Dates: June 29 – July 16, 2012

Image courtesy: Planetsave.com via Google Images

This program presents an introduction to transportation engineering applications in the European context. The course will build on earlier courses with a special emphasis on differences between U.S. and Dutch standards. The curriculum will feature material that provides a contrast between engineering principles and policies focusing on the standards presented in both the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices and the Highway Capacity Manual. Furthermore, specific emphases on engineering principles and practice will be explored through field trips and in guest lectures both while abroad and in Portland. Students completing this course will have a greater understanding of the contrast in policies from the Portland area with communities in the Netherlands.

The location of the course was strategically identified to share the experience with an established program from Northeastern University led by Dr. Furth. The concept for this program is to join the Northeastern students for the first two weeks, returning back to Portland after that period to complete the course in Portland. During the two weeks at TU Delft, there will be a field trip every day within the City and to surrounding communities (including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, and others). Delft is centrally located and provides an ability to represent transportation designs that follow the national policies. The lectures are a combination of guest speakers from local practitioners and others that Dr. Furth has enlisted in the program in the past.

Program Focus

Course Information

• CE 410/510: Transportation Engineering Applications – 4 credits – (6 credits are also available as an option with additional coursework after returning to Portland)

Draft Itinerary

• This program will include at least one pre-departure course meeting and a number of on campus course meetings after the group returns to Portland.
• International Component: June 29 – July 16, 2012
• For students opting for 6 credits, additional coursework (by arrangement with the instructor) and a substantial written report are required after returning from the Netherlands.

Students will spend two weeks at the Technical University of Delft developing an understanding of the transportation systems of the cities in the Netherlands, including Delft, Rotterdam, Haarlem, Den Haag, and others. A typical day will include a guest lecture from a practitioner in the local community followed by a field trip. Lunch will be time to explore the local community and students will be asked to document their experiences by collecting information (digital pictures and notes) throughout the day. The context of each community will offer opportunities for the lecturers (Furth and Koonce) to offer perspectives from their communities (Boston and Portland), contrasting the planning, engineering, and policy issues associated with the local communities. This combination will allow students to gain an understanding of transportation concepts that have been implemented to address specific challenges.

Click here to learn more and to apply.

The USDOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently published these two documents (Dec 2011) and I thought some of you might find it useful.

NHTSA – National Dist. Driving Telephone Survey – Tt407

NHTSA – Driver Electronic Device Use in 2010 – 811517

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), has published the Pocket Guide to Transportation 2012 – a quick reference guide to significant transportation data. The 15th annual Pocket Guide covers data on transportation safety, state of good repair, system use and performance, economic competitiveness, and environmental sustainability. To order a copy of the Pocket Guide to Transportation 2012, go to the BTS website publications page. This free guide can also be obtained by contacting BTS by phone at 800-853-1351, by e-mail at ritainfo@dot.gov or by mail sent to Product Orders, RITA/Bureau of Transportation Statistics, USDOT, 1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E., Room E36-109, Washington, D.C. 20590. Non-orders contact Dave Smallen: 202-366-5568.

BTS – Pocket Guide 2012

The Research and Innovative Technology Administration seeks several Community Planners to join the  Transportation Policy and Planning Technical Center (RVT-20) of the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center).  Located in Kendall Square area in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Volpe Center plays a unique role in looking across the transportation enterprise by applying its multi-disciplinary capabilities to anticipate future transportation issues and challenges across all modes of transportation. These positions are based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

We seek several talented Community Planners interested in joining our consulting teams to develop, plan, and implement guidance, tools, strategies, and programs related to transportation planning, environmental stewardship, realty, and transportation research. As part of our teams, you will help increase the level of expertise of transportation professionals within our clients’ organizations; support better-prepared transportation plans that serve state and local government needs; and advance professional capacity building initiatives across Federal and state agencies. You will work with several teams contributing to major projects, and lead other smaller projects.

These are great opportunities for professionals with varying levels of experience in transportation planning, professional capacity building, and strategic and community and stakeholder involvement. You must have superb analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills, and be able to excel in an entrepreneurial, fast -paced environment.Transcripts are required (see details in “How to Apply” tab in the official announcement). You will be required to submit writing samples if you are invited to interview.

Given our ongoing needs, we will review applications and refer top candidates for interviews multiple times during the open period of the announcement. The first application review will be January 23, 2012. Thereafter, we will do monthly reviews with the final one occurring after the application deadline, Wednesday, April 11, 2012.

The Community Planner GS-0020-11-12 (Term Appointments) announcement is posted to the Public on www.usajobs.opm.gov: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/306978700.

(Source: FAA)

This nice infograph shows the economic impact of aviation.. What a great way to tell the story!

Image Courtesy: USDOT FAA - Click image to learn more

Cross-posted on YPTVoice, the blog for Young Professional in Transportation (YPT)

TRB Annual Meeting Tips from Ananda Palanisamy on Vimeo.

YPT Voice is pleased to present the sixth in a 10-week series of blog posts to introduce YPTers to the TRB Annual Meeting (#TRBAM) and to help them prepare for the annual conference in January 2012.  A complete summary of YPT-recommended TRBAM events will be available before and during the conference.

Dear YPT-ers,

When I was approached by YPT to share some tips for fellow-YPT-ers in terms of maximizing their benefit while attending the upcoming TRB, I chose to take a different route and opt for a video blog post rather than the the usual text-laden post. Thanks to my wife Chithra Jeyaram (@RealTalkies), a skilled film-maker from Univ. of Texas, I managed to get a quick video post done. Let us know what you think.

Oh, please remember this video only offers some random thoughts and by no means should be considered as a comprehensive tool when you are preparing to attend the TRB Annual Meeting. One item left out in this above video is the possibility of running into poor internet connectivity. Though the lobby at conference hotels offer free internet, it is often slow and not secure. The situation gets even worse when you are holed up in many of the conference rooms during the event. So my advice is to you, if possible, is to bring an aircard that can help you connect to the internet when you are attending the event.

Also, one more item I forgot to mention in the above video is the busy lunch/dinner times in the nearby eateries around the conference hotels, esp. around Marriott and Omni Shoreham. Yes! Trust me it gets very busy and sometimes meetings attendees have to skip lunch in order to make it to the next session on time. So, do not hesitate to hop on the metro Redline and get to the adjacent stops – Cleveland Park & Dupont Circle are located on either side of the Woodley Park/Zoo Metro station. There are plenty of eateries around Dupont Circle and Cleveland Park stations and can help save you considerable amount of time, which you otherwise would have spent waiting in line at the eateries around Woodley Park station.

Finally, do check out the TRB Facebook page and follow the daily updates shared on the feed wall. If you find anything interesting or worth sharing, please do not hesitate to share with fellow attendees.

Looking forward to meeting you all at the YPT Reception.

Previous posts in the #TRBAM  2012 series:

• TRB Annual Meeting Session Spotlight – Choose Your Acronym: Credentials for Transportation Professionals
• TRB Annual Meeting Session Spotlight: Young Members Council Meeting
• My First TRB Annual Meeting: Some Tips for Newbs
• Looking Back: TRBAM 2011
• TRB Annual Meeting: What you need to know

(Source: NPR Planet Money)

I was listening to this NPR podcast on the way to work and felt compelled to share with my readers.. Amazing Fact: Pretty much every major full service American airline has filed for Bankruptcy in the past two decades and one of them (U.S. Airways) actually declared bankruptcy twice in three years.  “The industry in aggregate has lost about $60 billion over the 32 years since deregulation, ” says Severin Borenstein, an economist at the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkley. Meh!

This left me shaking my head in disbelief! Aren’t we the country full of smart MBA grads from top business schools like Harvard, Yale, et al. running some of these businesses? Anyways, if you got a couple of extra minutes, do check out Severin Borenstein’s detailed paper that goes into great details explaining how the airline business is not for the weakest of heart.

On a related note, Boston Globe had an interesting article back in November 2011 that is somewhat optimistic about the future of aviation. Worth a read while you are still suspended in disbelief after reading/listening to the above NPR material.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), Research and Innovative Technology Administration will be hosting a free public webinar on December 9, 2011 to discuss plans for a certificate management entity (CME) to support a trusted and secure connected vehicle environment.  During the webinar U.S. DOT will be seeking input on a set of high-level, alternative organizational structures for the CME.

Webinar Details:

The webinar will take place December 9, 2011 from 1:00 – 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. During the call the U.S. DOT will present results from an early analysis of organizational models. This analysis will describe the functions that need to be performed by a CME; identify key constraints as well as institutional and policy requirements; model how those functions may be organized; and present a high level assessment of these organizational models against a set of evaluation criteria.

Draft documentation of the analysis will be posted for comment at the following location on or before December 9, 2011 at www.its.dot.gov. Interested stakeholders are asked to submit comments about the analysis by the end of the day on December 14, 2011. Written comments may be submitted to:  itscme@dot.gov. This is not an official docket. Stakeholders will have additional opportunities to provide input in to this project at later stages, including via a public meeting planned for March 2012.

Background:

Through 2014, the primary focus of the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Joint Program Office is a research initiative focused on developing rapid and secure wireless communications and trusted data exchanges among vehicles, roadside infrastructure, and passengers’ personal communications devices.  This innovative use of wireless communications provides the  foundation for a connected environment for transportation that is intended to enable a multitude of applications to enhance surface transportation safety, mobility, and environmental performance.

In the end state, users need to have assurance that the system offers trusted and secure communications. That is the fundamental purpose of the Certificate Management System (or Certificate Management Entities): to ensure that participants and their vehicles receive digital certificates that allow them to be trusted actors within the system and to access meaningful and trusted data that is generated by others. If trust in the communications breaks down, then trust in the overall connected environment erodes and users become reluctant to use it or rely on it. Trust can be violated in several ways:

• Security of communications: If communications are not considered secure, users will be less likely to trust the data that is generated by or accessible through the system.
• Private data is compromised: If technical and policy solutions are not in place to protect private data or users perceive that their private data could be made available to unauthorized third parties without their awareness and consent, they will not participate.
• Corrupt or inaccurate data: If the data  can be altered or corrupted through malicious misbehavior by hackers, it may cause more safety problems than fixes.

The current study aims to analyze alternative operational models that describe potential organizational designs, institutional capabilities, and policies of a Certificate Management System. It also assesses the needs for operation, maintenance, and system enhancements over time. (This study is an institutional analysis only, not a technical analysis, and it is not intended to develop a system design.)

Persons planning to attend the webinar should use the following link:  http://www.itsa.org/policywebinarregistration  by December 5, 2011.  For additional questions, please contact Adam Hopps at (202) 680-0091.