WHO: Former Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, Janet Kavinoky, Colin Peppard, Rob Puentes, and Kathy Ruffalo

WHAT: National Transportation Policy Project Briefing on practical strategies for beginning a transition to a performance-based national transportation program

WHEN: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 3:30PM

WHERE: Room 406, Dirksen Senate Office Building

Congressman Sherwood Boehlert and other leading transportation experts will discuss transitioning to a performance-based system

Washington, D.C. – The Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) National Transportation Policy Project will host a briefing this Wednesday, June 23, 2010, at 3:30PM on transitioning to a performance-based federal surface transportation policy.  The briefing will be held in 406 Dirksen.

Former Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, an NTPP co-chair, will welcome attendees to the event followed by a panel discussion with Janet Kavinoky, Director, Transportation and Infrastructure, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Colin Peppard, Deputy Director, Federal Transportation Policy, National Resources Defense Council;  Rob Puentes, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; and Kathy Ruffalo, President, Ruffalo and Associates.

In conjunction with this briefing, BPC will release its latest report, Transitioning to a Performance-Based Transportation Policy.  The report details the steps necessary for building the foundation and capacity to successfully transition to a performance-based system.  NTPP has been actively researching how to move U.S. transportation policy to a system that establishes a set of national goals and holds federal investments accountable for demonstrating results toward these goals.

NTPP released its blueprint for surface transportation reform, Performance Driven: A New Vision for U.S. Transportation Policy, last June, which called for a program with accountability and incentives for the achievement of clear national goals and interests.  Along with Congressman Boehlert, NTPP is led by its other co-chairs: former Senator Slade Gorton; former Congressman Martin Sabo; and former Mayor of Detroit Dennis Archer, and is composed of a broad, bipartisan coalition of transportation experts and business and civic leaders.

Media interested in the attending the briefing should RSVP to press@bipartisanpolicy.org.

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.

Date: Saturday, June 12, 2010

Time: 3:30PM – 8:30PM

Location: Hillwood Museum, Estates and Garden

Image Courtesy: http://seersuckersocial.eventbrite.com/

The Seersucker Social, scheduled for Saturday June 12, is set to offer another delightful, unique and alternative entertainment experience by encouraging folks once again to mount their bicycles in high style. While the fall event called for tweed, seersucker has been selected as the ideal vintage fabric of choice to keep cool for the spring ride. Our event partner Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens will provide a fabulous dreamlike setting for the post-ride social.

A $20.00 event ticket will allow participants access to post-ride activities that include admission to the museum, picnicking, lawn games such as croquet and badminton as well as live music to complement the setting and atmosphere. The mansion and all of the estate gardens will be open for tours and other special activities until 8:30pm.

Small plates of delicious food and springtime treats will be made available to all guests by sponsoring restaurants. Beer, wine and a few specialty retro cocktails will help guests relax and enjoy the spectacular setting.

While the ride is free, attendance and registration for the post-ride lawn party is limited. Online registration is encouraged. A limited number of early registrations will be discounted to $15.00 and will be available through select blogs and ticketing venues.

The ride is free for everyone, but you’ll need to register so you can receive the ride course by email. Also registered riders are eligible for prizes and giveaways! You do need to purchase a ticket for the post-ride social. Ticket holders will receive THREE drink tickets (beer/wine/cocktail/juices), wrist band for event access to all games, treats and entertainment. No tickets will be sold at the door and no additional drink tickets will be sold at the event. (Children aged 10 and under with a paid adult receive free wristbands!)

As with every event, Dandies and Quaintrelles seeks to build a healthy sense of community through retro-forward entertainment concepts infused with style and charitable good will. A percentage of proceeds from the Dandies and Quaintrelles’ post-ride social will benefit a local arts-related and service-oriented nonprofit.

Register for the event!!! http://seersuckersocial.eventbrite.com/

Don’t forget to check out the event’s Facebook page here, which already shows 280 confirmed guests.  Sounds like a lot of people and a ton of fun!! Hurry up and register!

June 22-23, 2010

Washington Dulles Airport Marriott, Dulles, Virginia

Dates: Tuesday-Wednesday, June 22-23, 2010
Times: Tuesday:  1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. & Wednesday:  8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Purpose: The U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, ITS Joint Program Office will hold a two-day workshop to present and discuss its four draft IntelliDrive^SM deployment scenarios that have been recently developed in response to key stakeholder input. The purpose of the meeting is to provide input to the U.S. DOT as it refines IntelliDrive research plans about potential futures paths for IntelliDrive deployment.  Discussion will be framed around four scenarios developed through stakeholder inputs. The workshop will engage participants to identify advantages and disadvantages of each of the draft scenarios and critical policy and institutional research needs.  The Tuesday session will provide an overview of the four draft scenarios. The Wednesday session will consist of break out groups to explore each of the four scenarios in detail as well as a concluding session that summarizes the findings from the workshop.

Draft Agenda: http://www.itsa.org/itsa/files/pdf/Scenario%20Agenda-Rev1.pdf

Intended audience: This workshop is for all interested parties.

Registration: This workshop is free of charge using the ITS America registration process. The registration page can be found athttp://www.itsa.org/itsa/files/pdf/Registrtion%20Form%20Deployment%205-13-10.pdf Please email your completed registration form to Brei Whitty at bwhitty@itsa.org or fax it to 202-484-3483.

Webinar: The Tuesday session will be broadcast live as a webinar for those who are not able to attend in person.  Webinar information TBA.

Hotel Information:
Washington Dulles Airport Marriott
45020 Aviation Drive, Dulles, VA, 20166-7506
Reservations: 1-800-228-9290 or (703) 471-9500

Event Name: Intellidrive
Rate: $139/night + taxes (less than the government rate!)
Please use the code Intellidrive when reserving your room so that you can get the room block rate.  Thank you for reserving your room within the official room block. It helps us meet the hotel contract minimum. The cut-off date to reserve a room is June 1,2010. Please contact Brei Whitty if the room block becomes full.

Contact: Brei Whitty, ITS America, 202-721-4236, bwhitty@itsa.org

(Source: Washington Post)

The iconic American carmaker went bankrupt last year, but its Indian operations have never been busier, evidence of India’s booming economic growth and the rising prosperity of middle classes that are increasingly demanding first-world trappings in one of the fastest-rising countries.

“The new generation wants to hold the steering wheel in their hands,” said Prabhjot Singh, manager of a driving school who said young Indians who used to go to him to learn how to drive scooters are now flooding in to learn how to drive cars.

With rising household wealth, the growth of suburbs and highways and a youthful population, India is the second-fastest-growing market for car sales in the world after China. India’s auto industry reported a 26.4 percent growth in sales in 2009-10, partly because a government stimulus package lowered once sky-high interest rates and made financing easier, according to a study by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

The Indian government also cut manufacturing taxes in late 2008 and early 2009 to protect domestic markets and attract overseas partners. India’s economy continued to grow at 8 percent, second only to China’s.

Part of the secret to India’s success is that it is producing cars that fit the “sweet spot,” or a budget of less than $7,000 for first-time car buyers. While the United States continues building gas-guzzling tanks, India has perfected the “mini-car.” Tata’s famed Nano, the world’s cheapest car, is an extreme example. It costs about $2,000 and sales are reportedly brisk.

With far lower labor costs, GM India is more willing to be innovative. The company recently announced that it will join Reva, India’s electric-car company, to roll out a new vehicle this year.

Click here to read the entire article.

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• GM India to Add China-Developed Light Trucks on Urban Growth (businessweek.com)

The Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management is pleased to announce High Speed Rail: Leveraging Federal Investment Locally, a symposium to be held on June 16th, 2010.

Following the January 2010 rail funding announcement by the U.S. Department of Transportation, interest in rail investment – and what it means for American communities – has continued to expand. Conversations are taking place across the country, bringing in new participants as well as experienced professionals from around the world to discuss the new corridors. In focusing on how to implement new rail corridors there is a risk of overlooking the need to manage the regional impacts of the nodes that comprise these systems. Leveraging Federal Investment Locally will enhance the national dialogue on high-speed rail investment through a focus on how new facilities will be linked to existing regional transportation infrastructure and economic development efforts. In addition, there will be an examination of the political context of establishing new rail infrastructure in a democratic nation where land use is controlled locally.

Presenters include:

• Polly Trottenberg, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation
• David Levinson, University of Minnesota
• Anthony Perl, Simon Fraser University
• Frank Zshoche, Managing Director, Civity Management Consultants, Hamburg Germany

The event is co-sponsored by Parsons Brinckerhoff and presented in Partnership with the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).

When: 6/16/2010 8:30am-2:00pm
Location: The Kimmel Center, Rosenthal Pavilion, 60 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012  map

To participate, click here

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

Recent Events

Obama Administration Officials Release Progress Report on Work of Climate Change Adaptation Task Force. On March 16, the CEQ, NOAA, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy released an interim progress report of the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force.  The report recommends key components to include in a national strategy on climate change adaptation.  It calls for a national adaptation strategy that has a “flexible, forward thinking approach” shifting away from using past conditions to predict the future.  It also calls for adaptation responses to be included in current U.S. government plans, processes and approaches, so that adaptation and resilience approaches become part of existing activities.  Comments on the report are being accepted through May 15.  For full text of the report and to submit a comment, see the Interagency Adaptation Task Force website.

FHWA Posts Study of State Climate Action Plans. This study, completed last summer, reviews progress on state climate action plans in all 50 states.  The report provides a basic summary and analysis of the data gathered on transportation emission reduction strategies. It also assesses the level of certainty in estimates of strategies’ impacts on GHG emissions.  The report, accompanying data spreadsheet, and summary PowerPoint presentation are available on the research page FHWA’s Climate Change Website.

NCHRP Publishes Study on Mechanisms for Integrating Transportation-Related Greenhouse Gas Reductions into Transportation Decision Making. This study provides a factual basis for State DOTs and MPOs to weigh alternatives for managing GHG emissions from transportation.  The report covers five dimensions of GHG management policy: geographic level of implementation, target metric, sources covered, reduction target base, and regulatory nature of target (voluntary or mandatory).  The web-only study is available here.

Social Cost of Carbon for Regulatory Impact Analysis. The “social cost of carbon” (SCC) is an estimate of the monetized damages associated with an incremental increase in carbon emissions in a given year. It is intended to include (but is not limited to) changes in net agricultural productivity, human health, property damages from increased flood risk, and the value of ecosystem services.  The estimates presented in the report are meant to allow agencies to incorporate the social benefits of reducing CO₂ emissions into cost-benefit analyses of regulatory actions that have small, or “marginal,” impacts on cumulative global emissions. The report assists agencies in complying with Executive Order 12866, which requires a cost-benefit analysis of intended regulation. DOT Participated in the interagency process that produced this document.  The report is available here.

State and Local News

Oregon Legislation Calls for a Statewide Transportation Strategy to Achieve Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Goals. On March 18, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signed Senate Bill 1059 which calls for the Oregon Transportation Commission in consultation with MPOs, other state agencies, local governments, and other stakeholders to adopt a statewide transportation strategy to reduce GHG emissions. It also calls for the DOT and the Department of Land Conservation and Development to establish guidelines for alternative land use and transportation scenarios that may reduce GHGs.  The legislation also calls for the Department of Land Conservation to establish a light-duty vehicle GHG reduction target in each MPO Region.  Local governments within MPO areas will be required to consider how regional transportation plans could be altered to reduce GHG emission. Full details of the bill are providedhere.

North Carolina Holds Climate Change Adaptation Workshop. On March 2-3, the North Carolina Interagency Leadership Team hosted this workshop on how the state can increase its resilience to projected climate threats.  The workshop was sponsored in part by FHWA and NCDOT.  Presentations and additional information are available here.

Midwest Transportation and Air Quality Summit Conference Proceedings Posted.  On October 27-29, 2009, the Illinois Department of Transportation hosted this summit which included several presentations on climate change.  The proceedings are available here.

Announcements

2010 TRB Energy and Environment Conference, June 6-9 in Raleigh. This conference serves as a platform to develop better transportation solutions through the integration of diverse environmental and transportation perspectives.  Many conference sessions relating to climate change are planned:

• Addressing Climate Change Impacts at the Transportation Project Scale
• Integrating Climate Change Preparedness into State DOT Activities
• Impact of Climate Policy on Transportation
• The Global Supply Chain and Green House Gases
• Adapting Transportation to Climate Change
• Emerging State Approaches to Regulating Climate Change Impacts of Land Development
• How to Achieve a Low Carbon Transport System in 2050
• Multi-Pollutant and Other Co-Benefits of Climate Change Policy
• Balancing Energy, Security, Carbon Mitigation, and Sustainability
• Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Freight Transportation

An early registration rate is available until April 30.  Registration, an agenda, and additional conference information is available here.

Reminders

CEQ Draft NEPA Guidance on Considerations of Effects of Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Comments due May 24.  The guidance covers when and how Federal agencies should analyze the environmental impacts of GHG emissions and climate change when they describe the environmental impacts of a proposed action under NEPA.  Text of the draft guidance and a comment submittal form are available here on the CEQ website.

Note: 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.

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• Carbon Positive: a chance to protect children affected by climate change | Paddy Ashdown (guardian.co.uk)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT

In December 2009, an international scan was conducted to identify new ideas and practical, workable models for integrating variable road pricing approaches into state, local, and regional policies, programs, and practices.  Scan team members interacted with host city and country experts from Stockholm, Sweden, London, England, Singapore, Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands. Specifically, the scan team explored the political, institutional, and technical factors that contributed to the successful implementation of road pricing and, in some cases, to their rejection.

Panelists will present the findings of the scan and will address the potential for road pricing to be a part of a sustainable twenty-first century transportation system.  The scan was conducted under the auspices of the International Technology Scanning Program, which is conducted by the Federal Highway Administration in cooperation with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program.

Session presenters:

• Robert Arnold, Federal Highway Administration
• Vance Smith, Georgia Department of Transportation
• Patrick DeCorla-Souza, Federal Highway Administration

Moderated by: John Doan, SRF Consulting  (Questions may be posed any time during the Webinar, and are answered at the end of the session).

Registration: Participants must register 24 hours in advance. There is no fee for Chairs of TRB Standing Committees, Sections, or Groups.  There is also no fee for employees of TRB Sponsors: http://bit.ly/9tduwj. TRB Sponsors: Please use your work email to register for the session. Others must pay $99 per site.

There may be situations where a webinar may need to be rescheduled due to unforeseen events.  If a webinar needs to be rescheduled, TRB will contact you via email to provide information about rescheduling the session.

Problems signing in? Contact Reggie Gillum at rgillum@nas.edu or 202-334-2382.

Click here to register.

(Sources: Transportation for America)

Image Courtesy: T4America

Today, I came across a tweet from someone that talked about T4America’s latest national poll results that said majority Americans support  increased access to public transportation and safe walking and biking.  As a curious mind would do it, I went on to explore the survey results and the press release issued by T4America and here is the summary of what I saw: American voters overwhelmingly support broader access to public transportation and safe walking and biking, according to this new national poll conducted for Transportation for America.  This must be a ton of good news for pro-transit & bike-ped folks, especially given all the activities that are happening on the next transportation re-authorization bill.  My favorite finding of this survey:  79% of rural folks support improved public transportation.  Now, who would have expected that from our American voters!

Here are some interesting findings:

• More than four-in-five voters (82 percent) say that “the United States would benefit from an expanded and improved transportation system, such as rail and buses” and a solid majority (56 percent) “strongly agree” with that statement.
• On a personal level, two-thirds (66%) say that they “would like more transportation options so they have the freedom to choose how to get where they need to go.” Along these same lines, 73% currently feel they “have no choice but to drive as much as” they do, and 57% would like to spend less time in the car.
• A majority (58 percent) say that more should be allocated to public transportation, while 35% feel that this is about the right amount. Only 5% say that less should be allocated to other transportation options.

Image Courtesy: T4America

As I said earlier, it will be interesting to see how these findings play into the next reauthorization bill.  While we wait to find that out, let’s take a moment to check out some more survey findings. You can download by clicking here.

Responsibilities:

Individual will provide support to the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) contract with the US Department of Transportation. Typical activities will include technical oversight of standards development and deployment activities, reviewing literature to identify promising ITS technologies, reviewing new standards to determine their completeness, evaluating standards deployment outreach tools, reviewing project specifications and design documents to determine their conformance to ITS standards, reviewing standards based test documentation, and reviewing project documentation for vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communications projects for conformance to ITS Standards.

Requirements:

BS in a related technical area (Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Information Systems, etc.) MS preferred. 5+ years experience with developing concept of operations, system requirements specifications, or business processes; strong analytical ability required; excellent oral and written communication skills required; and experience with transportation systems desirable. An understanding of, and familiarity with, the following is desirable:

• Standards development process and the use of standards
• Wireless networks for vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communication
• International standards
• Information/communications system design and development
• Vehicle-based electronics systems

Employer Profile: Noblis is a nonprofit science, technology and strategy organization that helps clients solve complex systems, process and infrastructure problems in ways that benefit the public.  We bring the best of scientific thought and engineering know-how to find solutions that are practical, efficient and effective.  You will find Noblis at work in many fields, including national and homeland security; transportation; healthcare; criminal justice; energy and the environment; oceans, atmosphere and space; and public safety.

Noblis is consistently recognized as a “Great Place to Work” and “One of the Best Mid-Sized Companies to Work For”by Washingtonian Magazine, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the Great Places to Work Institute, and AARP.  Noblis was also named to the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” list by the Ethisphere Institute at the Forbes, Ethisphere Joint Conference

Click here to apply for the above position and/or to view other  job opportunities at Noblis.  Good luck!