITS project management and financiers
• ITS consultancies and advisors
• ITS users and members organisations
• Public interest groups and press

There will also be an opportunity for the public to visit the Exhibition and demonstration sites on the last day of the World Congress in Stockholm.

The Congress format consists of several different types of sessions.  Along with the traditional types of sessions (Plenary, Executive, Special Interest and Technical/Scientific), this year the Congress organizers are introducing the two new formats: Interactive Sessions and Lunchtime Debates.  Sessions typically last 90 minutes.

The Exhibit Hall provides a venue for public sector organizations and private sector vendors to show off their latest technology.  The Exhibit Hall will be open to Congress delegates September 22-25; on Friday, September 25, it will also be open to the public.

The 2009 ITS World Congress will also feature four demonstration sites where Congress delegates can watch ITS in action: one is located inside the Exhibit Hall, two are located just outside the building in the parking lot, and one is accessible by shuttle bus.  Congress delegates can also go on any of 11 technical visits to see ITS in action in and around Stockholm.

Social events include receptions on Monday (September 21) and Tuesday (September 22) evenings and a gala dinner Wednesday (September 23) evening in Stockholm City Hall, famous as the location where Nobel Prizes are awarded.

For all other event related information, please visit the ITS World Congress website.

The proceedings from the recently held Intelligent Vehicle Technology Transfer (IVTT) Joint Military/Civilian Workshop on IntelliDrive are now available online for your perusal and downloading.   The Workshop was held at the Holiday Inn, Gaithersburg, Maryland on July 30, 2009.

For those who are not in the know, the Intelligent Vehicle Technology Transfer (IVTT) Joint Military/Civilian Workshop on IntelliDrive^sm is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); and it is supported by the Department of Transportation Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (DOT ITS JPO), the Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI); the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America); and the Intelligent Systems Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (ISD NIST)

Please link to the IVTT website at www.Intelligent-Vehicle.com and go to the “Prior Events” tab and then click on “Workshop 2009” to access the Presentations and other Workshop information. (Alternatively, you can copy paste the following link: http://www.intelligent-vehicle.com/index.php/events-2009). Or you can simply click each of the following hyperlinked files to simply download them.

• Agenda 31 March 09.pdf
• Presentation 01 Scott Welcome.pdf
• Presentation 02 Finkelstein IVTT Technological Transformation.pdf
• Presentation 03 Dumas Intelligent Vehicle Technology In DARPA.pdf
• Presentation 04 Wilcox Robotic Systems Joint Project office.pdf
• Presentation 05 Rossi Emerging Intelligent Vehicles In FCS.pdf
• Presentation 06 Govers Guardium UGV.pdf
• Presentation 07 Shoemaker Autonomous Intelligent Vehicle Research.pdf
• Presentation 08 Scott Autonomous Intelligent Vehicle Technology At NIST.pdf
• Presentation 09 Schmidt Intelligent Vehicles And IntelliDrive.pdf
• Presentation 10 Fitch Intelligent Vehicle Perception And Autonomy.pdf
• Presentation 11 Pilutti Autonomous Vehicles And Collision Avoidance.pdf
• Presentation 12 Schmitt Intelligent Commercial Vehicles.pdf
• Presentation 13 Langer Autonomous Driving At VW.pdf
• Presentation 14 McBride Autonomous Vehicle Research At Ford.pdf
• Presentation 15 Rajkumar Making Autonomous Driving Real.pdf
• Presentation 16 Kern Intelligent Cars Trucks And Buses.pdf
• Presentation 17 Snyder Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles Now.pdf
• Presentation 18 McCormick Connected Vehicle Proving Center.pdf
• Presentation 19 Dallas Robotics Technology Consortium.pdf
• Presentation 20 Bishop Intelligent Vehicles Global Perspective.pdf
• Presentation 21 Albus Intelligent Vehicle Technology Gaps.pdf
• Presentation 22 Ayyub Intelligent Vehicles Towards Cognition.pdf
• Presentation 23 Finkelstein IVTT Roadmap.pdf
• Registrants List.pdf

The workshop was deemed a great success, and the DOT’s developing IntelliDrive system of systems can help satisfy the DOD’s needs for complex networks of sensors, vehicles, communications, and control centers. Please stay tuned to your website for the announcement(s) regarding the next event.

Do not forget to thank, Dr. Bob Finkelstein, the manager of IVTT Program for making these presentations publicly available.

Win a year of free transit and an iPod touch! What’s more, the first 25 individuals who submit a video entry to the contest will receive a $25 VISA cash card just for telling APTA why they dumped the pump.

As an extension of Dump the Pump day , APTA is sponsoring a user-generated video contest, asking Americans to tell us why they Dumped the Pump.

The contest is open to the public and submitted videos will be judged on creativity, content and overall impact.  The grand prize winner will receive FREE rides for a year on their local transit system and an iPod touch.  The second place winner will ride free for six months and the third place winner will be awarded a three month free pass.  APTA will provide each of the winners with their free transit pass.  Use this information to let your community know about this fun and exciting contest.

Everyone is eligible — Young and old, new and life-long riders alike! So get out your video cameras, hop on transit and tell us about it.

For full contest rules and guidelines, including detailed instructions about how to submit videos through the YouTube.com channel, are available at www.publictransportation.org/takesusthere/contest.html

Deadline – – All videos due: September 18.

If you have any questions please contact Mark Neuville with APTA at mneuville@apta.com.

(Hat Tip: Nick Perfili@ YPT)

Hotel Monteleone
214 Royal Street
New Orleans, LA 70130-2201

The Texas Transportation Institute cordially invites you to attend the 2009 National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety Training Conference. The Crescent City and the Grand Dame of the French Quarter are ready and waiting to assist us in hosting the nation’s grade crossing safety experts who will present information on the latest legislative issues, research, innovations, and technologies in grade crossing safety. We look forward to seeing you in Louisiana this fall!

Registration Information
You are encouraged to register online for this event.

Online registration will be available until 5:00 pm CST, Friday, November 6, 2009. After this date, please plan to register on-site at the Hotel Monteleone.

Onsite Registration/Information Desk

On-site conference registration will be available at the hotel during the conference. The $125 late fee will be in effect during that time. Check, money order, exact cash and credit card payments will be accepted on-site.

Registration Fees

The registration fee covers all conference functions.

Pre-registration is recommended and will help us in planning and preparing a better conference. If you pre-register, your name tag and program packet will be ready when you arrive at the hotel. The fee is $275 through October 16, 2009. A $125 late fee will be added to registrations received after October 16, 2009.

Payment Information

Please make check or money order (U.S. currency drawn on a U.S. bank) payable to TTI-HRG09. Event Management & Planning (EM&P) also accepts Visa, MasterCard and Discover credit cards. If paying by check or money order, you may register online and then mail your payment to EM&P. EM&P can not invoice; therefore, payment of the conference registration fee must be received prior to admission to the conference. NO PURCHASE ORDERES ACCEPTED.

For payment processing purposes, the vendor identification number for TTI EM&P is 37277277275000. The federal identification number is 74-2270624.

Cancellations

Only cancellations received in writing by EM&P by 5:00 p.m. October 16, 2009, will be refunded, less a $125 handling fee. No refunds will be made after October 16.

Exhibitor Registration

If you would like more information about exhibiting at this conference, please visit the exhibitor web page.

Speaker Information

We extend our appreciation for your acceptance to speak at the 2009 National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety Training Conference. If for some reason you cannot attend we would hope that you could send another person in your place. A letter detailing the specific date and time of your presentation will be mailed to you in the next few weeks. Also included in the letter will be a request for your biographical information, which will assist the moderator in introducing you at the beginning of the session.

Speakers should register online no later than October 16, 2009.

If you have need of further information, please contact Jessica Franklin at j-franklin@ttimail.tamu.edu or (979) 845-5817.

Hotel Reservations

Accommodations have been arranged at the Hotel Monteleone, located at 214 Royal Street in New Orleans, LA. The room block is available November 15-18, 2009. Please refer to “National Rail Conference” when making your reservation.

Government block (prevailing government per diem to be established by September 15, 2009):

• Single: $140 per night current rate
• Double: $140 per night current rate

Discounted Conference Block (Non-Government):

• Single: $185 per night
• Double: $185 per night

A limited number of government rates are available for those guests with proper military or government ID. Please make these reservations as soon as possible to ensure room availability.

To receive special conference rates, individuals should call the Hotel Monteleone directly at (504) 523-3341 or by calling Group Reservations number (800) 217-2033 and identify the event as “National Rail Conference.” Please confirm your room rate when you make your reservation and confirm this rate upon your arrival at the hotel. Please assist us in keeping conference costs down by meeting our room block requirements at this hotel. All reservations for sleeping rooms must be received by October 16, 2009. Reservations received after this date will be accepted on a space available and rate available basis.

For more details about the Hotel Monteleone, please visit their website.

Any attendee not identifying his/her affiliation with the group and not requesting the conference rate prior to check-in cannot be extended the conference rate at a later date or during or after the meeting.

Sponsorship Opportunities

The following is a list of events that will take place during the conference. If your organization would like to sponsor any of the events or make a donation to assist in facilitating any of these events, the cost is listed below. For any event your organization sponsors or makes a contribution to, the organization name will be noted in the program, as well as displayed on a sign at the function. “Themed breaks” are also available for sponsorship.

• Welcome Reception – $20,000
• Continental Breakfast (3) – $2,600 (each)
• Formal Luncheon – $10,000
• Network and Dinner – $27,000
• Daily Morning and Afternoon Breaks – $1,200

If you would like additional information (Program Contents, Speaker Registration, Event Sponsorship), please contact Jessica Franklin at j-franklin@ttimail.tamu.edu or (979) 845-5817.

(Source: Institute for Transportation and Development Policy)

Imagine one of the largest and iconic avenues in Latin America entirely closed to motorized vehicles with children playing happily. On a recent Sunday morning in Buenos Aires on Avenida 9 de Julio and other major streets, where thousands of porteños—as the city residents are called—could be seen exercising, rollerblading, cycling and strolling down streets that are normally clogged with smelly, noisy and dangerous cars and trucks. Following other cities such as Bogotá, Santiago and more recently New York City, the Argentine capital closed major thoroughfares to motor vehicles so residents could enjoy the first-ever Car Free Sunday.

Image Courtesy: ITDP

The City of Buenos Aires decided to launch the car-free event despite forecasts of low temperatures for June (approx 5° C, 41° F). Starting in the hip neighborhood of Palermo and stretching over 20+ kilometers, streets and avenues were exclusively designated for walking, riding bicycles and rollerblading. Porteños showed up in droves, enjoying the city’s newly reclaimed public spaces—the streets.

Image Courtesy: ITDP - Map of planned bikeways in Buenos Aires. Click to Enlarge.

The circuit connected the stately parks of Palermo with 9 de Julio Avenue to the middle-income neighborhood of Boedo in the south. Citizens could choose to participate in a variety of activities organized throughout the day like exercising to techno-music in front of the iconic Buenos Aires obelisk, rollerblading with the entire family, renting a bike from “La Bicicleta Naranja,” playing soccer or just strolling around with the kids.

The Municipality of Buenos Aires also engaged in another initiative to increase bicycle use and promote high-quality public spaces by developing a Bicycle Master Plan. The proposed bike network will link the 3 main train stations of the city to the downtown business district, as well as some of the most important Universities. Irala Street will have the first cycle lane and will be a model for other cycle lane developments. Physical segregation from cars, new signaling and detailed design will reduce conflicts and encourage everyone to start riding their bicycles.

Click here to read the entire article.