http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/ en Copyright 2008 Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:50:58 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Airports International, passenger volume increased by 32.5% between 2006 and 2007, and in recent years, the number of "operational" airports in India has gone from 50 to 87. The flurry of activity surrounding the construction of airports in India is largely due to privatization of the aviation sector in the 1990s. Among the most interesting of the expanded Indian airports is (Bengaluru International Airport), which is a case in point of triumph over red tape. Originally conceived before privatization, the airport was scheduled to be built by the Tata Group. Mired in red tape, Tata pulled out, and a Siemen-led consortium finished the project 14 years after it had begun. In the meantime travel demand to Bangalore is so heavy that the old airfield may be developed as a second airport. ]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/11/airports_in_india_on_the_move_3.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/11/airports_in_india_on_the_move_3.html Home Page Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:50:58 +0000 Land Line, these cargo theft rings operate like small-scale mafia families, preying on a field unprepared to adequately defend itself, and a system of investigation and prosecution which has not yet caught up with this new trend in the world of crime. Punishments for first-time offenders convicted of cargo theft are relatively light compared to violent crime, however the U.S. Department of Justice reports that these modern day pirates are responsible for up to $1 million a day in cargo theft, and there is evidence that some of these crime rings may have connections to terrorist organizations abroad. Enter TOMCATS, or Miami-Dade's Tactical Operations Multi-Agency Cargo Anti-Theft Squad. Miami is perfectly situated to not only be a U.S. hub for the shipping of legitimate cargo, but consequently also for the fencing of stolen and counterfeit goods. Thus, Miami-Dade has built a cargo theft squad of police and FBI personnel to investigate and prosecute this alarming trend. Read about the ways in which TOMCATS hopes to stop cargo losses to organized crime, as well as tips from longtime truckers for protecting cargo in this month's Land Line ]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/11/piracy_20_1.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/11/piracy_20_1.html Home Page Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:36:01 +0000 Chicago-Lake Geneva: A 100-year Road Trip, published by the Chicago Map Society and the Newberry Library. Here is an description of the book from the back cover: Before in-car GPS devices, before highway numbers, even before road atlases, there were "photo-auto guides." A century ago, early motorists used these to make cross-country trips by taking the right turn at the yellow farmhouse, or the uphill fork near the big oak. This book reproduces a 1905 guide used to navigate from Chicago to Lake Geneva and Beloit, with photos of the same scenes a century later. It shows a Chicago region that has been transformed--and even more remarkable, a few scenes that have remained unchanged. The original maps and modern maps help you carefully retrace the route. Whether you want to journey from Chicago to Lake Geneva, or just travel through time, you'll enjoy the trip. ]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/11/take_a_look_at_a_book.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/11/take_a_look_at_a_book.html Home Page Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:26:11 +0000 Chicago Tribune (IL) - Wednesday, November 12, 2008 Author: Richard Wronski, Tribune reporter Stung by roller-coaster gas prices, commuters in record numbers are hopping aboard buses and trains in the Chicago area, but they can shave even more off the cost of getting to work -- as much as $500 a year. By setting aside part of their pre-tax earnings, commuters can help cover transit or van-pooling costs. The wrinkle is that fewer than 2,000 Chicago-area companies provide such benefits to workers, according to the Regional Transportation Authority. If San Francisco is any kind of trendsetter, that could change. Worried about air quality and traffic congestion, the city recently became the nation's first to require businesses with more than 20 employees to offer transit benefit programs. Experts say Chicago could follow. Q. How much do I save? A. Transit benefit plans work just like such popular employee programs as medical or child-care savings accounts. Under federal tax law, a commuter can shelter up to $115 a month, or $1,380 a year, in pre-tax dollars to help pay commuting expenses. By putting aside this money before it's taxed, commuters can save from $300 to more than $500, depending on their tax bracket. For example, a worker making about $30,000 a year in the 25 percent tax bracket who sets aside $1,380 a year would save $492 in state and federal taxes. Companies benefit because they don't have to pay taxes on the amount employees earmark for the program. They could save about $116 a year per employee in payroll taxes. Companies can also choose to give workers up to $115 a month in tax-free benefits for transit costs. The employer still gets the payroll-tax deduction. Or employers and employees can share the cost of the benefit. Employers benefit from the payroll-tax deduction, and employees can set aside pre-tax earnings. Q. How does it work? A. The program enables companies and employees to buy CTA Transit Cards, Chicago Cards or RTA FareChecks, vouchers that pay for transportation anywhere on the RTA system, including Metra, the South Shore line and certain Amtrak routes. Monthly passes and 10-ride tickets for Metra also are available. The program is administered by a company's human resources department or by a third-party benefits provider. Q. Why doesn't everyone get it? A. Only 53 percent of employers are aware of tax-free commuter benefits, and of those, only 46 percent offer the benefit to employees, according to one survey. Another national survey found that only 17 percent of companies with standard benefits programs provided the transit option. Many companies believe they are too small to offer the program or don't feel they have the resources or expertise to deal with the paperwork, experts say. The RTA says the transit benefit program has grown steadily, and the agency anticipates a surge in interest, said Phillip Shayne, the RTA's director of regional services. Fall is the traditional time for benefit program open enrollments, and fear of another round of gas price increases probably will prompt more employees to take advantage of the transit option, Shayne said. http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/11/compute_the_commute_to_save_-_benefit_plans_allow_riders_to_pay_with_pre-tax_dollars_.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/11/compute_the_commute_to_save_-_benefit_plans_allow_riders_to_pay_with_pre-tax_dollars_.html Home Page Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:22:44 +0000 http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/30/fake-speed-bumps-pai.html to read the story, but I recommend reading the comments to get a true sense of people's views ]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/slow_down_its_a_fake.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/slow_down_its_a_fake.html Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:12:03 +0000 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/technology/31novel.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin we learn that at "an experimental Web site, Many Eyes, (www.many-eyes.com), users can upload the data they want to visualize, then try sophisticated tools to generate interactive displays. These might range from maps of relationships in the New Testament to a display of the comparative frequency of words used in speeches by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama." Perhaps a transportation-specific example should take this baby for a test ride and report back? ]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/looking_at_data.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/looking_at_data.html Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:08:22 +0000 Han Mahmassani has been named the new director of the Transportation Center of Northwestern University]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/hani_mahmassani_new_tc_directo.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/hani_mahmassani_new_tc_directo.html Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:21:09 +0000 every major news outlet and took the "texting while driving" issue to new levels in the public eye. The official National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Advisory details the casualties in that accident as well as time and number of text messages sent by Roberto Sanchez, who also died in the crash. The NTSB continues to release updates on their investigation of the LA crash. The question, one may ask, is what are the laws by state on texting by automobile drivers? The source to turn to for this information is the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Fully eleven years ago the Institute issued an advisory that "Using a cellular phone could raise crash risk," which is still on their excellent resource page on cellphone use while driving. An updated breakdown of cellphone laws by jurisdiction (rev.: October 2008), also found on the same page, breaks down the highly complex state of cellphone and texting bans by jurisdiction. Some localities are allowed to ban cellphone use by state laws; others are specifically prohibited from doing so. Texting while driving is specifically prohibited in seven states (California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Washington) and the District of Columbia. Many states also have bans on texting while driving for younger drivers and school bus drivers. ]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/texting_while_driving_whats_th_1.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/texting_while_driving_whats_th_1.html Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:22:06 +0000 The Privatization of Space Exploration: Business, Technology, Law and Policy by Lewis D. Solomon. Here is an description of the book from the publisher's Web site: Space was at the center of America's imagination in the 1960s. President John F. Kennedy's visionary statement captured the sentiments of the day: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." The Apollo mission's success in July 1969 made almost anything seem possible, but the Cold War made space flight the province of governmental agencies in the United States. When the Apollo program ended in 1972, space lost its hold on the public interest, as the great achievements wound down. Where NASA has been unsuccessful, entrepreneurs are beginning to pick up the slack-looking for safer, more reliable, and more cost effective ways of exploring space. By unleashing entrepreneurial activity, Solomon writes, it may be possible to move the space program from the historic province of NASA and several giant aerospace firms and create a renaissance in human spaceflight. The private sector, can energize the quest for space exploration and shape the race for the final frontier. Space entrepreneurs and private sector firms have already made significant innovations in space travel. They have plans for future tourism in space and safer shuttles. Solomon details current U.S.and international laws dealing with space use, settlement, and exploration. He then offers policy recommendations to facilitate privatization. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, private enterprise is bubbling away, threatening to change the space landscape forever. Individuals are designing spacecraft, start-up companies are testing prototypes, and reservations are being taken for suborbital space flights. With for-profit enterprises carving out a new realm, it is entirely possible that space will one day be a sea of hotels and/or a repository of resources for big business. It is important that regulations are in place for this eventuality. The Privatization of Space Exploration is likely to become the standard reference work in a new field which has great importance, huge implications, and urgency for everyone. ------end------ ]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/take_a_look_at_a_book_5.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/take_a_look_at_a_book_5.html Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:03:04 +0000 Airport World. It seems that on-location filming in airports is a mutually beneficial arrangement, as the movie gets a sense of realism, and the airport often charges a fee for the use of the space. However, airports are busy 24 hours a day and typically cannot shut down even one terminal in order for a crew to film. Thus, directors often ask a less highly trafficked or more easily accessible airport to "play" another airport in their movies. For example, the famous airport scenes from film classic "Casablanca" were actually filmed in the Van Nuys Airport in Southern California, not Morocco. Other directors may choose to insist on shooting in a particular airport, while accepting the tradeoff that they may only end up with enough usable footage for a few fleeting scenes in the final product. In the recent romantic comedy "Love Actually" for example, scenes taking place at London Heathrow and Marseille Provence were shot on location at the actual airports, however the scenes in which they appear are quite brief. Read more about the fascinating partnership between the film and TV industries and the travel industry in Airport World! By Gwen Persons ]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/and_the_oscar_goes_tolos_angel_1.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/and_the_oscar_goes_tolos_angel_1.html Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:46:28 +0000 Chicago Tribune (IL) - Wednesday, October 22, 2008 Author: BLOOMBERG NEWS Boeing Co. must pay $741.2 million to ICO Global Communications Holdings Ltd. for failing to complete a satellite telecommunications network for ICO, a California jury decided. Jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday found that Chicago-based Boeing unfairly demanded more money to finish and launch satellites that Reston, Va.-based ICO ordered to create mobile-phone connections to locations worldwide. ICO signed a contract in 1995 with Hughes Electronics Corp.'s satellite unit, a business Boeing acquired in 2000, to pay more than $2 billion to build and launch 12 satellites. The first satellite was lost to a rocket failure, a second is in orbit, and the other 10 are in storage and can only be finished by Boeing, ICO said. Boeing lawyers said during the trial that ICO gambled on a market for satellite phones that didn't materialize and was trying to blame its mistakes on Boeing after investors fled. http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/boeing_loses_741_million_satellite_suit.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/boeing_loses_741_million_satellite_suit.html Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:14:38 +0000 article on the LeMons race, which challenges both the drivers and their often difficult-to-handle cars in a 24-hour race that only vaguely resembles the official Le Mans in France. ]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/serious_humor_2.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/serious_humor_2.html Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:45:33 +0000 Panama Fever: The Epic Story of One of the Greatest Human Achievements of All Time--the Building of the Panama Canal by Matthew Parker. Here is an description of the book from the publisher's Web site: The Panama Canal was the costliest undertaking in human history. It literally required moving mountains, breaking the back of the great range that connects North and South America. Begun by the French in 1880, its successful completion in 1914 by the Americans marked the end of the Victorian Age and the beginning of the "American Century." The building of the Panama Canal was a project whose gestation spanned hundreds of years. Columbus himself searched for a way to get to the Pacific across the narrow isthmus of Central America. For centuries, monarchs, presidents, businessmen, and explorers all struggled to find such a passage, knowing that whoever controlled it would exert unsurpassed control over global trade, and therefore the fate of nations. The first history of this mighty achievement in nearly thirty years, Panama Fever draws on diaries, memoirs, letters, and other contemporary accounts, bringing the experience of those who built the canal vividly to life. The massive project riveted public attention: "Panama Fever" spread throughout the Western world. Politicians and businessmen engaged in high-stakes international diplomacy in order to influence its location, path, ownership, and construction. Meanwhile, ditch-diggers, machinists, drivers, engineers, and foremen from all over the world rushed to take advantage of high wages and the chance to be a part of history. But the grim reality of Panama - searing heat, torrential rains, fatal mud slides, and malarial mosquitoes - soon caught up with them. More than 25,000 of those who enthusiastically signed on as workers succumbed to dysentery, yellow fever, and malaria, giving a fatal twist to the meaning of "Panama Fever." The truly horrific toll unleashed a second race to find a cure so the canal could be completed. The discoveries of the heroic doctors who battled these diseases would lead to a sea change in the way infectious diseases were treated, thus paving the way for the tremendous medical advances of the twentieth century. Filled with remarkable characters, including Teddy Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, and Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French genius who built the Suez Canal and almost snatched Panama out from under American control, Panama Fever is an epic historical adventure that shows how a small but fiercely contested strip of land in a largely unknown Central American nation suddenly made the world a smaller place and launched the era of American global dominance. ]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/the_transportation_library_has_1.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/the_transportation_library_has_1.html Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:10:36 +0000 Chicago Tribune (IL) - October 6, 2008 Author: Jon Hilkevitch Highway congestion, high fuel prices, dependence on foreign oil, pollution and global warming are creating perfect conditions for reforming stagnant transportation policies. Is it any wonder that Americans are cutting back on driving and turning to trains in record numbers? Congress got the message last week that the status quo, including an overreliance on the airline industry, is no longer acceptable for moving people around the state or across the country. The awakening crystallized when lawmakers passed the Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act by a veto-proof margin. The landmark legislation, which the White House said President George W. Bush will sign, calls for almost doubling the federal funding provided to Amtrak -- about $13.1 billion over five years. Among other precedents, it authorizes $3.4 billion to create high-speed passenger rail corridors and provide rail capital-improvement grants to states. The ambitious project proposed for the Midwest would cover 3,000 miles in nine states. All lines would radiate from a hub in downtown Chicago. The cost of a fully completed Midwest network is estimated at almost $8 billion. "Finally people are waking up to the fact that we need to move people without their cars," said Richard Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, an advocacy group. Modern, comfortable, double-deck trains with wide seats and large windows would churn along at top speeds of 110 m.p.h. The faster trains would shave hours off trips, delivering passengers from one downtown to another hundreds of miles away. Amtrak trains in most of the Midwest now operate at up to 79 m.p.h., although average speeds are much slower, especially around Chicago due to freight traffic. Driving, which results in more than 40,000 fatalities a year, would take a back seat as a transportation choice, proponents say. So, too, would air travel as consumers factor in the time it takes to go through airport security, the hassle of flying and the time spent traveling from outlying airports. Travel times of almost 51/2 hours on Amtrak's route between Chicago and St. Louis would be cut to 3 hours and 49 minutes on a high-speed train, according to preliminary estimates. In the past year, more than 501,000 rides were taken on Amtrak's Lincoln Service route between Chicago and St. Louis, a 284-mile trip, a 15 percent increase over the previous year. Some 1.2 million rides a year would be taken when the route is served by high-speed trains, according projections by the Illinois Department of Transportation. In addition to the congressional action, the Federal Railroad Administration last week approved grants to Illinois to install train-control and cab-signaling systems on part of the route to facilitate high-speed trains. A high-speed rail line between Chicago and the Twin Cities could be running within five years, according to U.S. Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Transportation Committee. The roughly eight-hour trip on Amtrak from Chicago to St. Paul would be cut to about 51/2 hours under the working proposal. Planners envision the line running from Chicago up through Milwaukee, Madison, the Twin Cities and eventually Duluth, while separate routes from Chicago would extend east to Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati. It's apparent there would be a strong market. Even today, with slow service and a poor on-time performance record, Amtrak finished fiscal 2008 last week with its sixth straight year of ridership growth. The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative involves Amtrak and the nine states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin. "A network of states produces much better results than each individual state going its own way," said Randy Wade, passenger rail manager at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which is coordinating the Midwest initiative. "We now have a political network, too, comprised of at least 18 U.S. senators," Wade said, adding that high-speed rail projects would stimulate the economy by creating thousands of permanent jobs. To keep up the momentum, the funding Congress authorized last week must be appropriated annually, and millions more added to the pot to pay for the 80 percent federal share of the high-speed rail projects. Supporters such as Ross Capon, who heads the National Association of Railroad Passengers, likened the congressional authorization to issuing a "hunting license" to go after big game. While representing a start, it's not the same as bagging a moose. What is needed to guarantee that the rail program continues to grow is for Congress to establish a rail title in the multiyear federal transportation legislation, Wade said. That would ensure that the passenger rail program benefits from the same steady funding that the highway and mass-transit programs receive, Wade said. People who have been promoting high-speed rail in the U.S. for decades point to a convergence that cannot be ignored. "Clearly the world has changed in the last year," Harnish said. "At the start of 2008, we didn't think there was a chance of this legislation moving. Having the runup in gas prices right before the Olympics has really opened up people's eyes. And the problem won't go away." A 20 percent match by the states would be needed to help pay for the network, which is estimated to cost $7.7 billion, based on 2002 dollar estimates. About $6.6 billion of the total would pay for infrastructure, and $1.1 billion for new trains, officials said. About 13.6 million passengers would ride the trains each year by 2025, according to ridership projections, and 90 percent of Midwesterners would live within an hour ride of a high-speed rail station. ----------- http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/on_the_fast_trackfinally_highs.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/on_the_fast_trackfinally_highs.html Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:03:17 +0000 Traffic technology International . The article explores the ramifications of new police and transportation technologies, such as roadside cameras which can record photographs of cars' license plates and match them up with drivers via police and Department of Transportation databases. The European Union has taken steps to reassure citizens of its member states, initiating the position of Data Protection Supervisor--an individual charged with ensuring that personal data remains secure. Perhaps such an office is a bit further off the horizon for the U.S., whose Patriot Act may have contributed to a growing sense of distrust in the public when it comes to protection of private information. However, Glaskin ends the article on a positive note, arguing that privacy is being taken increasingly more seriously these days, by everyone from governments, to private citizens, to the developers of technologies which may be able to keep our data secure, once and for all. By Gwen Persons ]]> http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/privacy_is_an_emerging_hot_top.html http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/news/2008/10/privacy_is_an_emerging_hot_top.html Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:53:00 +0000