Photo credit: Wikipedia

Summary of duties

This position will be responsible for supervising the annual allocation of operating and capital costs among the nine passenger railroads that operate on the Northeast Corridor rail line. This annual process was adopted by the Northeast Corridor Commission in September 2015 and is described in the NortheastCorridor Commuter and Intercity Rail Cost Allocation Policy.

The selected candidate will be responsible for overseeing a complex project that is repeated on annual basis and involves the ongoing participation of Amtrak and public transportation agencies from the northeast states. The role requires both technical competency and exceptional communication skills that are necessary to work through complex disputes among participating stakeholders. Specific activities include managing the collection and processing of financial data from nine operating railroads and multiple infrastructure owners; managing multiple consultant teams that serve as an extension of staff with responsibility for performing key project tasks; performing ongoing stakeholder outreach to collect necessary data; supporting resolution of multi-agency disputes; and identifying and implementing initiatives to improve the allocation process.

This position will also support the Commission’s response to an annual external review of the cost allocation process conducted by an independent auditing firm. The selected candidate may also support other Commission activities, including, but not limited to, the ongoing reporting of operating and capital costs and the continued refinement and development of the Commission’s policy.

Those applying for the position should have experience working with financial data and managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders. Experience working in public transportation or passenger rail is beneficial, but not essential.

This position is intended to be located in New York, NY. However, there may be flexibility to locate the position in Washington, DC.

Essential Functions

• Supervise the annual cost allocation process, with assistance and oversight from other Commission staff, including collecting data, overseeing all cost allocation procedures, performing quality assurance and control, and preparing financial reports
• Manage consultant contracts to perform key tasks related to cost allocation and other Commission activities
• Consultant management activities including the development of scopes of work, estimation of project budgets, oversight and/or participation in the consultant selection process, and day-to-day management of consultant teams to ensure that projects are delivered on-time and on-budget
• Perform frequent coordination with stakeholders, including organizing ongoing, multi-agency meetings and webinars, delivering presentations to technical staff and agency leadership, identifying, documenting, and supporting the resolution of multi-agency disputes, and performing one-on-one briefings
• Support and oversee staff participation in the external financial review of the cost allocation process, including providing data, supporting documentation of the cost allocation process, and responding to questions posed by the external review team
• Participate in the development of any modifications of the Policy desired by the Commission

Required Work Experience

• Some professional level experience with the public or private sector
• Demonstrated experience working with financial data or financial systems
• Demonstrated experience managing complex projects
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills
• Ability to solve problems independently and work collaboratively with staff at all levels
• Attention to detail
• Strong working knowledge of Access, Excel and/or other database programs

Preferred Work Experience

• Experience working with the financial data of a passenger railroad or public transportation agency
• Direct experience managing consultants in the delivery of professional service related projects
• Direct experience as the leader of a team
• Knowledge of the rail infrastructure and operations along the Northeast Corridor

Preferred Education

Masters degree in Business, Public Administration, Public Policy, or a related field

Communication and interpersonal skills

Must have excellent oral and written communication skills

How to apply

The Commission is administratively hosted by Amtrak. Please file an application at the Amtrak Jobs site, Position ID 90214009.

This chart, via Jennifer Keesmaat, shows the important nexus between the infrastructure design and public health.. As evident from the chart, when it comes to building healthy communities the United States has a long way to go in catching up with their counterparts and the huge (no pun intended) disparity in % of obese people shows how unhealthy we are as a nation.

Health implications of city design: more walking, cycling and transit means less obesity + chronic disease (via @jen_keesmaat on Twitter)

Spurred by this tweet, I went looking for data on healthcare spending in the US vs. other OECD countries. Sigh! The chart below shows how much we spend on health compared to other countries (slightly older data).  If we spent a few billion dollars on building more walking/biking/transit infrastructure instead of building more highways and encouraged more people to walk/bike/ride transit, may be we don’t have to incur such an expensive medical bills after all.  Despite all the evidence, our lawmakers seems to be favoring the highway lobbies (and the optics of ribbon cutting for new highways) but talk endlessly about healthcare spending every election cycle!

U.S health spending vs. other countries

Here is a snapshot of the US health spending, according to the OECD:

• Health expenditure per capita: $8,713
• Expenditure as a pct. of GDP: 16.4%
•  Obesity rate: 35.3%
• Life expectancy: 78.8 yrs

“Health spending in the United States (excluding investment expenditure in the health sector) was 16.4% of GDP in 2013, well above the OECD average of 8.9% and the next highest spenders – the Netherlands (11.1%), Switzerland (11.1%) and Sweden (11.0%). The share of GDP spent on healthcare has remained unchanged since 2009 and health spending growth has matched economic growth. The share of government spending in the United States as a share of total spending on health has increased from around 44% in 2000 to above 48% by 2013. Over this period there has been an increase in health coverage for the population – in 2006, Medicare Part D, a voluntary drug benefit programme for seniors and certain disabled persons was introduced.

Present your ideas for smarter mobility and urban development at Transforming Transportation 2015

Transforming Transportation 2015 (#TTDC15) is the annual conference co-organized by EMBARQ, the sustainable urban transport program of the World Resources Institute, and the World Bank. This year’s conference will focus onSmart Cities for Shared Prosperity, and will examine how smart, connected urban mobility can improve quality of life in cities.

We’re inviting YOU to become a presenter! Pitch your ideas to present on either “Innovations in Urban Development for Smart Cities” or Innovations in Mobility for Smart Cities.” Presentations will follow the PechaKucha format and must be submitted by December 2, 2014 at 11:59pm EST. Those interested can consult the detailed submission guidelines.

For any questions or comments, please contact embarq@wri.org. Tune in for regular updates at www.TransformingTransportation.org and on social media by following #TTDC15.

Image Courtesy: Victor Bezrukov @ http://www.victorbezrukov.com/

A beautiful capture of a busy intersection in TelAviv, Israel by photographer Victor Bezrukov that came to light when it got shared via National Geographic.  His commentary “one of the most loaded but the most beautiful junctions in TelAviv. Taken from the balcony located on the floor 45 of Electra building.”  A friend on Facebook had this much to say when he shared this: “Trying to solve traffic jams by widening roads is like trying to fight obesity adding holes to the belt”. There is so much truth to that profound statement.  Good thing is that in the middle of this monstrous interchange you can spot a dedicated transit infrastructure (my tired eyes tell me that it is a transit rail line; or a BRT?). And the next question that popped up in my mind is how many more cars would be there in that intersection if that transit infrastructure doesn’t exist?  Let’s not forget that this is just one intersection in one metropolitan city and there are many such cities with many mega intersections and now you can imagine the challenges we face from a mobility and environmental perspective.

That’s a bit of surprise.. One would expect a city like Portland to top this list..Nonetheless, it is good to see the number of cities expanding their biking infrastructure.

San Francisco is the most bike-friendly city in the United States. With 5.6 miles of dedicated bike lanes, multiuse bike paths and signed bike routes per square mile (263 miles in total), the Californian metropolis offers the best biking infrastructure in the country.

You will find more statistics at Statista

There are many ways of showing dissent but here is one that should be a bit more endearing for the policemen, who are often tasked with maintaining order during such protests. The photo captures the policeman clearly in the moment, even with his visor down! Love stoned, perhaps? :) Why can’t more of this happen instead of tear gas canisters and stones!

Image Courtesy: MARCO BERTORELLO / Getty Images / AFP via TIME.com

Story behind the photo: An Agence France-Presse photographer Marco Bertorello snapped this image of a protestor during a demonstration over the construction of a high-speed rail in Susa, a tiny town in northwestern, Italy near the French-Swiss Alps. The rail line is expected to connect Milan and Paris, which critics say is too expensive and comes at great environmental cost. You can read more from the source: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/11/20/photo-the-best-protest-tactic-youve-ever-seen/#ixzz2lQEuETco

Spotted this image in the “In Focus” photo series by The Atlantic, covering protests from around the world.  Might be a bit too much for the American sensibilities but the Spaniards are not bothered by all the skin on display.  Apparently, more than a hundred cyclists gathered in the Spanish capital as they took part in the city’s 10th Naked Bike Ride aimed at highlighting the dependency on oil and road safety issues for cyclists.  Here is one of them riding naked in a public fountain in front of the Royal Palace as others bathe in Madrid, on June 15, 2013. More pics (NSFW, obviousy) from the protest can be seen here.

Image Courtesy: AP Photo/Andres Kudacki – Naked Cyclist Protesting for better & safe biking infrastructure in Madrid, Spain

Image courtesy: AP Photo/Andres Kudacki via The Atlantic

Related articles

• Police fine 400 cyclists for ‘dangerous and irresponsible’ riding
• Madrid’s bin men told to wear cycle helmets
• Look Mum, no pants! The rise of naked bike ride protests

(via Wall Street Journal)

The U.S. spending on transportation (and infrastructure in general) has flatlined (or some argue that it has declined considerably) over the decades while other countries around the globe, especially in Asia, have ramped up their investment in large-scale infrastructure projects such as building highways and railroads.  So, how does it look when we match our spending versus the other nations.  This chart from Wall Street Journal shows show you how badly we are behind in this race to stay competitive. Recommend reading the related article on WSJ that shows how funding for infrastructure projects may be coming from new sources as ‘wealth advisers are steering clients into infrastructure deals. Let’s not forget that we have already a crazy amount of things to fix and on top of that we have to spend on projects that can cater to the growing need for transportation as the population explodes.  But do we really have the money to fix the broke and embark on starting new projects? With a dwindling highway trust fund account and a political gridlock in Washington, even the basic of needs for keeping the country economically superior seems to be a bigger challenge than ever.

Related articles

• Two Charts That Make The Case For More Infrastructure Spending
• Oberhelman calls for infrastructure improvement
• Why Americans Can’t Afford The Future: Dow Jones Industrial Average 2 Minute (INDEXDJX:.DJI)
• Aging Infrastructure in America is Like Giving Cash to China
• America’s Disastrous Infrastructure; USA Is Ranked At 25th In the World

Via King5 News

Just spotted this nice report/update on the world’s tallest (5-story-tall) tunnel boring machine (TBM), Bertha, which will begin work in Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project (SR 99 Tunnel Project). Bertha’s deep-bore tunnel will replace the aging Alaskan Way Viaduct, which will eventually be torn down. She should begin digging next summer.  As reported below, Bertha’s 41 pieces – the largest weighing up to 900 tons – are being loaded on a single ship in Japan, leaving around mid-March and arrive in Seattle later this month, if all goes well in the choppy seas.

For those curious about the name Bertha, it was chosen as part of a contest for school-aged kids across Washington state. While we are at it, don’t forget to follow the live tweets from Bertha @BerthaDigsSR99, the only TBM in the world with it’s own twitter account (at least until the project finishes).  Pretty cool stuff, right? Also, you can follow the WSDOT blog to stay updated on the project’s progress.

Related articles

• Bertha, world’s largest tunneling machine, heading for Seattle
• World’s largest tunnel boring machine to be shipped from Japan to Seattle
• Tunnel boring machine in pieces for voyage to Seattle

Iteris, Inc. has a dynamic opportunity available for a Regional Sales Director, Latin America (RSDLA) based in Mexico, South or Central America. This position will be responsible for all Roadway Sensor sales and marketing activities within the region. The qualified professional will leverage existing contacts within the highway transportation/traffic management market to generate new business opportunities for Iteris. We are seeking an individual with previous

experience in achieving sales targets who is presently leading a regional business development program ideally for a company in Intelligent Transportation Systems. The RSDLA will have excellent technical presentation and negotiation skills as well as an enthusiastic approach to new business with multilingual communication skills. Visit our website: www.iteris.com Contact Anne Bologna, Senior Recruiter: amb@iteris.com. All correspondence will be kept strictly confidential. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.