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: Reddit)

A tractor trailer hauling printer ink rolled over on the morning of March 9, 2011 spewing its contents across the highway and forcing the closure during the morning’s rush hour of the ramp linking Route 128 and Interstate 95 in Peabody, MA. Here is what it looks like – a beautiful colorful mess. Read more here.

Image Courtesy: Reddit.com

(Source:  The City Fix Blog)

As the much-feared and talked about Carmaggedon weekend in LA is almost here, our friends at The City Fix blog brought to our attention this beautiful video by Ross Ching, a filmmaker.  This video gives you an idea of what LA without cars would look like and I must admit it looks different (i.e., read as beautiful).  The footage, edited by Ross, is from “LA with no cars,” and it is a series of time-lapse clips edited to make it seem like the roads are empty. On his website, Ching explains how he achieved the effect. Watch the video below

Running on Empty from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

Inspired by Matt Logue’s Empty LA.

Read more about this video at http://rossching.com/running-on-empty

Update Courtesy: ITS America

As the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee continues to work on finalizing its six-year surface transportation reauthorization bill in anticipation of an early July introduction, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has announced plans to introduce the Senate version of the bill during the week of July 11, hold hearings the week of July 18, and is expected to proceed with a Committee mark-up on July 27.  The Senate bill, which is rumored to be a two-year bill instead of six, is expected to face a $12 billion funding shortfall which would require the Senate Finance Committee to come up with additional revenues before the legislation could be passed.  Committee staff continues to craft the bill in a bipartisan fashion with their most recent work focusing on a freight section.  ITS America is working closely with Senate staff to include provisions that would promote greater deployment of ITS.

On the House side, T&I Committee majority staff continues to work on their bill but have provided limited details as to what specific policies and programs will be included.  Speculation continues about the time frame for moving a surface transportation bill through the House, with Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA/7) taking heat for not including the reauthorization bill in a June 10 memo to House Republicans outlining key pieces of legislation that will be debated on the House floor this summer.  The American Road & Transportation Builders Association obtained the memo and has posted the document on its website here.

Meanwhile Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY/24), Vice-Chair of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, joined ITS America’s Congressional Roundtable members for breakfast to discuss ITS and the transportation reauthorization bill.  As a businessman who spent nearly three decades in the construction industry before being elected to Congress, Rep. Hanna stressed the need for technology solutions that can help public agencies do ‘more with less’.  The Congressman made note of Portland, Oregon as an example of a city that is investing in ITS to help create a more efficient, user-friendly transportation network, while acknowledging the pressure many agencies face to roll out more visible ‘bricks and mortar’ projects.  He also said the “argument is building daily” for investing in transportation as a means to create jobs and bring down the nation’s high unemployment rate.  Read more about the Congressional Roundtable in the AASHTO Journal.

(Source: Reddit)

After watching this, I shudder to think how an elderly driver would understand the flow of traffic and negotiate this intersection? Especially, if he she had lived in the area for a while and now had to face this new re-designed nightmare that will make for one heck of an interview.

All joking aside, I’m definitely interested in learning more about efficiency (volume, throughput, etc) and accident metrics (before vs. after) for this particular intersection.  If anyone can find interesting reads/studies/publications on this issue, please share it in the comments section below.

Though it may look efficient (saving an full signal cycle) and creative on the video, I sense there is something inherently wrong with this design.  Accommodations for pedestrians and bicyclists seem very minimal.  And the most important question above all – how did they manage to get the community’s buy-in before going forward with spending $$ on this complex mess?  IF anything, I find it quite interesting to see how the average citizen react to this unique design by observing the comments posted on Reddit.

(Source: Youtube)

The Department of Transportation, Division of Transportation System Development (DTSD) is currently seeking individuals who are ready to take on the challenge of supervising the delivery of the State’s transportation program with an emphasis on traffic engineering.  We currently have supervisory vacancies available in the Milwaukee and Madison areas in addition to a position that may be housed in any regional office throughout the state. The register created by this exam will be used to fill approved vacancies state wide, as they may occur. Regional offices are located in Madison, Waukesha, Milwaukee, Green Bay, LaCrosse, Eau Claire, Wisconsin Rapids, Rhinelander, and Superior.

Job Duties:

These positions may direct one or more units to provide products and/or services associated with the state’s transportation system with primary focus on traffic operations.  The primary role of the supervisor is to achieve program objectives by interpreting and applying policy within the programmatic area of responsibility and directly supervise a staff of professional, technical, and paraprofessional positions.  This includes broad leadership responsibility to coordinate resources and develop staff; apply appropriate discipline-specific technical expertise in decision-making; fulfill a management role in policy development and implementation; and determine ways and means of accomplishing mission critical objectives.

Traffic Supervisors oversee one or more of the following: program development in the area of freeway traffic management; program support for project development; program development, operations and maintenance of Intelligent Transportation Systems; operations of a freeway traffic management center; maintenance of freeway traffic management systems; and providing traveler information in the area of freeway traffic.

Special Notes: Prior to any appointments for position(s) filled from this recruitment/announcement, candidates may be subject to a comprehensive criminal background check which may include fingerprinting.

Job Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Click here to learn more and to apply for this position.

(Source: Reddit & theCHIVE)

A note, shared by fellow Redditor – jnnorris,  about this awesome roadside capture says the incident took place in Apalachin, NY! The vehicle was spotted driving down the road where the speed limit is 65….. NYS Trooper stopped! and someone has also made available the dash cam shot on theChive.  Long live the interwebs for bringing such gems to us.

Image Courtesy: theCHIVE.com

Image Courtesy: Reddit.com

(Source: Houston.culturemap.com)

Anti-big brother Houstonians rejoiced when a referendum passed last November to take down the city’s network of red light cameras. Nearly six months later, data collected by the camera service provider, Phoenix-based ATS, suggests that citizens’ temporarily cautious attitude towards red lights has already reversed.

ATS analyzed 10 high-traffic intersections in different parts of the city that had seen noticeably decreases in violations when the cameras were installed, but have now suffered unprecedented increases. For example, the westbound intersection of Richmond Avenue and Hillcroft Avenue dipped from 5,628 violations in 2009 to 2,532 in 2010 — only to rocket back up to 3,799 in the first few months of 2011.

Editors Note:  This is yet another study that bolsters the need for installing the enforcement devices at intersections.   Oh well, there is always a counter to this and wait till someone surfaces with a new study showing how the removal of these devices has made life a lot better for poor Houstonians.

(Source: Tree Hugger)

I saw this article below on Tree Hugger and felt compelled to share with you all.  See my commentary in the Editor’s Notes section below.

Growing Amtrak Ridership On A Collision Course With Political Surrealism

The Hill reports that “Amtrak had more riders in March than it has had in any March in its 40 years of existence, the company said Thursday. There were 137,000 more Amtrak riders this past month, the company said, which was the 17th straight month of increased ridership. That puts the company on track to break its annual ridership record, which was 28.7 million last year, Amtrak said.”

Note: By the term “political surrealism” I mean that the railroads which once united America are being used as a “wedge issue” to divide the US politically. Don’t tell me ideological opposition to Amtrak and high speed trains is justified because ‘we’re broke’ and passenger rail should be privately owned, exclusively.

Click here to read the full article.

Editor’s Notes: As a nation, especially in the post-World War II era, the United States has identified itself as a world leader in innovation and as a business-savvy nation.  Even during the toughest of times, a class of creative entrepreneurs and  political leaders somehow managed to find ways to help innovate and keep the economy rolling, eventually leading the country to gain the top spot among world’s economies.  This American entrepreneurship always was rooted in one thing – a keen understanding of the market demands for a product or service and effectively finding a steady supply to meet that demand.  Time and again this demand vs supply model was successfully applied in the market by many savvy innovators and managers, leading to the creation of many successful business houses and millionaires/billionaires across the country.

All of a sudden now things are looking different.  The America at the start of the 21st Century America looks much different than the one in the decades before.  Now the business community seems totally out of touch with the market demand and the political class is not far behind, blindly groping around without any clue of what the people really want.  With a country of 300+ million that is growing every day and the price of gasoline shooting through http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/08/government-shutdown-2011_n_846525.htmlthe roof with every war (overt and covert) launched in a different part of the globe under the guise of spreading democracy, the country and the economic engines are grinding themselves to a halt.  The driver of this economic engine has always been the transportation industry and this industry seems to be on a shakier footing than ever.  The rail industry that once dominated the country is now virtually shut out in favor of the motorcars and the highways lobby.  Aviation industry is doing a much better job getting people around faster but the airports and the sector’s infrastructure are starting to show signs of fatigue. 

And along comes this great opportunity, in form of investment in high speed rail, and our political leaders are completely blowing off a golden chance to resurrect the American dominance by completely caving to party-line politics.   There have been way too many arguments made for and against building a high-speed passenger rail network so I’m not even going to attempt bringing them here. All I want to add here is that we have a golden opportunity to encourage the business community to come forward and invest in meeting this demand from consumers.  These ridership numbers from Amtrak are no less of an indicator for a growing demand for a service; unfortunately the government does not have the money to pay for building a rail service that can cater to this demand.  So why not encourage the private sector to get involved in providing that service.  If it takes a little bit of hand holding/encouragement (read as subsidies and tax reliefs), why not do that?  Let the likes of Virgin, JR East, etc come in and set up shop.. Let them build the high speed rail network.. Give them the contracts to develop the lines, as well as the track /train sets.. Let them figure out the economics..  All the political leadership, esp. the conservatives, needs to do is to work with the U.S.DOT and the White House and make it easy for the players to come in and play the field.  A lot of other nations have successfully done this and why are we not trying something that we have taught everyone in the world?  For a nation full of smart people I am not sure why it is taking us so long to understand the strategic benefits of investing in this form of transportation.

In simple terms, we have a lot riding on the rails and we cannot afford to squander this opportunity to build a new industry, especially when there is a growing demand.  Looking  back at the end of the last century, the US government did its best to encourage private sector participation in the creation and development of a brand new industry in the Silicon Valley – Software/IT Industry, which helped establish the country as the market leader in the technology sector and has since spawned many products and services.  It is not a stretch to say many of the advances we have made in the field of computing and technology would not have been possible without this joint private/public sector participation. So, why not replicate the same in the transportation field and encourage the private sector to come in and create a robust industry.  It is not impossible and it is not going to be easy either! But hey, it is any day better than squabbling to score political points and fighting wars in foreign countries.

So, let me conclude by saying this – we don’t just need a new form of transportation but some new, fresh, outside the box thinking and political will to go with it.