Transportation: December 2008 Archives

Transportation engineering expert Michael A. Replogle, Environmental Defense Fund Transportation Director, and adviser to the US Department of Transportation has this to say on the economic stimulus plan that Congress and President-elect Barack Obama are preparing to launch next month:

Bringing roads and bridges to a state of good repair, not building new roads should be a priority.  Research shows that transit spending creates more jobs than the same spending on new roadway construction.  National studies show that every $1 billion communities invest in transit yields $6 billion in economic returns, creating 35,000 jobs.

Many ports are trying to invest in cleaner trucks and machinery. Stimulus money should also support diesel clean-up programs, replacing old trucks with new ones, installing and manufacturing filters, and helping truckers get the most advanced technologies.

Excerpted from Boston.com.

The holiday season is a deadly time on America's roadways. Experts report that nearly 1,500 people were killed in crashes involving a drunk driver from Thanksgiving 2007 through New Year's Day.  An estimated 2 million drunk drivers with three or more convictions will be on our roadways this holiday season. MADD is ramping up its call for every state to introduce interlock laws that cover all convicted drunk drivers including those facing their first convictions – as Washington state did in 2007. NAMIC reports:

An alcohol ignition interlock is a breath test device linked to a vehicle's ignition system. When a convicted drunk driver starts his or her vehicle, he or she must first blow into the device. The vehicle will not start if the driver is violating probation by having alcohol in his or her system. If interlocks were required for all convicted drunk drivers in the United States, thousands of lives could be saved each year.