Friday, February 4, 2011

News Roundup: Coordination, Transportation Legislation and Technology

National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
NCSL's Transportation Coordination Newsletter is a quarterly compendium of coordination developments, particularly at the state level. This issue also includes news about a volunteer driver law and resources.

NCSL's magazine has an article, Boomers on Board, which provides an overview of the demographics of the emerging boom in need and likely growth in mobility management, coordination, safety for older drivers, and land use and transportation coordination.

News

Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
FTA has a new webpage with information about each of its grant programs. Both the names and numbers of each program are supplied, with links to each program.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
APHSA is closely covering the activity in Congress relating to proposals for budget cuts and human services, including transit programs.

Association for Commuter Transportation
(ACT)
Act is supporting the COMMUTE Less Act (HR 260), which would actively encourage employer involvement in transit and transportation planning processes as well as "engage employers in providing commuting alternatives to employees, including carpooling, vanpooling, use of transit, and teleworking." It would also fund a national organization to house a technical assistance center, an information clearinghouse and an "information and educational program with respect to the employer investment in transportation and commuter benefit program."

Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL)
APRIL is now offering its mentors virtual peer visits, along with the equipment to make them possible, as an alternative to in-person mentoring visits. CILs retain the choice of an in-person visit. The website has more details about the CIL mentoring program.

In a Google search to find out more about Rep. John Mica's upcoming listening tour about transportation reauthorization, there were a few transit blog posts and coverage from the Wall Street Journal. In an excellent article, Fight Looms over Transportation, the paper lays out the different positions within the Republican Party and the Administration, the shrinking value of gas tax revenue, and what is at stake for all types of infrastructure and transportation. Positions of associations, states and other stakeholders are not discussed.

Listening tour dates are available from at http://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/01/28/ti-committee-announces-field-hearing-schedule/.


Transit Wire Highlights


The Transit Wire, a transit and technology blog, links to news of what GPS means for the Lehigh and Northanpton Authority, a Pennsyvania bus system, and its customers in terms of real-time bus information and using the information about passenger loads to improve service.

Your local bus stop could soon transform from the place with exhausted faces to the place people visit whether or not they are getting on a bus. The Transit Wire led me to this neat photo-laden article about a new generation of bus stops, places with interactive media, Internet and GPS access, solar energy-produced heat and power, opportunities to leave messages, and avant garde design.

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