(Source: Good)

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Cities with the most frustrating traffic problems

Click the IBM banner below to learn more about the opportunity:

Please RSVP to transprt@us.ibm.com

When: Thursday, February 25, 2010

Time: 9:00 – 11:45 a.m.

Where: The Rayburn House Office Building, Room B-318, Washington, DC 20005

The rising trends of globalization, urbanization and exponential population growth are applying pressure on our already stressed transportation networks. Leaders of public and commercial transportation systems face daunting challenges including predicting demand, optimizing capacity, improving the traveler’s experience, and maximizing efficiency – all while reducing environmental impact and continuing to assure safety and security. Fortunately, new approaches and technologies are delivering solutions to meet these challenges.

The need for progress is clear. There are now more than 475 urban areas with more than 1 million people residing in them. That’s an increase of 573% from 1950 when there were only 83. That translates into more than half the world’s population now living in urban areas. Transportation congestion continues to grow, wasting time and money while creating more pollution. Most of the developed world’s transportation infrastructures were designed decades ago and reflect the available technology, population and requirements at that time. Simply, the infrastructure responsible for moving the world’s people and things is inadequate.

Meanwhile, transportation investment remains a hot topic in Washington due to federal stimulus funding and new surface transportation legislation that Congress is working to pass.

Please join IBM on Thursday, February 25, 2010, for an exclusive forum in Washington D.C. which will bring together policy makers, transportation companies, metro planners and academics to discuss the future of transportation and how new innovations and investments can bring about speedier and greener passenger travel.

Hosted at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington D.C., the forum will examine society’s need for updated transportation infrastructures– using technology to predict travel times, manage capacity and promote safer transport. Prominent transportation leaders from government and industry will discuss powerful strategies and solutions to dramatically improve our transportation systems.

Participants will include Congressman Earl Blumenaur from Oregon, Dr. Robert Bertini, Deputy Administrator, US DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration. Janet Kavinocky from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Judge Quentin Kopp, former Chairman of California High Speed Rail Authority, and other distinguished guests.

We value your perspectives and insights on this important topic and look forward to your participation in this collaborative event. Further details will be provided upon your response.

RSVP: transprt@us.ibm.com

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• IBM opens center in Washington (ecombizcenter.blogspot.com)

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), in partnership with IBM and Spencer Trask Collaborative Innovations (STCI), has launched a global challenge to identify innovative ideas for combating transportation congestion.

“The average metropolitan commuter in the U.S. spends nearly a full work week stuck in traffic each year, wasting precious time and fuel and impacting the environment, safety conditions on roads, and economic productivity to the tune of more than 1 percent of GDP,” said ITS America President and CEO Scott Belcher. “Allowing congestion to grind cities, suburbs and supply chains to a halt every morning and afternoon is unacceptable when we have innovative tools, technologies, and strategies available to manage our transportation systems and utilize our infrastructure more effectively.”

The ITS Congestion Challenge is a global competition to identify the best and most creative ideas to effectively reduce congestion and its impacts on the economy, environment, and quality of life.

The competition is open to entrepreneurs, commuters, transportation experts, researchers, universities, and citizens from all fields around the globe. All ideas will be reviewed discussed and rated by an open global community, to determine the best and most creative ideas to effectively solve the consequences of traffic congestion.

The winner will be announced during the 16^th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems in Stockholm, Sweden, September 21 – 25, 2009, and will receive a cash investment of $50,000 USD, as well as development and implementation support to pursue turning the ideas into real-world solutions.

More information is available on the competition including key attributes winning entries will be expected to incorporate. Participants will be able to post solutions, collaborate in an open community to improve solution entries, and ultimately vote for those solutions they believe best relieve the issues caused by congestion.

(Source: Earth2Tech & CNET)

According to IBM, which has just unveiled a new “smart rail” project in China, its software can help cut delays, increase uptime, reduce emissions and slash fuel costs, . The company has already rolled out software for high-speed rail projects in the Netherlands and Taiwan. As Big Blue readies for a round of layoffs, those projects could be key to the company’s bid for high-speed rail stimulus funds.  

IBM’s latest smart rail projects add computing intelligence behind the scenes — they’re less about connecting passengers with the web (Cisco’s focus in the San Francisco demo) and more about automating system management to improve efficiency.

In Taiwan, the High Speed Rail Corporation is using IBM’s Maximo software to manage maintenance and logistics (for example, reporting on conditions of signals, tracks and communication devices and automatically filing work orders) for a network of hundreds of trains, each capable of going up to 186 mph, IBM said in an announcement today. A relevant comparison for those of you in Silicon Valley: Caltrain maxes out at 79 mph.  The same software, Maximo, will power the asset management platform IBM is building for the state-owned rail operator in China’s Guangzhou City. IBM says it’s building a classification and coding system for all of GZ Metro’s software, services, tracks, trains, station shops and advertising spots as the railway operator gears up for a $176 billion expansion expected to double passenger capacity to 4 million per day.

CNET reports that Netherlands Railways used software from Ilog, which IBM bought last year, to optimize its schedule to best match its equipment–5,000 trains, 390 stations, and 2,800 kilometers of track–with passenger travel. By fine-tuning this complex system, the rail authority lowered its operating costs between 5 and 10 percent, saving about 20 million euros a year, according to IBM.

The Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation is using an “asset-management package,” which IBM gained when itacquired MRO Software, to get trains running from the north side of the island to the south with a punctuality rate of 99.15 percent. The 90-minute trip replaces what would be a 4 1/2-hour trip by convention rail.

This CNET article also discussed the efforts undeertaken by the US in speeding up the High-speed rail investment.  IBM considers government funding for high-speed rail is the equivalent of “seed money” for large projects, said Ken Donnelly, transportation strategy manager for IBM’s Maximo asset-management product. As problems over traffic congestion and pollution become more acute, IBM’s Dierkx expects interest in rail to gain steam.

“In an economic downturn, a lot of green initiatives can come under pressure if you don’t have strategic foresight,” he said.

Click here to read the entire article.  Shown below is a video from IBM’s YouTube Channel (IBMSocialMedia), outlining the Transportation needs in China and how IBM is helping the government meet this challenge. 

(Source: MCADCAFE)

The EDISON effort (Electric Vehicles in a Distributed and Integrated Market using Sustainable Energy and Open Networks) consists of IBM, Denmark’s largest energy company DONG Energy, the regional energy company of Oestkraft, Technical University of Denmark, Siemens, Eurisco and the Danish Energy Association. Due to the environmental benefits of the electric vehicle technologies, the research will be partly funded by the Danish government.

Market introduction and investment plans in Denmark will result in upwards of 10% of the country’s vehicles being all electric or hybrid electric during the coming years. In order to minimize CO2-emissions linked to electrified transport, global attention on vehicles and infrastructure that will maximize the use of renewable energy for mobility has increased. To achieve this on a large scale, electric vehicles require smart technologies to control charging and billing and to ensure the stability of the overall energy system.

“Denmark, the host of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change conference and the most energy efficient country in the EU, further underscores its ambitions here with the Edison project announcement,” said Guido Bartels, General Manager of IBM’s Global Energy & Utilities industry. “There is already broad consensus that both wind energy and electric vehicles have enormous potential for a sustainable energy future — bringing the two together promises to be a winning combination.”