TransportGooru

(Source: Backgrounder, Council on Foreign Relations) 

 

Author:	Robert McMahon, Deputy Editor

Introduction : 

Transportation experts view the call for dramatic federal government action in response to the economic crisis as an opportunity to overhaul the U.S. system of highways, bridges, railways, and mass transit. A series of sobering report cards from the American Society of Civil Engineers documents the inadequacy of this system. President Barack Obama took office pledging to act; his February 2009 stimulus package provides nearly $50 billion for transportation infrastructure. But many experts look beyond the stimulus and call for shifts in longer-term policy that will fundamentally alter the approach to planning and funding infrastructure and bolster U.S. competitiveness, quality of life, and security. In the past, the United States has revamped its transportationinfrastructure to build canals, transcontinental railways, and a federal highway system, in each case helping usher in periods of economic growth.

A State of Disrepair

Transportation Communications Newsletter

 Tuesday, February 24, 2009 — ISSN 1529-1057

 AVIATION

 1) Final FAA-Weather Service Decision Delayed Again

Link to column in The Washington Post:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/02/post_4.html

 2) New Technology May Prevent Bird Strikes

Link to ABC News story:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/Travel/story?id=6940435&page=1

 PARKING

 3) ‘Smart’ Parking Meters Catching on Across US

Link to story in USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2009-02-23-smartmeters_N.htm

 ROADWAYS

 4) The Bridge to Smart Technology

Smart technology that makes infrastructure safer and more efficient is ready just in time for a flood of government spending.

Link to story and video in BusinessWeek:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_09/b4121042656141.htm?chan=rss_topEmailedStories_ssi_5

 5) Let’s Stimulate Smart Highways

Link to commentary in Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/23/stimulus-transportation-hov-opinions-contributors_hot_highways.html

 SAFETY / SECURITY

 6) Privacy, Identity, and the Use of RFID and RF-Enabled Smart Card Technology

Link to story in Smart Card Talk:

http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/newsletter-200902-feature?issue=200902

 TRANSIT

 7) Utah Transit Authority Showcases Open Payment System

Link to story in Government Technology:

http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/621904

Link to further information from the UTA:

http://www.rideuta.com/ridingUTA/amenities/electronicFare.aspx

 8) Updates from APTA’s Marketing & Communications Workshop

Link to blogs:

http://blog.apta.com/?cat=1

 9) Light Rail Vehicle Collisions with Vehicles at Signalized Intersections

Link to report from the Transportation Research Board:

http://www.trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=10004

 News Releases

1) Economic Downturn Favors Cheaper Navigation Form Factors

2) US Departments of Defense, Transportation, and Homeland Security Release 2008 Federal Radionavigation Plan

3) QNX Changes the Rules for In-Vehicle Software Development

4) ATX to Seek Local Partners to Expand European Telematics

 Upcoming Events

Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Bus Safety Summit – March 5-6 – Arlington, Virginia

http://www.cvsa.org/events/Bus%20Summit%20Online_revised%20021009.pdf

 Today in Transportation History

1909 **100th anniversary** – The Hudson Motor Car Company was founded.

http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/2005/11/01/hmn_feature11.html

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

The Transportation Communications Newsletter is published electronically Monday through Friday. 

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 Questions, comments about the TCN?  Please write the editor, Bernie Wagenblast ati95berniew@aol.com.   

© 2009 Bernie Wagenblast

(Source: Brookings Institution)

(Source: NPR)

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says high-speed rail could be a signature issue for Obama. “I do think this is the transformational issue for this administration when it comes to transportation,” LaHood said. “I think President Obama would like to be known as the high-speed rail president, and I think he can be.”

LaHood has sent Obama a memo outlining a half-dozen rail corridors across the country that could be in line to get some of the high-speed rail mon,ey.

The state that may be furthest along in planning is California, where voters approved a $9 billion bond issue last fall for high speed trains. Quentin Kopp, a former judge who is chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, expects a lot of the federal money to wind up in the California system, which would link the state’s largest cities.

Click here to read the entire article.

[ipaper id=12787170]

(Source: Times of India)

MARGAO: Western India Automobile Association (WIAA) in association with the road safety cell of the Ministry of surface transport organized training programmes and heath camps for heavy motor vehicle drivers at various places in South Goa recently.  The free refresher training course cum health camp for drivers which concluded on Saturday at the Kings School, Mugalli-Margao, was supported by the regional transportauthority of Goa. 

Yogesh Ambe, general manager (road safety) WIAA, Mumbai, informed TOI that the central ministry had allotted grants to take up such courses for drivers in Goa. “WIAA conducted free health camps and training course for drivers of BPCL, HPCL besides drivers at mines in Maina, Shigao, Sanvordem and heavy vehicle drivers at Vasco and Margao, with the support of Baba Naik of Tata Motors. Health camps for vision, blood grouping and general health checks besides issuing a free personal accident insurance policy of Rs 1 lakh each to all participants,” said Ambe. 

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Forbes.com)

California’s HOT expressways are on the rise but need our government’s financial support.

(Source: AP via Forbes.com)

An older idea is experiencing a rebirth thanks to the truck traffic that increasingly chokes America’s highways: shift more of U.S. freight burden to boats that can traverse rivers, lakes, canals and coastal waters.

Increased concerns about fuel prices and global warming in recent years have revived interest in marine highways from the Erie Canal to the Chesapeake Bay to the coastal waters off Oregon, Massachusetts and Texas.

Proponents envision further expansion of the country’s 25,000 miles (40,230 kilometers) of navigational waterways by making greater use of the coasts and inland routes, such as the St. Lawrence Seaway (other-otc: STLS.PK – news –people ), the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

A significant expansion of the marine highway system faces several obstacles:

Many locks haven’t been updated in decades to accommodate increased freight traffic. Replacing America’s lock system would cost an estimated $125 billion.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Irish Times)

IRISH PEOPLE are more concerned about climate change issues than many other countries and they claim to have an extremely high recycling rate, a global survey has found.

The research was commissioned by marketing consultancy Accenture and involved 10,733 consumers in 22 countries including Europe, the US, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Argentina, Chile and South Africa.

Some 87 per cent of Irish people surveyed said they were concerned about climate change, compared with 83 per cent globally. And 96 per cent of Irish respondents claimed to recycle paper or plastic goods compared with 87 per cent globally. Some 93 per cent of Irish people surveyed said they shut down electric devices instead of leaving them on stand-by, compared with 87 per cent globally.

However, Ireland lagged behind in other areas, with 62 per cent saying they would avoid taking the car in favour of using communal transport, compared with 69 per cent globally. Just 21 per cent of Irish respondents said they used alternative energy such as solar or wind power, compared with 28 per cent globally. And 65 per cent of Irish respondents said they avoided buying goods requiring long-distance transportation compared with 71 per cent globally.