(Sources contributing to this hybrid report: Marketwatch; Associated Press Washington Post; &  CNN)

President Barack Obama signed an order on Friday to impose the special punitive tariffs for three years, the White House announced.   The action is the first major trade enforcement action of his presidency and comes less than two weeks before a high-profile summit of the leaders of the Group of 20 nations, including China.

It is the first time the U.S. government has imposed special “safeguard” provisions to protect a U.S. industry from Chinese competition..

“The president decided to remedy the clear disruption to the U.S. tire industry based on the facts and the law in this case,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

Obama had until this coming Thursday to accept, reject or modify a U.S. International Trade Commission ruling that a rising tide of Chinese tires into the U.S. hurts American producers. The United Steelworkers blames the increase for the loss of thousands of American jobs.

The federal trade panel recommended a 55 percent tariff in the first year, 45 percent in the second year and 35 percent in the third year. Obama settled on 35 percent the first year, 30 percent in the second and 25 percent in the third, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. The tariff would be on top of the current 4% tariff. The tariffs will take effect in 15 days.

U.S. imports of Chinese tires have risen from 14.6 million in 2004 to 46 million last year, accounting for about one-sixth of the U.S. market. Four U.S. tire plants have closed in the past two years, and more than 5,000 workers have lost their jobs.

President Barack Obama’s decision to impose trade penalties on Chinese tires has infuriated Beijing at a time when the U.S. badly needs Chinese help on climate change, nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea and the global economy.

The decision comes as U.S. officials are working with the Chinese and other nations to plan an economic summit in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24-25 of the 20 leading rich and developing nations. China will be a major presence at the meeting, and the United States will be eager to show it supports free trade.

Governments around the world have suggested the U.S. talks tough against protectionism only when its own industries are not threatened. U.S. rhetoric on free trade also has been questioned because of a “Buy American” provision in the U.S. stimulus package.

China condemned the White House’s announcement late Friday as protectionist and said it violated global trade rules. At home, the punitive tariffs on all car and light truck tires coming into the U.S. from China may placate union supporters who are important to the president’s health care push.

Chen Deming, China’s minister of commerce, said the penalties would hurt relations with the U.S. A ministry statement said Obama had “compromised to the political pressure of the U.S. domestic trade protectionism.”  “The Chinese government will continue to uphold the legitimate interests of China’s domestic industry and has the right to take corresponding measures,” Deming said.

For the Chinese government, the tire dispute threatens an economic relationship crucial to China’s economic growth. There was speculation before the decision that new tariffs could produce public pressure on Beijing to retaliate, potentially leading to a trade war.  Chinese leaders have in the past expressed displeasure about a possible tire tariff.

“We hope the U.S. government will refrain from taking action, for the long-term healthy and stable development of U.S.-Chinese relations,” Fu Ziying, China’s vice commerce minister, told local media in August.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement early Saturday that the move violated WTO rules. “China strongly opposes this serious act of trade protectionism by the U.S,” the ministry said, according to the Associated Press.

China agreed to the provision while negotiating to join the World Trade Organization, but until Friday the general “safeguard” provisions of the law had never been invoked.  Critics warned that if the general “safeguard,” which expires in four years, was never used to protect American workers from Chinese imports, then political support for free trade would be eroded.

“Since China joined the WTO, American workers have not been assured that the government would defend them against unfair trade,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said.  The tariff, which will take effect Sept. 26, represents the first such case under the law for Obama, and his decision has been highly anticipated.

During the campaign, he had pledged to “crack down on China” and “work to ensure that China is no longer given a free pass to undermine U.S. workers,” as his Web site put it.

The tariff’s detractors said higher tire prices could lead some consumers to wait longer before replacing tires, creating a safety risk. Moreover, they said, the tariff won’t result in more jobs. Tires will simply come in from other low-cost countries, they say, and U.S. manufacturers, keep making their cheaper tires in China.

“U.S. tire manufacturers years ago decided to move production of low end tires off-shore,” said David Spooner, a lawyer representing the Chinese tire industry. “Frankly, a temporary tariff is not going to get them to change their business plan.”

Click here to read the entire article.

Transit Oriented Development Panel

Hosted by Womens Transportation Seminar (WTS), Washington DC Chpater

September 15, 2009

This panel will focus on recent and anticipated changes in national and state-level legislation and policies that facilitate stronger transportation-land use coordination in the planning process, with a focus on encouraging transit oriented development.

Featured Speakers:

Amy Inman,  Senior Planner, Department of Rail and Public Transportation

Christopher Patusky, Director, Office of Real Estate, Maryland Department of Transportation

Mariia Zimmerman, Vice President for Policy, Reconnecting America

Serving as Moderator for the Panel:

Susan Borinsky, FTA Associate Administrator for Planning and the Environment

WHEN:

WHERE:

METRO:

PROGRAM FEES:

$30 WTS Members ; $60 Non-Members; $15 Students

RSVP:

We urge you to RSVP now and reserve your seat.* Seating is limited, and priority will be given to WTS members.

(Source: Mail Online, UK)

Today the Daily Mail demands action against the menace of cowboy wheel clampers.

The industry rakes in almost £1billion a year from motorists parked on private land and has been described as ‘legalised mugging’.

Clampers routinely charge £500 penalties, tow away cars, prey on the vulnerable and are often paid on commission, encouraging them to immobilise as many vehicles as possible. But despite the extraordinary power they wield, those working on private land in England and Wales are completely unregulated and their victims have no right of independent appeal.

The Mail, supported by motoring groups and MPs, is calling for an end to this unfairness by bringing the law for parking on private land in line with that for public roads, including the introduction of a maximum limit for penalties.

Image Courtesy: Mail Online - Suggested legislative changes to curb the growing clamping problem

Experts say the major flaw in the current regime is that the company which issued the penalty in the first place is allowed to act as judge and jury in the case – unlike on public roads, where an appeal can be made to an independent tribunal.

The clampers can charge whatever they like and are even allowed to exploit the Government’s supposedly confidential DVLA database to find drivers’ names and addresses at £2.50 a time.

It has led to clamping becoming a boom industry. Between March 2008 and April 2009, the number of licensed clampers rocketed by a staggering 58 per cent – from 1,200 to 1,900.

Instead, when ministers publish their clamping Bill later this year, the Mail calls for the legislation to include:

• An independent tribunal to hear appeals by motorists who are clamped on private land.

• Maximum penalties for infringements on private land to be brought in line with those on private road.

• A ban on towing away a vehicle unless it is posing a danger, blocking access or has been abandoned.

• Prohibition of offering incentives to private clampers, based on how many motorists are issued with penalty charges.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Green Car Congress)

Daimler AG and leading energy companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Berlin, with the participation of the German Minister of Transport, Wolfgang Tiefensee, to evaluate and expand the setup of a hydrogen infrastructure in Germany to support the series production of fuel cell electric vehicles. In addition to Daimler, partners in the “H2 Mobility” initiative include EnBW, Linde, OMV, Shell, Total, Vattenfall and the NOW GmbH (National Organization Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology). The project is open for other interested partners.

The H2 Mobility launch comes one day after leading automakers signed a Letter of Understanding regarding the commercialization and series production of fuel cell electric vehicles from 2015 onward. Noting the importance of a hydrogen infrastructure with sufficient density, the automakers—Daimler, Ford, GM/Opel, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Renault Nissan Alliance, and Toyota—in that LoU strongly supported building up a hydrogen infrastructure in Europe, with Germany as regional starting point, among other global starting points. (Earlier post.)

The H2 Mobility partners noted that significant progress has been made in Germany in recent years with the development of hydrogen based technologies in the mobility sector, marking the country as a potential start-market in the context of a broader European perspective.

The German government is also developing a plan to provide financial incentives starting in 2012 to support the production and sale of 100,000 electric cars annually. The plan envisages around one million electric cars on German roads by 2020. (Earlier post.)

Germany already has a leading position regarding the hydrogen infrastructure in Europe, with initial hydrogen centers having been established in urban agglomerations such as Berlin and Hamburg. Seven of the current thirty hydrogen fueling stations in Germany are integrated into public gas stations. Already five to ten hydrogen fuelling stations can secure a first supply in a major city. The partnership envisions connecting those urban agglomerations with supply corridors on main arteries to establish the essential prerequisites for nationwide development.

A fleet of 40 hydrogen vehicles is part of the Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) in Berlin and Hamburg. The CEP is aiming to demonstrate the suitability for daily use of hydrogen as an alternative fuel for vehicles and to test the infrastructure of hydrogen fuelling stations.

Since 1994, Daimler has invested more than €1 billion (US$1.5 billion) in the development of fuel cells. With more than 100 test vehicles and more than 4.5 million kilometers of test runs in total, Daimler has one of the largest fuel-cell vehicle fleets of passenger cars and buses worldwide.

Click here to read the entire article.

TransportGooru Musings: Germany is not the only European nation that has showed some love for hydrogen vehicles.   Norway is the other frontrunner in the hydrogen fuel economy and has made noteworthy investments (learn about Norway’s initiatives in building a hydrogen refueling infrastructure here).  As more nations are exploring the possibilities of hydrogen fuel vehicles in the future, the United States seem to think the other way.   The funding for hydrogen fuel vehicles has been cut down significantly in past years and that has put the program on life support.

If I wear my “forecaster” hat for a minute, I see in the near future a big jump in the number of electric hybrid vehicles flooding the market.   The long range perspective is a bit more of a mix – both hydrogen and electric vehicles equally mixed.  Now, this short term projection is causing a bit of a concern for some due to the fact that the current battery technology is not the best to sustain our energy needs for uninterrupted transportation. Some of them battery research is evolving  in directions that can eat up some of teh precious mineral reserves.  For example, the Lithium reserves in Bolivia (supposedly the largest in the world) would become the equivalent of today’s oil and the battery manufacturers might inadvertantly create a new monster in their quest for batteries that can hold charger for an extended period of time.  We do not want to create another OPEC that meddles with the price of our minerals market.   I read somewhere that China has already banned the export of some precious minerals which are used in battery reserach and has clearly shown its interest in siphoning off these resources for its domestic markets.  At some point in time we may need an alternative to our current Lithium ion battery tech and the only other tech that is promisingly clean and relatively cheaper is hydrogen.  That said, we can continue to argue about the economics and cost/benefits of H2 Vehicle vs Electric vehicle tech, but such arguments become pointless when we consider the cost of social problems (such as war/fight over natural resources, etc).   To avoid getting trapped into another mono-fuel model (i.e., electric or electric-hybrid, which anyway doesn’t fully fit into his mono-fuel model) like we are locked in now, the Government of United States should continue to invest in developing a viable hydrogen fuel technology that can equally compete with electric or electric-hybrid vehicles in terms of afforadability and efficiency.

(Source: CNN)

We have all heard numerous stories about the bad treatment meted out to passengers by the airline staff and airline managements around the country. Among many such stories, one recent incident got a lot of scrutiny and prompted Government action.   On August 8, Continent ExpressJet 21816 enroute to Minneapolis from Houston,  with 47 passengers onboard was left waiting for clearance overnight on a tarmac in Rochester, Minnesota.

As the hours — going on six of them — passed, he said the air in the ExpressJet for Continental Airlines cabin grew rank. The two babies on board cried. The toilet filled and stopped flushing. No food was served and the puddle-jumper seats made sleep, for him, impossible. All the while, the airport was visible from the plane.

The much-publicized story of Flight 2816, diverted to Rochester because of bad weather while en route to Minneapolis from Houston, Texas, has brought to the forefront a growing demand to institute passenger rights.

Advocacy groups are fielding calls, gathering momentum and preparing for a September 22 hearing in Washington. One organization recently bought cable television ad time hoping to reach President Obama on his vacation and earn his support, just as a bill to protect fliers from such incidents heads to the Senate floor.

Since the Rochester incident, there have been other tarmac strandings. Passengers on a Sun Country Airlines flight were trapped for about six hours on August 21 while at JFK International Airport in New York. That prompted the airline’s CEO to announce last week a four-hour maximum deadline for tarmac sittings, Minnesota’s Star Tribune reported. The first “massive tarmac stranding” to spark outcries and stir up calls for legislation came in January 1999, said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition. That was when about 3,500 passengers were trapped during a snowstorm for up to 13 hours on Michigan’s Detroit Metro Airport tarmacs, he said.

The 2007 Valentine’s Day crisis involving JetBlue flights, which included strandings of up to 10 hours at JFK International, in Mitchell’s opinion eventually cost the then-CEO his job.  A couple of months before that mess, Kate Hanni was one of the passengers caught up in a December 2006 storm fallout in Texas that left her and her family on an Austin, Texas, tarmac for more than nine hours.

“People miss funerals, weddings, cruise ships, business meetings — it has an impact on their lives,” said Hanni, whose outrage about that air travel experience pushed her create FlyersRights.org.

“And it’s not just a customer service issue,” she continued, mentioning overflowing toilets and people with diabetes or other medical conditions. “It’s about safety, dignity and well-being.”

In late July, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee passed the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, which includes the Airline Passengers Bill of Rights, first written in 2007 by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-California, and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. The FAA reauthorization bill will next move to the Senate for consideration.

Calling attention to the frustrations of flying is what Hanni, 49, is all about. If someone phones while trapped on a tarmac, she’ll start ringing the airline and airport managers, demanding help. If the response she gets is insufficient, she threatens and is poised to call media. Since the Rochester incident earlier this month, she said she’s been interviewed more than 50 times.

In June, 278 airplanes sat on tarmacs for more than three hours, according to a consumer report released by the DOT. The department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that 42 of the June flights sat on tarmacs for four hours or more.

Click here to read the entire article.

TransportGooru Musings: If you are one of the poor souls who was stuck for hours inside a metal tube, sign the petition and join teh crusaders in the fight for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights (via flyersrights.org) .
http://www.petitiononline.com/airline/petition.html

(Sources contributing to this hybrid report:  The Sun-UK, Metro – UK, & Gizmodo)

Image courtesy: Croatiantimes via Austrian Times - Buttered Bridge

Who would have thought about it! Some of our clever Chinese friends have figured out the ideal lubricant for (stopping trespassers from climbing up to) suicide hotspots like giant steel bridges.

U.K.’s Metro (via Gizmodo) has a story that captures this unique suicide prevention strategy that also doubles as traffic control measure, preventing traffic jams caused by rubber-necking motorists who slow down to witness the suicide drama on the bridge.

Chinese workers have covered a giant steel bridge with butter because officials are fed up with traffic jams caused by people who slow down to watch suicide victims leaping to their death.

Government officials in Guangzhou in south east China ordered workers to smear butter on all of the climbable surfaces of the 1,000 foot long steel bridge.

Government spokesman Shiu Liang said: “We tried employing guards at both ends but that didn’t work – and we put up special fences and notices asking people not to commit suicide here. None of it worked – and so now we have put butter over the bridge and it has worked very well. Nobody can get up there and anybody who tries either falls”

Another British tabloid, The Sun, has the following coverage on tihs subject.  Bridge guard Wong Man said: “The butter makes the bars and frames slippery and hard to climb on to, and we can easily catch them.”

In one month alone eight people committed suicide on the bridge and numerous others climbed up threatening to jump before changing their minds.

The guard added: “Each time somebody threatens to commit suicide to get media attention or sympathy over personal problems we end up with several hours of tailbacks and there were lots of complaints.

“Since we put up the butter there have been no problems with these attention seekers.”

TransportGooru Musings: I suspect this is the bridge (going by the description and the picture of the bridge posted on The Sun’s website) that recently was the site a man pushing (indeed to save him) a suicidal case when he sat on top of the bridge and threatened to jump for hours.  Watch this sensational video below to see what transpired on the bridge.

If you are wondering what can the impact of such a suicide threat on trafffic, I’d like to bring to you attention this story the story of a suicidal man threatening to jump from top of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge (WWB), causing a huge traffic jam that pretty much shut down the city for hours.

(Sources: Detroit News, Detroit Free press)

After pulling over a reportedly stolen car early Wednesday morning, police discovered that the driver, Renee Lashon Beavers, 33, of Detroit, had been issued 45 license suspensions from the Michigan Secretary of State.

Image Courtesy: Detroit Free Press - Photo of Renee Lashon Beavers

“Actually, she has never had a driver’s license from us,” said SOS spokesman Fred Woodhams. “She definitely has a record with us, but we show that she’s never had a license.”

Renee Lashon Beavers had an open 24-ounce container of cold beer on her lap when a Ferndale police officer spotted the stolen car eastbound on 8 Mile near Livernois just after midnight, Lt. William Wilson said today.

She told investigators she bought the green 1999 Dodge Stratus from another woman at a shelter in Adrian for $1,000. And she took it anyway after the woman demanded another $400, she told police, Wilson said.

Beavers’ record with the SOS stretches back to 1999 and has been cited at least 45 times over the last 10 years in Highland Park, Southfield and Detroit for a wide range of traffic violations —  driving under the influence of liquor, driving without license or insurance, failure to use seat belts, careless driving, failure to obey a traffic device, violation of child restraint laws and more — but was never was arrested until this week, according to a Michigan Secretary of State spokesman.

Police plan to charge her with driving with a suspended license and with an open container of alcohol in a vehicle.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Sources contributing to this hybrid report:  BBC, Rediff, & Economic Times)

A group of students travelling without tickets in an air-conditioned railway coach in the northern Indian state of Bihar were recently asked by the ticket examiner to vacate their seats.

Image Courtesy: haywards_pk@rediffmail.com via Panoramio.com

Nothing unusual about that, but, in this case, the students took umbrage, and set four coaches on fire.

Panic-stricken passengers on the train travelling between the Indian capital, Delhi, and Rajgir in Bihar, ran out with their bags at Bihta station while the police and railway security looked on helplessly.

Railway authorities totted up the losses: each air-conditioned coach costs eight million rupees ($161,000; £98,000) to manufacture, and the losses from the Bihar incident cost the railways nearly $650,000.

The Economic Times reports that students’ grouse was that one of them had been beaten up by members of the Railway Protection Force when he refused to vacate the AC coach for which he did not have a ticket! The TV footage showed uninjured students proudly proclaiming their ‘achievement’ of setting fire to the train.

“Such things happen” was the reaction of Union railway minister Mamata Banerjee who had stated that no action would be taken against those who had set a train ablaze when it did not stop at their home town in Bihar a few weeks ago. The latest incident where a train was set on fire by students who were not allowed to travel with-out tickets in the AC coaches only demonstrates how a casual ministerial attitude to the destruction of public property encourages more and more mindless mayhem.

The minister needs to pause and think whether her casual attitude to the repeated burning of railway coaches contradicts the oath she took to preserve and protect the nation, its people and property. Her commitment should at the least match that of the RPF personnel who insisted on August 18 that reserved coaches be occupied only by those who bought tickets.

The footage on TV channels of burning trains would have convinced not just Indians but foreigners that India is not a safe place to travel in. A few months ago, when the Australian tennis team refused to play a Davis Cup tie in Chennai in the wake of 26/11, the Union sports minister condemned Tennis Australia for what he perceived as a slur on India’s reputation.

More recently, the Union home minister bought a ticket for the World Badminton Championship in Hyderabad and sat in a non-VIP stand to make the point that the British team was not justified in pulling out of the tournament. “My blood boiled,” he was quoted as saying while reacting to the British team’s stand that it was unsafe to play in India.

Those passengers of the Shramjeevi Express who had to flee on August 18 would be justified in wondering why the Union home minister’s blood did not boil when he saw the footage of the burning train.

In Bihar, people routinely hop on to trains from such illegal “halts” where trains are forced to stop.

Last October, a mob burnt down two air-conditioned coaches of an express train connecting Bhagalpur with New Delhi at Barh railway station.

But why do people in Bihar vent their ire on trains and set them on fire?

A senior police official, Neelmani, says people think authorities will take note of their grievances if they burn important public property like trains.

“When you target railways, you disrupt movement of trains for several hours and then your voice reaches the concerned authorities,” he said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is dismayed by the train burning spree in his state. “Railways are our lifeline and a government asset. I have asked my officials to go through station video footage and arrest the vandals,” he told the BBC.

The Danapur-Buxar rail section and Danapur-Mokama rail section witnessed five train burning incidents between June 1 to August 18. On the day the Shramjeevi train was burnt, a mob of students set fire to the Kiul Gaya passenger train at Lakhisarai railway station.

In first incident on June 1, students had torched four bogies of two trains at Khusrupur, 32 kilometres east of Patna after the railways withdrew a stop for the Shramjeevi Express there. On July 14 local people set ablaze an AC coach of the Kosi Express at Athamgola railway station.

Earlier this month, students protesting the murder of an owner of a private teaching institute ransacked the Lakhisarai railway station and disrupted the movement of trains.

In fact, trains are attacked in Bihar over every other issue.  Then there is the problem of illegal “halt stations” where trains are forced to stop by local people – there are more than 100 of them in the state, many with actual names: some are named after local politicians and one even after a former president.

And yet while rail travel is unsafe in Bihar, seven federal railway ministers have come from the state.

Click to continue reading the BBC article or the Economic Times Opinion piece.