Transportation Library News

Finding Information - Libguides

Please check out the Transportation Library's home page. You'll find that the old e-collections have been replaced with Libguides, subject guides, for transportation, environmental impact assessment and law enforcement. Please let us hear from you about this new service. Send us an e-mail at trans@northwestern.eduand let us know what you think about the Libguides. Good or bad, we'd like to hear from you.

Transportation on TV

Even though Nielsen has moved this year's February sweeps to March to avoid the expected fracas of the digital conversion (which itself has now been postponed until June), many transportation periodicals seem to be celebrating their perhaps more popular cousin in the entertainment world with articles covering transportation on television.

In this month's edition of Bus Ride
(http://nucat.library.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=2610699),
Bethanie Hestermann has contributed a humorous and informative article about what is likely the most recognizable bus in America these days-- the Extreme Home Makeover Bus. The bus is in many ways as much a member of the cast as a mode of transportation. At the climactic moment of each episode-- when the bus is the only thing between the deserving family and their spectacular new home-- an excited crowd chants "move that bus!" and the driver rolls forward to reveal the makeover team's handiwork. Hestermann shares the etiology of this now iconic TV ritual as well as details about the driver and the bus itself in her enlightening article.

Likewise, this month's Airways
(http://nucat.library.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=3384442)
includes a write-up of the mysteries of ABC's eerie plane crash saga. Lost is a wildly popular TV drama about a group of castaways marooned on a tropical island after a plane crash. The article examines the show from a transportation-lover's point of view, through research on the airline, the crash, and the plane itself. This article will not only entertain air aficionados, but it may also shed some light on the mystery that surrounds this popular castaway tale.

So, if your favorite show has taken the postponement of sweeps as a free pass for a month of reruns, you may want to pick up a transportation periodical to fulfill your TV fix until March is here.

MIFACE Reports: Work Zones Can Be Fatal

MIFACE, MIFACE (Michigan Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation) a project at the Michigan State University, collects and reports on occupational-related fatalities.

http://www.oem.msu.edu/miface.aspx

Browsing the reports, vehicle-related fatalities represent an overwhelmingly large number of occupational accidents. Despite measures taken to make road construction and repair safer for workers, work zone accidents are clearly a problem.

01MI094 Bridge Painter Dies When He Falls Out of an Unsecured Rough Terrain Forklift Scaffold Platform

"On October 19, 2001, a 31-year old male died from injuries sustained when he fell out of an unsecured telescoping rough terrain forklift scaffold platform (See Figure 1). The victim was painting a bridge as part of a highway construction project. [...] The deceased's autopsy report stated there was a detectable level of cannabinoids (i.e., marijuana, hashish or hash oil) in his urine. The victim's cannabinoid level was measured at 507 nanograms/milliliter (ng/ml). This positive result indicates probable prior use but does not correlate well in determining level of intoxication or impairment of the victim."

02MI106 Highway Worker Killed by Passenger Vehicle While Setting Up Highway Work Zone Warning Signal
03MI005 Worker Dies As a Result of Being Struck and Pinned Between Two Vehicles While Repairing Potholes
04MI107 Engineering Technician Dies When Backed Over by Cement Mixer
06MI068 Surveyor Dies When Struck by Oncoming Car
06MI096 Ground Man For Milling Operation Dies When Struck by a Dump Truck Backing Into Work Zone
06MI117 Male Siding Installer Dies After Falling From a Roof While Installing a J Channel on a Dormer
07MI169 Supervisor/Foreman Struck by a Pickup Truck While Placing Channelizer Drum in Road

Take a Look at a Book

The Transportation Library has acquired <Britain's Railways, 1997-2005:
Labour's Strategic Experiment by Terry Gourvish. Here is an description of the book from the publisher's Web site:

Britain's leading railway historian provides a critical examination of the Blair governments' involvement in the rail industry from 1997 as they attempted to deal with the UK's fragmented, privatized railways.

The book focuses particularly on the work of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), and considers the role of individuals --John Prescott, Stephen Byers, Alistair Darling, Sir Alastair Morton, and Richard Bowker--and events--the Hatfield accident (2000), the demise of Railtrack (2001-2), and the funding crisis of 2003-4--in the shaping of emerging policy.

The book was commissioned by the SRA, and written with access to government files. Dr. Gourvish argues that the establishment of the SRA as a Non-Departmental Public Board proved largely unsuccessful. It produced tensions with the industry's existing institutions--Railtrack/Network Rail, the operating companies and the economic regulator. There were some gains from the experiment, notably the rescue of the West Coast Main Line project.
However, it remains to be seen whether by winding up the SRA and taking responsibility for strategy and funding back into its own hands the Department for Transport has resolved the problem of managing a fragmented industry.

This important book is essential reading for those concerned with, and interested in, railway policy, both in the UK and elsewhere in the world.

Lincoln's life on trains

On the eve of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, Peter A.
Hansen has written a quite enlightening article in February's issue of Trains
(http://nucat.library.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=2616866)
covering the famous president's experiences with, and impacts on the world of rail transportation.

Hansen begins the chronicle by detailing Lincoln's early life in the American frontier--though he specifies that the future president was by no means a "frontiersman." On the contrary, Lincoln was an intellectual at heart, and had no apparent interest in activities such as hunting and farming. According to Hansen, Lincoln's disinterest in the banalities of frontier life fueled a lifelong enthusiasm for transportation projects.

At the age of 22, Lincoln struck out on his own and opted for town life over the frontier. Early experiences in business and a debating society piqued his interest in politics. The early years of the politician's career corresponded with the development of the steam locomotive. Thus, though Lincoln went on record early on with slight skepticism--reminding fellow Illinois residents not to abandon plans for improvements to river and canal transportation in favor of the new wave of rail transport--he joined the ranks of railroad supporters within the next few years.

Lincoln's law career, though often glossed over by biographers, was yet another venue in which the president-to-be was at the forefront of the railway age. For example, in an 1853 letter, Lincoln refers to a case involving the Illinois Central Railroad in terms of "the largest law question that can now be got up in the state" and acknowledged that he himself could not afford to ignore it.

Hansen further chronicles Lincoln's interactions with the railroad in terms of his early law career, as well as during his presidency. He additionally includes several noteworthy train voyages the president took during his life (including his ride to Gettysburg in 1863). Read more about Lincoln's life and career, and his impact on rail transportation in this month's issue of Trains.

Take a Look at a Book

The Transportation Library has acquired Mobility First: A New Vision for Transportation in a Globally Competitive Twenty-First Century by Sam Staley and Adrian Moore. Here is an description of the book from the publisher's Web site:

Traffic congestion is a growing problem, and unless policy makers and transportation officials make some dramatic changes, it will rise to unacceptable levels by 2030. In , Sam Staley and Adrian Moore explain the inefficient systems and politics that cause this escalating epidemic, presenting commonsense, high-tech solutions that will ease congestion and its troubling consequences.

The book considers transportation policy through the intersection of four crucial and timely elements: global, economic, and cultural competitiveness; urban development trends; demographics; and transportation engineering and design. It sets goals for congestion reduction, outlines performance standards that increase transparency, calls for the redesign of the regional transportation network, and describes sufficient investment in technology.

It Ain't Cheap to Make Money in Transportation

A popular bicycle rental scheme in Paris that has transformed travel in the city has run into problems just 18 months after its successful launch.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7881079.stm

Nicosia International Airport: the Ghost Airport

In the middle of what is perhaps the last divided capitol city in the world, a full-sized international airport sits abandoned, decorated now only by the hulking wreck of a Cyprus Airways jet.

While still a fully-functional airport, Nicosia International Airport (NIC) was evacuated in 1974 during the division of Cyprus. What remains now, in the few photos that have been taken, is a 1960s-style airport terminal in full 1970s-style décor. The United Nations controls the airport and surrounding area, and uses the abandoned airport for freight helicopter landings. It's rumored that newspapers and coffee cups remain on tables where employees sat before quickly evacuating the fully-functional airport.
With the loss of NIC, two other smaller airports in Cyprus serve as international airports, and one airport in Turkish-controlled Cyprus has flights only to Turkey.

Will NIC become a functional airport again? Rehabilitation of the existing buildings, now completely stripped, will probably be too expensive. So after more than thirty years as the airport forgotten by time, a complete demolition of NIC is probably its future.

Ray Rickert: 1922-2009 - Illinois highway design engineer - He helped build tollways, but he always refused to drive on them

Chicago Tribune (IL) - Monday, February 9, 2009
Author: Gerry Smith, TRIBUNE REPORTER

Ray Rickert was a consummate engineer.

Whether he was designing a highway, building a bookshelf or analyzing his golf swing, he believed the world could be broken down to a scientific level.

Mr. Rickert, 86, a highway design engineer for Illinois for nearly 40 years, was found dead Wednesday in his Marengo home.

Born in Shawano, Wis., Mr. Rickert was a bombardier in World War II with the 15th Air Force in Bari, Italy. He flew more than 55 missions over enemy territory, his family said.

After the war, he wanted to be an architect at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But the school didn't offer such a program, so he studied civil engineering.

In the early 1950s, he became a design engineer for Illinois, helping to build its tollway system. He developed a keen understanding of how to build a cloverleaf exit ramp and how to shape land to build roads smooth and straight.

Mr. Rickert took pride in creating highways that lasted and was upset by the trend of building them with asphalt, which requires repairs as often as every five years, instead of concrete, which can go 30 years before a major rehabilitation.

"It irritated the life of him to see potholes," said his daughter Claudia Garrison.

Although he designed some of Illinois' tollways, Mr. Rickert refused to drive on them. He believed the intent of the tolls was to pay for construction costs and then become freeways. So when he drove from Marengo to Chicago, it took a long time because he traveled back roads.

His mind was uniquely wired for engineering. About two years ago, six weeks after surgery for colon cancer, he tried to replace a water heater in the basement by lifting it up the stairs with a pulley system before his two daughters talked him out of it.

He liked working with his hands. In 1954, he built his own house. In the basement, he crafted tables and bookshelves out of black walnut.

Mr. Rickert was old school. Although his daughters bought him a computer, he never used it, choosing to keep hand-drawn graphs of all his stocks using a slide rule to calculate yields and rates of return.

He also took a scientific approach to his golf game. He had his daughter Kitz Rickert take pictures of his golf swing so he could analyze it and make improvements.

After he got a hole-in-one, he built a small wooden stand to mount the lucky golf ball.

Growing up during the Depression, Mr. Rickert developed a strong belief in not only spending money wisely, but making those purchases last a long time.

When he received a new shirt for Christmas, he wouldn't wear it right away. He would place it in a drawer for about a year, then begin wearing once when another shirt wore out.

Some might have called him frugal, but Mr. Rickert was thinking about the future.

"He believed you follow a path in life so that you're not going to be a burden to anybody in your old age," Garrison said.

Mr. Rickert overcame colon cancer, prostate cancer and three bouts of bladder cancer, his family said.

After he died, his daughters found plans for re-insulating the house, a library book on small-cap stocks and detailed instructions on how to sort out the house and accounts after he was gone.

It was a fitting example of a man who always took the long view.

"Although he wasn't a Boy Scout, he believed in the motto 'Always be prepared,'" Garrison said.

Kitz Rickert is an employee of the Northwestern University Library.