Workshop Details

• August 25-26, 2010 – Detroit, MI, USA (9:00-4:30 local time)
• 
  
• September 1-2, 2010 – San Jose, CA, USA (9:00-4:30 local time)
• 
  
• September 29-30, 2010 – Washington, DC (9:00-4:30 local time, Location TBD)

Attend one of three FREE IntelliDrive workshops and inventors meetings at the U.S. Department of Transportation‘s (USDOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS-JPO), part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) will be hosting on IntelliDrive(SM) Systems Engineering User Needs to obtain stakeholder input for the definition of the core IntelliDrive System.

User needs identified during these workshops will be critical to the development of the new IntelliDrive Concept of Operations (ConOps).  The ConOps will describe the vision for how the IntelliDrive system will work, from the perspective of the user.

Each workshop, which is open to all interested transportation parties, will engage participants to identify their current vision for the IntelliDrive system.  These workshops will provide an overview of the IntelliDrive concept definition process and include break out groups to explore specific operational needs in detail as well as concluding sessions that summarizes the findings from the workshops.

The agenda features:

• Wednesday
• 9:00-4:30 local time
• Overview of the IntelliDrive concept definition process
• Thursday
• 9:00-4:30 local time
• Breakout Sessions to explore specific operation needs in detail & a summary of workshop findings

The sessions and your participation are essential in assisting the ITS-JPO to advance transportation safety. Persons who cannot attend can pass this along to an interested colleague.

To see the full agenda for the meetings please click here:  <http://www.its.dot.gov/press/2010/intellidrive_engineering.htm>

Registration and Venue:

This workshop is free of charge. Registration and venue information for:

• Detroit, MI <http://www.itsa.org/itsa/files/Detroit_Registration.doc>
• San Jose, CA <http://www.itsa.org/itsa/files/SanJose_Registration.doc>

Additional information will be available at: http://www.its.dot.gov/index.htm.

Please contact Brei Whitty at bwhitty@itsa.org or 202-721-4236 for any questions.

FREE Meeting for IntelliDrive Inventors

Inventors who have developed a software component, hardware device or other technology that can be used to help bring about safe, efficient, greener transportation should attend these first-ever IntelliDrive inventors meetings where innovators can meet others who might be looking for new technologies.

The meetings will be held at the end of the first day of the ITS-JPO Systems Engineering User Workshops in Detroit (August 25), San Jose (September 1) and Washington, DC (September 29).

Innovators can make a very brief presentation about their work and meet with potential users of their products.  Interested innovators who want to attend and/or make a presentation at the meeting should register in advance.

Please send an e-mail with the inventor’s name, company, product and contact information to Delores Colbert at Delores.colbert@DOT.gov in order to obtain a five minute presentation slot.  Presentations should be no more than three PowerPoint slides. Please use  “Inventors Meeting” and which location (Detroit, San Jose or Washington, DC) in the subject line.

The IntelliDrive Inventors meetings are being held To learn more about the meeting e-mail Mike Pina at Mike.pina@dot.gov

To learn more about ITS-JPO and the IntelliDrive program log on to www.its.dot.gov.

Make your hotel reservations:

Be sure to reserve your room under the room block “Intellidrive” in order to receive government rate!

Detroit

Doubletree Hotel Detroit/Dearborn

5801 Southfield Expressway

Detroit, MI 48228

313-336-3340

http://doubletree1.hilton.com/en_US/dt/hotel/DTTDBDT-Doubletree-Hotel-Dearborn-Michigan/index.do

San Jose

Doubletree Hotel San Jose

2050 Gateway Place

San Jose, CA 95110

408-453-4000

http://doubletree1.hilton.com/en_US/dt/hotel/JOSE-DT-Doubletree-Hotel-San-Jose-California/index.do

Washington DC – Hotel TBD

Please contact Brei Whitty at ITS America at bwhitty@itsa.org or 202-721-4236 for any questions related to registration for the user needs workshops or hotel accommodations.

* –  IntelliDrive is a service mark of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

(Source: The FastLane Blog)

Sec. Ray LaHood is leaving no stones unturned in his effort to fight the Distracted Driving epidemic.  I reported yesterday about his efforts to team-up with ESPN and State Farm, taking the STOP DISTRACTED DRIVING message on road to 19 cities.  It is better and better by the day! In his blog post today, he announced that USDOT is expanding this initiative to involve private employers from around the country.  Laudable effort!

In 2008, nearly 6,000 people in America died in crashes involving a distracted driver. It is a serious, life-threatening epidemic, and DOT cannot fight it alone.

One of the most important sources of support has been private employers. Businesses across the US have begun to adopt policies against distracted driving.

But many employers have not yet taken this crucial step to protect themselves and their staff. That’s why, as Drive Safely Work Week (October 4-8) approaches, the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) has prepared a free, web-based toolkit to help employers take the crucial next step.

Click here to read the entire blog post

Related articles by Zemanta

• Lobbyists Scrap Plans for Distracted Driving Coalition (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Lobbyists Try to Reframe Distracted Driving Issue (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)
• LaHood, Sparks Team Up Against Texting And Driving (techdailydose.nationaljournal.com)
• 86 Percent of Teens Have Driven While Distracted, According to AAA and Seventeen Magazine Survey (prnewswire.com)
• Survey: Most teens have driven while distracted (news.cnet.com)
• Employers Pay Attention to Distracted Driving (eon.businesswire.com)
• Network of Employers for Traffic Safety and U.S. Department of Transportation Team to Offer Free On-line Resource to Battle Distracted Driving and Improve Employee Safety (eon.businesswire.com)

(Source: Xinhua)

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has agreed to add Amsterdam‘s famous canal belt to the World Heritage List, the Dutch government said on Sunday.

The Amsterdam’s canal belt, completed in the 17th century, is unique in the world as an artwork of urban construction and architecture design. It is also an embodiment of Dutch “Golden Century,” a time when Amsterdam had a booming development in politics, economy and culture, said the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

Click here to read the entire article

P7SNF5Q4PPCT

Related articles by Zemanta

• UNESCO adds 21 new World Heritage sites (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Unesco to expand World Heritage List (globalnation.inquirer.net)
• World Heritage Sites Recognize the Best of Humanity (weuropetravel.suite101.com)
• Unesco Adds 21 Sites to World Heritage List (intransit.blogs.nytimes.com)
• UNESCO to decide on World Heritage Status for Amsterdam canal ring (gadling.com)
• World Heritage Sites Celebrate the Best (weuropetravel.suite101.com)
• Diving Into the History of Amsterdam’s Canals (intransit.blogs.nytimes.com)

(Source: via Transportation Research Board Weekly E-Newsletter)

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released a report that explores the components of plug-in electric vehicle infrastructure, challenges and opportunities related to the design and deployment of the infrastructure, and the potential benefits.

I enjoy mountain biking for the escapism it provides: Disappear into woods, race down single-track paths, lean through turns, crank uphill, all to the audio of an adjacent rushing stream. In one session, I can commune with nature, jack up my adrenaline and check off my daily exercise obligation.

THIS STORY

So I never expected to find myself straddling a mountain bike beneath a roaring interstate overpass in Seattle, a city with enviable proximity to miles of legitimate bike trails.

But here – beneath 12 lanes of Interstate 5, at Exit 168A – a Seattle area cycling club has turned a former hangout for vagrants and junkies into an urban mountain bike park, complete with short trails, jumps, drops, teeter-totters and other so-called “features” designed to satisfy a range of biking abilities.

The I-5 Colonnade is what mountain bikers call a “skills park,” which means that you’re never more than a few feet away from a balance-beam-like log formation or a foot-wide ladder bridge or a “staircase” with 18-inch steps – all features that mountain bikers use to hone balance, jumping and control maneuvers.

via Test your mountain-biking skills in this downtown Seattle park.

(Source: via Fast Company)

Image Courtesy: Bustler

Image Courtesy: Bustler

Image Courtesy: Bustler

At the first glimpse, it looks like an awkwardly shaped UFO.. Oh, but it is not! This is the futuristic bus stop proposed for the humble English town of Stoke-o-Trent, which wants to build a new city bus station.  Now, for those of us who are used to conjuring up images of a bus stop – the quintessential dingy floors, chaotic bus parking bays, bums hanging around the corner, etc..- this comes as a sweet shocker, this one by designer team Austin Smith Lord would create what is surely the world’s most futuristic bus depot.  These images show bus stops doesn’t have to be ugly and creepy – they can be functional while looking stunningly beautiful.

Austin Smith Lord was the people’s choice winner against stiff competition, which included Wilkinson Eyre and Zaha Hadid. (The winner was a plan by Grimshaw Architects.) Though the Austin Smith Lord design concept looks bizzare, it is moored to a brilliant logic: The main performance feature is a flowing layout that allows buses to enter and exit without ever having to back out of a parking space.

Loving the Brits for encouraging such outta the box concept design.

Click here to read more and to view more pictures.

(Source: via the DC Department of Transportation Tweet)

As part of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s ongoing efforts to advance arts in the District of Columbia, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) selected tattoo artist Steed Taylor to paint a road tattoo entitled “Daughters and Sons Knot”. Mr. Taylor’s design highlights Washington DC’s relationship with war and loss by honoring metropolitan area soldiers recently killed while serving their country. The names of those soldiers’ children will be incorporated in the design. The design is a complex Celtic Knot with 6 loops, a symbolic number for harmony and alluding to the interdependence within a community as well as a family. The road tattoo is approximately 60 feet wide and 300 feet long and made with the help of local volunteers and neighbors.

Installation Begins Saturday July 24 through Sunday July 25 from 7AM – 7PM each day. A dedication ceremony will be held Sunday at 1pm after which the design’s outline will be painted by the community.

A road tattoo? If roads are considered the skin of a community, then a road has a similar relationship to the public body as skin does to the individual body, allowing roads to be marked as people mark their skin for commemoration, communication or ritual. View an example of how a road tattoo is created.  Gallery plan b is coordinating the installation with Mr. Taylor. Images and additional information can be found on their website.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO HELP PAINT! Help make an incredibly meaningful public artwork for our city and be a part of DC history! For questions or more information e-mail Gallery Plan b, 202-234-2711, or Steed Taylor.

Note: The project will require traffic and parking restrictions along the 800 block of Vermont Avenue, NW, from Friday after rush hour to Sunday evening. Participants are encouraged to arrive via Metro (The McPherson Metro Station-Vermont Avenue exit). Limited on-street parking is nearby.

(Source:  via Irish Times, NY Times, Guardian, UK)

On July 18th, Germany shut down its busiest Autobahn for celebrating life – appropriately titled “Still-Life A40”.  The “Still Life” festival on Sunday in the Ruhr region in western Germany offered some surreal images and video footage of the autobahn without cars and overrun with pedestrians.

A 37-mile stretch of Germany’s famous highway system, between Dortmund and Duisburg, was closed to motor vehicles for the street festival and replaced by a line of 20,000 tables, reports The Guardian. Around three million people attended the event.

The ambitious aim of “Still Life” was to change negative attitudes in Germany towards the Ruhr, a region known for the last six decades as the capital of smokestacks, steel mills, and soot.

Some five million people live in this urban sprawl of cities, where Duisburg runs into Essen into Bochum and on to Dortmund. Yesterday more than two million locals – every second resident – flooded the A40 expressway for this highlight of the 2010 European Capital of Culture in Essen and its Ruhr sister cities.

For one day the Ruhr was connected up with 20,000 tables and as many mini-parties from bowling clubs alongside school groups, scout troops and theatre troupes. A friendly festival on the otherwise hostile, anonymous Autobahn.

For kilometre after kilometre, the party kept on rolling. Strangers salsa danced in the sun near Duisburg and 100 newly wed brides in their gleaming white wedding dresses handed out red roses near Essen.

Television pictures from the air showed crowds milling around on a road where cars usually race along at speeds of 160 kph (100 mph) or more.

One lane of the autobahn, which crosses North Rhine-Westphalia state, was kept free for skaters and cyclists – and more than one million revellers brought bicycles, including the state premier, Hannelore Kraft.

There are no general speed limits on Germany’s autobahns. Cars often speed up to 200km per hour (125mph) or more. In dense or dangerous areas, drivers are often required to slow down to 120 km per hour (75mph).

Transportgooru Musings:  I wonder what is the total fuel savings from this shut down?  Does anyone have any idea of potential savings resulting from this event (fuel savings, CO2 Emissions reduction, etc).  Oh well, beyond the economic/monetary benefits, it is always wonderful to see the community getting a chance to explore their own infrastructure by foot and bicycle.  I dream of a day our Washington,DC’s infamous beltway shuts down once a year for a festivity like this, bringing together communities for a get together that celebrates the diversity of the region.  It would be nothing but a MASSIVE  hit and I’m sure my fellow American citizens would definitely celebrate this.  After all, the Americans know how to throw a party, better than anyone on earth.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Autobahn Party: German Highway Shut Down For ‘Still Life’ (huffingtonpost.com)
• Life’s a picnic on Germany’s autobahn (guardian.co.uk)
• Autobahn Closed for Festival (wheels.blogs.nytimes.com)
• No autos on the autobahn: Germans party on highway (sfgate.com)
• No Autos on the Autobahn: Germans Party on Highway (abcnews.go.com)
• Two Million Join Party on German Autobahn (abcnews.go.com)
• German motorway hosts huge party (bbc.co.uk)
• Life in the Fast Lane: Two Million Join Party on German Autobahn (spiegel.de)
• No autos on the autobahn: Germans party on highway (usatoday.com)
• Jim: Coffeed Up: Still Life Festival In Germany Germans party on the autobahn – eTurboNews.com (eturbonews.com)
• German autobahn closed for mass 60km picnic (newslite.tv)
• No autos on the autobahn: Germans party on highway (ctv.ca)
• Germans hold 60 km-long party on motorway (reuters.com)

(Source: WSJ)

How do you deliver rail safety message to the General public in the age of twitter and YouTube.  Here is one such effort and it’s called Gap Rap (Warning: Geeky & Corny Video and Lyrics).

The music video, which premiered online Thursday, features LIRR Medical Director John Clarke — an army of fifth graders from Long Beach accompanying him as backup dancers — giving safety tips to railroad riders from Times Square, trains and LIRR stations. Here it is:

Dr. Clarke has a history of public-service raps.  He’s taken on psoriasis (“No one knows the cause or why is brings drama”) and H1N1 (“If you have it stay at home so you don’t spread none”).  The effectiveness of this effort is definitely worth watching in the months to come.

(Transportgooru’s Review: A full 10/10 for the thought to promote safety; 0/10 for the execution.  Summary: Doc, please spend a couple of $$ and find some pros can can really deliver and pls. stick to what you know best – medicine).

(Source: Cooper Hewitt Design Blog)

Found this interesting article about NYC’s newly designed bike rack called NYC Hoop on the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Design Museum’s blog.

“Residents with an eye for detail will notice that the city’s newly designed bike rack, the NYC Hoop, is starting to make its presence felt on the streets, as the city tests various securing methods to both sidewalks and subway grates. Designers Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve (of Denmark’s Bettlelab) won the 2008 CityRacks Design Competition, coordinated by theNYCDOT in collaboration with the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum,Google, and Transportation Alternatives.”  This beautiful, easy to use dye cast piece of work is not only easy on the eye but also comes with a very small foot print, making it very suitable for a space crammed uber-Urban environment like NYC.

Interestingly enough, the article posted by Laura Forde notes that the Big Apple is moving ahead with wide-spread deployment plans for the Hoop – nearly 3000 of them..  That must be good news for the ever growing biking population of New York, which has seen tremendous jump in biking recently.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Do-Good Design (tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Bill’s Blog over at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum (core77.com)
• Design for the Other 90% (design-milk.com)
• The Best of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial (inhabitat.com)
• Cooper-Hewitt Showcases Design Projects That Could Change the World (treehugger.com)