Transportation Library News

Take a Look at a Book

2008-12-10T22:42:11Z

The Transportation Library has acquired Trucking Country: The Road to America's Wal-Mart Economy by Shane Hamilton. Here is an description of the book from the publisher's Web site: Trucking Country is a social history of long-haul trucking that explores the contentious politics of free-market capitalism in post-World War II America. Shane Hamilton paints an eye-opening portrait of the rural highways of the American heartland, and in doing so explains why working-class populist voters are drawn to conservative politicians who seemingly don't represent their financial interests. Hamilton challenges the popular notion of "red state" conservatism as a devil's bargain between culturally conservative rural workers and economically conservative demagogues in the Republican Party. The roots of rural conservatism, Hamilton demonstrates, took hold long before the culture wars and free-market fanaticism of the 1990s. As Hamilton shows, truckers helped build an economic order that brought low-priced consumer goods to a greater number of Americans. They piloted the big rigs that linked America's factory farms and agribusiness food processors to suburban supermarkets across the country. Trucking Country is the gripping account of truckers whose support of post-New Deal free enterprise was so virulent that it sparked violent highway blockades in the 1970s. It's the story of "bandit" drivers who inspired country songwriters and Hollywood filmmakers to celebrate the "last American cowboy," and of ordinary blue-collar workers who helped make possible the deregulatory policies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and set the stage for Wal-Mart to become America's most powerful corporation in today's low-price, low-wage economy.

Traveling for work and play

2008-12-10T22:38:26Z

Not having any actual educational background in the study of transportation, my eyes often tend to glaze over while working with the more academic journals in our collection here at the Transportation library. However, from time to time I do come across a gem in one of these dense research journals that can excite even the biggest transportation neophyte (i.e. me). While thumbing through the November issue of Mobilities (http://nucat.library.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=4399130) this morning, I came upon a fascinating article which questions the status of travel workers--are they merely 'traveler's assistants' or are they in fact travelers themselves? Jo Stanley, of Britain's Lancaster University, explores the question through the example of women who worked as stewardesses on early 20th century passenger ships. These women, as well as today's flight attendants, train engineers and even bus drivers are indeed part of the same journey that the passengers have paid to take, yet they are not often considered to be travelers in the same right. Stanley explores this phenomenon, placing the discrepancy to some extent with the disparities of gender, race and class which created a sharply divided world early in the last century, and do indeed still persist today. Read more about Stanley's research in her article "Co-venturing consumers 'travel back' : ships' stewardesses and their female passengers, 1919-55" in November's issue of Mobilities.

WHO's Report: Bleak News on Children and Traffic Accidents

2008-12-10T22:23:13Z

The World Health Organization's World Report On Child Injury Prevention, http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/child/injury/w orld_report/en/, issued on December 9, 2008 points to traffic accidents as the leading cause of death and disablement among children worldwide. In 2004, 262,000 children died as a result of traffic accidents, representing 30% of all causes of death. Unlike other causes of mortality, traffic accidents affect children in both the developed and developing world. In the developing world, children are frequently killed or injured as pedestrians, in much higher rates than in the developed world. The outlook for India and China, both with large populations and increasing density of traffic, is bleak. The report, released in Vietnam, highlights the story of Vietnam's compulsory helmet laws. Passed in 2007, 90% of all motorcycle occupants now wear a helmet, but only 10 to 25% of children on motorcycles. Despite even this low rate of helmet usage, hospitals have already reported lowered fatalities and brain injuries from motorcycle accidents. In the developed world, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among children age 15 to 19. Young drivers are the cause of between 20 and 30% of all fatalities, with the first year of driving being the most dangerous. Alcohol remains a deadly cause of death to young drivers: "New evidence suggests that the physiological response of adolescents to alcohol might be different to that of adults, making adolescents less sensitive to signals that their ability is impaired." The study points out that although fatal accidents among young drivers have decreased, it has not decreased significantly, and much public health work remains to be done in this area.

'L' speeds up as slow zones fixed - Blue Line to O'Hare now takes less than an hour from Loop

2008-12-10T22:21:06Z

Chicago Tribune (IL) - Monday, December 8, 2008 Author: Jon Hilkevitch, TRIBUNE REPORTER CTA trains are chugging along at up to 55 m.p.h. on long segments of the rail lines for the first time in years thanks to slow-zone repairs that will be mostly completed by year's end, transit officials said. The improvements have come just in time for holiday travelers using the Blue Line to get to O'Hare International Airport. Blue Line slow zones, restricting trains in some locations to 6 m.p.h., had been the worst among the CTA's eight rail lines. Slow zones overall have not been eliminated, but they are greatly reduced since some CTA funds were redirected more than a year ago to step up replacement of deteriorated ties, worn rails and antiquated signals. As of November, trains were forced to operate at reduced speeds on only 7 percent of CTA tracks due to slow zones, down from 22 percent in October 2007. Over that 13-month period, more than 183,000 feet of slow zones have been removed from the system, CTA President Ron Huberman said. Blue Line ridership growth stalled last year and early this year due to track work related to slow zones and to the airline industry downturn. Transit officials are hoping holiday travelers, especially those frustrated by long and unpredictable train trips -- often well in excess of an hour between O'Hare and downtown -- give the Blue Line another try now that train speeds have increased on the O'Hare branch. Blue Line travel times now average 45 to 50 minutes between downtown and O'Hare. Trains are running at up to 55 m.p.h. even though the new track can handle up to 70 m.p.h. The problem holding back an increase in the current speed is that many of the CTA trains serving the line are 40 years old. "We are beginning speed testing to up the speed," Huberman said, "but we haven't asked our train cars for over two decades to do anything over 55."

Take a Look at a Book

2008-11-26T22:14:41Z

The Transportation Library has acquired Airport Slots: International Experiences and Options for Reform, edited by Achim I. Czerny, Peter Forsyth, David Gillen and Hans-Martin Niemeier. Here's a description of the book from the publisher's Web site: Over the past several decades, commercial air traffic has been growing at a far greater rate than airport capacity, causing airports to become increasingly congested. How can we accommodate this increased traffic and at the same time alleviate traffic delays resulting from congestion? The response outside the US has been to set a maximum number of slots and use administrative procedures to allocate these among competing airlines, with the most important consideration being 'grandfather rights' to existing carriers. The United States, on the other hand, has used administrative procedures to allocate slots at only four airports. In all other cases, flights have been handled on a first-come, first-served basis, with aircraft queuing for the privilege of landing or taking off from a congested airport. While recognizing the advantages of slot systems in lessening delays, economists have criticized both approaches as being sub-optimal, and have advocated procedures such as slot auctions, peak-load pricing and slot trading to better utilize congested airports. Edited by an international team of air transport economists and drawing on an impressive list of contributors, Airport Slots provides an extremely comprehensive treatment of the subject. It considers the methods currently used to allocate slots and applies economic analysis to each. The book then explains various schemes to increase public welfare by taxing or pricing congestion, and describes alternate slot-allocation schemes, most notably slot auctions. In addition, Airport Slots outlines the complexities involved in slot-allocation methods, including the requirement for multiple slots - a take-off slot at London Heathrow is useless unless there is a landing slot available at Frankfurt for a London Frankfurt flight. Finally, the book explores the economic pitfalls of slot-allocation schemes; for example, controls may not be required if external delay costs are internalized by a dominant carrier at its hub. Airport Slots provides a valuable contribution to the debate on how best to limit airport congestion. The book's comprehensive treatment of the subject matter provides the reader with a 'one-stop' volume to explore airport congestion and slot-allocation schemes, offering valuable insights to academics and practitioners alike.

'Green Lanes' are a go - Illinois tollway OKs project intended to ease congestion

2008-11-26T22:13:26Z

Chicago Tribune (IL) - Friday, November 21, 2008 Author: Richard Wronski, TRIBUNE REPORTER Fast-moving "Green Lanes" for carpools, buses, fuel-efficient vehicles and solo motorists willing to pay a premium could begin operating in 2010 and will be open on all Chicago-area tollways by 2015, officials said Thursday. The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority gave the green light Thursday to the $400 million congestion-relief project. Yet to be determined is which of the four area toll roads will get the first of the so-called high-occupancy toll, or HOT lanes. About 80 miles of the local toll roads will be affected. Tollway officials provided only a few more specifics about the plan announced last month by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Chief among the questions is how much premium tolls will range. Tolls will be deducted electronically from vehicles with I-PASS transponders, currently used by about 80 percent of tollway customers. Cars with more than one person will pay the current I-PASS rate, but single-occupant vehicles will pay a premium that will depend on congestion. The heavier the traffic, the higher the toll. In cities such as Minneapolis and Seattle where the "congestion pricing" concept is used, the premium rate can vary from a dollar or two to $9.50. Drivers of fuel-efficient vehicles such as hybrids will pay about 50 percent of the Green Lane premium rate, officials said. But the definition of "fuel-efficient" has yet to be determined. The tollway also decided Thursday that commercial vehicles, including trucks and cars hauling trailers, will pay more to use the regular lanes. A 60 percent rate increase will be phased in for these vehicles starting in 2015 and ending in 2017. George Billows, executive director of the Illinois Trucking Association, said the industry is opposed to the toll increase because it puts an unfair burden on commercial vehicles. "We can't support a proposal that doesn't include additional tolls for autos as well," Billows said. The tolls will be used to pay off bonds to fund a $1.8 billion capital improvement project, which includes the Green Lanes. The remaining $1.4 billion will pay for two major interchange projects: a long-sought link between the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate Highway 294) and Interstate Highway 57 near Harvey and rebuilding the intersection of the Jane Addams Tollway (Interstate Highway 90) and Illinois Highway 53/Interstate Highway 290 near Schaumburg. These projects are scheduled to begin in 2011 and 2013. One of the most challenging questions is whether Green Lanes can accomplish the goal of reducing emissions and traffic tie-ups in the nation's third-most congested metropolitan area. Some critics say they will push traffic into regular lanes. Tollway Chairman John Mitola said research shows congestion pricing improves overall traffic flow and makes travel time quicker and more reliable.

Piracy 2.0: Part II

2008-11-26T22:02:28Z

In my last entry I wrote about the new epidemic of "land piracy" being perpetrated by organized cargo theft rings in the United States. However, more than 90% of global trade still takes place by sea, leaving millions of dollars worth of cargo open to a more old fashioned sort of piracy. In his article entitled "Worse things, apparently, still happen at sea : piracy world-wide requires an immediate, staunch response" in this month's issue of Ships and Shipping, Steven Kelleher details a harrowing standoff from earlier this fall, in which a Ukrainian vessel was boarded and held ransom by Somali pirates. Of course any capture of a ship is a call for concern among the shipping and law enforcement communities, however this instance was made all the more alarming by the fact that the vessel in question was carrying a weapons shipment worth roughly $30 million. The pirates entered into a standoff with three foreign warships until Russian and U.S. ships intervened and blockaded the pirates while the Somali government authorized international force to end the conflict. As recently as 2007, the piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur reported 263 incidents of piracy worldwide. The International Chamber of Shipping, as well as others in the international shipping community, have issued a call to arms against pirates, urging the United Nations, and other organizations and individual states to become involved in the fight against piracy on the high seas. It seems that the area of most concern at this time is the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Somalia. Read more about high seas piracy, and what is being done to fight it in this month's edition of Ships and Shipping.

Bette S. Garber: Photographer and Advocate for Truckers

2008-11-26T21:58:37Z

Bette S. Garber has passed away at the age of 65. Garber was best known for her photography of big rigs. Beyond her creative work in photographing the exterior of trucks, Garber documented the interiors of her beloved trucks, which led to a deep understanding of the lives of truckers, and by extension their families, and the social aspects of trucking. Garber was a licensed truck driver herself and spent much time on the road with drivers. Garber will perhaps be remembered by the community for her artistic work, but she contributed numerous thoughtful articles on trucker health and safety to industry magazines, with the intent of having them read by truckers themselves, for more than a decade. Her 2002 article referred to in a New York Times obituary was titled Wake up call to fleets: the sleep that kills. As the cover story in the January 2002 issue of Heavy Duty Trucking, the article was widely read by truckers themselves and can be credited for raising attention to the issue and treatment for sleep-related illnesses in the profession. Wake up call to fleets: http://www.heavydutytrucking.com/2002/01/022a0201.asp New York Times obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/arts/design/23garber.html

Not-so-serious humor

2008-11-26T21:51:15Z

When one thinks of musicians and vehicles, the most common image is perhaps that of the rock group tour bus, or perhaps jet-setting superstars. That's assuming that the musicians think of vehicles strictly as transportation. They can have other purposes, though, as evidenced by a small (but growing?) collection of videos on YouTube, in which the tractor takes its rightful place as accompanist. Check these out to see what I mean: Moving a bit farther afield, the tractor can also take its place as a dance partner:

Airports in India: On the Move

2008-11-12T22:50:58Z

Airports in India, despite the global economic situation, are on the move. According to the Aug./Sept. issue of Airports International, passenger volume increased by 32.5% between 2006 and 2007, and in recent years, the number of "operational" airports in India has gone from 50 to 87. The flurry of activity surrounding the construction of airports in India is largely due to privatization of the aviation sector in the 1990s. Among the most interesting of the expanded Indian airports is (Bengaluru International Airport), which is a case in point of triumph over red tape. Originally conceived before privatization, the airport was scheduled to be built by the Tata Group. Mired in red tape, Tata pulled out, and a Siemen-led consortium finished the project 14 years after it had begun. In the meantime travel demand to Bangalore is so heavy that the old airfield may be developed as a second airport.

Piracy 2.0

2008-11-12T22:36:01Z

The current economic downturn has inspired a new sort of modern piracy. The world of cargo theft has increased recently, as organized crime rings focusing on the theft of retail goods from commercial trucks in the United States have begun springing up with more and more frequency. As Charlie Morasch writes in his article "Grand Theft Cargo" in this month's issue of Land Line, these cargo theft rings operate like small-scale mafia families, preying on a field unprepared to adequately defend itself, and a system of investigation and prosecution which has not yet caught up with this new trend in the world of crime. Punishments for first-time offenders convicted of cargo theft are relatively light compared to violent crime, however the U.S. Department of Justice reports that these modern day pirates are responsible for up to $1 million a day in cargo theft, and there is evidence that some of these crime rings may have connections to terrorist organizations abroad. Enter TOMCATS, or Miami-Dade's Tactical Operations Multi-Agency Cargo Anti-Theft Squad. Miami is perfectly situated to not only be a U.S. hub for the shipping of legitimate cargo, but consequently also for the fencing of stolen and counterfeit goods. Thus, Miami-Dade has built a cargo theft squad of police and FBI personnel to investigate and prosecute this alarming trend. Read about the ways in which TOMCATS hopes to stop cargo losses to organized crime, as well as tips from longtime truckers for protecting cargo in this month's Land Line

Take a Look at a Book

2008-11-12T22:26:11Z

The Transportation Library has acquired Chicago-Lake Geneva: A 100-year Road Trip, published by the Chicago Map Society and the Newberry Library. Here is an description of the book from the back cover: Before in-car GPS devices, before highway numbers, even before road atlases, there were "photo-auto guides." A century ago, early motorists used these to make cross-country trips by taking the right turn at the yellow farmhouse, or the uphill fork near the big oak. This book reproduces a 1905 guide used to navigate from Chicago to Lake Geneva and Beloit, with photos of the same scenes a century later. It shows a Chicago region that has been transformed--and even more remarkable, a few scenes that have remained unchanged. The original maps and modern maps help you carefully retrace the route. Whether you want to journey from Chicago to Lake Geneva, or just travel through time, you'll enjoy the trip.

Compute the commute to save - Benefit plans allow riders to pay with pre-tax dollars

2008-11-12T22:22:44Z

Chicago Tribune (IL) - Wednesday, November 12, 2008 Author: Richard Wronski, Tribune reporter Stung by roller-coaster gas prices, commuters in record numbers are hopping aboard buses and trains in the Chicago area, but they can shave even more off the cost of getting to work -- as much as $500 a year. By setting aside part of their pre-tax earnings, commuters can help cover transit or van-pooling costs. The wrinkle is that fewer than 2,000 Chicago-area companies provide such benefits to workers, according to the Regional Transportation Authority. If San Francisco is any kind of trendsetter, that could change. Worried about air quality and traffic congestion, the city recently became the nation's first to require businesses with more than 20 employees to offer transit benefit programs. Experts say Chicago could follow. Q. How much do I save? A. Transit benefit plans work just like such popular employee programs as medical or child-care savings accounts. Under federal tax law, a commuter can shelter up to $115 a month, or $1,380 a year, in pre-tax dollars to help pay commuting expenses. By putting aside this money before it's taxed, commuters can save from $300 to more than $500, depending on their tax bracket. For example, a worker making about $30,000 a year in the 25 percent tax bracket who sets aside $1,380 a year would save $492 in state and federal taxes. Companies benefit because they don't have to pay taxes on the amount employees earmark for the program. They could save about $116 a year per employee in payroll taxes. Companies can also choose to give workers up to $115 a month in tax-free benefits for transit costs. The employer still gets the payroll-tax deduction. Or employers and employees can share the cost of the benefit. Employers benefit from the payroll-tax deduction, and employees can set aside pre-tax earnings. Q. How does it work? A. The program enables companies and employees to buy CTA Transit Cards, Chicago Cards or RTA FareChecks, vouchers that pay for transportation anywhere on the RTA system, including Metra, the South Shore line and certain Amtrak routes. Monthly passes and 10-ride tickets for Metra also are available. The program is administered by a company's human resources department or by a third-party benefits provider. Q. Why doesn't everyone get it? A. Only 53 percent of employers are aware of tax-free commuter benefits, and of those, only 46 percent offer the benefit to employees, according to one survey. Another national survey found that only 17 percent of companies with standard benefits programs provided the transit option. Many companies believe they are too small to offer the program or don't feel they have the resources or expertise to deal with the paperwork, experts say. The RTA says the transit benefit program has grown steadily, and the agency anticipates a surge in interest, said Phillip Shayne, the RTA's director of regional services. Fall is the traditional time for benefit program open enrollments, and fear of another round of gas price increases probably will prompt more employees to take advantage of the transit option, Shayne said.

Slow down; it's a fake!

2008-10-23T21:12:03Z

"The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is testing faux speed bumps that are painted on the road. Their substance is merely an optical illusion, but apparently they slow people down. Until they realize the bumps are two dimensional anyway." Go to http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/30/fake-speed-bumps-pai.html to read the story, but I recommend reading the comments to get a true sense of people's views

Looking at data

2008-10-23T21:08:22Z

From the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/technology/31novel.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin we learn that at "an experimental Web site, Many Eyes, (www.many-eyes.com), users can upload the data they want to visualize, then try sophisticated tools to generate interactive displays. These might range from maps of relationships in the New Testament to a display of the comparative frequency of words used in speeches by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama." Perhaps a transportation-specific example should take this baby for a test ride and report back?