(Source:  EnterpriseNews.com)

For more than a year, Gov. Deval Patrick has been promising a response to the state’s ever-worsening transportation woes. Friday he delivered a proposal that includes most of what the situation requires.

Patrick starts with reform, as he should. His plan would finally put the much-despised Mass. Turnpike Authority out of business, merging it, along with the MBTA, MassPort and the Registry of Motor Vehicles, into a single, more accountable, transportation agency.

Patrick also vows to do away with the administrative redundancy and unjustifiable perks that have grown over the decades in these transportation fiefdoms. The MBTA contract, for instance, allows union workers to retire after just 23 years on the job and immediately begin collecting healthy pensions, with the state providing health insurance for the rest of their lives. With the “T” burdened by more than $5 billion in debt, such excesses are inexcusable.

Source: New York Press

The New York Times reports that MTA ridership on both subways and buses is up: “Despite a slumping economy, New York City Transit recorded a total of 2.37 billion rides across the city’s subways and buses in 2008, a 3.1 percent increase from 2007 and the highest figure since 1965.”

That “despite” beginning the lede sentence makes very little sense. OF COURSE ridership would be up in a weakened economy: PUBLIC transportation should be the most affordable, efficient way to get from one point to another. Who can afford taxis or car insurance and parking? Are we supposed to be walking the length of the island. It should actually read: DESPITE massive service delays and inconveniences, MTA ridership is up. In fact,some people think the subway should be FREE!

(Source:  NYT via Jalopnik.com)

Saab, GM’s meatball-of-a-badge, officially filed for bankruptcy protection today in Sweden. Remaining to be seen is what role, if any, GM will have with the born-from-jets brand.  

Here’s what the NYT has to say:

Unmoored from its parent, Saab went to a Swedish court for protection from its creditors, and said the company would – with assistance from the Swedish government – reorganize to pave the way for private investors to buy all or part of the company.

“We explored and will continue to explore all available options for funding and/or selling Saab, and it was determined a formal reorganization would be the best way to create a truly independent entity that is ready for investment,” the managing director of Saab, Jan-Ake Jonsson, said in a statement.

(Source: CNN)

Airline: Please Turn On Cell Phones

Love it or hate it, the person next to you on your flight may be able to use their mobile phone. CNN’s Jim Boulden reports.

(Source:  Gizmodo.com)

The bridge built to replace the one that crumbled like delicious goat cheese in Minneapolis in 2007—is a smartie, packed with built-in sensors that perform wonders like automagically de-ice the road in winter.

Less than one percent of the cost of the St. Anthony Falls bridge was spent on the sensor system, which tracks weather, stresses and even traffic, and it’ll save money in the long run, with its automatic de-icing system cutting “weather management” costs by 10 to 50 percent. It’s the incorporation of the smart sensor tech that actually won the contract to build the bridge for the FIGG team. The next step will be wireless sensors that are even cheaper, so it’ll be loaded up with thousands of them, not hundreds.

To read the entire article, click here.

Transportation for America Research Fellowship (Posted: Feb 20, 2009)

The Transportation for America Campaign seeks a Fellow to undertake research in support of national transportation policy reform. This is a tremendous opportunity for a recent graduate to learn about federal transportation policy and reform issues while performing applied research on federal, state and local transportation programs.

Transportation for America is a growing and diverse coalition focused on creating a national transportation program that will take America into the 21st century by building a modernized infrastructure and healthy communities where people can live, work and play. To find out more about Transportation for America visit the www.t4america.org.  The campaign is staffed by Smart Growth America andReconnecting America.

Friday, February 20, 2009 — ISSN 1529-1057

Register Now for ITS America‘s Cap and Trade Webinar – Feb. 25

 ITS America is offering a series of webinars on transportation technologies and the environment. The first webinar, which will be held February 25, 2009 from 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm EST, is intended to provide a basic understanding of cap and trade systems and how transportation technology projects may profit from participation in a cap and trade plan. Leslie Bellas, Director of Environmental Affairs at ITS America, will be the first presenter.  Leslie will be discussing: how the mandatory federal cap and trade system is working; how regional cap and trade markets for carbon emissions are functioning; and how transportation technology projects could fit into a cap and trade program of action. The webinar is free to ITS Americamembers and non-members are welcome to join for $99. Click here to register or contact Lori Vintilescu at loriv@itsa.org for more information.

 

AVIATION

 1) Pilots’ Union Calls Buffalo Airport Landing System Flawed

Link to story in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/nyregion/20beacon.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

 

2) RTCA Task Force Assisting FAA on NextGen Rollout

Link to story in Aviation International News:

http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/rtca-task-force-assisting-faa-on-nextgen-rollout/

Link to additional information from RTCA:

http://www.rtca.org/comm/Committee.cfm?id=130

 

BUSES

 3) San Francisco Muni Buses Will Take a Noisy Turn

Audible warning system will sound whenever a bus makes a right turn.

Link to story in the San Francisco Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/18/BAMR15TDN6.DTL&hw=beep+muni&sn=002&sc=543

 

4) Bus Tracking System at Slippery Rock University to Decrease Carbon Footprint

Link to story in The Rocket:

http://media.www.theonlinerocket.com/media/storage/paper601/news/2009/02/20/News/Bus-Tracking.System.To.Decrease.Carbon.Footprint-3639798.shtml

 

CAMERAS

 5) Loophole for Leased Vehicles Found in Cleveland’s Red-Light Camera Law

Link to story and video report on WEWS-TV:

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/18761568/detail.html

 

ELECTRONIC TOLLING

  6) Study Looks at High-Tech Tolls in Connecticut

Link to AP story:

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct-xgr–highwaytolls0219feb19,0,1146435.story

 

GPS / NAVIGATION

 7) Company Demos Development Turn-by-Turn iPhone App

Link to story in Macworld:

http://www.macworld.com/article/138927/iphone_gps.html

 

8) The Face Behind the GPS Voice Finds Fame

Link to story in the Houston Chronicle:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/features/6271616.html

 

MARITIME

 9) RFID Tag Problems Cause Jams at Los Angeles, Long Beach Ports

Link to story in Land Line Magazine:

http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2009/Feb09/021609/021909-01.htm

 

OTHER

 10) US DOT: Obama Will Not Pursue Mileage Tax

Link to story on CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/20/driving.tax/

 

11) Web Site Will Let Public Track Rhode Island DOT Road and Bridge Projects that Use Federal Stimulus Money

Link to story in The Providence Journal:

http://www.projo.com/news/content/bz_stimulus_website_02-20-09_D4DCURT_v7.3321d99.html

Link to site:  http://www.gov.ri.gov/recovery/

 

12) Police in Australia Go Online to Track Down Hoons

Link to story in The Advertiser:

http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/news/local/news/general/police-go-online-to-track-down-hoons/1439942.aspx

 

ROADWAYS

 13) Chicago Alderman Proposes Countdown at Traffic Lights

Link to story and video on WLS-TV:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6668175 

 

TRANSIT

 14) Integrated Cash-on-Card Solution Gets Green Light in Taiwan

Link to story in the Taiwan Journal:

http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?CtNode=122&xItem=48451

 

VEHICLES

 15) Japanese Automakers Get Ready to Strut Advanced Safety Technology

Link to story in Edmunds Inside Line:

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=142412

  

Upcoming Events

Transportation Safety Advisory Group Case Studies Workshop & Webinar – March 4

http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/t3/s090304_tsag.asp

  

Friday Bonus

That’s one step forward and two steps back.

http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=16193

  

Today in Transportation History

1959 **50^th anniversary** – The Avro Canada CF-105 aircraft program is cancelled by the Canadian government.

http://www.avroarrow.org/AvroArrow/index.html

 

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

The Transportation Communications Newsletter is published electronically Monday through Friday. 

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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: Associated Press via Yahoo.com)

President Barack Obama on Friday rejected his transportation secretary’s suggestion that the administration consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive instead of how much gasoline they buy. “It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, when asked for the president’s thoughts about Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s suggestion, raised in an interview with The Associated Press a daily earlier.

Gasoline taxes that for nearly half a century have paid for the federal share of highway and bridge construction can no longer be counted on to raise enough money to keep the nation’s transportation system moving, LaHood told the AP.

“We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled,” the former Illinois Republican lawmaker said in the AP interview.

To read the entire article, click here.

(Source: CNN)

New legislation expands tax credits for electric cars to cover smaller, but not bigger, vehicles.

 

Thanks to President Obama’s stimulus package, Americans can now get big tax breaks on more types of electric vehicles.

The credits originally would have stopped after they had been claimed on 250,000 vehicles across the whole industry. Now the credits will apply on to up to 200,000 vehicles from any single manufacturer.

(Source: Gizmodo.com)