Transportation Library News

A very fast electric motorcycle

First, we had the Tesla high-performance electric automobile delivering unbelievable high speeds and now, a splinter group of Tesla engineers have developed a high performance electric motorcycle that recently set the speed record (although not yet certified) at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Read the full article in Wired.com http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/mission-one-bonneville/ As an added bonus, look to the right of the page for additional e-transportation news.

Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession

That's part of the title of an article by Simon Parry on the Web site of England's Daily Mail newspaper. The ghost fleet in question is a collection of more than five hundred merchant ships laid up off the coast of Singapore, which are captured in some striking photographs. The article discusses the economic state of the shipping market and the shipbuilding industry, focusing on the container trade.

Idle time to shrink for buses

Chicago Tribune (IL) - Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Author: Jon Hilkevitch

Fewer CTA buses will run their motors while out of service each night thanks to a federal grant announced Monday to help reduce diesel emissions.

The transit agency is getting $1.5 million in economic stimulus money to build electric hook-ups that will deliver power to about 80 buses parked overnight outside the CTA's North Park Garage, 3112 W. Foster Ave.

Bus engines must normally be run at idle during cleaning to operate interior lights, heating and air-conditioning. Electrified stalls that the CTA plans to buy with the grant will reduce the need to run motors, officials said, although some idling will remain necessary during winter to ensure buses are ready for service.

Still, scaling-back idling reduces unnecessary fuel consumption and decreases the wear and tear on bus engines by as much as 25 percent, officials said.

The grant was announced by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which awarded a total of about $100 million for transit agencies and communities to pursue cutting-edge environmental technologies to reduce global warming, lessen U.S. dependence on oil and create "green" jobs.

Sleeping in Airports

We've all done this at some point, whether due to missed connections, delayed flights, or just poor planning. Now there's a resource for you to use when you plan to be stuck in an airport overnight. The Guide to Sleeping in Airports will help you plan your next stay, or perhaps guide you to an airport you've never tried before. They're currently soliciting votes for the best and worst airports of 2009 as well, so go vote if you have a favorite.

Transportation in the Plan of Chicago

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the publication of Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago, Chicago CartoGraphics has created a Web site on the Plan, "The Plan of Chicago: A Regional Legacy." It shows that transportation was a prominent concern in the Plan. As an article in the Encyclopedia of Chicago notes, four of the Plan's six key recommendations pertained to transportation.

Stating that "Congestion is a menace to the commercial progress of the city," the Plan recommended new streets and bridges to help relieve passenger and freight traffic in the city. It called for the widening of arterial streets, the construction of double-decked drives along the riverfront, the creation of more diagonal streets, and the development of Congress Street into a grand boulevard. In its proposals for rail and maritime traffic, the Plan recommended the creation of joint railroad facilities, such as belt railways encircling the city, a consolidated freight yard on the Southwest Side, and the consolidation of the city's six passenger terminals into a union terminal south of Roosevelt Road. The Plan also recommended the construction of new piers for lake shipping at Chicago Avenue, Cermak Road, and the mouth of the Calumet River.

Cameras inspire love, hate - Most support traffic devices -- but not in their neighborhood

Chicago Tribune (IL) - Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Author: Bob Secter, Tribune reporter

The not-in-my-backyard syndrome associated with power plants and waste dumps may also apply to red-light cameras in Illinois.

A new Tribune/WGN-TV poll finds most voters favor the traffic control devices -- in concept. But they don't want the cameras in their own neighborhoods.

The statewide survey also found broad skepticism about a common refrain echoed by municipal officials: Promoting safety is the paramount goal of camera installations.

Only 32 percent of those surveyed agreed with that claim, while 61 percent said the primary purpose of cameras was to boost ticket revenue for local governments and the private firms they hire to install and run camera equipment.

Typical of that sentiment was Frank Murino, 44, of Western Springs, one of several poll respondents who spoke with the Tribune. He said he's fine with cameras as long as they're confined to intersections with "a tremendous amount of accidents."

"But I think it's gone beyond that," said Murino, who works in the computer software industry. "It's become a way for municipalities to reduce deficits, and they are taking advantage of it. They're getting a whole lot more revenue than safety."

Automated-traffic cameras snag far more red-light runners than cops in patrol cars ever could, and backers contend the increasing presence of the devices at intersections across the Chicago area has led to reduced accidents.

But it also has spurred a backlash that prompted at least two area suburbs to pull the plug on cameras that had been reaping hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in fines.

The telephone survey of 700 registered voters across the state, conducted Aug. 27-31 by Market Shares Corp., with a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

The poll found that 53 percent agreed red-light cameras were a "good idea," while 41 percent thought them a "bad idea." Support for cameras was greatest in the city, where they got a general thumbs-up from 59 percent of voters, and 55 percent said they would like to have them installed near where they live.

That should be heartening for Mayor Richard Daley, who has taken a public-relations beating lately over his botched parking-meter privatization deal and needs every penny he can scrape together to erase budget red ink. Red-light camera fines were worth nearly $45 million to the city in 2008. More of them have been installed this year, bringing the count of camera-monitored Chicago intersections to 159.

Outside the city, however, traffic cameras rate a more conflicted view. Statewide, slightly more than half of voters surveyed said they would not like to see cameras installed where they live, while just 41 percent said they would.

Most cameras in Illinois operate in the Chicago area, and state law bars their installation in all but a handful of Downstate counties. Voters there clearly would like to keep it that way, the poll suggests. Just 31 percent of Downstate voters said they would like to see cameras installed where they live, while 57 percent said they would not. Illustrating the NIMBY syndrome, however, 54 percent of Downstaters surveyed also said they thought traffic cameras were a good idea.

Overall, anti-camera sentiment was strongest in the Cook County suburbs, which have experienced an explosion of traffic cameras in the last three years. More than half of suburban Cook residents surveyed said they disliked the notion of cameras, and 58 percent said they didn't want one where they lived.

The unpopularity of cameras in the suburbs raises questions about whether their presence could become a flash point in local elections.

A recent Tribune investigation found that few camera-generated tickets in the suburbs were issued to drivers who blow through red lights, a violation that can lead to dangerous broadside accidents and deaths. Instead, up to 90 percent of suburban tickets went to drivers who failed to come to a complete stop while making a right turn on red, a common yet still illegal maneuver that safety experts agree rarely leads to serious accidents.

Such findings perhaps underscore why many of those surveyed appeared to harbor conflicting attitudes about traffic cameras.

Eric Rogel, 20, who grew up and still lives in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood, is another respondent who spoke with the Tribune. Rogel said he saw frequent accidents at the busy intersection of Western and Peterson Avenues west of the neighborhood until the city installed cameras there several years ago. "After the cameras went up, I can't remember the last time I saw a crash," he said.

Still, Rogel said, the city has gone overboard with cameras. "At first it might have been for safety, and to some extent it still is. But now there are simply too many cameras, and it's mainly about money. I think the city is kind of pushing it."

Something Worth Eating!

This online Wall Street Journal article
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204047504574388972012802920.h
tml#mod=article-outset-box> describes how some airlines are going back to providing coach customers with "edible" choices. Described as a "win/win"
situation, both the passengers and the airlines hope to get something out of this venture.