Here is a quick summary of  the what, why, who and when:

During April 24th-26th, I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee attending the 5th Annual Vanguard Conference, an experiential urban leadership gathering of 40 of the best and brightest urban leaders under 40, hosted by the national non-profit media organization Next City.  Mind you, I’m probably the least accomplished of this excellent group of 40 promising leaders, all of them working to improve cities across sectors, including urban planning, community development, entrepreneurship, government, transportation, sustainability, design, art and media. We convened in Chattanooga for a three-day series of presentations, workshops and neighborhood tours. The Vanguard conference will culminate in the Chattanooga Challenge, an ideas competition sponsored by the Footprint Foundation and designed to jump-start civic local innovation through a $10,000 grant for the winning proposal.

Here are a handful of observations from this conference:

• In a nutshell, it was a life altering experience. I got to learn so many issues associated with urban development, such as housing and economic issues, while further understanding the linkages and the crucial role of transportation systems in building a better urban environment.

Image Courtesy: metrojacksonville,com

• Met some of the best and brightest in the country and was in awe from the time I arrived till I left the city (even now I’m in awe of how much knowledge was exchanged and free flowing in that setting).

Image Courtesy: metrojacksonville.com

• When you adopt an unconference format, discussions flow freely and people are at ease to share their ideas. Moral of the story: do not host events featuring powerpoint presentations.  The conversations were engaging, stimulating and at times downright wild (particularly those conversations over the beers and coffees were excellent).

Image Courtesy: Metrojacksonville.com

Image Courtesy: metrojacksonville.com. A lot of beverages consumed and tons of knowledge exchanged.

image courtesy: metrojacksonville.com. Did I tell you it was wild and fun?

Image courtesy: metrojacksonville.com. Opening night party on the premises of the Aquarium building.

• People in the government at local levels work together and even when they work together to solve problems they are constrained by institutional biases and money shortfall.  The city owns a strategic piece of digital infrastructure – Chattanooga offers the fastest Internet connections in America through the city-owned fiber-optic network.
• City of Chattanooga is a great place and certain parts of it, like in most urban areas, has bad things going on.   As part of the Vanguard Conference’s Chattanooga Challenge, we were all divided into four groups and sent to explore different corners of the the city (East, West, North and South) by foot, bikes and transit.  I was part of the walking tour (Team West) that hit the West side and got to see up close the economic disparities that exist on either side of a major elevated highway (U.S. 27) that literally bifurcates the communities more details on the West Side tour in a different bullet below).

Image Courtesy: metrojacksonville.com. Team West, posing for a picture, moment before announced as Winners of the $10k Chattanooga Challenge.

• City of Chattanooga has a great bikeshare system, fantastic aquarium and an excellent set of touristy things like the historic Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel (pictured below), great restaurants and watering holes across the town.

Image Courtesy: Metrojacksonville.com. Click image to see an entire set of image from a fellow Vanguard, Ennis Davis at Metro Jacksonville

• The city’s low-income residents, particularly those in the West side neighborhoods such as College Hill courts, are somewhat caught in a bad situation. These communities, slated for redevelopment within a decade or so, live quite close to the economic heart of the city. But they do not have a meaningful direct access where they can walk to their jobs and they are cut off by a major thorough fare. This has resulted in poverty and the usual accompaniments of crime and lack of education.  I was part of the Team West in the Chattanooga Challenge that visited these communities and pitched a strong proposal to connect the divided communities.  Our team, bolstered by three strong local young leaders, gained very illuminating insights that helped  us understand the situation at hand.  We suggested that the City of Chattanooga offer free Wi-Fi service to a public housing community on the city’s west side and develop a new pathway to connect the city’s downtown to the highway-marooned neighborhood.  I’m borrowing the narrative from Next City to explain how this is laid out: Right now, area residents, (shown in image below total population of 2481 with a median income of $9277) many of whom are children and downtown workers commuting from public housing developments to school or jobs in other parts of the city, must trek by foot on a dirt path and across highway ramps to reach the city’s center. Where the path enters their neighborhood, residents must pass through a hole in a chain-link fence.  Our teammate Marlon Brown, a city councilman from Mason, Michigan put it succinctly “the neighborhood is physically divided from the downtown at the same time as it is digitally divided from opportunities there. You have to remember, a city is only as strong as its least connected neighborhood. ” These next two images below came from our teammate John Bilderback, who quickly generated them to show how this community  is strategically located and yet remains far removed from better opportunities. What’s better – our winning idea will get a $10,000 boost from the local Footprint Foundation and the City will get to implement the proposal. And the local newspaper did an excellent article covering our winning proposal.  Yay!

• 

  Image Courtesy: John Builderback. Picture1 – Westside – Where the Resources are.

•  Last but not least I got to ride a bicycle after almost 15 years.  I am a regular transit user living in Washington, DC metropolitan area, where we are blessed with better transportation alternatives and a fantatistic world-class bikesharing system.  But I never had a reason to ride a bike because of my living and commuting options. Thanks to Chatanooga and my fellow Vanguards, I got to commandeer a bicycle one afternoon. It was a lot of fun and I reached my destination without embarrassing myself and an exciting story to tell (yeah, our group got yelled at by an older gentleman in a pickup for occupying a full lane on a main thoroughfare).  Sadly, despite the presence of a bikeshare system in the city, the number of bicyclists on the city streets were relatively low.

• 

  Image courtesy: http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/. Click image to see an entire set of image from a fellow Vanguard, Ennis Davis at Metro Jacksonville

Image Courtesy: Metrojacksonville.com

via Autoblog

The innovators at Solar Roadways have pulled together a demonstration site (i.e., parking lot) to showcase how their technology works – it’s got a textured glass surface that can (among many other things) generate low-carbon electricity, melt snow, and throw up safety warnings with its integrated LED lighting system. Pretty cool, right? 

Their vision for smarter roads has grown considerably from conception to an award-winning early prototype to a test deployment.  It is poised to take the next logical step forward – manufacturing, which usually costs a ton of money. So they have put together a nice campaign video and lauched the fundraising efforts over at IndieGoGo for helping move this audacious vision to an everyday reality.

Autoblog notes that if successful, the concept will next start appearing in parking lots, driveways and sidewalks before taking that final leap toward paving the way to a solar-powered paradise. Let’s hope it does succeed.  Show your support over at their IndieGoGo campaign site.   

Note: As of this minute, the campaign has raised $4,712 (in just a day) and they have about 39 days left to reach the $1million goal (by May 31 @ 11:59PM).

Related articles

• Solar Roadways to build solar-powered parking lot
• solar powered roadways by scott brusaw
• In Focus: Solar Roadways
• Solar Roadways (the company) to Build Solar Panel Parking Lot (+ Top Transportation Stories)
• Solar Roadways: The Prototype – an interesting idea to contemplate

Check out this infograph from Pembina Institute that clearly lays out the case for public transportation (i.e., Rapid Transit) and shows how much money can be saved..

Source: Pembina Institute.

The new infograph published by SafeCar.Info. offers some good insights into the real cost of owning a vehicle.  To put it simply, owning a car these days is not easy on any wallet.  the infograph provides a clear guide to the issues which everyone should consider before they make their final decision. 

Source: SafeCar.info. Click Image to learn more.

Via: Safecar.info | Car safety & Insurance Magazine

The Kansas City Streetcar Authority (KCSA), a nonprofit corporation established in 2012, is seeking its first Executive Director who will be charged with overseeing the operations and maintenance of the entire system through a third-party operator, and ensuring stakeholder and neighborhood involvement.

When becomes operational in late 2015, the two-mile north-south streetcar route (approximately 4 miles round trip) will operate on City streets and efforts are currently underway to study opportunities and gain support for future expansion projects.

Without question, this position represents a tremendous opportunity for a dynamic leader to have a significant impact in a city focused on downtown revitalization. Given that Kansas City Streetcar initiatives are in their development stages, it will be necessary for the Executive Director to demonstrate flexibility, maturity and an ability to “scale” within a dynamic, expanding entity.

We are seeking candidates who possess:

·         At least five years of demonstrated experience in an externally focused leadership position is required.

·         A solid base of experience in administrative skills, project management, budget oversight and contract/vendor management is necessary.

·         Given complexities associated with federal funding, candidates with previous experience resulting in positive relationships with the FTA will be viewed favorably.

While ideal candidates will have experience in public transit (e.g., streetcars/light rail, urban transit, bus systems, heavy rail), individuals with applicable skills in government/stakeholder relations, urban redevelopment, urban planning and/or community outreach are strongly encouraged to apply.

For more information or make a referral, please contact Nancy Huckaba at 913.234.1570 or nhuckaba@eflassociates.com.

(via YPTransportation)

Shutter bugs get ready to click away to some cold cash.. See the AASHTO presser below. 

Washington — The annual Faces of Transportation photography contest is marking its 10th year by adding a video category. Sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the national contest asks State DOT employees and private citizens to send in photographs and videos of people, projects, and personal experiences that demonstrate the benefits of transportation.

This year’s competition, themed “Transportation in America,” includes seven awards. Five will be presented in the photography section and two prizes will be awarded in the video portion of competition.

Photography: Photographs will be judged in three new categories: Quality of Life/Community Development, Historic Projects, and Taking the Road Less Traveled. A $125 cash prize will be awarded to the best photograph in each of the three categories. $500 cash prizes will be presented to the winners of both the People’s Choice and the Best Overall Photograph award.

Video Section: Videos will be judged on two levels and in two separate categories. Amateur or novice videos must demonstrate travel experiences in a category called Safe, Smart and Fun. Professionally produced videos will be judged in a category called Innovation in Motion.

The videos (one winner in each category), as selected by AASHTO, will each be awarded $150 cash prizes. The winners, along with other submitted videos, may be featured on AASHTO’s Transportation TV or AASHTO’s YouTube Channel.

Winning video and photography submissions must prominently feature people designing, constructing, using and enjoying the nation’s transportation systems. All entries must represent the positive effects of all modes of transportation on individuals and communities. Photographs and videos which include recognizable individuals must be accompanied with a model release form regardless of category; all photos and videos must include a caption that describes the scene. Failure to meet these requirements may lead to disqualification.

All entries must be received by July 31, 2014. Judging will begin on August 8, 2014. The general public will vote for the People’s Choice Award photograph at the Faces of Transportation web site, www.facesoftransportation.org. Judging will begin August 8 and end August 31, 2014.

The winners of the 2014 Faces of Transportation competition will be announced at the AASHTO Subcommittee on Transportation Communications (TransComm) annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona in September. Entry forms and contest rules are available at www.facesoftransportation.org.

The long and crazy winter is finally nearing its end but then the impact of this prolonged bad weather can be felt even after that last speck of snow is gone.. As shown in this below video by a Michigan driver, the potholes resulting from the winter weather are ridiculously deep and rattles your vehicles pretty badly..

These tire-munching monsters are not only wrecking the vehicles that go over them but they also cause severe damages to your wallet as well. If that is not enough, swerving drivers who intend to avoid these ginormous potholes pose serious road safety challenges to oncoming vehicles, especially in the night.. Plight of road surfaces, particularly in rural areas, is the same in many parts of the country where mother nature showed wrath.. It only means one thing –  the tax payers can expect some seriously high “patching” bills along with the vehicle repair bills as the spring blooms.  With many states already way deep in the red after exhausting their winter maintenance budgets (spent on salt, ice removal, etc), this is going to be really hard to digest..  The American  Automobile Association (AAA) warns that the annual tab for motorists in the USA dinged by potholes is nearly $6.4 billion. Nearly $4.8 billion is spent each year to repair damage to cars resulting from Americans ‘run-ins with potholes, utility cuts and other dangerous road conditions—almost four times the $1.3 billion a year spent on road repairs by state highway departments.”

So, how bad is it for the Washington, DC metro area? Listen to the AAA on these astronomical numbers: “Driving on roads sorely in need of repair costs Maryland motorists $1.598 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs, or ‘$422 per motorist,'” according to the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. In Virginia, drivers spend $1.344 billion a year, or $254 per motorist, while It costs District of Columbia drivers $311 million a year, or $833 per motorists, according to ASCE.  Aside from the direct cost of repairs, don’t forget to factor in the time wasted on negotiating the workzones when the pothole crew work hard to fix the mess. In all, it is safe to say we are screwed!

Thank god this guy chose to focus his energy and investments on transportation, one of the most-neglected fields from an investment perspective.  Elon Musk’s interview is a testament to what one man can aspire and do to inspire a generation with his ideas.

• Announcing the 2014 Vanguard Class
• Next City’s 40 Under 40 Vanguard Conference: Applications due February 14
• Next City’s Vanguard Conference Heads to Chattanooga in 2014
• Vanguard Update: Our Largest Pool of Applicants Ever
• Foot soldiers for change: 40 young leaders from across the country to gather in Chattanooga

Sustainable America via Upworthy

Oh, boy.  What looks like a seemingly insignificant activity – vehicle idling – has a major impact on our economy and on our planet’s well being.  Check out this informative infograph from Sustainable America that shows the gargantuan impacts of vehicle idling in the USA, both  economic and environmental.  If the US alone is wasting so much fuel and adding to the carbon footprint, I can’t even begin to fathom what’s happening if this issue is scaled up at a global level. Adoption of EVs can quickly put an end to this issue and should be considered as part of energy efficiency/conservation programs world wide. Take the pledge to stop idling! 

Image: Sustainable America via Upworthy.com