Talking Traffic

Rail Riders in Connecticut: A blog posting concerining the recent release of a commuter rail evaluation in CT. It discusses what is going well, and what can be improved on.

“US Transportation in 2015″: A gaze into the crystal ball of transportation development in the United States.

The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission: SAFETEA-LU, (a lovely acronym standing for Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for Users, othewise known as the transportation funding act passed in 2005) required the implementation of The National Surface Transportation Policy and Reveune Study Commission. They have released their report. The administration has declined to endorse it. Multiple people are evaluating its recommendations and the administration’s response. Apparently there were also some sections regarding Transit that were excised.

The highlights of the report: Transportation is underfunded by 60%. Raise federal gas taxes by $0.40 over five years. Personally, I think the administration is on the right track here. Continued dependence on fuel taxes is a no-win scenario because we want to reduce the amount of fuel (whatever it is) that is needed to get from A to B. This leaves transportation funding high and dry. Usage fees such as tolling, managed lanes, and pay-per-mile are the wave of the future. Correctly, I think.

Too Much Congestion? Eliminate Half the Vehicles!: An odd/even system of vehicle restriction is being looked at as an option to reduce the congestion of Bangalore.

Mine’s Better!: I think my diagram of a Gusset plate is better. But at least this news story from Kansas has one, which is better than most.

Google Transit: Google’s latest foray is a trip planner that utilizes public transit. Currently it has limited coverage, but I’m sure it will go up.

I-35 Gusset Plate Failures may not be alone: The I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis failed because its Gusset plates were too thin. This may be a more pervasive problem than was first realized.

Tolls are the Way of the Future?The NY Times discusses tolling as a method of transportation funding.

Presidential Candidates and Transit: How do the Democratic and Republican candidates stack up on the Transportation issue? Live from the Third Rail has the lowdown.

New Rules for Lithium Batteries on Airplanes: Passengers beware. There are now restrictions on lithium-ion batteries in your check luggage. Essentially, you may only place them in checked luggage if they are inside the device they are intended to power.

Cell Talkers Drive Slowly: A study out of the University of Utah finds that people talking on cell phones, even with hands-free devices, drive more slowly and make fewer lane changes. The study indicates the implication that this may cause increased traffic congestion. The Media has locked on to this saying that CELL PHONES CAUSE TRAFFIC JAMS which is not a legitimate conclusion from the study. I do not deny that this is probable, but the conclusion reached by media outlets is overstretching the data.

Maintenance is Key: A pothole (called a crater here) has caused months of congestion in Kolkata, India. Maintenance of existing infrastructure is important. Inter-agency agreements are even more important.

Mathematical Modeling of Traffic Jams: Backward-moving waves of traffic jam congestion have been a topic of study for some time. A team of mathematicians at the Univerity of Exeter have produced a model that accurately reproduces congestion. I’d like to say this was a break-through, as the article implies, but it’s not. These sorts of events have been studied for a long time.

Public Transportation for Dummies¹: A brief primer for beginners who are not used to the public transportation system.

¹If I were trying to be a gamer-geek, I would have said, Public Transportation for n00bs, but that would be posing