TransportGooru

(Source: San Jose Mercury news & Calif. ARB)

SACRAMENTO—California air regulators are taking another step to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, considering first-in-the nation standards to require the use of so-called low-carbon fuels.

The California Air Resources Board, which will debate the standards Thursday, considers the regulation a framework for a potential national policy advocated by President Barack Obama on the campaign trail last year. Democrats have included a goal for low-carbon fuels in the latest climate bill they have introduced in Congress.

“We see this as a model for the rest of the country and the world to follow,” said Air Resources Board member Dan Sperling, a transportation expert and professor at the University of California, Davis.

 The proposed regulation calls for reducing the carbon content in California’s transportation fuels 10 percent by 2020, but representatives of the petroleum and ethanol industries are objecting to how the state proposes to achieve that.

California oil producers and refiners are skeptical that cleaner fuels and vehicles powered by hydrogen and natural gas will be available in time to meet the new standards. They are asking the Air Resources Board to delay a decision until next year.

“This is the most transforming fuel regulation we’ve ever done,” said Kathy Rehis-Boyd, executive vice president of the Western States Petroleum Association. “We think there’s still more homework to do on this. There’s a lot of uncertainty.”

“We have a long history of what I call ‘fuel du jour’ approaches,” Sperling said. “What we need is a broad policy framework that doesn’t pick winners.”

The Air Resources Board is not just targeting the emissions of the fuel once it is burned in a vehicle. It also wants to account for all carbon emissions related to the production of the fuel.

For example, refineries could choose to stop buying a heavy crude oil extracted from Canadian oil sands, which takes more energy to convert into gasoline. But accounting for emissions during the entire production cycle of a fuel also would discourage certain fuels from being used in California.

Corn-based ethanol, for example, burns cleanly in a car engine. But making it can take a heavy toll on the environment: Massive tracts of land must be cleared, which requires fuel-powered tractors, then coal- or natural gas-fired plants convert the corn into fuel and petroleum is used to transport the end product to distant markets.

(Source: Washington Post)

“Police could not reasonably have believed either that Gant could have accessed his car at the time of the search or that evidence of the offense for which he was arrested might have been found therein,” Stevens wrote.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the four dissenters, said the court’s insistence that its precedents had been misinterpreted was simply a cover for getting rid of a decision with which it disagreed.

Rick Karr, correspondent for Blueprint America, discusses his report on nation’s ailing freight-rail system airing on PBS’ The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

Last week, President Obama announced an ambitious goal to build a high-speed passenger rail line in ten regions across the country. But even if President Obama’s plans for passenger rail materialize, it won’t necessarily help the entire rail system. America’s freight, the cargo that moves goods across the country by rail, is in big trouble. To look at the state of the rails, The Takeaway talks with Rick Karr, a correspondent for Blueprint America. His report on the nation’s ailing freight-rail system will air on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer tonight, offers insight into the  bottlenecks on America’s freight rail network and how they may be hindering the nation’s economic competitiveness.

In the Midwest, Chicago has been a freight rail hub for around a hundred and fifty years. In the old days, some lines brought raw materials to the city – like cattle to the stockyards – while others carried finished products to market. The city’s rails are still laid out that way: a couple of lines come in from the west and a couple of others from the east. Even though Chicago still handles about a third of the nation’s freight, a lot of it has to stop there – wait there – and shift from one railroad to another.

As a result, traffic on Chicago’s rails is even slower than traffic on its roads: A two-thousand-two study found that freight trains pass through the city at an average of just nine miles an hour.

But there is no agency in Washington, D.C. responsible for untangling, modernizing, or maintaining the nation’s freight rail system – or for paying for those improvements. And so, Federal support for improving freight has to come through the back door – tacked on to other transportation projects.

The Obama Administration’s plan announced last week for the expansion of high-speed passenger rail in several key corridors – including Chicago and the Midwest – is likely to improve the speed of freight as both kinds of trains share the same tracks in much of the country.

Click below to listen. 

(Source:  Assosicated Press & Union Leader)

 Sgt. Paul Thompson was on routine patrol early Monday when he noticed a car stopped at a red light at the intersection of Bridge and Union streets in Manchester, N.H.  The car didn’t move when the light turned green. So the police officer checked it out and found the driver asleep at the wheel, with one foot still on the brake. The 22-year-old driver, Victoria LaGrange, eventually woke up, showing signs of intoxication, and was arrested Monday on a charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported.

(Source: Jalopnik, AutoBlog, TreeHugger)

Rumormill: Fiat could step in for GM in Europe, Latin America

…GM, Opel, Vauxhall, FIATForget about letting the ink dry: even while negotiations have been ongoing between Fiat and Chrysler, there have been rumors of potential additional or alternative alliances which the Italian auto group has purportedly been considering. Things may have been put on hold with Chinese automaker Chery and with Nissan, but ta..

(Source: USDOT – Office of Planning, Environment and Realty, Federal Highway Administration)

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 – ISSN 1529-1057

The deadline to register at the regular registration rate for the 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition of ITS America is rapidly approaching! Members of ITS America and public sector employees can register for $800.00 – that’s a $100.00 discount off the late registration rate! Full registration includes admittance to all educational sessions, the exhibit hall, the Technology Showcase, and ITS America’s networking events.  With ITS America 2009 in the Metro Washington Area, this is a wonderful opportunity to interact with legislators on the federal, state, and local level to showcase ITS products and services.  In addition to policy and technical sessions, the event will feature “city streets” vehicle and infrastructure technology demonstrations, a 150,000 square foot exhibit hall, tours of area transportation projects and facilities, and many other activities.  Be sure to take advantage of these registration rates before they increase on May 1. For more information on registration packages and to register, click here.

AVIATION

1) Hudson Ditching Survivor Joins Overwhelming Public Opposition to FAA Bird Strike Data Secrecy

Link to AP story:

http://www.startribune.com/nation/43306877.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

Link to all responses:

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=FAA-2009-0245

2) Airline Leaders Shift Focus on Air Traffic Control Replacement

Link to story in USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2009-04-20-nextgen-air-traffic-control_N.htm

CAMERAS

3) Police: Suspect in Custody in Murder of Photo Radar Worker

Link to story in The Arizona Republic.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2009/04/19/20090419photoworker-ON.html

OTHER

4) DC First in Line for Free Mobile Digital TV; Other Cities to Follow

Link to story in The Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042001302.html

ROADWAYS

5) Missouri City, Texas Approves Intelligent Transportation System

Link to story on FortBendNow:

http://www.fortbendnow.com/2009/04/21/37268

SAFETY / SECURITY

6) Secure Flight Roils Booking Technology

Link to story in Business Travel News:

http://www.btnonline.com/businesstravelnews/headlines/frontpage_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003963792

TELEMATICS

7) Low on Oil? Check Your Cell Phone

Link to story in The Korea Herald:

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/04/22/200904220069.asp

TRANSIT

8) Dubai Commuters Can Now Plan Their Journey

Link to story in the Gulf News:

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Traffic_and_Transport/10305737.html

Link to Wojhati:  http://www.rta.ae/WOJHATI/dub/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en

TRAVELER INFORMATION / TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT

9) Streetfilms: Behind the Scenes at Los Angeles Traffic Control

Link to video on Streetsblog:

http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/04/20/streetfilms-behind-the-scenes-at-la-traffic-control/

News Releases

1) Public Meeting on IntelliDrive Proof of Concept (POC) Results and Findings

2) Aviation Weather, Flight Planning and Airport Data on Your Cell Phone

3) DC Metro Expands Advertising Opportunities with New Digital Projection Advertising

4) Cadcorp Launches CCTV Mapping System

Upcoming Events

12^th International Conference on Automated People Movers – May 31-June 3 – Atlanta

http://content.asce.org/files/pdf/APM09_PreProgram_v14_000.pdf

Today in Transportation History

1994 **15^th anniversary** – US DOT unveiled its ‘Share the Road’ public service campaign.

http://www.sharetheroadsafely.org/supportingMaterials/shareTheRoadFinalReport.asp

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

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: Virgin America & Tree Hugger)

(Source: Autobloggreen & Financial Times)

Executives at India’s Tata Motors admit that their company is a bit behind the times when it comes to environmental awareness when compared to established players in Europe. “We are behind as far as the world is concerned. There are many Scandinavian companies because they are more conscious of this than the rest of us,” says JJ Irani, a director for Tata’s automotive business. He adds, “We are not shy of learning.”

Img. Source: Flickr

“Tata is new at this game,” Mr Irani told the Financial Times, explaining that the Indian group had not concentrated much on environmentally friendly products until now.

 “What we wanted was the experience of other global conglomerates who have been on this journey before,” he said.

For this reason, Irani and a few of his colleagues are currently visiting a number of large European companies in an attempt to pick up a few pointers on how to improve their eco-credentials. In addition, the group has plans to meet with executives at some of the world’s largest oil companies. Irani hopes these meetings will allow Tata to “catch up faster” than if they were on their own.  Mr Irani said he was taking managers from Tata companies to see how other groups behaved. “We want to see what sort of problems they face and how they deal with it so we can catch up faster.”

Tata has come in for heavy criticism from some environmentalists about the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, but the Indian company retorts that it is more fuel-efficient than a motorbike.

Tata sees a big opportunity because it operates in some of the biggest polluting sectors such as power generation, steel manufacturing and chemicals and carmaking. It has set up a group dedicated to exploring ways of becoming more environmentally friendly and has about 100 people working on it across all its companies.

The Tata managers will also meet some grandees of the oil industry including Lord Browne, the former BP chief executive, and Lord Oxburgh, ex-chairman of Shell.

They will also visit executives at banks Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank as well as Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering group.

On a related note, TATA is releasing its all-electric Indica for the Norwegian market and eventually for the rest of the world. 

Although the all-electric Tata Indica on display at the SAE World Congress in Detroit this week is not the soon-to-be-released model, there’s a lot we can learn from the vehicle – and from TM4’s Eriz Azeroual – about how the technology will be implemented when the new model goes on sale in Norway either later this year or in early 2010 (yes, this is later than previously expected).  A limited number of the Indica’s are already testing in Norway and the TM4 reps are heard saying that Tata Motors is “a cool company. Very aggressive.” Even though they’re most famous for the Nano and apparently wanting to dominate the low-end automobile market, in Europe market they want to be known for electric vehicles.   Norway is a perfect entry point to bring an EV to Europe because there is a high tax on gasoline-powered vehicles. The high cost of electric vehilces isn’t totally equalized by the taxes, but EVs and gas-powered vehicle prices end up being “comparable” in Norway.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images via WSJ

Bullet Train Changes Nation — and Fast

CIUDAD REAL, Spain — To sell his vision of a high-speed train network to the American public, President Barack Obama this week cited Spain, a country most people don’t associate with futuristic bullet trains.

Yet the country is on track to bypass France and Japan to have the world’s biggest network of ultrafast trains by the end of next year, figures from the International Union of Railways and the Spanish government show.

The growth of the Alta Velocidad Española, or AVE, high-speed rail network is having a profound effect on life in Spain. Many Spaniards are fiercely attached to their home regions and studies show they are unusually reluctant to live or even travel elsewhere.

But those centuries-old habits are starting to change as Spain stitches its disparate regions together with a €100 billion ($130 billion) system of bullet trains designed to traverse the countryside at up to 218 miles an hour.

“We Spaniards didn’t used to move around much,” says José María Menéndez, who heads the civil engineering department at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. “Now I can’t make my students sit still for one second. The AVE has radically changed this generation’s attitude to travel.”

But the AVE-which means “bird” in Spanish- proved to be a popular and political success. Politicians now fight to secure stations in their districts. Political parties compete to offer ever-more ambitious expansion plans. Under the latest blueprint, nine out of ten Spaniards will live within 31 miles of a high speed rail station by 2020.

By last year, the sprawling network of lines that stretches out from the capital, Madrid, reached Málaga in the south, Valladolid to the north and Barcelona in the country’s northeast. Now, residents of Barcelona can be in Madrid in just over two-and-a-half hours-a journey that takes around six hours by car.

The University of Castilla-La Mancha’s campus here has grown sharply in size and importance. “The school is here because of the AVE,” says Mr. Menéndez, the department head. “Without it, it would be impossible to attract the high-level staff we need.”

Around a third of Mr. Menéndez’s students are from a different region of Spain — almost unheard of in a country where students mostly stay close to home.