(via Bicycle Dutch)

The Dutch are leaving no stone unturned in their effort to make cycling appealing to their population (all the while adding to the jealousy of many around the globe).  This time around, they have built the a fantastic bike parking facility in Utrecht that is a beauty to behold.. What I like about the facility is how functional, clean, airy, well lit and accessible it is (awesome design) for users. The lanes are clearly marked with easy to navigate aisles and lanes.  And what’s more? It accommodates all kinds of bikes, even the ones with the baskets upfront and the saddles in the back.  All this at an affordable price –  the first 24 hours of parking are free. After that it costs €1.25 per following 24 hours (€2.50 for larger bicycles).If you are a regular users, might as well consider getting annual subscription for €75/year.

Check out the video below to see how awesome it is and head over to Bicycle Dutch to read a thorough narrative that explains everything you may want to know about this facility.

The TIFIA Office is recruiting financial analysts to work on the Credit and Budget Team.   The individual(s) will review credit requests submitted to the TIFIA Office and analyze cashflows for the purposes of quantifying the assessed risk of the loan and calculating the subsidy cost to the Government as well as support budgetary, contracting, and audit related work performed by the Credit and Budget Team.

The ideal candidate is experienced in analyzing cash flows and revenue projections, and understands how to apply the principles and practices from transportation planning, economics, and finance to estimate and quantify risk.  The individual has experience with or can learn how to implement this skill set to work on Federal credit programs operating under the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990.

Links to USA jobs are:

Merit Promotion: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/369503100

All U.S. Citizens: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/369506500

More info about the TIFIA program: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ipd/tifia/

Closing date: Wednesday, April 30, 2014 (11:59PM EST)

This position is located in the Office of Safety Programs, Office of Safety, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, DC. The incumbent serves as a transportation specialist and provides advice to Safety Leadership on highway safety programs.

You will serve as a nationally recognized authority and advisor to Safety Leadership in identifying, developing and delivering safety workforce competency programs and products to reduce the number and severity of highway crashes, and other highway safety programs. You will also serve as the co-champion for the FHWA Safety Discipline and the program manager for the Roadway Safety Professional Capacity Building Program (RSPBC). As Safety Discipline co-champion, you will work toward improving the capacity of FHWA’s workforce in safety related competencies. As the RSPBC Manager, you will also help a broad range of roadway safety professionals acquire the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to implement safety programs, strategies, and countermeasures.

The ideal candidate for this position is a mid-career or senior level professional with experience in identifying, planning, and implementing new national program initiatives and leading the development and implementation of programs for outreach and public information to improve the proficiency of highway safety professionals.  He/she has a high degree of independence in planning, prioritizing, scheduling, and carrying out assignments and maintaining effective working relationships as a leader or member of teams or working groups.  In addition, the ideal candidate has excellent person-to-person and written communication skills.

Duties:

• Provide leadership in technical, programmatic engineering and policy assistance to FHWA field offices, State and local agencies, and other internal and external customers to implement safety programs for all levels of government.
• Provide resources to help safety experts and specialists develop critical knowledge and skills within the roadway safety workforce.
• Lead the development and implementation of programs for outreach and public information to improve the proficiency of highway safety professionals.
• Coordinate with other Federal, State, and local agencies and professional organizations and serve on intra-agency task forces with partners to improve the safety workforces’ knowledge, skills, and abilities.
• Plan and conduct briefings and regional and national meetings for FHWA, State, and local safety professionals and other highway safety-related organizations.
• Identify customer’s needs and provide resources to facilitate the deployment of roadway safety tools.

Click here to learn more and to apply.

My favorite numbers guy, Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight has poured over the census data and published an intriguing article that shows how the workforce in US cities begin its work day. I’ll share Nate’s findings through the graphs he published but I highly recommend that you read the full article over at his site . This insightful analysis will be definitely useful for transportation systems operators and managers.

Here are a few data nuggets from this analysis:

• New Yorkers are pretty relaxed and get to catch a few more winks  than many in the country. The median worker in the New York metropolitan area begins her workday at 8:24 a.m. 
• A quarter of the workforce in Atlantic City doesn’t begin its workday until 11:26 a.m. or after (understandably because the AC workforce is dependent on a recreational economy).
• The metro area with the earliest workday is Hinesville, Ga. The median worker there arrives at work at 7:01 a.m.

Let’s first see the US metro areas that are slow to roll

Source: FiveThirtyEight.com

Now let’s look at the those cities with the earliest median arrival times to work

Source: FiveThirtyEight.com Click Image to learn more.

And finally the Median arrival time in your local time zone

Source: fivethirtyeight.com. Click the image to learn more

Interesting, isn’t it? Go over to Fivethirtyeight.com to soak up the brilliant write-up from Nate.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration announced this week it is seeking a Director for its Office of Program Administration, located in Washington, D.C. The Director in the Office of Program Administration will be tasked with providing executive leadership, policy direction, and oversight in guiding implementat

USDOT HQ, located at 1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ion of the Federal-aid highway program and MAP-21 legislative requirements. The successful candidate will oversee the development and implementation of the policies, regulations, parameters, and general guidance by which all division offices and state transportation departments carry out the Federal-aid highway program.

The position requires the Director to lead national transportation efforts and develop and implement national policies and performance standards to allow for a successful delivery of the Federal-aid highway program. The Director will also address program issues with members of Congress, state elected officials, and other executive departments as an FHWA representative.

Additional information on the position, including application instructions, is available here. Those interested may also contact Mark Harris in FHWA’s Office of Human Resources at 202-493-0955.

Click here for more information regarding this position

The EISENHOWER GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP (GRAD) provides funding for Students pursuing Master’s Degrees or Doctorates in transportation related fields. The program objectives are:

1. to attract the nation’s brightest minds to the field of transportation,
2. to enhance the careers of transportation professionals by encouraging them to seek advanced degrees, and
3. to retain top talent in the transportation industry of the United States.

The Program is intended to bring innovation and enhance the breadth and scope of knowledge of the entire transportation community in the United States. The Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship Program encompasses all modes of transportation.

DISCIPLINES

The Department of Transportation encourages students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) to apply for the Eisenhower Graduate Transportation Fellowships.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship Applicants must:

• Possess an earned baccalaureate degree or be a confirmed graduating senior;
• Be enrolled full time in an accredited U.S. institution of higher education no later than the Fall 2013 academic year
• Be pursuing a degree in a full-time program in a transportation-related discipline
• Have at least one full academic year remaining in program of study;
• Conduct ongoing research in one or more transportation-related disciplines; and
• Plan to enter the transportation profession after completing their higher level education.

Non-U.S. citizens must attach a certified copy of their I-20 or I-551 ID issued by the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service (CIS).

SELECTION

Applications will be evaluated by the Eisenhower National Selection Panel. This National Selection Panel will be composed of prominent national transportation professionals, including academia and the public sector, who will review, rate and rank each applicant. The panel’s recommendations for selection will be forwarded to the Program Manager, Universities and Grants Programs. The Program Manager will make final selections.It is imperative that applicants provide an accurate and current email address for themselves and their faculty advisor. Applicants will be notified of their status via email.

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION

The Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship will be awarded on the basis of merit. Merit includes:

• Class standing, GPA, and official university transcripts; (25 Points)
• Potential for Outstanding Career in Transportation (Transportation work experience, if applicable); (25 Points)
• Proposed plan of study (25 Points)
• Letters of recommendation regarding the applicant’s qualifications; (20 Points)
• Overall quality of Application (5 Points)

STIPEND, TUITION AND TAXES

All recipients may not receive a full award (i.e. tuition, stipend, and travel to Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting). Recipient awards will be based on the rankings from the National Selection Panel. Recipients of this fellowship will receive a minimum of $5,000.00, based on their ranking from the National Selection Panel and the availability of funding.

Fellowship recipients should be advised that the stipend portion of the fellowship is subject to taxation in accordance with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations (Publication 970, revised 2011).

The stipends for the Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship are as follows:

• Master’s Level – $1,700/mo.
• Doctoral Level – $2,000/mo.

Note: Actual Stipend level may vary based upon available funding. Stipends are capped at $1,700 for Masters students and $2,000 a month for Doctoral students from Eisenhower funding. Additional stipend amounts may be added by the University or other sources.

SCHEDULE

All applications and supporting material (official transcripts and letters of recommendation) for Eisenhower Graduate Transportation Fellowship must be received by 5:00 p.m. Monday, April 1, 2013.Applications should be sent to the address in the section entitled “How to Apply”.

Click here to learn more about the details and for applying instructions.

Related articles

• Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships for Graduate Students (deadline April 1)

America’s energy security gets a boost from the White House. President Obama proposed the creation of Energy Security Trust during his visit to the Argonne National Research Lab to talk about American energy security. The Energy Security Trust, a$2 Billion investment over 10 years, uses revenue generated by oil and gas development on federal lands to support new research and technology that will shift our cars and trucks off of oil for good.  Below is an infographic that outlines how this works:

Energy Security Trust Infographic via Whitehouse.gov

Here is an excerpt from the White House Blog:

So how does it work? The Energy Security Trust will invest in research that will make future technologies cheaper and better – it will fund the advances that will allow us to run cars and trucks on electricity or homegrown fuels, and on the technology that will enable us to drive from coast-to-coast without a drop of oil.

Over 10 years, the Energy Security Trust will provide $2 billion for critical, cutting-edge research focused on developing cost-effective transportation alternatives.The funding will be provided by revenues from federal oil and gas development, and will not add any additional costs to the federal budget. The investments will support research into a range of technologies – things like advanced vehicles that run on electricity, homegrown biofuels, and domestically produced natural gas. It will also help fund a small number of real-world experiments that try different transportation techniques in cities and towns around the country using advanced vehicles at scale.

If it is worth something, President Obama has indicated his desire to use the executive powers to curb climate change impacts should Congress fail to act.  According to Bloomberg, the president is also thinking of using a Nixon-era law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970, to instruct all federal agencies to consider the impact of climate change when approving “major projects, from pipelines to highways.”  Of course, this can have some serious implications for large scale projects and some constituencies in the business sector are already freaking out over this mandate.

While we are busy discussing this issue, I’d like to share with you an address by President Obama from March 2011 in which he outlined his goals for reducing American energy dependence, heavily emphasizing new technology and alternative sources in addition to “safe and responsible” offshore drilling. A lot of what he outline in his blue print for change is already starting to take effect and I can only say that we are poised for a big change in the way we power our vehicles and industries.  Fossil fuels are definitely beginning to see a slow demise (but it will be decades before they are completely phased out in the transportation sector).

Related articles

• Obama at Argonne: Energy Security Trust fact sheets here
• In an America ‘can do’ speech, Obama introduces Energy Security Trust for transportation innovations
• Obama to unveil alternative energy proposal – CBS News
• The White House On Energy Security Trust And POTUS Obama’s Israel Trip Preview
• What You Need to Know About the Energy Security Trust
• Obama wants to create an Energy Security Trust with $2 billion for R&D
• Obama to Announce $2 Billion Plan to Get U.S. Cars Off Gasoline

English: Flag of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an organization of the United Nations Deutsch: Flagge der Internationalen Atomenergieorganisation (IAEO), eine Organisation der Vereinten Nationen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As a team leader reporting to the Section Head, the Unit Head develops the IAEA‘s programme on the safe transport of radioactive material and leads the Unit’s activities to ensure the efficacy of the IAEA’s programme on a global level.

The Unit Head has several roles:

1. a programme coordinator in a specialized, multilateral environment with diverse views on the issues, finding practical solutions and presenting arguments that can achieve results;
2. a senior specialist whose extensive experience in and knowledge of the area form the basis for mutual respect vis-à-vis high-level regulators and operators in Member States,
3. a manager ensuring that programmes and tasks are implemented effectively;
4. an adviser/promoter conveying to multiple audiences the IAEA’s vision and mission in this area; and
5. a facilitator of inter-organizational cooperation in transport safety and cooperation with other organizational areas in the IAEA dealing with this area of work.

The Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety develops and maintains standards for radiation protection, radioactive waste safety and safety in the transport of radioactive material that enable the beneficial uses of radiation to be exploited while ensuring appropriate protection of workers, the public and patients. It also assists Member States in the implementation of these standards and provides related appraisals and services.

The Regulatory Infrastructure and Transport Safety Section (RITS) is responsible for developing and providing Member States with safety standards, guidance and tools to foster regulatory infrastructure for the control of radiation sources, for the safe transport of radioactive material, and for managing information on the identification of needs in Member States that would be used to improve radiation, transport and waste safety.

The Transport Safety Unit is responsible for establishing and maintaining safety standards related to the worldwide safe transport of radioactive material, including the IAEA’s Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material, and to appraise the application of the safety standards in Member States. This includes efforts to foster the harmonized incorporation of the Transport Regulations and other associated safety standards by international organizations, and dangerous goods and modal organizations. In addition, the Unit manages projects concerned with key aspects of the Transport Regulations, provides training related to the safe transport of radioactive material, and operates and maintains databases relating to transport issues. The Unit convenes meetings to guide its activities, involving experts from Member States and associated international organizations, including the periodic convening of the Transport Safety Standards Committee (TRANSSC). It is also involved in the provision of technical cooperation for Member States, including training activities.

The environment of the Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety is dynamic, participative and interactive with continuous inputs received from internal technical counterparts and external counterparts in Member States, from other international organizations and from the international scientific community.

Click here to learn more.

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• IAEA, Iran talks end without deal: report
• Iran suggests progress, but no deal, in U.N. atom talks (Reuters)
• International Atomic Energy Agency determined to continue dialogue with Iran

Description:

The Department of Transportation is seeking a talented and exemplary professional to join a dynamic work group. The selected individual will need to have exceptional communication skills, be able to provide excellent customer service, and have solid technical and analytical skills. This position will review complex development applications for compliance with County policies and regulations; formulate and communicate transportation recommendations to the staff, appointed and elected officials; scope and review Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA); attend and represent the Department at Planning Commission, Board of County Supervisors, and other transportation related meetings; provide planning and technical solutions to complex problems or situations; work with other County agencies and community groups to achieve County and Departmental vision and goals. The successful candidate will need to be enthusiastic, organized, creative, team-oriented, and have a positive can-do attitude. This position will perform under the direct supervision of the Transportation Planning Manager.