(Source: Jalopnik)

It’s not often that you quickly look past blonde and presumably Italian (or maybe Swiss) “booth professionals,” but the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider has that affect on a man. Yes, friends, the highly anticipated Geneva debut of the Spider is finally here. This car has the same 450 HP 4.7-liter V8 as its brother, the 8C Competizione, which earned its own Very Special Jalopnik Day. If you haven’t already noticed, the Spider features a fully automatic electro-hydraulic convertible top that has been engineered with the same aerodynamic and performance precision as the rest of the ride. 

The car’s sexy enough on it’s own. But adding a couple of  super good looking, electric red wearing, smoking hot babes, strutting their wares around that dream machine to some fine rhythms – makes it absolutely irresistible (i.e., if you are ready to do some explaining to your wife/girlfriend why you decided to spend $200K).  Watch the video below and tell me if you disagree:

(Source: Jalopnik, Wired, Autoblog, Detroit News)

GM chair fears deal can’t be reached: Kent Kresa, interim chairman of General Motors Corp., is not optimistic money-saving concessions can be reached with bondholders and the United Auto Workers to avoid bankruptcy before a June 1 deadline. “I’m hopeful we can get there,” Kresa told The Detroit News today. “Everybody understands we would be in a much better situation if we can resolve this among all the players without going through bankruptcy.” GM is trying to restructure about $28 billion in unsecured debt held by GM’s bondholders and $20 billion in obligations to the United Auto Workers. The federal government also may agree to swap some of its $13.4 billion in General Motors Corp. debt for new equity in the company in a move to help boost GM’s balance sheet.

GM chairman looking to turn over half of board of trustees by June? According to the Detroit Free Press, General Motors interim chairman, Kent Kresa, has been asked by president Obama’s administration to replenish the automaker’s board with fresh blood. Kresa said that while the board did achieve “historic things” recently, like renegotiating the UAW pay scale, he also said that the board didn’t fully comprehend the magnitude of the downturn. 

 GM Says Volt Won’t ‘Pay the Rent’ : General Motors won’t make money on its electric car for quite awhile. That’s to be expected, and it should be supported. The Obama administration doesn’t understand that.

GM, Task Force preparing for “surgical” bankruptcy: According to a lengthy report by the New York Times, the Treasury Department is directing General Motors to begin work on a bankruptcy filing by June 1. Based on sources close to the talks who were unable to officially discuss the process, the report outlines the “fast ‘surgical’ bankruptcy” of the automaker if GM is unable to reach an agreeme…

GM‘s new offer for bondholders may contain no cash, just equity: …GM, Earnings/FinancialsGM’s most recent offer to its bondholders offered a little bit of cash and a little bit of equity. GM CEO Fritz Henderson’s example was that a holder of $1,000 in bonds would end up with $333 and a some equity. After conferring with the Auto Task Force, however, that offer was deemed excessive in light of GM‘s situation so…

Smart USA quickly responds to IIHS crash test results

(Source:  Autoblog, Jalopnik & IIHS)

“There are good reasons people buy minicars,” says Institute president Adrian Lund. “They’re more affordable, and they use less gas. But the safety trade-offs are clear from our new tests. Equally clear are the implications when it comes to fuel economy. If automakers downsize cars so their fleets use less fuel, occupant safety will be compromised. However, there are ways to serve fuel economy and safety at the same time.”

The three tests we have are between the Honda Accord and the Honda Fit, the Toyota Camry and Toyota Yaris, and finally the Mercedes C300 and the Smart ForTwo. With each we get a full speed offset frontal crash with both cars traveling at 40 MPH, destruction and carnage ensue and rightly so, there’s a lot of energy involved here. These are hardly scientific tests, and they represent the absolute most extreme crash scenario for these speeds, especially for the smaller cars. Ratings got from “Good” at the top of the scale through “Acceptable” and “Poor.” Considering this is one car bashing into another, the evaluation is somewhat subjective, but it gives an idea of relative performance. Let’s take a closer look at each.

 Click here to read the entire article and to watch two other awesome videos.  Seen below is the IIHS report in PDF format.  To download the report, please visit the IIHS website. 

P.S:  According to AutoBlog, folks over at Smart USA were not pleased to see the results of the latest batch of crash testing from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The IIHS did a series of frontal offset crash tests between small and mid-size cars, one of which included a smart ForTwo versus a Mercedes C300. While the results may have been what most people expected, they don’t correlate with the ForTwo’s results in standardized tests where the IIHS rates the smart as good in front and side impacts. The feds at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration give the smart 4 stars on frontal impact and 5 on side impact. 

The problem, as Smart USA sees it, is that the IIHS devised a test that no automaker has designed to and that they claim only represents about one percent of real world accidents. Smart has even set up a site for customer testimonials about the crash safety performance of their ForTwo. Typically, in the past, Smarts have actually done quite well in similar vehicle-on-vehicle tests, such as the ones conducted by Mercedes and Auto Motor und Sport after the jump.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 – ISSN 1529-1057

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will be the featured speaker at the opening plenary of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America’s (ITS America) 2009 Annual Meeting & Exposition, which will take place June 1-3 at the Gaylord Convention Center on the Potomac in National Harbor, Maryland.  The Secretary’s remarks are scheduled for 10 a.m. in the convention center’s Potomac A-B rooms on the Ballroom level.  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. Registration information is available at www.itsa.org/amregistration.html.

AVIATION

1) Funding Debate Stalls Air Traffic Control Upgrade

Link to story and audio report on NPR’s Morning Edition:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102914658

2) Social Media Sites Take Off at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport

Link to story in Hartsfield-Jackson News:

http://www.atlanta-airport.com/HJN/2009/04/tech.htm

Link to Hartsfield-Jackson Facebook fan page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hartsfield-Jackson-Atlanta-International-Airport/62909106078#/pages/Hartsfield-Jackson-Atlanta-International-Airport/62909106078?v=wall&viewas=604656850

BUSES

3) Bus Tickets in Bangladesh Getting Digitalized

Link to story in The Daily Star:

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=83831

CAMERAS

4) Louisiana Looking to Get Hands on New Orleans’ Traffic Camera Cash

Link to story and video on WWL-TV:

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl041309cbtraffic.d1a51afd.html

ELECTRONIC TOLLING

5) Plans for Electronic Toll System Welcomed in South Africa

Link to story from The Mercury:

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=vn20090414052311427C492452

GPS / NAVIGATION

6) Egypt Lifts Ban on GPS

Link to story in GPS Business News:

http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com/Egypt-lifts-ban-on-GPS_a1463.html

PUBLIC INFORMATION / EDUCATION

7) Alabama Launches Public Safety Campaign to Raise Awareness of Slow Moving Vehicle Emblem

Link to story in the Montgomery Advertiser:

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20090414/OPINION0101/904130319

Link to news release from the Alabama Farmers Federation:

http://www.alfafarmers.org/programs/safety.phtml

SAFETY / SECURITY

8) Canadian Airport Workers to Face Beefed-Up Security Checks

Link to story in The Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090414.BAIRD14ART21393/TPStory/National

9) US Government Accountability Office: Dead People Can Still Get Passports

Link to story in Federal Computer Week:

http://fcw.com/articles/2009/04/14/state-still-issuing-passports-to-deceased-people.aspx

Link to GAO report:

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09583r.pdf

TELEMATICS

10) Taiwan, China Looking to Cooperate in Global Telematics Industry

Link to Central News Agency story:

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=920220&lang=eng_news

TRANSIT

11) Toronto Transit CIO Takes IT to the Streets

Link to IDG News story:

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/04/13/toronto-transit-cio-takes-it-streets

TRAVELER INFORMATION / TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT

12) Inland Counties Consider Breaking with Los Angeles-Based Commuter Information Network

Link to story in The Press-Enterprise:

http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_S_511ie14.3cfece7.html

13) Italian Motorway Traffic on Your iPhone

Link to blog in L’espresso:

http://nelki.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2009/04/14/motorway-traffic-on-your-iphone/

News Releases

1) Expansion of Chicago Transit Authority Bus Tracker Nears Completion with the Activation of 19 Routes

2) TransCore Delivers Integration and RFID Technology for Florida Department of Transportation’s Miami I-95 High Occupancy Tolling (HOT) Lanes

Upcoming Events

National Rural Summit on Traffic Safety Culture 2009 – June 22 – Big Sky, Montana

http://www.meetingsnorthwest.com/TSCsummit.html

Today in Transportation History

1944 **65^th anniversary** – An explosion takes place in Bombay Harbor when the SS Fort Stikine caught fire.  About 800 people died.

http://www.merchantnavyofficers.com/bomEx.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: BBC via Autoblog; Photo: Saudi Jeans via Autoblog)

Saudi Arabia recently instated a new type of license plate that is expected to be fitted to 49 million cars in the kingdom. As opposed to the old Arabic-only plates, the new plates feature Arabic and Latin letters and numbers. Drivers can even request that the three letters on the lower right form certain 3-letter English words, like “nut.”

But according to the BBC, authorities have published a list words that definitely cannot be placed there, and heading the list of words like “SEX” and “ASS” is this one: “USA.”  It hasn’t been explained why “USA” is on the list of Saudi Arabia’s banned words, but such plates and 90,000 others like it are being recalled and replaced with something more acceptable.   Personalised plates are popular with wealthy young Saudis. One plate recently sold at auction for 6m riyals ($1.2m), the newspaper reported.

Such license plate controversies are not new in many parts of the English speaking world.  Often plates implying profane matter are restricted in the U.S. and for those who remember the recent one from Colorado touting a woman’s love for tofu got a lot of media attention.  PETAf iles blog reports that no one driving through Colorado will be seeing the personalized license plate “ILVTOFU” anytime soon, thanks to the DMV’s rejection of the message as “possibly offensive to the general public.”  Wait, what? How is loving tofu offensive? As it turns out, the license-plate approver had an entirely different interpretation of the message, as in I-LV-TO-eff-you.

While it’s a creative interpretation, it’s not exactly what the Colorado mother of three vegetarian kids had in mind. Coffman-Lee is a vegan, and as she puts it, “I’m very expressive. I’m anti-fur, anti-rodeo, anti-circus when they come to Denver, and I thought, ‘Here’s a chance to be positive and say I love something.'” She even says that a friend at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal (PETA) liked the idea so much they were willing to pay the $60 plate fee.Hopefully, with a little explanation and maybe even a tasty sample of the jiggly white stuff, the rejection will be overturned and her car can become the vegetarian-message-on-wheels that it was meant to be.  

(Source: Yahoo News via Jalopnik; Photo: Jalopnik)

The unnamed couple, a 28-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman, were caught in the act late on Easter Sunday by traffic police on the E18 highway, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Oslo.

Officers who clocked the couple’s silver Mazda 323 racing at 133 kilometres per hour in a 100 zone realised they were doing more than just breaking the speed limit, police told AFP.

“It was veering from one side to the other because the woman was sitting on the man’s lap while he was driving and doing the act, shall we say,” said Tor Stein Hagen, a superintendent with Soendre Buskerund district police.

“He couldn’t see much because her back was in the way,” he added.

“Why they did it on a highway with such a high risk we don’t know.”

After following the couple for nearly a kilometre, officers pulled the car over at a service station.  He now faces fines worth several thousand Norweigan crowns and a lengthy driving ban for reckless driving. When the case goes to court it should be an open and shut proceeding, as the police recorded the carnal activities with their dash cam for use as “evidence” later on.

Monday, April 13, 2009 – ISSN 1529-1057

1) FAA Needs Transparency

Newspaper calls on agency to release bird-strike information.

Link to editorial in the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

http://timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/13/faa-needs-transparency/?opiniontimes

2) Crash Survivor: Release Data

Link to story in the Argus Leader:

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20090413/NEWS/904130302/1001/news

3) Western Pennsylvania Airport‘s Radar System Idle After Years

Link to AP story:

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20090411_ap_wpaairportsradarsystemidleafteryears.html

4) Long Beach, California Officials Slam Blogger for Exposing JetBlue Rift

Link to story in USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=65310409.blog

Link to The Cranky Flier blog:  http://crankyflier.com/2009/03/30/across-the-aisle-from-jetblue-ceo-dave-barger-part-1-keeping-the-product-fresh-and-long-beach-troubles/

CAMERAS

5) Red Light Warnings Far from Cameras in Ohio

Link to story in The Columbus Dispatch:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/04/13/signlaw.ART_ART_04-13-09_B1_SGDHNTO.html

6) More Inspectors, Not Cameras, Needed at Louisiana Railroad Crossings

Link to editorial in The Times:

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090413/OPINION03/904110303/1058

GPS / NAVIGATION

7) GPS Can Lead a Criminal to Your Home

Link to story on ABC’s Good Morning America:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=7293049&page=1

RAILROADS

8) NTSB Officials Suggest Using Amtrak Collision for Training

Link to STNG Wire story:

http://www.wbbm780.com/NTSB-Officials-Suggest-Using-Amtrak-Collision-For-/4181456

SAFETY / SECURITY

9) Signs Around Los Angeles Beaches Warn of Looming Tsunami Threat

Link to AP story:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,514706,00.html

TRANSIT

10) Kansas Transit Systems Aim to Enhance Bus Service, Rider Amenities

Link to story and video in the Lawrence Journal-World & News:

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/apr/13/transit-systems-aim-enhance-bus-service-rider-amen/?city_local

11) Washington State’s Jefferson Transit to Consider Policy on Signs Advising Bus Riders About Border Issues

Link to story in the Peninsula Daily News:

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20090412/news/304129984

12) Paris Does Public Transit Right

Parisian buses provide real-time information to passengers.

Link to editorial in The Gazette:

http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/features/viewpoints/story.html?id=3d43f9a3-b3c4-4824-adce-2d9520ea23e1

TRAVELER INFORMATION / TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT

13) New York 511 Service Helps People Move Smoothly

Link to story in The Journal News:

http://www.lohud.com/article/2009904130338

Link to 511NY:  http://www.511ny.org/

14) Big Brother’s Watching You Drive in Lower Manhattan

ITS will be used to calculate drive times.

Link to story in the New York Post:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04112009/news/regionalnews/big_bros_watching_you_drivedowntown_163949.htm

VEHICLES

15) Mercedes-Benz Flagships Take Aboard High-Tech ‘Trailblazers’

Link to story in Motoring:

http://www.motoring.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4930632&fSectionId=751&fSetId=381

News Releases

1) Hertz Acquires Eileo, Car Sharing Technology Leader

2) Research and Markets: Electronic Toll Collection Systems – Global Strategic Business Report – Available Now

Upcoming Events

2009 TRB Joint Summer Conference – July 19-22 – Seattle, Washington

http://www.trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=9900

Today in Transportation History

1969 **40^th anniversary** – The trams in Brisbane made their final runs.

http://www.brisbanetramwaymuseum.org/

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

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: Tree Hugger)

Leader in the Pack 
Rep. Sutton’s Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act would give consumers incentives of $3,000 to $5,000 for turning in vehicles that are 8 years or older to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles or to obtain a transit voucher. She says that support is growing every day. The bill has gathered 21 co-sponsors so far, up from 19 a couple of weeks ago. The bill is still working out the metric of how cars would need to be traded in and what fuel efficiency would need to be for the new car. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has a similar proposal (with a short title of Accelerated Retirement of Inefficient Vehicles Act of 2009) that would mandate that the new car be 25% aboveCAFE standards . There has not been anything mentioned about how many cars one person or family can switch for the credit. Also, some states already have incentives for buying cleaner cars, so will individuals be able to get both state and federal credits? If so, in places like Texas , a person could get a combined total of as much as $8,500.00 for a new car.

Click here to read the entire article.  Here is the CNBC video of  the Cash for Clunkers featuring industry experts Dave McCurdy, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and John Wolkonowicz, IHS Global Insight.

 Note:  Below is a list of articles published on TransportGooru, offering insight into state of various “Cash for Clunkers” style programs implemented (or currently being debated) across the globe (Germany, UK, etc,).

Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act revives “Cash for Clunkers” scrapping plan in U.S

Germany plans to extend Abwrackprämie aka “Environmental Bonus”

The bickering starts over the implementation of the Cash for Clunkers legislation

Obama Favors “Cash for Clunkers”

Germany increases subsidy to 5 Billion Euros, tripling incentives for its “Cash for Clunker” (Abwrackprämie) program

Britain mulls implementation of “Cash for Clunkers” scheme to boost ailing auto sales

(Source: Spiegel Online via Business  Week)

To boost ailing carmakers, the British government is expected to offer customers a premium to exchange clunkers for new vehicles—as Germany has done

The paper writes that Darling and officials in the Treasury have been impressed by the results the programs have delivered in other countries. Last month, Britain experienced a 30 percent drop in new car registrations at a time when Germany recorded 40 percent more vehicle sales than during the same period a year earlier. In Germany, Treasury officials noted, the precipitous drop in auto sales has been reversed.

The Times reported that details are still being hashed out between the Economics Ministry and the Treasury in London, but that the plan will look a lot like Germany’s. According to the paper, a £2,000 (€2,200) scrapping premium is to be given on trade-ins of any car over nine years old.

In contrast to Germany, though, Darling and Economics Minister Peter Mandelson are also seeking industry participation in the program. At the very least, they want a binding commitment that existing rebates will not be dropped because of the government program. So far though, the paper reports, the British automobile industry is resisting the government’s push for it to support the program with its own means.

In addition to Germany, a number of European countries including Austria, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain also have stimulus programs in place for carmakers suffering from thecredit crunch and global financial crisis—and the success of these stimulus efforts has been measurable. China and Brazil have also succeeded in increasing car sales again.

“A scrapping scheme will provide the incentive needed and the evidence is clear that schemes already implemented across Europe do work to increase demand,” Britain’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) chief executive Paul Everitt told the Times. “The UK is the only major European market not to implement a scheme.” SMMT estimates the one-year program would cost about £160 million.

Last week, the United States also said it would adopt the successful European recipe. During a dramatic speech to the auto industry, US President Barack Obama praised the scrapping premiums as exemplary and “successful” and pledged to introduce a similar program in the US. But the program could be a lot more expensive for the United States than Britain: Already, an estimated 250 million cars and trucks are driven in America. Of those, close to 30 percent are at least 15 years old, meaning the country could have as many as 75 million candidates for scrapping.

In Germany, demand has been so strong that the government plans to extend its scrapping bonus through the end of the year. Last week, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet moved to extend the scheme until Dec. 31 and to provide €5 billion in government funding—enough to cover up to 2 million cars.

Click here to read more.   Transportgooru has already published a number of articles on this topic in earlier months.  Please feel free to explore them:

Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act revives “Cash for Clunkers” scrapping plan in U.S

Germany plans to extend Abwrackprämie aka “Environmental Bonus”

The bickering starts over the implementation of the Cash for Clunkers legislation

Obama Favors “Cash for Clunkers”

Germany increases subsidy to 5 Billion Euros, tripling incentives for its “Cash for Clunker” (Abwrackprämie) program

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

DALLAS — Since Henry Ford began mass production of the Model T nearly a century ago, car-loving Americans have gulped ever-increasing volumes of gasoline. A growing number of industry players believe that era is over.

Among those who say U.S. consumption of gasoline has peaked are executives at the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp., as well as many private analysts and government energy forecasters.

The reasons include changes in the way Americans live and the transportation they choose, along with a growing emphasis on alternative fuels. The result could be profound transformations not only for the companies that refine gasoline from crude oil but also for state and federal budgets and for consumers. Much of contemporary America, from the design of its cities to its tax code and its foreign policy, is predicated on a growing thirst for gasoline.

 As Americans commute less, use more fuel efficient cars and take more public transportation, gas stations have shut down. There are 11% fewer places to pump gas in the U.S. today than there were a little over a decade ago.

In the vast market for crude oil, American gasoline consumption matters. One of every 10 barrels of crude ends up in U.S. gasoline tanks, more than is used by the entire Chinese economy.

Right now, the recession is curbing U.S. gasoline consumption, as laid-off workers stop commuting and budget-conscious families forgo long road trips. Drivers filled their cars with 371.2 million gallons of petroleum-based gasoline every day in 2007, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It expects that to fall 6.9% to 345.7 million gallons in 2009, as demand at the pump declines and the use of plant-based ethanol increases. Even if usage climbs after the recession ends, it won’t exceed 2007 levels, according to EIA forecasts.

Demand for all petroleum-based transportation fuels — gasoline, diesel and jet fuel — fell 7.1% last year, according to the EIA. This is the steepest one-year decline since at least 1950, as far back as the federal government has reliable data.

Many industry observers have become convinced the drop in consumption won’t reverse even when economic growth resumes. In December, the EIA said gasoline consumption by U.S. drivers had peaked, in part because of growing consumer interest in fuel efficiency.

Exxon believes U.S. fuel demand to keep cars, SUVs and pickups moving will shrink 22% between now and 2030. “We are probably at or very near a peak in terms of light-duty gasoline demand,” says Scott Nauman, Exxon’s head of energy forecasting.

If Exxon is right, the full impact of falling demand for fuel would take years to be felt. But some deep changes are under way.

Click here to read the entire article.    Also, don’t forget to explore the interactive graphic that offers some stunning statistics.  Below is a video report from WSJ for this story.