News Roundup

New GPS-Savvy, Solar Signs Help Bus Riders Connect in Real Time
USA Today (06/22/08) Lackney, Katharine

More transportation systems across the country are outfitting their buses with Global Positioning System technology. The idea is to provide time-pressed public transit passengers with up-to-the-minute scheduling information. Lorin Swirsky, information technology manager for Broward County Transportation Department in Florida, attributes the trend to a combination of the sharp spike in public transit ridership and consumer demand for real-time information. "With the gas prices rising, transit is becoming more and more of an option for people to afford to get to work," Swirsky says. "We need to try and improve the experience of transit and make it more easily usable for our citizens." This month, Broward County began installing solar-powered signs. The county, which plans to install as many as 300, paid for the $10,000 a sign installation with state funding and a matched grant from the Florida Department of Transportation. In New Jersey, Rutgers University plans to install electronic signs on all of its bush shelters by the end of the summer. Pilot programs for electronic bus signs are also being considered in New York City and Washington D.C.
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-06-22-Bussigns_N.htm)

Fast Lane Toll Touted for Single Drivers
Gold Coast News (06/25/08)

Queensland, Australia, Premier Anna Bligh, while in the United States on a trade mission, inspected a San Diego, Calif., freeway that consists of 13 kilometers of high-occupancy lanes that can also be accessed by other drivers if they pay a toll. "Like many U.S. cities, the Government of California has invested significantly in high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in recent years," she said. The I-15 FasTrak consists of eight miles of two-lane, barrier-separated, reversible high occupancy toll lanes running in the median of the I-15 freeway. The system allows buses, van pools, and car pools to travel in the FasTrak lanes for free, while other drivers have the option of paying a toll to access the lanes. The freeway uses a "dynamic toll," which automatically varies in response to traffic conditions in the lanes. When the freeway is moving, the toll is low, and when it is busy, the toll rises accordingly. "The San Diego Government has found that the system is proving successful and there has been significant improvement in traffic flows as a result," said Bligh, adding that, "I don't know if the options being utilized on the I-15 could provide a solution to some of our road congestion problems in Queensland, but it is certainly a reminder that innovation tailored to the needs of commuters and travelers can contribute to addressing traffic issues." Authorities in San Diego are expanding the route to a total of 32 kilometers. Scheduled for completion in 2012, the new I-15 lanes will feature four lanes with a moveable barrier for maximum flexibility, multiple access points to the general purpose highway lanes, and direct access ramps for a high-frequency bus rapid transit service.
(http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2008/06/20/12682_gold-coast-top-story.html)

Charting N.C.'s Transportation Future
Charlotte Observer (NC) (06/22/08) P. 25A; Williams, Ed

With gasoline prices rising and increased emphasis being placed on fuel-efficient vehicles, the future of highway transportation is changing. In North Carolina, where a sales tax on motor fuel is the largest source of revenue for the state's highway funds, officials are pondering how to compensate for losses the state expects from the growing population of fuel-efficient vehicles on the roads. Right now the state is looking at a $65 billion deficit between transportation needs and revenues by 2030. Research suggests North Carolina's transportation system is already starting to feel the strain. A 2007 national study ranked North Carolina fourth among states with the worst congestion and urban interstates; among the top 10 rural interstates and rural primary roads in poor condition; and among the 12th among states with the highest percentage of rundown bridges. The 21st Century Transportation Committee, a panel selected by the governor and the state Legislature to identify strategies to meet the challenges facing North Carolina's transportation system, is considering new ways to raise revenue, including a bond issue of more than $1 billion. Florida, which also faces a funding deficit, is constructing more toll roads to make up the gap, while Indiana is leasing a toll road to a private firm. California and Texas are using high occupancy toll lanes to make up the difference.
(http://www.charlotte.com/opinion/story/680580.html)

Plan to Upgrade Highways and Open New Toll Roads
The Star (South Africa) (06/23/08) P. 3

Construction is set to begin on new highway systems in Gauteng, South Africa. Gauteng MEC for Public Transport, Roads and Works Ignatius Jacobs says that because of awareness campaigns in the media on the challenges facing public transport in the country, his department's budget had received increased cash injections. One of the changes that has already caused controversy is the planned tolling systems, which Jacobs is hoping will be implemented on all major roads before 2010. The proposed toll gates will see a pay-as-you-go system, where road users will be sent bills in the post after passing through a toll road in order to avoid congestion. It will also see taxis and buses passing through tolls for free, and lift clubs will get significant discounts. Jacobs is expecting public hearings on the system to take place in 2009.
(http://www.thestar.co.za)

Highway Trust Revenue Expected to Have Shortfall
Wall Street Journal (06/19/08) P. A12; Conkey, Christopher

With Americans cutting back on their driving habits, lawmakers warn they are paying less in gasoline taxes and thus jeopardizing the funding for transportation projects. The government depends on revenue from fuel purchases to fill the Highway Trust Fund, the primary mechanism used to pay for mass transit, public highway and other transportation projects. Trust-fund revenue is on pace to run a shortfall of at least $3 billion in 2009, which means that Capitol Hill legislators will soon face a choice between slashing transportation funding and coming up with a solution. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have proposed injecting $5 billion into the trust fund to close the revenue gap and ensure projects targeted for funding are allowed to proceed. Other legislators are taking a closer look at boosting infrastructure funding as part of a second economic-stimulus bill later this year. In turn, road builders and other business groups have intensified their lobbying efforts in support of increased funding. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters this past week stated that the recent decrease in driving is another reason for the U.S. to stop relying on gas taxes to fund transportation projects. She reasons, "We're burning less fuel as energy costs change driving patterns, steer people toward more fuel-efficient vehicles and encourage more to use transit. [This] is exactly why we need a more effective funding source than the gas tax." Peters is pushing for private companies to play a larger part in financing and managing transportation networks. She remains opposed to any increase in gas taxes.
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121384519625187741.html?mod=googlenews_wsj)

A Bridge to Somewhere: Rethinking American Transportation for the 21st Century
Brookings Institution (06/12/08) Puentes, Robert

The Brookings Institution has released a new report aimed at convincing federal policymakers to rethink transportation policy to reflect economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability, and social equity as well as the aging bridge and road infrastructure in the United States and growing traffic congestion in urban areas. The proposed approach is three-pronged. First, it urges the federal government to take the lead in areas where there is a clear need for national uniformity. Second, it encourages the federal government to empower states and cities through direct funding and project selection authority. Finally, it states that the federal government should optimize its own performance and that of its partners to boost metropolitan prosperity. Among the suggestions, the report calls for the consolidation of the various transportation innovation programs being pursued by different agencies. It also calls for the establishment of an infrastructure corporation in place of the existing highway trust fund to identify and fund vital regional and national transportation projects. The full report can be found here.
(http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2008/06_transportation_puentes.aspx)

Traffic Congestion in the U.S.
INRIX (06/17/08)

Seattle-based provider of traffic data INRIX has released its National Traffic Scorecard, providing in-depth analysis of urban traffic congestion across the United States. Though higher fuel prices and the general state of the economy are affecting driving habits, traffic congestion continues to grow; between 2006 and 2007, traffic congestion increased by almost 2 percent nationwide. The most congested cities, as listed in the scorecard, are Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., in that order. Seattle is also on the list, coming it at No. 9. "INRIX is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and the worst traffic bottleneck in our city is directly across from our corporate headquarters?so we?re definitely feeling the pain ourselves," says Bryan Mistele, INRIX founder and CEO. "The scorecard, and the data powering the report, will contribute enormously to a better understanding of traffic congestion that can help consumers, businesses and public officials better understand the flow of traffic and apply that information toward improved transportation planning and the avoidance of traffic." Data for the scorecard was collected from INRIX?s Smart Dust Network, composed of nearly 1 million GPS-equipped commercial vehicles that report their speed and location continually. INRIX also makes use of other tools, such as road sensors, toll tags, and traffic incident data. A summary of the report findings are now available at scorecard.INRIX.com. More detailed data are available under license to government agencies and commercial organizations.
(http://www.inrix.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=56)

New Web Site May Help You Avoid City Traffic
NewsOK (06/16/08) Sargent, Brian

Residents of Oklahoma City and Tulsa can now view near real-time traffic conditions in and around their communities by accessing the Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) through the state Department of Transportation's Web site. ATIS, which gets its images from nearly 30 stationary cameras, is the brainchild of the Intelligent Transportation System Laboratory at the University of Oklahoma, whose goal is to provide solutions to transportation problems facing the state and the country. Another of its projects involves the integration of vehicle locators with GPS to allow the state Department of Transportation to locate equipment like salt trucks and construction vehicles. "What we bring to the table are software engineers, computer scientists (and) fiber optic communication engineers who are very competent and have a very deep understanding of the technology we are trying to move out there," says Joseph P. Havlicek, a co-founder of the lab, which was launched a decade ago.
(http://newsok.com/new-web-site-may-help-you-avoid-trraffic/article/3258007/)

Counties Challenged to Help Residents 'Drive $marter'
County News (06/02/08) Vol. 40, No. 11, P. 1; Taylor, Charles

U.S. counties are being challenged by the National Association of Counties to help their employees and residents "drive smarter," save money, and become more fuel efficient as part of the Alliance to Save Energy's Drive $marter Challenge. The challenge was recently rolled out by NACo, the Wal-Mart Foundation, and 16 other partners to help consumers slash their gasoline costs. "From July through November, we will see which of the nation's 3,066 counties can most effectively spread the drive smarter message and get the most residents and employees to access www.drivesmarterchallenge.org and learn how they can save money by being more fuel efficient," says NACo President Eric Coleman. Through an interactive campaign Web site, drivers can enter specific data on their vehicle to determine the savings they can reap by following up to six easy vehicle maintenance and sensible driving steps, and gas- and money-saving tips are presented in English and Spanish. The site is also linked to resources that run the gamut from where to find the most inexpensive local gas to information on public transportation, carpooling, car-sharing, and biking. "With the summer driving season about to begin, our campaign could not be more timely in helping consumers, who are seeing their family budgets eroded by high gas prices," said Alliance to Save Energy President Kateri Callahan at the campaign's kick-off event.
(http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=Publications&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=27474)

Project Will Help Drivers Go More With Traffic Flow
USA Today (06/13/08) P. 1A; Copeland, Larry

The 16-state I-95 Corridor Coalition is set to launch a technology-based approach to alleviating congestion that if successful could serve as a model for the rest of the country. Beginning in July, drivers along one of the busiest arteries in the United States, the stretch of Interstate 95 between New Jersey and North Carolina, will have access to real-time traffic information. Data will be provided through a network that consist of more than 800,000 GPS devices attached to service vehicles like delivery vans, trucks, and taxicabs as well as sensors embedded in roadways, toll tag data like the EZ Pass, and cellphones. Data will be sent to state transportation departments, which will pass on the information to drivers through road signs, 511 phone systems, mobile alerts, and the Internet. "Real-time information is critical to drivers, not only in terms of what's going on but also in terms of providing alternative solutions," says James Ray of the Federal Highway Administration. The network will cover 1,500 miles of freeway and 1,000 miles of other major roadway. It will eventually be expanded to cover the entire East Coast. Washington state-based Inrix, which provides real time and predictive traffic information to MapQuest and other navigation services, will collect data provided through the network under a $1 million contract with the Corridor Coalition.
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-06-12-I95-traffic-technology_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip)

$589 Million in Private Activity Bonds Issued to Fund I-495 Congestion-Relief Project
U.S. Department of Transportation (06/12/08)

For the first time ever in the United States, tax-exempt private activity bonds have been issued to finance a highway project. The Virginia-based nonprofit Capital Beltway Funding Corporation has issued $589 million in private activity bonds to fund the I-495 Capital Beltway High Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes Project in Northern Virginia, part of an estimated $1.9 billion finance package for the 14-mile project that also includes a $589 million direct loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan program. The program, enacted as part of the 2005 surface transportation measure, encourages private sector participation in funding highway projects through flexible repayment terms. It allows private companies to borrow up to $15 billion nationwide on a tax-exempt basis to build and operate highways and some freight facilities. Though DOT has authorized the issuance of $5.6 billion in these private-activity bonds for seven projects, this is the first time the bonds have been issued. "This financial transaction represents a historic turning point not only for the way we finance highway projects but also for the thousands of drivers who lose precious time stuck in traffic on one of the nation?s most congested highways," says Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. Under the I-495 expansion plan, two additional lanes on each side of the Beltway will be added by 2012, allowing the conversion of the two existing middle lanes to HOT lanes with tolls changing in accordance with traffic volume. Transurban and Fluor Enterprises, the private companies that will finance, operate, and maintain the express lanes, will use the tolls to repay the private activity bonds and DOT loan.
(http://www.dot.gov/affairs/dot8108.htm)

IBM Research and Kyoto University Create First of a Kind System to Simulate Urban Transportation
CNN Money (06/10/08)

A system capable of simulating a wide spectrum of urban transport situations to anticipate what will happen if a new major facility is constructed and enhance planning of roads and public transportation has been co-developed by Kyoto University and IBM's Tokyo Research Laboratory. "Imagine having the ability to ease congestion while curtailing pollution and accidents," says Kyoto University professor Toru Ishida. "IBM and Kyoto University have found a way to do this before expensive and disruptive construction and other changes. ... This is an example of how technology can aid smarter decision-making." The system supplies the current status of traffic and the alignment of roads to drivers; this data can be used by city planners to model individual drivers' reactions, while the system can also model traffic conditions with the reduction of accidents and CO2 emissions in mind. The IBM Zonal Agent-based Simulation Environment platform and the IBM Mega Traffic Simulator were created by IBM's Tokyo Research Laboratory, with the latter designed to run on top of the former. The IBM Zonal Agent-based Simulation Environment offers a large-scale, multi-agent simulation environment that can boost the number of agents and can also execute emissions trading market simulations, evacuation guidance simulations, auction simulations, and other simulations.
(http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0405249.htm)

New Research Collaboration Invests in Technology to Improve Traffic Flow, Reduce Pollution
Medical News Today (06/22/08)

RFID technology may provide the key to better traffic management and improved pollution control in Canada, India, and worldwide. That is the hope of a new research collaboration established by the McMaster RFID Applications Lab (MRAL), the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, IPICO Inc. and Strategic Consultants. The $2.5 million initiative is receiving $1.2 million in matching funding by International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada and the Global Innovation & Technology Alliance. The remaining funding is provided by industry partners. The funding will be used to continue the development of a technology solution to power an intelligent transportation system framework. The goal of the project is to create an economically-viable RFID solution to capture and analyze data related to traffic use and capacity, without a corresponding increase in investment in road infrastructure. In turn, this technology could be used to help manage traffic, reducing road delays and transit time, therefore reducing both emissions and dependency on fossil fuels. "Pacing traffic to flow more evenly can reduce commuting time, fossil fuel use and harmful exhaust emissions," said Pankaj Sood, manager, MRAL. "Managing existing road capacity more efficiently through intelligent transportation systems is also much more affordable than undertaking large infrastructure projects." McMaster will supply the expertise in antenna design, wireless communications, networking, systems design and business process re-engineering. This will include working with IPICO to design new RFID tags/readers that will provide the functionality required by this initiative.
(http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/112165.php)

Toll road operator shifts into reverse
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) (06/20/08) P. 21

Australian road operator Transurban has announced plans to raise around $1 billion in capital in an effort to reduce the level of debt on its balance sheet. Transurban's new CEO Chris Lynch says the model of using debt to fund distributions is "not sustainable in this market." Advocating a "new investment proposition to the market," Lynch says the increased cost and difficulty in raising debt meant the company needed to return to a "more basic business philosophy." Transurban, operator of Sydney's M2 motorway and Eastern Distributor and Melbourne's CityLink, has maintained its guidance of a 58c payout this financial year, but adds that distributions will fall to 22c next financial year. Lynch stresses the capital raising and new distribution policy would put Transurban on a sounder footing to allow it to fund new initiatives, such as Vancouver's Port Mann Highway project for which it is shortlisted. Transurban says a placement of 120 million shares managed by UBS would be fully underwritten by the Canadian Pension Plan, with which it has partnered several toll-road projects.
(http://www.smh.com.au)

A Value Proposition for Bridge Projects: Delivering Safe, Functional Infrastructure Efficiently and Economically
Structural Engineer (06/08) Finley, Craig

The American Road and Transportation Builders Association estimates that the value of construction on domestic bridge projects rose almost 14 percent to $23.2 billion last year, and the association expects that growth will continue this year at around 3 percent, according to Finley Engineering Group managing principal Craig Finley. However, the construction sector faces a distressed economic climate where declines in state government revenue and other factors are causing turmoil. The Rockefeller Institute of Government estimates that state tax revenues throughout the United States fell by 4.3 percent during the fourth quarter of 2007, and the institute's Robert B. Ward remarks that "costs are rising sharply just as revenues falter. The result may be a squeeze on states' ability to fund services." Finley observes that this decline is spurring some state departments of transportation to stretch project budgets over multiple years, resulting in postponed payments to contractors and provoking a skittishness among contractors about bidding on projects. Or contractors may elevate prices to compensate for a potential hit, which reduces competition and raises project costs. This sends a message to the bridge construction industry that "the taxpaying public and their representatives are willing to spend money for safe, functional bridges, but only if we build them in the most economical and efficient manner possible," writes Finley. This in turn is fueling interest in innovative project delivery, which includes public-private partnerships, value engineering, and creative contract terms. Finley concludes that such methods may become de rigueur in the United States.
(http://www.gostructural.com/article.asp?id=2920)

New Technique Improves Road Maintenance
Construction Bulletin (06/02/08) Chang, Ivy

Mayo Construction of North Dakota has adopted a new method to repair roads: micro-surfacing. "Micro-surfacing is a maintenance technique that does several things: It takes the lumps and bumps out of roads, it takes the ruts and fills them with the slurry, then smoothes the pavement to give it a new surface," explains Greg Mayo, who owns the business along with his brothers Tim and Joe. A slurry is formed when crushed aggregate, water, polymer-modified emulsion, and bulk cement are mixed in a paver. The paver, which can sit on a truck, pours the slurry on to the road. "We didn't have to remove any part of the road because this product goes on top of the existing asphalt pavement," says Greg. The slurry hardens within 30 minutes. "It's faster than using regular asphalt paving technology because we lay down a thinner coat and don't have to use a compactor. The one specialized paver is the only piece of major equipment we need in addition to a loader to load materials and a truck to haul materials. Eight to 10 people work on the project, and the paver travels the road quite fast." Micro-surfacing yields the best results in warm temperatures. "With this mixture, the product hardens because excess water evaporates quickly," says Mayo. However, the method can cost between $30,000 and $40,000, more than traditional asphalt paving.
(http://www.acppubs.com/article/CA6565138.html)

Test Project Will Gather Highway Traffic Data
USA Today (06/13/08) P. 6A; Copeland, Larry

A project will commence in July in which the I-95 Corridor Coalition and Inrix will start supplying real-time traffic information on 2,500 miles of highway between New Jersey and North Carolina, including 1,500 miles of I-95, to help drivers avoid congestion or at least give them an idea of how long they will be stuck in traffic. Data will be gathered from sensors embedded in pavement, more than 800,000 fleet vehicles equipped with GPS gear, a system that measures the time is takes drivers using navigation applications on their cell phone to travel from one cell tower to the next, and EZPass toll tag systems. "Think about all these mega-cities, these mega-regions, where there's a lot more travel between these regions than there used to be, on both the freight and the people side," says Tim Lomax, co-author of the Texas Transportation Institute's annual report on U.S. traffic congestion. "You wind up with a real need for information on travel times, and routes, and what the conditions might be. You can't get that just by listening to the radio." State departments of transportation are amenable to projects such as the I-95 corridor effort because they are less expensive than deploying road sensors and traffic cameras or building new roads, for which state and federal funding is dwindling. Jo Ann Oerter with the North Carolina Department of Transportation says the department is engaged in negotiations with Inrix to provide real-time information on 1,020 miles of road in addition to the state's 180-mile I-95 segment, for which North Carolina will pay some $500,000 a year.
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-06-12-I95-traffic-side_N.htm)

Silicon Valley Uses Technology to Ease Traffic
KCBS (06/06/08)

The Traffic Operations Center in Santa Clara County, Calif., features 12 plasma screens that are being used by traffic engineers to reduce the time spent idling during red lights in Silicon Valley. "We?ve got a lot of cameras out there.," says Dan Collin, the county deputy director of roads and airports. "In May of 1998 we had 32 black and white traffic cameras. Now we?ve got 399 on all the expressways. ... We are constantly trying to keep abreast of changing traffic conditions, and tweaking the timing plans, which allow for signal coordination on the expressways during the peak traffic movements." Thanks to the effort, drivers are encountering 22 percent less red lights on local expressways.
(http://www.kcbs.com/Silicon-Valley-Uses-Technology-to-Ease-Traffic/2325963)

Advancing Road Maintenance Technology
Associated Construction Publications (06/01/08) Fournier, Paul

The National Center for Pavement Preservation (NCPP) is investigating the possibility of developing national standards for polymer-modified asphalt emulsions (PME) to improve pavement preservation for the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Lands Highway Division . Chip seal, slurry seal, and micro-surfacing are among the different preventative-maintenance treatments currently utilizing polymer-modified emulsions for pavement preservation. Right now, there are no standards for PME similar to those available for other practices such as Superpave, so NCPP is working to address this limitation in various ways, including exhaustively reviewing literature to collect and analyze practices and specifications. Transportation officials are learning about the various benefits they can achieve by modifying asphalt emulsions with different polymers, and NCPP Director Larry Galehouse says more and more data is coming in. "So far, we've conducted interviews with many industry suppliers and performed a detailed survey of suppliers, contractors, agencies, and other pavement practitioners. We're asking for their input on proposed specification, testing, acceptance, and certification practices on the use of PME. What's more, we have partnered with industry representatives and technical experts to ensure that specs are developed to achieve a balance of performance, quality, affordability, practicality, and industry and agency acceptance."
(http://www.acppubs.com/article/CA6561304.html?industryid=48565)