“Roads Kill” – Washington Post Infograph shows the public health crisis on roads across the globe

February 1, 2014 at 7:43 pm

How bad is the road safety problem across the planet? Pretty bad.  The global road death toll has already reached 1.24 million per year and is on course to triple to 3.6 million per year by 2030. In “Roads Kill,” The Washington Post joins with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to bring stories from around the world about this neglected but easily curable public health crisis.

[pageview url="http://roadskillmap.com/#58.53959476664049,89.296875,2" height="500px" border="yes"]

Transportation-related Side-Events at the UN Climate Change Conference, Cancun Mexico

December 2, 2010 at 5:39 pm

(Source: Bridging the Gap)

The latest edition of the United Nations Climate Change Conference CoP 16 opened its doors in Cancun, Mexico on November 29th  (duration – Nov 29th thru Dec 10) and our friends at Transport 2012 have created a compilation of side-events related to transportation issues at this conference.  Transportgooru is glad to share this with its readers (hoping some of you are already in Cancun, Mexico attending this event). Please check the Transport2012 website for an updated list:

Bridging the Gap: Pathways for Transport in the Post 2012 Process‘ is an initiative of GTZ, TRL, UITP, ITDP and Veolia Transport created to tackle CO2emissions from land transport and to integrate this major contributor to climate change into the international climate negotiation process. Click here to learn more about Bridging the Gap.

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Washed Away: 800,000 Pakistanis Cut Off From Road

August 25, 2010 at 6:18 pm

Geez.. This is getting worse by the day.. Given the plethora of problems already dogging the country, no one knows how long it will take for Pakistan to be in the clear and in a situation to effectively manage this growing crisis.

With the economy in tatters, it might be a long time before Pakistan could rebuild all the lost infrastructure, especially the roads that connected the tribal areas.. And the darn cross-border insurgency and military-related spending is not going help this situation in anyway.. This could very well become the defining moment in Pakistan’s relatively-short existence (formed in August 1947).

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

On Tuesday, the United Nations said 800,000 people could be reached only by air, and it called for 40 more helicopters from the international community to help take aid to people isolated by the flooding.

“These unprecedented floods pose unprecedented logistical challenges, and this requires an extraordinary effort by the international community,” John Holmes, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, said in a prepared statement.

Reinforcing its call for more helicopters, the United Nations cited the destruction of access roads and bridges in Pakistan’s north, particularly the Swat Valley in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the Gilgit-Baltistan region and the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir. The flooding has also isolated people in the country’s Punjab and Sindh Provinces, according to the World Food Program, a United Nations agency that specializes in delivering food aid to areas affected by crises.

Read more at www.nytimes.com

 

Clueless Colorado Gubernatorial Candidate, Warns Of U.N. Plot To Destroy America With Bike-Sharing Programs

August 4, 2010 at 5:53 pm

After reading this news item below, I’m totally out of words and appalled at the level of ignorance and fear mongering that goes in politics.. Dear politicians, please stay away from stuff when you don’t really know what you are talking about

Amplify’d from www.huffingtonpost.com

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are “converting Denver into a United Nations community.”

“This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed,” Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial.

Okay, here’s the mystery that Maes alone has penetrated. Denver is a member in something called the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. They’ve been a member since 1992. It is an “international association that promotes sustainable development.” One of the things that contributes to sustainability and an overall pleasant quality of life is a bike-sharing program called “B-Cycle” which has taken donations and grant monies to make 400 bicycles available for the residents of Denver to tool around on when the spirit moves them. Hickenlooper has praised the program so Maes is trying to make the case that it’s a UN plot to deprive people of “freedom.”

Read more at www.huffingtonpost.com

 

Financial Times: Briefing on Intelligent Transportion Systems

March 31, 2009 at 6:04 pm

(Source: Financial Times)

Published with the support of The European Commission, United Nations, ERTICO and The OECD, The Intelligent Transport briefing was introduced by Eva Molnar Director for Transport UNECE, Antonio Tajani Vice President and Commissioner for Transport, European Commission, Denise Plumpton, The UK Highways Agency, German Minister for Transportation Wolfgang Tiefensee and French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau.

 The briefing was inserted into and distributed by The Financial Times in March 2009 throughout all European and Scandinavian territories. Government agencies within Europe will account for another 20,000 copiesThe Financial Times with its exceptional business coverage and focus continues to dominate the market for the delivery of c-level executives and decision makers at the highest level and as such provides the perfect home for this briefing. Building intelligence into our vehicles and infrastructures can make a positive long term contribution to resolving the problems society and business face in terms of congestion, reliability, safety security and the environment.  

In the European Union alone, 20 per cent of GDP is generated by the transport sector. This equates to 1,900 billion euros, 16 million jobs, or nine per cent of all EU employment. How do we improve safety and security, and how do we minimise the negative environmental impact of many transport systems? These are not easy questions, but all answers depend not least on putting greater intelligence into our infrastructures and transport systems, in turn helping users make more intelligent choices about their journeys.

 

Containing more than 30 case studies The 36 page briefing provides a comprehensive source of advice and guidance for board level executives, senior management and Government executives explaining  deployments in a variety of modes and with varying applications. It features real-life examples, case studies and frameworks that demonstrate the successful deployment of solutions and trials across Europe and carefully analyses capabilities, possibilities and particularly advantages.

The briefing explains how EU moves towards a high quality, safer, more efficient and sustainable transport infrastructure in Europe. How we can make travel mass transit and ticketing more efficient (safer, less polluting, cheaper, and better informed).How we can help achieve ‘Best Value’ as a result of greater information gathering and improved decision-making. How we can reduce the effects of pollution from vehicles by better management. How we can reduce the number of accidents by providing drivers with more information about conditions on the roads they are using. How we help drivers find the best route to their destination, and change that route if major incidents occur on it. How we can help improve the security of passengers and staff by providing extra communications, better information and how to improve integration between different management systems, through the use of common databases. The report will gives readers of the Financial Times essential insight into how organisations have approached such implementations and the benefits that have been derived in a number of sectors.

Click here to read more or read/download the PDF file here.  (Image below is the ITS Briefing Supplement’s  cover)