Sustainable Transportation

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  1. Seattle Breaks New Ground with Bicycle Master Plan

    SEATTLE, Wash. – Already considered among the leading U.S. cities for “bikeability” the city of Seattle has recently taken strides to accelerate its plan to triple bicycle usage and improve bike safety in the city. Last week, the Seattle Department of Transportation made a draft of its 2013 Bicycle Master Plan available for public comment. It includes the city’s vision of making “riding a bicycle a comfortable and integral part of daily life in Seattle for people of all ages and abilities.” The improvements and actions identified in the plan will not only make bicycling a viable form of transportation for Seattle residents, workers and visitors, but will also help the city achieve its goals relating to climate change, economic vitality and community livability.

  2. Fleet Management: It's All About the Numbers

    Maher Hazine is responsible for a fleet of about 670 vehicles owned by the city of Peoria, Ariz. – everything from police cars, fire trucks and public transit buses, to dump trucks, garbage trucks and street sweepers, among others. While he relies on a team of mechanics, a fleet supervisor and a fleet manager, his secret weapon is actually math.

  3. Advanced Traffic Management System Keeps Gainesville Rolling

    Gainesville, Florida and its surrounding Alachua County are nearing completion of one of the country’s most sophisticated traffic management systems, recognized within Florida and nationally as state of the art. Gainesville, Alachua County, the University of Florida, and the state of Florida agreed in 2004 to invest $18 million into a unique, four-phase Traffic Management System (TMS) designed to make driving easier and reduce delays by monitoring and coordinating traffic signals.

  4. Microsurfacing Pavement Preservation Adds Mileage to Road Repairs

    Looking to improve the "mileage" of your town's shrinking road maintenance budget? Microsurfacing might be just the additive you've been hoping to find. A technology that is relatively new to the U.S. market, developed in Germany in the 1960s, microsurfacing is not only a cost saver, but also gets very high marks for sustainability. One of the most versatile tools in the road maintenance arsenal, microsurfacing is a polymer-modified, cold mix paving system that can remedy a broad range of problems on today’s streets, highways and airfields.

  5. Hybrid Street Lights Take Security 'Off the Grid'

    Hybrid street lighting, an off-the-grid system using solar panels, wind turbines and an LED luminaire, is yet another sustainability-driven solution for overstretched municipal budgets. Downers Grove, Ill., a suburb west of Chicago, became the first U.S. community to turn on hybrid lighting in a residential subdivision in March 2010. Today, not only is the 25-light system saving about $100,000 in electric and maintenance costs over its life cycle, but it’s also contributing to reduced carbon emissions and enhanced neighborhood safety.

  6. CyberTran Light Rail System

    The love affair between Miss America and Mr. Mass Transit remains on the rockiest of roads. Yet, Neil Sinclair and others are desperately trying to carry this stormy couple to the altar and over the threshold. As Sinclair argues, there are so many reasons why we finally have to get on track with mass transit in America. We are spending $400 billion a year to import oil, which nearly equals our trade deficit. The “dead time loss” for people stuck in highway traffic jams is about $75 billion annually, according to the Texas Transportation Institute. “Finally, the health costs associated with air pollution caused by cars alone is about $70 billion. These problems will only get worse if we don’t attack them,” Sinclair says.

  7. Emissions Calculators for Public Transit

    Take a bus that runs on compressed natural gas and compare it to a light rail car. Which one is more environmentally friendly? It depends. The light rail car has the potential to produce less air pollution because it runs on electricity. But if the source of the electricity is derived from coal, then its carbon footprint is bigger than the bus.

  8. Methane Gas to Fuel Technology Turns Your Yuck into Bucks

    What if you could take the methane and carbon dioxide you’re capturing at your landfill or wastewater treatment plant and convert it into a few hundred gallons of gas per day to power your garbage trucks or police cars? Well, that’s just what some municipalities are doing – albeit the “gas” they’re generating isn’t gasoline. It’s compressed natural gas (CNG) and it’s creating a buzz in garbage heaps, compost piles, sewage lagoons and stockyards nationwide. Anyone who manages a smelly mess of organic waste stands a chance of turning that yuck into bucks by converting a once worthless byproduct of waste into a valuable vehicle fuel.

  9. Porous Pavement: the Proof is in the Percolation

    How many cars can you park on a stormwater detention pond? Well, quite a few if you vacuum it twice a year. Confused? Relax, we're talking about porous pavement, and it's a sure bet you'll be hearing a lot more about it in the years to come. While the concepts have been around for decades, tightening environmental regulations, evolving installation practices and the soaring costs of conventional stormwater management are combining to make porous pavement a vital weapon in your green infrastructure arsenal.

  10. Roundabouts Save Lives, Money and Fuel

    Most municipalities love to save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But when it comes to road design and traffic management, nothing trumps the saving of lives. Bring on the era of roundabouts!

  11. Connected Vehicles Could Save 10,000 Lives Per Year

    Imagine a car seat that vibrates when you fall asleep at the wheel, or an alarm that blasts when you're about to collide with a vehicle that's running a red light. How about a flashing dashboard alert that lets you know when you're approaching a road work zone, a passing train or a truck stopped in the road on a foggy night? U.S. transportation authorities say these and other wonders aren't science fiction. They are likely to be features of every vehicle in America in the not-so-distant future, saving up to 10,000 lives and perhaps preventing more than 700,000 injuries per year.

  12. Feds INVEST in Sustainable Highways

    In the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) perfect world, all highways would be constructed using recycled materials, traffic lights would be kept to a minimum and semis would be prohibited from idling at rest stops. Transportation projects would honor not only pedestrians and bicycles but also wildlife, and roadways would wind in agreement with their surroundings, inviting travelers to interact with the landscape. Such criteria - and more - comprise the vision of the FHWA's new online INVEST tool, which is being developed for use by states and other transportation project managers seeking to incorporate sustainable practices in their work. The voluntary tool allows self-assessment of, among other things, project design, construction and maintenance by assigning points for partial or full attainment of several dozen benchmarks. It favors attention to what its developers refer to as a "triple bottom line," consisting of economic, environmental and social facets it considers essential to achieving sustainability for a transportation project.

  13. Piedmont Triad Collaborates to Plot Course to Recovery

    The Piedmont Triad is a 12-county region in North Carolina with a hard-luck story and a bold new recovery plan that puts sustainable transit and urban design in the spotlight on a national stage. In fact, says David Taylor, the national director of HDR Engineering's Sustainable Transportation division, this unique collaboration of rural and urban jurisdictions could be a model for attracting federal funding to an otherwise overlooked and down-and-out region.

  14. Fueling the Fleet with Landfill Biogas

    With gasoline and diesel pump prices hovering around $4 a gallon, obviously everyone is looking for cheaper alternatives. And, like they say, necessity is the mother of invention. A good example is Dane County, Wisconsin's latest energy project - the BioCNG alternative vehicle fuel system. Up and running since March, the system is successfully converting landfill gas (LFG) from the Rodefield Landfill near Madison, Wis. to power compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles in the county's fleet.

  15. Alexandria Takes the Next Steps Toward Walkability

    If you needed to stop by the pharmacy for a prescription and then swing by the grocery store for a quart of milk on your way home from work, could you do it on foot? If a catastrophic event shut down roads and bridges in your neighborhood, could you walk or run to a medical facility for help? Can your kids make their way to school along safe city sidewalks without crossing dangerous intersections alone? Can you stroll through your favorite shopping district on cool shady streets that make you feel relaxed and comfortable? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you live in a community that possesses qualities known as "walkability." It's not a word you'll find in too many dictionaries, but more and more cities across the country are beginning to pay attention to it. Some are finding ways to measure it and make their communities ..., well ... more walkable. Proponents of walkability say it helps their cities become more resilient in troubled times; it reduces carbon emissions, promotes good health, relieves traffic congestion and makes city streets safer and more inviting.

  16. Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Gets Power Boost in U.S. Cities

    While there are still some negative issues and perceptions, America appears to be heading down the electric vehicle highway in a positive direction, thanks to recent events, not the least of which is our increasingly broader focus on "green" and the sustainability of our planet. It is a bit ironic, too, that we have almost come full circle.

  17. Traffic Monitoring Helps Anchorage Keep Pace

    Wireless tracking devices - some smaller than a pager - are helping take a bite out of traffic delays in Anchorage, Alaska, where area drivers spend an estimated 182,000 hours per year traversing the city's three busiest intersections during the afternoon rush hour alone. The cost of that delay, according to transit officials, is $3.1 million. Factor in the rising cost of fuel, a population growth rate that's one of the fastest in the nation, and an international port that expects freight volume to double by 2020, and ... well, you get the picture.

  18. Complete Streets: Sharing the Right-of-Way by Design

    For decades, communities have tested the waters of innovation by designing streets to accommodate more than vehicular traffic. Bike and bus lanes are nothing new, but it was only about six years ago that urban planners began promoting street designs that accommodate all those who could potentially use a particular roadway. The concept is broadly termed Complete Streets. Barbara McCann is the executive director of the National Complete Streets Coalition, which promotes the establishment of Complete Streets policies at all levels of government.

  19. Diesel Engines Clean Up Their Act

    Communities of any size can find public transportation near the top of their citizens' wish list. Environmentally-minded folks like the idea of getting individual vehicles off the road. Others see it as an affordable way to get around town with fewer traffic hassles. City buses are much less costly than light rail or subway systems, but the elephant in the room is the pollution spewed by those diesel engines. Stinky, loud, belchers of black exhaust - can diesel buses really have a future in a sustainable city? The answer, thanks to a variety of diesel engine technologies, appears to be yes. One example is diesel/electric hybrid technology that allows a bus to run partially on electricity rather than fuel. In some cases, there is alternative technology that is even more feasible, known as cleaner diesel.

  20. Porous Pavements Gaining in Popularity

    Over the past decade, permeable pavement has emerged as an effective and affordable means of managing stormwater runoff and demonstrating sustainable practices within the community. By capturing runoff and allowing it to seep into the ground, permeable pavement helps a municipal organization lower wastewater management costs, reduce the rate and volume of runoff and recharge groundwater - all while meeting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stormwater regulations. The concept of permeable pavement actually dates back to the early-1970s. In an EPA-sponsored study, Philadelphia's Franklin Institute investigated the potential of delivering water to a sub-base rather than removing it to a stormwater collection system. The study was a success and the concept of permeable pavement became a reality.

  21. Urban and Rural Mass Transit Systems Help Move People Efficiently

    When the cost of transportation fuel goes up, individual motorists feel that change immediately and intensely, in the wallet. Some try to ease the suffering by commuting in groups to work or play, rather than individually. That's called mass transit, and it certainly makes sense in the context of sustainability. Yet for the governments that provide it, this buddy system can be expensive, even if fuel costs dip back down. In some communities, walking is a favored form of transit, but unless one is riding on someone else's shoulders, it isn't really "mass." Many communities are working toward improving bike lanes, but often biking to work or to the home improvement store isn't a practical option.

  22. Going With the Flow - Traffic Systems Pay Off

    Imagine investing $35,000 once to realize an ongoing annual benefit of nearly $3 million, including a yearly savings of 130,000 gallons of gasoline. Or how about saving $227 million, plus reducing fuel consumption by 21 million gallons over a single year! It's called traffic management.

Transportation Product Announcements

Tuesday 06/11/2013
ChargePoint Announces the Completion of ARRA-Funded Program
Posted: June 11, 2013

CAMPBELL, Calif. -- ChargePoint, Inc., announced the completion of its ChargePoint America Program with more than 4,600 shipments and installations of its home, public and commercial charging ports for electric vehicles. In May 2010, ChargePoint was awarded a $15 million dollar matching grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative administered by the U.S. Department of Energy. Additionally, the California Energy Commission allocated $3.4 million in funding for the installation of residential and public electric vehicle charging infrastructure within California.

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Tuesday 06/04/2013
First Regenerative Energy Storage Unit in the U.S. on New TriMet Light Rail Line
Posted: June 04, 2013

MINNETONKA, Minn. -- Siemens is currently installing the first Sitras SES Energy Storage Unit with supercapacitor technology in the U.S. on the new TriMet Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Transit Line. The southeast Portland Tacoma substation location will house the first U.S. storage unit that allows for energy created during braking to be stored and then re-used in one of two forms, energy savings or voltage stabilization during peak demand times. TriMet will utilize the system in voltage stabilization mode.

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Enphase Energy Powers New Utah Transit Authority Airport TRAX Stations
Posted: June 04, 2013

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- Enphase Energy, Inc., announced that Sunlight Solar has completed a 68 kW solar project on four UTA Airport TRAX stations from downtown North Temple Street to Salt Lake City International Airport. Each station rooftop has 72 Enphase Microinverters and generates enough power to fully operate all functions of the stop, including lighting, ticket machines and electrical outlets. The project is estimated to generate 90,000 kW hours of electricity annually.

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Tuesday 05/21/2013
“Smart Grid” Parking System Makes it Easier for Cities to Manage Transportation
Updated: May 21, 2013 - 10:07 pm

NORWALK, Conn. -- Municipalities now have a way to manage parking operations with a central management solution. Merge, a technology from Xerox is the first system to fully integrate and provide analytics on all aspects of metered and off-street programs. Merge integrates hardware and software to provide real-time information about coin collections, meter maintenance, enforcement, and occupancy by applying real-time data to solve parking issues.

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Tuesday 04/23/2013
Los Angeles Extends Testing of Wireless Controller for Streetlights
Updated: April 23, 2013 - 8:30 pm

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The city of Los Angeles and GE Lighting are moving forward with an expanded pilot program to measure the performance of a GE LightGrid Outdoor Wireless Controller that GE expects to introduce later this year. The decision follows the successful completion of a preliminary trial and aims to give the city more experience in adding LightGrid controllers to existing light poles, and more data on complete system performance from the controls to GE’s central management software.

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Tuesday 03/19/2013
LED Fixtures Provide First High-mast Roadway Illumination for Project
Updated: March 19, 2013 - 9:40 pm

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. -- Faced with the task of satisfying both an interstate interchange project requirement to use high-mast lighting and the need to match the color temperature of existing LED fixtures on surrounding roadways, Cooper Lighting worked with state officials to find the best solution. With ample illumination, the desired color temperature and providing added energy efficiency savings, the Streetworks Ventus LED luminaire stood out as one of the only acceptable LED solutions to satisfy the Chubbuck, Idaho, project needs.

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Tuesday 03/12/2013
ChargePoint Launches First of More Than 80 Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
Updated: March 12, 2013 - 9:52 pm

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- ChargePoint, Inc., announced the first of more than 80 electric vehicle charging stations it will install around New York, through a $1 million incentive from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. The EV charging station installed at The Solaire in Battery Park City is ChargePoint’s first installation of what will be part of a significant NYSERDA EV charging station investment.

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Tuesday 03/05/2013
Companies Form Partnership to Provide Solar Systems for Moving Trucks
Posted: March 05, 2013

WEST WARWICK, R.I. -- Arpin Renewable Energy has joined with eNow, a Rhode Island-based company which supplies energy solutions to the transportation industry, to provide Arpin Van Lines agents and owner-operators access to cleaner running moving trucks.

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AECOM Awarded Contract to Provide Design for Honolulu Rail Transit Project
Updated: March 05, 2013 - 8:00 pm

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- AECOM Technical Services, Inc., a subsidiary of AECOM Technology Corporation, a provider of professional technical and management support services for public and private clients in more than 140 countries around the world, announced that it is working on a $43.9 million contract from the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to provide design services for a portion of Hawaii’s Honolulu Rail Transit Project.

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Monday 01/28/2013
New Technology Nets Fuel Savings for Transit Buses
Posted: January 28, 2013

YORK, Pa. -- Field tests for Voith's SensoTop transmission technology showed impressive results, saving transit authorities up to 7 percent in fuel use for their heavy-duty transit buses. Savings were achieved across multiple transit authorities and routes varying in elevation and length.

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