Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Transportation Communications Newsletter

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 -- ISSN 1529-1057

Join IBTTA for the 4th Annual Transportation Finance Summit – Washington DC, December 3-4, 2007 at the Fairmont Hotel

The Federal Highway Trust Fund will go bust in the next 12 months. Many state transportation trust funds face a similar destiny. More and more states and regions are waking up to the reality that they cannot rely on the Federal government alone to solve the transportation funding crisis. They must solve their problems on their own or with limited help from Washington. The experts at the 4th annual IBTTA Transportation Finance Summit in Washington, DC, December 3-4 are veterans of funding battles won and lost. They know what works and what doesn’t. This Summit is designed to be a tool box for elected officials, transportation leaders and practitioners in states, cities, counties, regions, town and MPOs. Download the program, find the details and register online today for the Transportation Finance Summit! www.IBTTA.org


1) Pennsylvania Outlines Changes Prompted by Snowstorm that Stranded Thousands
Improved information gathering and dissemination among changes.
Link to AP story:
http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-55/1193675341218660.xml&storylist=penn

2) ‘Medieval’ European Air Traffic Control System Hurts Airlines and Environment
Link to story in The Scotsman:
http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1726652007

3) New York Transit Directions by Cell Phone
Link to story in the New York Post:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10302007/news/regionalnews/transit_directions_by_cellphon.htm
Link to Trip Planner on the Go: http://www.tripplanner.mta.info/mobile/

4) BART Gets $5.4 Million from State to Upgrade Surveillance Cameras
Link to story in the San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/30/MNEOT2R0D.DTL
Link to news release from BART:
http://www.bart.gov/news/press/news20071029.asp

5) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Says It’s Looking at Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems for Heavy Vehicles
Link to story in Modern Tire Dealer:
http://www.moderntiredealer.com/t_inside.cfm?action=news_det&storyID=8047

6) Maryland State Police to Gather Data Digitally from the Air
New technology allows officers to quickly locate, inspect important structures during patrols.
Link to story in The Baltimore Sun:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-surveillance1030,0,7213905.story

7) It’s All About the Extras
Electronic devices, such as toll tags and GPS, are popular with some auto renters.
Link to story in The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/business/30carrent.html?ex=1351396800&en=0907673096c1b4bd&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

8) Hitachi Replacing Car Keys with Finger-Vein Scanner
Link to story in Computerworld:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9044781&intsrc=hm_list

9) When the World Speaks, Civita Listens
Device allows a car to cleanly, seamlessly ‘talk’ to virtually any and all electronic devices.
Link to column on AutoWeek:
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071030/FREE/310300007/1530/FREE

10) Latest Version of ITS Turbo Architecture (4.0) Now Available to Download
Link to further details from US Department of Transportation:
http://www.iteris.com/itsarch/


News Releases

In an effort to keep the TCN to a manageable size I’ve been fairly selective in choosing which news releases I’ve used. Generally speaking, I’ve not used releases about financial information, personnel announcements and contract awards, among others. I’d like to see if there’s a way to maintain the TCN’s easy ‘scanability’ and include links to these news items which may be of interest to some readers. Starting with today’s issue, I’m going to experiment with ways to do this and I welcome your feedback. I’ll still only use releases related to transportation communications, but I’ll be more inclusive.

1) AirIQ Expands US Office - Irwin Rodrigues to oversee San Diego facility
2) Inrix Raises $15 Million in Series C Funding
3) Motorola Named Best of Show at AdvancedTCA Summit
4) Volvo Unleashes Volley of Exciting New Concepts at the 2007 SEMA Show
5) AirSage Signs Deal with Orange Business Services to Accelerate Implementation,Deployment of Traffic Management Solution


Upcoming Events
Logistics & Fleet Management Systems 2007 – November 12-13 – Chicago
http://www.telematicsupdate.com/cvtusa07/


Today in Transportation History
1973 – The Bosphorus Bridge was completed in Istanbul, Turkey. The bridge was the first connecting Europe and Asia over the Bosporus.
http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?id=s0001368

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Questions, comments about the TCN? Please write the editor, Bernie Wagenblast at i95berniew@aol.com.
© 2007 Bernie Wagenblast