TransportGooru

Monday, May 18, 2009 – ISSN 1529-1057

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Join the International Road Federation (IRF) and learn about the latest international best practices in Pavement Preservation at a newly developed international seminar “Preserving our Highway Infrastructure Assets: Affordable, Safer, and Environmentally Friendly Pavement Preservation Practices”“ August 4-7, 2009 Orlando, Fl. The workshop will focus on key issues such as the role of new materials and technologies for pavement preservation, new funding strategies and contracting models to sustain pavement preservation, and latest pavement management tools.

 

The seminar’s approach is truly global, due to its cast of international speakers including experts from the World Bank Group, U.S. FHWA, Colas (France), University of Texas El Paso (USA), Nippo Corporation (Japan), FDOT, CECA ARKEMA (France) Rubber Pavements Association (USA), and the Shell (Netherlands). Register Today!

CAMERAS

1) Traffic Camera Ban Fails in Louisiana

Link to story on WAFB-TV:

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=10382118&nav=menu57_2

2) Seventeen Cameras to Monitor Shanghai Taxi Drivers

Link to story in the Shanghai Daily:

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200905/20090516/article_401016.htm

GPS / NAVIGATION

3) GPS Upgrade Behind Schedule and Over Budget

Link to CNET News story:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-10243477-42.html

ROADWAYS

4) Rest Stop Hellos Get a Goodbye from South Dakota

Nonprofit groups no longer can host events at interstate rest stops after officials with the state DOT decided they are too much hassle.

Link to story in the Argus Leader:

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20090518/NEWS/905180330

5) Experimental Safety Sign Going Up on Wisconsin Highway

Link to story from KUWS Radio:

http://www.businessnorth.com/kuws.asp?RID=2936

6) Technology Could Stop Speeding and Crashes

Link to story in The Sunday Times:

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6294866.ece

SAFETY / SECURITY

7) TSA Improves Program to Check Airline Passengers Against Terrorist List

Link to story on Nextgov:

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090518_1856.php

8) Tennessee Enacts Texting-Behind-the-Wheel Law

Link to story in The Tennessean:

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090516/NEWS0201/905160328/1009/NEWS02/Tennessee+enacts+texting-behind-the-wheel+law

9) Indiana Teens Ready to Mute the Ban on Driving with Cell Phones

Link to story in The Indianapolis Star:

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090518/NEWS0501/905180345/1008/LOCAL19/Teens+ready+to+mute+the+ban+on+driving+with+cell+phones

TRAVELER INFORMATION / TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT

10) Former Dash Executive Raised $3 Million for Driver-Centric iPhone App

Link to story in GPS Business News:

http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com/Former-Dash-exec-raised-$3M-for-driver-centric-iPhone-App_a1523.html

News Releases

1) Automakers Strive to Add Content Without Clutter

Upcoming Events

Mid-Continent Transportation Symposium 2009 – August 20-21 – Ames, Iowa

http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/events/midcon2009/index.htm

Today in Transportation History

1969 **40^th anniversary** – Apollo 10 was launched.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo10info.html

=============================================================================================

The Transportation Communications Newsletter is published electronically Monday through Friday. 

To subscribe send an e-mail to:  TCNL-subscribe@googlegroups.com

To unsubscribe send an e-mail to:  TCNL-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

TCN archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications

Questions, comments about the TCN?  Please write the editor, Bernie Wagenblast at i95berniew@aol.com.   

© 2009 Bernie Wagenblast

(Source: Wired & TimesOnline, UK)

The tightwads at Ryanair have found yet another fee to foist upon customers already nickeled and dimed to death.

The airline widely renowned for being the cheapest thing going says it will start charging passengers £5 ($7.50) for the privilege of printing their boarding passes at home. It’s the latest brilliant idea from the folks who earlier this year suggested charging passengers to use lavatories. What makes this idea so absurd is it replaces Ryanair’s previous practice of offering free online ticketing as an alternative to checking in at the ticket counter – which costs you £10. Leave it to Ryanair to sell the new fee as a way to save money.

“For some passengers, yes, the price has gone up,” spokesman Stephen McNamara told the Times of London. said. “But for those used to paying the £10 airport check-in fee, the price has actually gone down.”

Unless you can’t print out your boarding card. Or you lose it. Then you’re looking at a £40 fee.

The airline says anyone who doesn’t have a printer should get a friend to print the pass for them or go to an Internet cafe in order to avoid a £40 fee.

“Online check-in is the future,” McNamara said, according to the Times. “My mother doesn’t have a computer, but would a person without an ATM card have been allowed to hold up the automation of the banking system?”

Ryanair’s move comes as the European Union forces the airline to be more honest in disclosing some of the fees and taxes it slaps on every ticket. Many of them are impossible to avoid, but Ryanair doesn’t make that clear when advertising its super-cheap fares. The Independent notes Ryanair will tack a £10 fee onto its “free” tickets if they’re purchased with normal credit or debit cards, but it doesn’t disclose that charge in the initial price. Combine that with other stealth fees and your free Ryanair flight can end up costing as much as £80 ($120).

According to the EU, the days of the £1 flight that ends up costing £59.99 after the taxes, fees, check-in and baggage charges are over — for half the airlines identified, anyway — and the opt-in boxes for extras such as insurance and priority boarding are no longer ready-ticked. In theory, consumers should see all taxes, fees and other compulsory charges at the beginning of the booking process and not on the bottom line.

“It is unacceptable that one in three consumers going to book a plane ticket online is being ripped off, misled or confused,” said the EU’s commissioner, for consumer protection, Meglena Kuneva. “There are serious and persistent problems with ticket sales throughout the airline industry as a whole. My message to industry is clear: act now or we will act.”

(Source: Wired & The New Zealand Herald)

Love is in the air — Air New Zealand, that is. The Kiwi carrier has launched Matchmaking Flight to bring lonely travelers together. After all, what better way to get to know The One than sharing a 13-hour flight on your first date?

If you aren’t up for a blind date, you can try meeting that special someone on the airline’s Matchmaking Flight website, a social networking where passenger can meet and interact in the safety of cyberspace before meeting at the terminal. That could keep you from getting matched with that sketchy guy in Seat 35B who keeps mentioning the mile-high club.

In a new venture, coined “love at first flight”, the airline says it is aiming to help single Americans find New Zealand dates with a themed flight headed for a dual hemisphere singles party.

It’s almost a given that the first flight will depart from Los Angeles International Airport on Oct. 13. The journey of love, which is an enticing overnight flight, begins with a pre-flight party at the Air New Zealand Lounge. What happens next is up to you. Upon landing, passengers will dance away their jet lag at the Grand Matchmaking Ball at Auckland’s SkyCity Grand hotel. The whole package starts at $780 per person.

Register on the website and you can look for love in categories that include American boyfriend, Canadian girlfriend, Kiwi friend, and, our favorite, “business contact. The airline says 75 people have signed up. They’re about evenly split between North Americans and Kiwis. Men and women are also equally represented. Air New Zealand hopes passengers will be in a romantic mood just thinking about their destination.

(Source: Wall Street Journal & Politico via Yahoo)

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to order auto makers to increase the overall fuel economy of automobiles sold in the U.S. to 35 miles per gallon by 2016, four years faster than current federal law requires, people familiar with the matter said Monday.

The move is part of a broader overhaul of fuel economy rules aimed at cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.

The Obama administration is expected to announce a plan to revamp federal vehicle fuel-efficiency standards to bring them into harmony with the goals of a California greenhouse-gas law. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation will jointly raise fuel-economy standards and reduce greenhouse-gas pollution under the plan.

Separately, auto makers have agreed to drop litigation challenging the legality of state-level curbs on tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases, people familiar with the matter said.

An announcement of the agreement is expected Tuesday, with representatives of several large auto companies, including General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Fritz Henderson, and the president of United Auto Workers, Ron Gettelfinger, planning to participate, people familiar with the matter said.

The agreement worked out by aides to President Barack Obama represents a partial victory for the auto industry. The industry will be able to operate under a single national standard on fuel economy, rather than multiple regimes at the federal and state levels. Auto makers have long opposed California’s tailpipe emissions program as tantamount to state-level regulation of fuel economy, traditionally a federal responsibility.

But the standards will require huge investments by auto makers to remake their U.S. fleets so that they have roughly the same overall efficiency as vehicles they now sell in Europe, where gasoline is two to three times more expensive as in the U.S. By moving the 35 mpg requirement to 2016 from 2020, the administration is stepping up the pressure on the industry to overhaul its product lineup faster. It typically takes three to four years for auto makers to design and bring a new vehicle to market.

Auto executives are flying into Washington from around the world for the White House announcement.   California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, is expected to attend, the sources said.

The CAFE standard was established by Congress in 1975 in response to the Arab Oil embargo.   A 2007 energy law requires auto makers to boost the average fuel economy of their vehicle fleets to at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020, a 40% increase from the roughly 25 mpg standard for the current fleet.  Last summer, the Transportation Department estimated that requiring auto makers to achieve 31.6 mpg by 2015 would cost the industry $46.7 billion, a sum the agency said would make it among the most expensive rule makings in U.S. history.

“This rule will be a down payment on a broader and sustained effort to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” he said. “Going forward, my administration will work on a bipartisan basis in Washington and with industry partners across the country to forge a comprehensive approach that makes our economy stronger and our nation more secure.”

According to two industry officials familiar with the plan, mileage standards would rise slowly at first — from a combined requirement of 27.3 miles per gallon for cars and trucks in 2011 — and faster approaching roughly 35 miles per gallon in 2016. That would give auto makers more time to adjust — and collect credits if they can manage to exceed earlier targets — before the steeper increases kick in.

It is unclear how quickly the EPA and the Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will be able to make a formal proposal for curbing emissions and boosting fuel economy. The EPA on Monday was holding a public hearing on its proposal to find that greenhouse gases endanger public health, the first step toward regulating them.

(Source: Timesonline, UK & Autocar, UK)

A £2,000-a-car scrappage scheme aimed at kick-starting Britain’s depressed motor industry has hit trouble after a dispute between car companies and the Government over costs.

Manufacturers, including Ford and Honda, have told dealers not to register any new vehicles under the scheme, which is starting today.

Consumers are being offered £2,000 towards a new car if they trade in a motor that is at least ten years old.

The car companies said that they were seeking “clarification” from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) over “administrative” details.

The Government insisted that it had been clear on details of the scheme, under which manufacturers would pay £1,000 and the Government £1,000 towards the cost of the incentive.

However, the car manufacturers want dealers to share the cost.

The eleventh-hour hitch will come as a huge embarrassment to the Prime Minister, who had heavily promoted the “bangers for cash” scheme as the route to revitalising Britain’s depressed motor industry.

Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, visited a Nissan dealership today to talk to consumers signing up to the scheme.

Mr Brown said the £300 million project would prove “very popular” and “a great help to the British car industry.” It would help the economy to “move forward,” he said.

A BERR spokesman said: “Thirty-eight manufacturers have signed contracts with the Department which set out clearly that manufacturers provide £1,000 and the Government matches it.

“We understand several dealers are unhappy about the idea they should share the costs. The Government also needs to ensure VAT is paid in accordance with the scheme.”

Though the scheme was revealed in the Budget the final details emerged only at a meeting on Thursday, manufacturers said.

However, President of the AA Edmund King has pointed out that the £2000 incentive can be used as a deposit to help car buyers get finance. He added that the scheme would “transform the chances of survival in a crash for thousands of car owners” whose current old cars offer substantially less protection than newer models.

But Friends of the Earth executive director Andy Atkins said the scrappage scheme was “a lost opportunity”.

“A well-designed scheme could have played a limited role in cutting emissions from our roads,” he said. “But, unlike some other countries, the UK scheme doesn’t prevent motorists part-exchanging an old, small model for a brand-new gas guzzler.”

Business secretary Peter Mandelson visited a car dealership today to launch the scheme and said there has been a positive response from the industry.

“I am delighted by the response of the motor industry. Thirty-eight companies have signed up – all the major UK car manufacturers and a number of other companies. This means more choice for consumers and a boost for British brands. 



“The scheme has been met with a flood of enquiries from customers. It will provide a boost to the industry and kick-start sales.” 



The confirmed list of manufacturers who have signed up to take part are: Allied Vehicles, Bentley, BMW, Chevrolet, Citroen, Daihatsu, FIAT, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Isuzu, Jaguar, Kia, Land Rover, London Taxis International, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, MG Motor, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Perodua, Peugeot, Porsche, Proton, Renault, Rolls Royce, SAAB, SECMA UK, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Volvo, Koelliker UK Ltd, Iveco Ltd, Chrysler and Renault Trucks UK Ltd.

(Source: Autobloggreen) & HyNor)

As the US government is cutting down its funding and research/deployment interest in Hydrogen-based transportation systens, Norway is thinking the exact opposite.  In an all out push, Norway is moving ahead with the deployment of a 580 kilometer highway peppered with hydrogen fueling stations.  One of the biggest questions surrounding hydrogen-powered vehicles right now is where to find an appropriate hydrogen pump, and looks like Norway has moved to answer that question by opening it up its first hydrogen highway.

This hydrogen highway is part of Norway’s HyNor project and stretches for 580 kilometers from Oslo on the eastern coast to Stavanger on the western North Sea coast. So far, the route consists of 12 hydrogen pumps, which is apparently sufficient to allow the Mazdas to be refueled along the way.

It is worth something and appropriate to mention a recent New York Times article titled “Norway Thrives by Going against the tide“, which articulates how Norway’s investment decisions for its future saved its economy from going bust, while the recession monster is shaking up the financial foundations of many Western economies, including those of US and UK.  The article points out “With a quirky contrariness as deeply etched in the national character as the fjords carved into its rugged landscape, Norway has thrived by going its own way. When others splurged, it saved. When others sought to limit the role of government, Norway strengthened its cradle-to-grave welfare state. And in the midst of the worst global downturn since the Depression, Norway’s economy grew last year by just under 3 percent. The government enjoys a budget surplus of 11 percent and its ledger is entirely free of debt.”

If the above mentioned investment decision is a good indicator to go by, Norways decision to invest in a hydrogen based transportation future seems foretelling and something worth noting, especially for the United States which just dealt a blow to hydrogen research by cutting down the investment.   The HyNor website notes the following: The HyNor Partnership and StatoilHydro are pleased to announce the official opening of the Norwegian hydrogen highway, HyNor, on 11 May 2009 at StatoilHydro’s new hydrogen station at Økern in Oslo. HyNor was opened by Norway’s Minister of Transport and Communications, Liv Signe Navarsete. H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon of Norway joined the first stage of the EVS Viking Rally, from Oslo to Lier, together with internationally renowned race car driver Henning Solberg. The governing mayor of Oslo, Erling Lae, opened StatoilHydro’s new hydrogen service station at Økern, and Navarsete opened the hydrogen station at StatoilHydro’s service station in Lier.

The first hydrogen station was opened at Forus in Stavanger in 2006, the second in Porsgrunn in 2007, and now the two new stations are open in Oslo and Lier. HyNor has some 50 partners and manages a fleet of more than 50 hydrogen vehicles made by Mazda, Toyota and Think.

“We are very pleased to open up this hydrogen infrastructure for testing and demonstrating hydrogen cars. By doing this, we nurture our ambition to help implement hydrogen as a fuel in the transport sector,” says Anne Marit Hansen, Chairman of the board in HyNor. 

The EVS Viking Rally vehicles are the first to drive the Norwegian hydrogen highway. The rally commences with H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon racing together with the famous Norwegian race car star Henning Solberg. 14 hydrogen vehicles, two plug in hybrid cars and 14 battery electric vehicles are starting in Oslo and will reach the beginning of the EVS (Electrical Vehicle Symposium) 24 in Stavanger on 13 May. Events will take place along the way in Porsgrunn, Grimstad, Arendal, Kristiansand, Lyngdal and Egersund. Another 10 battery electric vehicles will join the rally in Egersund. 

This is reportedly the first integrated network of hydrogen pumps in the world, and it’s a creation of Norway’s StatoilHydro, the company that installed the underlying structure as well. Future plans call for the highway to extend into the rest of Scandinavia, as shown in the map to the right. Afterward, the alliance intends to extend into Germany. For your information, Mazda has shipped the first Hydrogen RX8 REs to Norway, indicator of a strong response to the government’s interest in Hydrogen vehicles.  

Note:  A related article from NY Times articulates how California’s efforts to build a similar Hydrogen Highway has fallen behind. One of the leading investors in Hydrogen fuel research was the State of California.  Soon after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) took office in 2003, he set in motion a campaign promise to build, by 2010, a “hydrogen highway” composed of 150 to 200 fueling stations spaced every 20 miles along California’s major highways.  In spite of the great interest, the hydrogen infrastructure has not expanded much since its inception.   the program has fallen short of expectations. With less than 10 months until the end of the decade, 24 hydrogen fueling stations are operating in California, most of them near Los Angeles.State officials say all this is part of what they now view, in the words of ARB spokesman Dimitri Stanich, as a “retooled” hydrogen highway.

“It’s very much alive,” Stanich said of the program. “This vision is still there. It’s just being groomed.”

As stimulus spending on highways and bridges ramps up, Senate Democrats submitted legislation Thursday that suggests the nation’s transportation policy is headed for a major overhaul, with a strong emphasis on reducing automobile use and carbon emissions and boosting public transit, inter-city rail and rail freight service.

 Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) introduced legislation that they say lays out the guidelines of what they expect the next five-year federal transportation spending plan to accomplish. Their goal is to influence the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is responsible for drafting the spending plan. The House plan is expected in early June, and the bill is due for reauthorization this fall.  The Rockefeller-Lautenberg marker, which got some early love from the Washington Post, states that the next federal transportation bill should accomplish the following:

• Reduce national per-capita motor vehicle miles traveled on an annual basis;
• Cut national motor vehicle-related fatalities in half by 2030;
• Cut national surface transportation-generated carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030;
• Reduce surface transportation delays per capita on an annual basis; 
• Get 20 percent more critical surface-transportation assets into a state of good repair by 2030;
• Increase the total usage of public transit, intercity passenger rail and non-motorized transport on an annual basis.

The focus for those trying to ascertain the administration’s transportation agenda has since turned to the five-year bill, which is expected to cost at least $400 billion. One big question is how the government plans to fund transportation spending, with revenue from the gas tax increasingly falling short. The new Senate bill does not address that problem.

Another big question is how much the bill will provide for public transportation. As it now stands, 80 percent of federal transportation money goes to highways. But David Goldberg, an official with the advocacy group Transportation for America, said Congress and the White House are sending signs that the new plan could represent a major break. The White House has already said it hopes to spend $1 billion per year on high-speed rail.

Friday, May 15, 2009 – ISSN 1529-1057

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TIC from GEWI means Proven Interoperability

Whether you need to share, view, collect, aggregate, or distribute data between agencies, offices, control centers, districts, counties, states, or even countries, TIC can be configured to your interoperability requirements using this highly flexible commercial off-the-shelf solution (COTS). TIC has a 12 year track record and is proven worldwide, such as by the European Road Information Center (ERIC) which provides 100% live data interoperability between 22 countries in seven different languages. TIC is already operating in over 100 projects worldwide and can be deployed faster, more affordably, and with less risk than build-your-own solutions. Why reinvent the wheel?

To download a brochure and leaflets, please visit www.gewi.com  To discuss your requirements, please contact jim.oneill@gewi.com or visit the GEWI booth at ITS America booth #329.

AVIATION

1) Buffalo Plane Crash Hearings Consider Better Alert Systems

Link to story and video on NY1 News:

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/99061/buffalo-plane-crash-hearing-considers-better-alert-systems/Default.aspx

2) Future of Military Aviation Lies with Drones – US Admiral

Link to AFP story:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200905142002DOWJONESDJONLINE000783_FORTUNE5.htm

BICYCLES

3) Oregon DOT Deflates I-5 Bridge Bicycle Safety Proposal

City wanted signs to direct cyclists, but ODOT contends the signs don’t conform with federal or state design standards.

Link to story in The Oregonian:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/124226612984470.xml&coll=7

CAMERAS

4) Close to Two-Thirds of Photos Taken by Arizona Speed Cameras Tossed

Link to story in The Arizona Republic:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/05/15/20090515dpsdata0515.html

OTHER

5) Digital Hubs

Three new research centers will focus on promoting digital technologies, including those for transport, to people who have difficulty accessing them.

Link to story in The Engineer:

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/311144/Digital+hubs.htm

ROADWAYS

6) Arizona DOT Defends Replacing Metric Signs Along I-19

Link to story in the Nogales International:

http://www.nogalesinternational.com/articles/2009/05/15/news/doc4a0d9bc923609515374875.txt

7) Wi-Fi Hits the Highway

Link to story in The Christian Science Monitor:

http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/05/15/wi-fi-hits-the-highway/

TRANSIT

8) Metro Cell Phone Service Plan Faces Gaps

Link to story in The Examiner:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Metro-cell-phone-service-plan-faces-gaps_05_15-45053147.html

9) RTA Hopes Riders Go Along with Goroo

Web site allows Chicago-area riders to customize itineraries for travel in the region.

Link to column in the Chicago Tribune:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/autocorner/chi-getting-around_15may15,0,7778485.column

Link to Goroo:  http://www.goroo.com/

VEHICLES

10) Tennessee Attorney General: Church License Plate Likely Illegal

Plate would be first for a specific faith.

Link to story in The Tennessean:

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090514/NEWS0201/905140357/1009/NEWS02/AG++Church+license+plate+likely+illegal

News Releases

1) Despite Automotive Slump, by 2010 12% of New Cars Will Ship with Embedded Telematics

Job Postings

 –  Supervisory General Engineer – Research and Innovative Technology Administration – Cambridge, Massachusetts

http://jobsearch.usajobs.gov/getjob.asp?JobId=81001026&AVSDM=5%2F15%2F2009+3%3A10%3A19+PM

Upcoming Events

Minneapolis I-35 Bridge Collapse – A Major Emergency Incident: TSAG Case Studies Workshop & Webinar – June 3

http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/t3/s090603_tsagi35.asp

Friday Bonus

When is a bus stop not just a bus stop?

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/05/01/15-unusual-and-creative-bus-stops/

Today in Transportation History

1959 **50^th anniversary** – The Titan 1 B-4 rocket exploded during static testing.

http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/lvs/titan1.htm

=============================================================================================

The Transportation Communications Newsletter is published electronically Monday through Friday. 

To subscribe send an e-mail to:  TCNL-subscribe@googlegroups.com

To unsubscribe send an e-mail to:  TCNL-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

TCN archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications

Questions, comments about the TCN?  Please write the editor, Bernie Wagenblast at i95berniew@aol.com.   

© 2009 Bernie Wagenblast

(Source: Washington Examiner)

• Region encompasses Washington, DC; Northern Virginia; and Suburban Maryland — an area 6,000 square miles (15,500 square kilometres)

• The 4th largest population in the United States (6 million people); population expected to grow by 1/2 million by 2010

• Gross regional product (GRP) of $342 billion — 4th largest in the nation

• Led the United States in job growth over past 5 years — 270,000 jobs added from 2000 to 2005

• But still has a Metro system that does not allow for ubiquitous communications.

Metro riders will still hear silence on their phones even when Metro extends cell phone service in its underground rail system later this year.   

The transit agency plans to expand cell phone service to include more carriers in the 20 busiest rail stations by the fall — but it won’t extend into the adjacent subway tunnels yet. And it could remain a patchwork of service for up to three more years.

“We’re going to have a lot of very frustrated customers if they are going to be getting and losing signals going in and out of stations,” warned Peter Benjamin, a Metro board member who represents Maryland.

The problem stems partly from the requirement that forces the agency to add the service. In exchange for $1.5 billion in dedicated federal funding that Congress authorized last year, Metro is required to have cell phone service in the 20 busiest stations by October, then have it in all 47 underground stations by October 2010. Service throughout the entire system wouldn’t need to be finished until October 2012.

Metro’s board of directors agreed earlier in the spring to negotiate a $40 million contract with national carriers Sprint Nextel, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless to fulfill the requirement.

Minneapolis I-35 Bridge Collapse — A Major Emergency Incident: TSAG Case Studies Workshop & Webinar

Note: This workshop and webinar is a unique learning opportunity offered by the Transportation Safety Advancement Group (TSAG) and the U.S. DOT ITS Joint Program Office’s Talking Technology & Transportation (T3) webinars. The T3 Program is offered by the Joint Program Office’s ITS Professional Capacity Building Program. The workshop will be presented to both a live audience at the workshop location and to remote T3 webinar participants. T3 participants are invited to submit written questions before the webinar as well as during workshop question and answer periods.

Webinar participants may attend remotely for any portion of the 3.5 hour workshop/webinar. An audio of the event’s proceedings, synchronized with its presentations, will be available in the T3 Webinar archives approximately 4 weeks after the workshop.

Background

The Transportation Safety Advancement Group (TSAG) is facilitated and administered by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) to provide input to the US Department of Transportation (US DOT), ITS Joint Program Office’ Public Safety mission. TSAG advises the US DOT on the development and deployment ITS technologies that optimize travel mobility, safety / security, economy and environmental quality. Through its broad membership comprised of transportation and public safety professionals, TSAG initiates programs that promote inter-disciplinary, inter-agency and inter-jurisdictional coordination and cooperation, and that promote partnerships for advancing surface transportation services technologies. TSAG operates through resources provided by the US Department of Transportation and serves its program mission in compliance with US DOT regulations, policies and specified contract provisions.

I-35 Bridge Collapse Case Studies Workshop & Webinar Overview

Within a workshop setting, TSAG members and other public safety professionals review actual public safety related events or incidents for the purpose of identifying management strategies and technology-based applications and corresponding successes, failures, and lessons-learned. The June 3, 2009 Workshop will review the 2007 I-35 (MN) Bridge Collapse.

On August 1, 2007, the Interstate 35W Bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River during rush hour in the City of Minneapolis. The 1,907-foot bridge fell into the Mississippi River and onto roadways below. The span was packed with rush hour traffic, and dozens of vehicles fell with the bridge leaving scores of dazed commuters scrambling for their lives.

Case Studies Workshop presenters walk the audience through the tragic events of the day, focusing on 9-1-1 operations, Police, Fire, and EMS response, as well as the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) activation and management. Presenters will share lessons learned and highlight the performance of the Minneapolis 911 Center, of local emergency responders and of operations strategies and technologies at the time of and responding to the incident.

Target Audience

Workshop participants include TSAG members and guests. Webinar target audience includes other state and local public safety interests, including public safety managers and transportation operations, emergency communications, and emergency public safety practitioners.

TSAG Case Study Workshop Concept and Objectives

The TSAG Case Studies Workshop concept targets case-studies of actual incidents or events associated with each of the eight (8) TSAG interest-community teams. Communities of Interest include: Transportation Operations, Law Enforcement, Fire and Safety, Academic & Research, Technology and Telematics, Emergency Communications, Emergency Medical Services, and Emergency Management. Workshop objectives revolve around the “technologies for public safety” TSAG mission.

Through reviews of actual recent events, incidents, and first-responder experiences, Case Studies Workshops facilitate after-event discussions by multi-discipline and multi-agency professionals for the purpose of:

• Clarifying actual circumstances of the event / incident
• Discussing established response protocols and procedures
• Reviewing public safety technology applications
• Identifying unique management and response circumstances and challenges
• Reviewing successes, failures, and lessons-leaned

Learning Objectives

The broad learning objectives of the TSAG Case Studies Workshop series include:

• Identify transportation-safety technologies and their real-time applications to actual incident identification, response and management
• Identify inter-agency and inter-discipline coordination successes and failures
• Identify technology successes, failures, and lessons-learned

Workshop/Webinar Agenda

2:00 PM ET — Opening / Webinar Ground Rules (US DOT, Volpe Center)

2:10 PM — Welcome / Introduction of Moderator (Linda Dodge)

2:15 PM — Workshop / Overview / Objectives (Moderator, Ray Fisher)

2:30 PM

• A. I-35 Bridge — The Setting
• B. Key Players / Key Interagency Coordination Protocols
• C. Key Public Safety Technology Applications

Q & A Session #1
3:30 PM

• D. The Event — Circumstances and Public Safety Actions

Q & A Session #2
4:30 PM

• E. Successes, Failures & Lessons Learned

5:00 PM

Q & A Session #3

• F. Open Discussion

5:30 PM

• G. End / Closing Remarks