TransportGooru

(Source: Associated Press via Yahoo! News)

WASHINGTON – U.S. highway deaths in 2008 fell to their lowest level in nearly 50 years, the latest government figures show, as the recession and $4 per gallon gas meant people drove less to save more. Safety experts said record-high seat-belt use, tighter enforcement of drunken driving laws and the work of advocacy groups that encourage safer driving habits contributed to the reduction in deaths.

Preliminary figures released by the government Monday show that 37,313 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes last year. That’s 9.1 percent lower than the year before, when 41,059 died, and the fewest since 1961, when there were 36,285 deaths.

A different measure, also offering good news, was the fatality rate, the number of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. It was 1.28 in 2008, the lowest on record. A year earlier it was 1.36.

“The silver lining in a bad economy is that people drive less, and so the number of deaths go down,” said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “Not only do they drive less but the kinds of driving they do tend to be less risky — there’s less discretionary driving.”

Fatalities fell by more than 14 percent in New England, and by 10 percent or more in many states along the Atlantic seaboard, parts of the Upper Midwest and the West Coast, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“Americans should really be pleased that everyone has stepped up here in order to make driving safer and that people are paying attention to that,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.

(Source: Deutsche Welle)

Denmark is a leader in climate policy, but the Danes are also among the highest per capita users of energy in the world. The government in Copenhagen is now trying to change that.

When Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen came to power in 2001, he didn’t seem at all interested in the environment and climate protection.

Currently there are only about 200 climate-friendly autos on the nation’s streets, but that should grow to 100,000 within two years.

 The Danish energy corporation DONG and the American company Better Place are planning to invest 100 million euros ($135 million) to build up infrastructure in the country for electric cars. The idea is to make it just as fast to charge up a battery as it is to fill up a tank of gas.

 The head of the Danish electric auto association, Per Moeller, is very pleased with that plan, and confident that Denmark can become a pioneer in this sector.

 “We have really good conditions for it here: no extreme climate changes and a flat landscape,” he said. “Denmark is certainly one of the countries in which it would be the easiest to introduce electric cars.”

The batteries to run these cars of the future have another advantage. They can be charged during the night when energy from wind turbines is available but isn’t being used much, essentially turning them into important energy storage devices.

Mike Zara @ Flickr

 (Source: New York Times)

Like many other air traffic controllers, Michael Pearson was hired by the Federal Aviation Administration in the early 1980s to help replace more than 10,000 striking air traffic controllers who were fired en masse by President Ronald Reagan.

(Source: McKinsey Quarterly ;Video:  The Auto Channel @ YouTube)

The fastest way to reduce America’s dependence on oil imports is to convert petroleum-driven miles to electric ones by retrofitting the SUVs and pick-ups now on the road with rechargeable batteries. Here’s how.

(Source: Washington Post)

Victor M. Mendez, director of the Arizona Department of Transportation, is Obama’s pick for administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. Mendez worked under former governor Janet Napolitano before she became Obama’s homeland security secretary. In Arizona, Mendez helped implement the state’s multi-billion dollar freeway system and gained extensive experience in transportation funding, technology, infrastructure, research and planning.

Joining Mendez at the Transportation Department will be Peter H. Appel, Obama’s nominee for administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration. A principal with the global management consulting firm of A.T. Kearney, Inc., Appel has over 20 years of experience in transportation and infrastructure projects. He has helped organizations in the railroad, trucking, airline and ocean shipping industries, and he previously served as a top aide at the Federal Aviation Administration and at Amtrak.

Below are the brief Bios of the nominees as shown in Washington Post.

Victor M. Mendez, Nominee for Administrator, Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation

Victor M. Mendez was a member of former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano’s Cabinet as the Director of the Arizona Department of Transportation. He has extensive experience in transportation including innovations in the areas of funding and financing, technology, infrastructure, research, planning and internal operations. Mendez has served as a past President of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and in 2008 he was selected as Leader of the Year in Public Policy in Transportation by the Arizona Capitol Times. Previously, Mendez was selected as the Deputy State Engineer to lead the implementation of the Phoenix area’s multi-billion dollar freeway system. Mendez earned a Masters of Business Administration degree from Arizona State University and a Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. 

Peter H. Appel, Nominee for Administrator, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Department of Transportation

Peter H. Appel is a Principal with the global management consulting firm of A.T. Kearney, Inc. He has led business improvement initiatives for clients in the private and public sectors, with a focus on Transportation and Infrastructure. Appel has over 20 years of experience in Transportation, and has supported organizations in the railroad, trucking, airline, and ocean shipping industries with growth strategy, supply chain improvement, post-merger integration, public-private partnerships, and other key business and policy issues. Previously, Appel served as the Special Assistant to the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, and as Assistant Director for Pricing and Yield Management at Amtrak. Appel earned his bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University in Economics and Computer Science with Highest Honors, and received his Master of Science in Transportation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Click here to read more.

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

Recent Events

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer Announces Principles for Global Warming Legislation. On February 3, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announced her intent to move quickly on global warming legislation and issued principles that she would like to see included. These include setting short and long term emissions targets that are certain and enforceable, using a carbon market to fund various efforts to reduce GHG emissions, and ensuring a level global playing field so that countries contribute their fair share to GHG emissions reductions. For more information including a link to Sen. Boxer’s Principles, see the Committee’s press release.

House Subcommittee Receives Testimony on Surface Transportation Energy Reduction.On January 27, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit heard from nationally recognized transportation experts and a panel of industry representatives about ways to reduce energy consumption and promote sustainability in the surface transportation sector.  Video of the proceedings and written testimonies (scroll down) are available on the Subcommittee website.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Holds Meeting on Maritime Transport and the Climate Change Challenge. On February 17, FHWA’s Mike Savonis presented (via videoconference) results from USDOT’s Gulf Coast Study Phase I to an international audience in Geneva.  Additional information and presentations from the three-day event are available on the meeting website.

U.C. Davis Provides Congressional Briefing on Low-Carbon Transportation Policies & Strategies. On January 12, 2009, the University of California at Davis (UC Davis) Institute of Transportation Studies provided a briefing to Congressional staffers on the future of low-carbon transportation. More information about UC Davis climate change activities is available on the UC Davis ITS website. (TransportGooru is proud to share a video of UC Davis’s Dan Sperling Talk about the current Transportation system and its effect on Climate change. See below)

 House Subcommittee Conducts Hearing on Monitoring GHG Emissions.  On February 24, the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment conducted a hearing on how to monitor, report and verify greenhouse gas emissions.  The purpose of the hearing was to determine the federal role in the funding of research and development of monitoring technologies as well as models to support reliable baseline data for GHG emissions.  The subcommittee heard testimony from businesses, government agencies, and localities on procedures and methods that can be used to monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas emissions.  More information can be found on the Committee’s website at: http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?NewsID=2359

State News

Oregon Governor Introduces VMT Fee Legislation. Following a study on charging a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) fee in place of a state gas tax, the Governor of Oregon introduced legislation that could move the state closer to adopting a per mile road user fee in place of the 24-cent per gallon gas tax. Governor Kulongoski’s Jobs and Transportation Act of 2009 requires the Oregon DOT to develop VMT fee collection technology that could be used to replace the gas tax.  The Act also directs Oregon DOT to further study gas tax alternatives.

Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Enters First Compliance Period. The ten signatory states to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) began their first compliance period on January 1, 2009 and the period ends in December 2011. At that time the ten Mid-Atlantic and New England states will be required to submit emissions allowances equivalent to their carbon dioxide emissions. For more information on the program, see the Pew Climate Center RGGI website.

Announcements

New Energy and Climate Change Database for Planners.  The American Planning Association has launched a new database of energy and climate change activities in planning.  You can search the database by a variety of criteria such as state, topic, planning tool, timeframe, or geographic scale.  The database includes many examples relating to transportation.  The database website iswww.planning.org/research/energy/database.

Summit on America’s Climate Choices, March 30-31 in Washington, D.C. Congress has tasked the National Academies with setting the stage for national action on climate change. In response, the Academies have launched America’s Climate Choices, a suite of activities that will provide policy advice, based on science, to guide the nation’s response to climate change. Experts representing various levels of government, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, and research and academic institutions have been selected to serve on four panels and an overarching committee.    The Summit on America’s Climate Choices provides an opportunity for study participants to interact with major thought leaders and key constituencies to frame the questions and issues that the study will address.  Registration and webcast information are available on the Summit website.  In addition to the summit, NAS is soliciting public input on the questions and content to be considered by the America’s Climate Choices Committee through the America’s Climate Choices website through April 17. 

Reminders

Washington State Department of Transportation Climate Change Weekly Digest, The Washington State DOT has an extensive Climate Change program and the Climate Change Team issues a weekly digest on climate change issues. For more information on WSDOT’s climate change activities see WSDOT’s climate change website. To be put on the email list to receive the weekly digest, please send a note to:StarkS@wsdot.wa.gov.

U.S. DOT Launches Web-Based Clearinghouse of Transportation, Climate Change Resources. The USDOT has launched a new, web-based clearinghouse of information on transportation and climate change. The site provides an introduction to climate change and transportation and related information on greenhouse gas inventories and forecasts, methodologies for analyzing greenhouse gases from transportation, climate change and adaptation, and federal, state and local actions on transportation and climate change. The site also includes a calendar of events and will soon be enhanced to provide an opportunity for users to post and respond to discussions and receive updates by email. To access the site, go to: http://climate.dot.gov. 

Transportation Research Board Starts a New Climate Change website. Transportation Research Board (TRB) has a new website offering information on TRB activities and products addressing transportation and climate change.

 (Source: AutoBlogGreen)

In an attempt to stay politically neutral, we’re going to stop short of offering opinions about Rush Limbaugh’s recent statements regarding hybrid automobiles and the intent of automakers like Ford and Honda to “please politicians overseeing the industry’s multibillion-dollar bailout.” What we will say, though, is that Limbaugh’s a little off when he suggests that hybrid vehicles are entirely unwanted. So sayeth Rush:

Nobody’s buying ’em. Nobody wants them! The manufacturers are making them in droves to satisfy Obama! Sorry for yelling. Nobody wants them!

While it’s true that hybrid vehicle sales tend to rise and fall with the ebb and flow of fuel prices, which are currently down from the record highs from a year ago, Edmunds’ Green Car Advisor points out that 1.3 million hybrid vehicles have been sold in America since 1999, the first year the fuel-saving vehicles entered the market. Obviously, there are more than a few people out there who want to cut down on their fuel usage. Further, these hybrid vehicle programs have been in development since well before President Obama was elected.

When TransportGooru took a sneak peek into the trascripts posted on Mr. Limabugh’s website, the following golden statements caught the attention:   “I will only say that those people have probably given up their individuality for what they think is a larger cause, but nobody wants them.  That doesn’t matter, because as I mentioned earlier in the program, a couple hundred more million acres placed off-limits, energy rich, shale oil, natural gas, placed off-limits by the US Congress.  We’re gonna become more dependent on foreign oil, more dependent on foreign oil.  Gasoline prices are going to go through the roof at some point, Big Oil will be blamed by the Obama administration, and then you will be forced to start considering cars you do not want and you are not buying.  Good-bye freedom.  We have got to drive these people out of office before it’s too late. ”

TransportGooru’s research found another rushed judgement on this issue back in June 2006 , as described in a Huffingtonpost article and the author David Franklin offers his counter along the way:

Rush says that, “Contrary to any loose statements made by our marketing partners in the environmental community and media, petroleum not consumed by Prius owners is not ‘saved.’ It does not remain in the ground. It is consumed by someone else. Greenhouse pollutants are released.” I find this statement baffling! Is there a backlog of “oil orders” that lies unfulfilled somewhere that I am unaware of? Are there companies out there just waiting for people to buy more hybrids, so that they can have their oil orders taken off backorder? Not to my knowledge. Logic would dictate that if demand for oil decreases, drilling and production of oil will decrease as well!

Perhaps if it was put another way it would be easier for Rush to grasp the cold hard logic behind what hybrids can do for this nation; “If every privately owned vehicle in America was traded in today for a Prius, it would reduce the amount of oil our nation requires to a level that could be fully supported by our own resources!”

Let me say that again in case it didn’t sink in fully the first time; “If every privately owned vehicle in America was traded in today for a Prius, it would reduce the amount of oil our nation requires to a level that could be fully supported by our own resources!” (and that’s without having to drill in Alaska!)

(Source: CNN)

There was a time when airline travel was a special treat, the kind of occasion that inspired passengers to dress up.

Take, for instance, “Mr. Poopy Pants” — a grown man who allegedly soiled himself 10 minutes into a flight from Florida to Minnesota. And then he just sat there.

 “We’ve all had our flying hell experiences,” said Gregg Rottler, creator of FlightsFromHell.com.

The site provides a venue for people to share their tales of woe, said Rottler. “It’s therapeutic … so it benefits them and provides entertainment value for others.”

Rottler, a 54-year-old environmental health supervisor in Tampa, Florida, launched the site more than two years ago. Since then,FlightsFromHell.com has attracted submissions from passengers and flight attendants that have run the gamut, touching on categories that include “odors,” “attendant issues,” “weird people,” and “luggage and delays.”

Among the story headlines: “Titanic toddler creates tumult,” “Wifey punched by elderly ‘sleepwalker,’ ” and “Lip-locked tousle-haired 20-somethings.”

“There’s something about being scrunched up with strangers … The seats aren’t that big, and once someone starts going wacko, it just creates an extremely stressful environment that was already stressful enough,” Rottler said.

TripAdvisor, the world’s largest online travel community, recently released survey results from more than 1,500 U.S. respondents asked to discuss what about flying bugs them most.

Flyers griped about fellow passengers snoring, vomiting and having “excessive flatulence.”

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Transportation For America; CNN via Youtube)

As painful transit cuts cripple more and more agencies across the country, major national networks are gradually tuning in to the story and seeing just how bad things are. CNN is the latest to cover the transit cuts phenomenon that’s wreaking havoc on the largest and smallest of our public transportation systems.

In a four-minute segment last week, CNN used Transportation for America’s handy map — which we created to document the 85 communities that are being forced to either cut service, increase fares, or lay off workers due to budget crises at the local and state level — and took an in-depth look at some of the impacts of cutting back public transportation at a time when Americans are riding transit in record numbers.   This peice on transit is part of CNN’s “State of the Union,” in which host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Nation’s  to report on the issues affecting communities across the country. 

 

At one stop Wednesday, a handful of developmentally disabled passengers boarded outside a local facility where they work. One told CNN she optimistic “something will get done about it” but said she isn’t sure how she is supposed to get around after Friday.

Kimberly Barge is a staff attorney at Paraquad, the gym where the Falks and other local disabled residents attend classes.

“People are frustrated, angry — almost to the point of hopeless in some cases because there aren’t many other alternatives for the disability community as far as transportation goes,” Barge told CNN.

Jean McPherson boarded the bus with her infant daughter. The 20-year-old is going back to school to get her high school diploma and though short on cash, she says she is now forced to explore buying a used car.

“I might end up losing my job or not being able to take my daughter to day care,” is how she sees the consequence of her bus route being shortened so that it no longer stretches out to her community. “You can’t afford a car; that is why you use public transportation. So a lot of people are going to be in a bad situation.”

 

Click here to read more.

LA Taansportation Blog – Transportation Headlines for Thursday April 2, 2009

StreetsBlog – Headline News for April 2, 2009

 

• MTA Rescue at a Standstill; Paterson Exasperated With State Senate (News, City Room, Politicker)
• News Pens Another Editorial Hammering Senate Dems
• Nicole Gelinas: Albany Should Help MTA Cut Pension Costs (Post)
• First Manhattan Costco Coming to East River Plaza (TRE)
• LaHood: It’s Not Up to Feds to Fund Transit Service (East Valley Trib)
• Brookings: Stimulus Bill Doesn’t Support Metro Areas (Ryan Avent)
  
• More on Queens Plaza Ped-Bike Improvements (News)
• MTA Tests 11-Car Train on F Line (News)
• Are Toll Discounts for In-State Drivers Even Constitutional? (NYT)
• Georgia Sheriff: Down With Tougher Speeding Penalties (Sustainable Savannah via Streetsblog.net)

AASHTO Daily Update – April 2, 2009

Note:  TransportGooru thanks all the authors for contributing to this headline news summary. This dispatch is made possible by integrating the headline news feeds from the above mentioned sources.  At times, you may encounter a repeat of the same headline news  since they are captured by various individuals working at different organizations.    Please visit the respective source websites if you have any trouble viewing the articles behind the URLs.