(Source: DOE & Tree Hugger)

President Obama was in Indiana yesterday to announce how $2.4 billion dollars from the Recovery Act will be divided up between 48 different battery and electric vehicle projects.”If we want to reduce our dependence on oil, put Americans back to work and reassert our manufacturing sector as one of the greatest in the world, we must produce the advanced, efficient vehicles of the future,” said President Obama. “With these investments, we’re planting the seeds of progress for our country and good-paying, private-sector jobs for the American people,” he said.

Image Courtesy: Department of Energy - map of the award locations

“For our nation and our economy to recover, we must have a vision for what can be built here in the future – and then we need to invest in that vision,” said Vice President Biden. “That’s what we’re doing today and that’s what this Recovery Act is about.”

“These are incredibly effective investments that will come back to us many times over – by creating jobs, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, cleaning up the air we breathe, and combating climate change,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “They will help achieve the President’s goal of putting one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015. And, most importantly, they will launch an advanced battery industry in America and make our auto industry cleaner and more competitive.”

The announcement marks the single largest investment in advanced battery technology for hybrid and electric-drive vehicles ever made. Industry officials expect that this $2.4 billion investment, coupled with another $2.4 billion in cost share from the award winners, will result directly in the creation tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. battery and auto industries.

So Where’s All That Money Going?

The money is going to three main categories of projects:

• $1.5 billion in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce batteries and their components and to expand battery recycling capacity;
• $500 million in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce electric drive components for vehicles, including electric motors, power electronics, and other drive train components; and
• $400 million in grants to purchase thousands of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles for test demonstrations in several dozen locations; to deploy them and evaluate their performance; to install electric charging infrastructure; and to provide education and workforce training to support the transition to advanced electric transportation systems.

Most of the grant winners are familiar names, with Detroit firms getting a substantial share. But who’s the biggest winner? Here are some of the winners:

• Johnson Controls: $299.2 million for the production of nickel-cobalt-metal battery cells and packs, as well as production of battery separators (by partner Entek) for hybrid and electric vehicles.
• A123 Systems: $249.1 million for the manufacturing of nano-iron phosphate cathode powder and electrode coatings; fabrication of battery cells and modules; and assembly of complete battery pack systems for hybrid and electric vehicles.
• General Motors: $105.9 million for the production of high-volume battery packs for the GM Volt (the cells will be from LG Chem, Ltd. and other cell providers to be named), plus another $105 million for the construction of U.S. manufacturing capabilities to produce the second-generation GM global rear-wheel electric drive system. That’s not all. There’s also another $30.5 million to develop, analyze, and demonstrate hundreds of Chevrolet Volt Extended Range Electric Vehicles (EREVs) –125 Volt PHEVs for electric utilities and 500 Volt PHEVs to consumers. (for a total of $241.4 million)

The complete list of the 48 grants can be found here (pdf).

(Source: Tree Hugger)

During last week, many of us watched Nissan unveil its electric car, Leaf.  Those who where in Yokohoma, Japan for the unveiling had a chance to test drive the vehicle and get a demonstration of the technology behind the vehicle.  Our friends from Tree Hugger were kind enough to bring us a little more than what the rest of mdeia has offered thus far.   In an exclusive article, Tree hugger explains Nissan’s technology demonstration that utilizes the internet technology to interface with its electric vehicles. Check out the exclusive video (via You Tube) and a collection of pictures here.

As you can see in this quick demo, the car sends info to an Apple iPhone via a dedicated global data center. The software tells the user about the car’s state of charge, the cost to charge at a given hour of the day, and sends alerts when it’s fully juiced up.

Nissan also expects this is how drivers may program what times of day they want to charge up. Since tiered electricity billing is becoming more common (especially with the spread of smart meters), customers will want to charge their cars when it’s cheapest.

Image Courtesy: Tree Hugger

This smartphone interface also lets the user activate or pre-program the car’s climate control. This is important because heating and air conditioning draw a considerable amount of power, so it’s better to draw from the grid when plugged in, rather than once the car is on the road and running on its battery.

Although this interface isn’t likely to appear on the first-generation Leaf when it comes out in late 2010, Nissan has assured us that this is not just eye candy, and that smartphone connectivity is a feature that will make it to market.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: BBC)

A spate of car crashes across Russia has killed more than 100 people in one week – leading the government to blame the country’s “systemic” road problems.

Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev blamed criminal negligence and a road culture lacking basic driving skills.

He admitted Russian roads are bad, infrastructure is weak and drivers often chat on their mobile phones at high speed or drive while drunk.

Over 10,000 people died on Russian roads in 2009 – Europe’s highest toll.

In the last week a drunk driver in Perm hit a pregnant woman and child in a car-park, killing them both.

The Russian government has made earnest attempts to combat bad driving – including employing legions of traffic police with stop and search powers.

But Mr Nurgaliev admitted most drivers in Russia still think they can break the law and get away with it.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Wired)

The awesome folks at Wired recently covered the AirVenture aviation show @ Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  Check out the excerpts below from the Wired article.

OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — For one week every year, the air traffic control tower at the small airport here is the busiest in the world. And today is the busiest day of all for the hand-picked all-star crew of controllers who will handle more than 3,000 flights in just 10 hours.

On a normal day, Wittman Regional Airport might see a few hundred take-offs and landings. But more than 10,000 aircraft from around the world descend on Oshkosh for the week-long AirVenture aviation show. On a slow day the controllers might direct 1,500 flights. Some days see more than 2,000. But with many of those who arrived early in the week heading home — and those coming in for the weekend arriving — Thursday is usually the busiest day of the week.

On this day last year, the tower directed 3,035 flights in just 10 hours. That’s about 400 more than the crew at Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport — usually the busiest in the world — handled on the same day, and the flights coming into Atlanta were spread out over 24 hours. Oshkosh tower manager and veteran controller Wanda Adelman told Wired.com there are some bragging rights that come with the job here, “we actually beat O’Hare” she says referring to the Chicago airport which is the busiest in the region, “we beat Atlanta too, but nobody cares about Atlanta. They just want to know that we beat O’Hare.”

They get a bright pink polo shirt that is one of the most sought-after prizes of their profession.

It’s a carefully choreographed ballet that requires the utmost attention from both the controllers and the pilots, who must read a 32-page guideline (.pdf) of the procedure. Flying into or out of Wittman during AirVenture can be unnerving for the uninitiated, as pilots often find themselves flying much closer to other airplanes than they typically would.

Inside, there are two teams of controllers at any given time. Each team has two people. One keeps watch over the airfield and the airspace through binoculars and relays information to the other person, who communicates with the pilots.

Click here to read the entire article and to check out some more awesome pictures.

The report evaluates incremental reductions in U.S. carbon emissions that could occur within the transportation sector as a result of a variety of transportation- and land use-related actions and strategies to minimize auto use. The report finds that land use strategies will produce the most emission reductions of all 50 strategies analyzed by the report.

Focusing solely on energy-efficient vehicles and cleaner fuels will not address the problem of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to this recent report. A key finding indicates that the U.S. could cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by as much as 24 percent by 2050, without road pricing strategies, through changes to current transportation systems and operations, travel behavior, land use patterns and regulatory strategies.

With pricing measures such as pay-as-you-go drive insurance, direct fees for vehicle miles traveled, carbon pricing or increased gasoline tax, GHG emissions reductions could be as high as 41 to 52 percent.

The research, prepared by Cambridge Systematics, Inc., focuses on strategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled and improve the efficiency of the transportation network. Land use is one of nine categories of strategies considered by Moving Cooler, along with transportation pricing and taxes, public transportation improvements, non-motorized transport such as walking and biking, regulations to moderate vehicle use and speed, intelligent systems, expanded highway capacity and more efficient freight movement. The effectiveness of each strategy in cutting greenhouse gas emissions is measured against a baseline that represents current trends.

Moving Cooler outlines a number of bundled strategies for discouraging travel in personal vehicles:

• create more transportation -efficient land use patterns
• encourage greater levels of walking and bicycling as alternatives to driving
• support ride-sharing, car-sharing, and other efficient commuting strategies
• subsidize public transportation fares, expanded routes and new infrastructure
• improve intelligent transportation systems to make better use of the existing capacity and encourage more efficient driving
• expand capacity and relieve bottlenecks to reduce congestion

But none of these steps will be as effective as establishing “strong economy-wide pricing measures.” For example, adding $0.60 to the price of a gallon of gasoline, starting in 2015 and increasing to $1.25 per gallon in 2050 could result in a 17 percent reduction of GHG in 2050, according to the study. If we introduced a fee similar to current European fuel taxes, starting at $2.40 a gallon in 2015 and jumping to $5.00 a gallon in 2050, we could see a 28 percent reduction in 2050. (These fees presumably would be added to the market price for gasoline.)

Moving Cooler points out that economy-wide pricing measures — such as an increase in the gasoline tax, carbon pricing, and pay-as-you-drive insurance – would produce the most significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, due to the likelihood of substantial shifts in driving behavior mandated by the high costs. However, outside of these pricing measures, the land use strategies produce the most emission reductions of any of the other strategies analyzed. Moreover, the costs of implementing such changes in development patterns are offset by the substantial savings in the cost of vehicle ownership and maintenance, the report adds.

The study’s authors say these pricing measures would have two effects: to cut back on vehicle miles traveled and to accelerate implementation and purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles—like hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and electric cars.

Moving Cooler cites multiple benefits derived from combining concentrated, mixed-use land development strategies and non-motorized transportation strategies to reduce auto dependency: “The combined effect of more compact land use, improved transit service and improved bicycle and pedestrian conditions would be to improve mobility by non-automobile modes…Increased opportunities for walking and biking will lead to improvements in public health, and exercise and activity levels increase. Finally, denser development can lead to energy and greenhouse gas savings through decreased building use, in addition to transportation efficiencies.”

Click here to read the Executive Summary or here to download the the entire report in PDF.

Sponsored by URISA and the National Center for Transit Research (NCTR)

URISA and the University of South Florida’s National Center for Transit Research at the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) are pleased to announce a new partnership to present the 2009 GIS in Transit Conference, taking place Hilton Bayfront in the waterfront district of downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, November 16-18, 2009.

The Conference Committee has organized an educational program based upon the abstracts submitted through a Call for Participation. Abstracts were submitted within these general topic categories: Applications, Tools, Data, and Management & Policy.

Preliminary Conference Schedule

Monday, November 16, 2009

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Registration

Early Rate (if Registered by October 5, 2009)

• Full Registration:
  URISA Member – $275
  Non-Member – $300

Regular Rate (if registered after October 5, 2009)

• Full Registration:
  URISA Member – $350
  Non-Members – $375

Pre-Conference Workshops: $195

Conference Sponsors

The National Center for Transit Research (NCTR) is located at the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida.  NCTR strives to make public transportation and alternative forms of transportation, including managed lanes, safe, effective, efficient, desirable, and secure. The goals of NCTR are: to minimize traffic congestion, maximize mobility options, promote safety and security, improve the environment, and enhance community sustainability. This will be accomplished by conducting applied and advanced research, energetically disseminating the results, and expanding the workforce of transportation professionals through education and training to address the challenges and opportunities of the future.  The National Transit GIS Conference is one of the many efforts by NCTR to forward its goals.  For more about NCTR please visit: www.nctr.usf.edu.

The 2009 GIS in Transit Conference is proudly endorsed by:

For more information, please visit: http://www.urisa.org/gis_transit

(Source: Washington Post & AASHTO)

Supporters garnered the necessary two-thirds support to push through the stop-gap measure intended to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through September 30, the end of the fiscal year. The vote was 363 to 68.

The government estimates the account could run dry within several weeks without an emergency infusion of cash. The fund provides states with about $40 billion per year in transportation construction funding.

Trust fund disbursements are separate from the billions in economic stimulus money dedicated to states for transportation projects.

The Senate is expected to act on the temporary trust fund measure before the end of next week, and lawmakers plan to address a longer-term remedy after their August recess.

During the 40 minutes of House floor debate this afternoon, supporters argued the Highway Trust Fund needs additional funding immediately to prevent the payment slowdown to states, which could cause states to then curtail their road construction activity. Opponents contended the transfer is not paid for by any new revenue source and that Congress needs to stop bailing out the Highway Trust Fund. Congress sent the fund an additional $8 billion last September when a similar funding crisis developed due to lower revenue in the trust fund than had been projected as a result of Americans driving less during the economic recession and thus paying less in gasoline and diesel taxes as well as in heavy-truck taxes.

The House bill approved today contains no extension of authority for federal surface transportation programs, which is scheduled to lapse Sept. 30 at the end of this fiscal year. While House leaders have been pushing a full six-year authorization measure, the Obama administration and the Senate have favored a temporary extension of current authority for 18 months. Today’s House vote means Congress will have to face the authorization question in September after returning from the summer recess.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-MN, said during today’s floor debate that he regrets Congress must take action to shore up the Highway Trust Fund. But the drop in vehicle miles traveled experienced over the past year and a half has left the trust fund short of its revenue projections, necessitating an infusion, he said. Oberstar’s six-year, $500 billion authorization measure has been approved by subcommittee but not been brought up before the full T&I Committee yet because there is no agreement with the House Ways and Means Committee on how to raise the extra revenue needed to pay for it.

Click here to read the entire article.

Join ITS America and AAAE at the Intersection of Intelligent Transportation Systems and Aviation!

Airport land side management has increasingly become a focus for airport managers and transportation management center mangers alike.  More and more, airport managers are turning to Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) to provide solutions to the challenges they face, such as managing parking, commercial vehicle movement, incident management, security and much more.  This conference is co-sponsored by the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) and will showcase the top industry leaders in the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) industry who are currently providing solutions for airport landside management.  The conference will also feature airport personnel sharing real-world results, lessons learned, success stories bad reasons why they have chosen ITS products and services as their airport land side management solution.

Details of Sessions:

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Keynote Address: Michael Huerta, President, MPH Consulting “Transportation Challenges Presented by the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, UT” – confirmed

Session 1:

“ITS Options in Airport Ground Traffic Management and Revenue Generation”

Moderator: Gary Duncan, Chief Technology Officer for Econolite (EGI) – confirmed

Panelists:

1. Dave Kinnecom, Utah DOT – confirmed

2. FAA –confirmed participation, speaker TBD

3. Stan Doepke, Eagle Integrated – confirmed

This session will focus on the challenges that airport landside managers face in effectively managing and tracking traffic flow in and out of the airport environment.  Discussion topics will include freeway and arterial signage, real time travel information, and other traffic management tools.  In addition to managing the traffic flow, airport managers have significant fiscal responsibility and this session will address those responsibilities and provide real examples of using dwell times, trip charges and airport usage fees from taxis and shuttles to provide a revenue stream for airport operations.

Session 2:

“ITS Options in Airport Ground Incident Management”

Moderator: Irv Rosenblum, Telegra – confirmed

Panelists:

1. Dan Lukasik, Delcan – confirmed

2.Dave Korzep, Salt Lake City Department of Airports –confirmed

3. Ron Sherwood, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – confirmed

This session will focus on the use of technologies to help airports managers address security issues related to curbside management of transportation taxis, limousines and buses. Additionally, panelists will address management of vehicle accidents on airport property, management of pedestrian flow, park and wait lots, and other security challenges.

Session 3:

“ITS Solutions to Airport Parking Conundrums”

Moderator: Mike Drow, Standard Parking – confirmed

Panelists:

1. Rick Warner, President of ParkingCarma – confirmed

2. Michael Howarth, Intelligent Devices – confirmed

3. Neal Heaton, BWI – confirmed

4. Jon Tarleton, Quixote – confirmed

Passenger parking is the largest source of revenue for most airports and proper management is of increasing importance.  The session will focus on ITS products and services and how they relate to “Parking Guidance Systems,” “Parking Reservation Systems,” and “Vehicle Locator Systems.”  Intelligent Transportation System technologies are now being used in some locations to take the guess work out of finding open parking lots and spaces, pick up points and drop off points for specific airlines. Discover some of the leading edge technology implementations that are working at airports today.

Session 4:

“Importance of ITS Standards in ITS Implementation at Airports”

Moderator: Casey Crabtree, Daktronics – confirmed

Panelists:

1. Rod MacKenzie, ITS America – confirmed

2. Bob Rausch, TransCore –confirmed

3. Marshall Elizer, Gresham Smith & Partners – confirmed

4. Tom Wunk, Sheidt & Bachmann – confirmed

ITS standards define an architecture of interrelated systems that work together to deliver advanced transportation technology and services across different agencies, modes and users. Most standards arevoluntary, consensus-based, and open, meaning that their use is not mandated by law,  they are consensus-based (meaning that a published standard has attained general agreement through cooperation and compromise in a process that is inclusive of all interested parties), and they are not proprietary and are available for anyone to use. The use of standards for airport ITS encourages growth of these services by minimizing development costs, increasing compatibility and interoperability, and increasing buyer and seller confidence in products. A standards-based approach to airport ITS integration helps to facilitate the exchange of transportation data as well as more easily accommodate future equipment replacements, systems upgrades, and system expansions. This session will explore standards available to ITS applications in the airport environment and how they are being used in airport ITS systems development today.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Session 5:

“Airport Management Roundtable”

Moderator: Mark Ozenick, Thomas Group – confirmed

Panelists:

1. Ron Sherwood, Atlanta – confirmed

2. Dave Korzep, SLC – confirmed

3. William Flowers, DFW – confirmed

4. Neal Heaton, BWI – confirmed

This exciting round table discussion will feature key airport executives discussing topics from the previous day as well as other important issues facing them and their thoughts about how technology has or might help them address these issues.  Real world examples from those who have been there!

Technical Tour of Utah Department of Transportation Traffic Management Center “ITS Implementation”

Registration

• ITS America / AAAE Members: $525
• Non-members: $575