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DIGITALSPEC Strengthens Ties with the U.S. Department of Education with Award of 8(a) IT Security Support Services Multi-Year Prime Contract

Positioned to Deliver Experienced, Seasoned and Well-practiced Physical and IT Security Specialists and Communications Experts to Support Agency Mission.




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In Cyclical/Secular Tug of War, Bond Investors Could Still Find Opportunities

Mary Ellen Stanek Addresses Baird Advisors Institutional Investors Conference




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DIGITALSPEC Awarded New 5-Year Contract with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) Division to Enhance Communications and Correspondence

DIGITALSPEC will continue to support TSA I&A with communications and correspondence services, acting as the Executive Secretariat for I&A.




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Wondershare Recoverit Now Supports Data Recovery from Digital Cameras, SD Card, and More

Recoverit has now made it easier than ever for its users to recover photos from cameras, SD cards, USB drives, and numerous other sources.




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Contemporary Latin American Art Arrives for San Diego Art Weekend

Latin American Art Fair 2019 celebrates its fifth annual event, Hosted by Bread and Salt Arts Center in collaboration with Athenaeum Music & Arts Library




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Brand New Company, Pin Up Database, Launches Pin Up Community Website Portal

New Portal to Offer International Pin Ups Worldwide Exposure, Social Media, Business Connections and More




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The ILS Company Supports an Autonomous Future for Transportation

The ILS Company Partners with TuSimple to Revolutionize Trucking Industry!




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Massachusetts State Senate President Emerita Harriette Chandler selected for National "Outstanding Woman State Legislator Supporting the Arts" Award

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Women in Government (WIG) Issue 2019 Award




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Glitz and Glamour Return to Knoxville with the 11th Annual East Tennessee Dancesport Showdown, February 21-22, 2020

ETDS is the only professional ballroom dance competition held in East Tennessee, attracting dancers from across the country to Knoxville.




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Cbijou Contemporary Jewelry is Officially Open LA

Local Artist Cedric Chevalley Holds an Event to Show the Power of Community




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Emerging Sports Industry and How Technology Enhances The Real-time Experience

We are a soccer and sports live score site that provides live match information for more than 1000 leagues and championships around the World. Get complete information about schedules, match results, and the position of your favorite team.




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Verasity is Moving into Major eSports, Starting with CS:GO!

Verasity will first launch CS:GO tournaments and betting from VerasityTV and add other major league games in Q2&Q3 (League of Legends and others). Players will be able to invite others to play in private or public tournaments for VRA funded jackpots.




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Shorr Packaging Expands Location to Support Rapid Growth in Indianapolis

Facility increases square footage 190% and adds a new demo room




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GRE Alpha to Exhibit in 2019 LED+Light Asia Singapore

Next-generation LED dimmers and drivers making their debut




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GRE Alpha Partners with Setsuyo Astec Corporation to Bring LED Lighting Drivers and Power Supplies to SE Asia

GRE Alpha recently formed a partnership with Setsuyo Astec Corporation




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FORTA Corporation Expands Family of Products

FORTA Corporation will be showcasing a new line of products at World of Concrete 2020, February 4-7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth N-2742




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Radeus Labs Inc. Announces Acquisition of Satellite Systems Corporation Product Line

Expands SATCOM product offering




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Take The Lead's "Power Up Conference" Delivers Career-Changing Learning and Networking Opportunities

Take The Lead's Co-Founder and President Gloria Feldt Unveils Nine New Leadership Power Tools at Event




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Color Experts International, Inc. is Offering a Bulk Discount on Image Editing Services to Support Companies Coping with the COVID-19 Catastrophe

High-volume discount on photo editing services amid coronavirus crisis




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Website Support Company Alliance Launching 'Endeavor Support Packages' to help Nonprofits with Impact of Coronavirus Outbreak

Washington, DC Website Support and Digital Agency Offering Reduced-rate Support Packages to Nonprofits in Need of Assistance for Website Maintenance or Digital Marketing Support.




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Drive To The 25! A Newly-released Women in Motorsports Memoir

The exciting story of an epic effort by two women racers to field an all-female driving team for the 25 Hours of Thunderhill ––– America's iconic endurance race.




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Alsco Shreveport Earns TRSA Hygienically Clean Healthcare Certification

Certification ensures laundering processes effectively remove pathogens from health care textiles




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Alsco Naples Branch Offers Support to the Naples Shelter for Abused Women and Children

Aid helps support and protect some of the community's most vulnerable members through advocacy, empowerment and social change




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Chicago Area Fashion Show At Northbrook Mall Gearing Up for Revolutionizing Sportswear Fashion on July 28th

Designer Sportswear Company from Chicago "D2 Wear" has teamed up with FashionBar for a sportswear apparel fashion show on July 28th at 3:00 pm at the Northbrook mall, Illinois; Admission is free for visitors.




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A Sports Brand Gymnastics Fantastic Announced a New Collection of Leotards

A famous trademark of sports goods for people of all ages has launched a new collection for the next year. It includes marvelous competition dresses for figure skating and comfortable gymnastic shorts.




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Smart&Sexy Supports Female Voters With Empowering Collection

Celebrated intimates company Smart&Sexy has created a collection of panties to empower women to get to the polls in 2020.




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Strategic Partners, Inc. Announces Corporate Name Change to Careismatic Brands, Inc.

The world's leading health care apparel company, with a portfolio of iconic and emerging brands, has a new name and website, www.Careismatic.com.




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ROOMAIF Announces Exciting Upcoming Global Events in the World of Combat Sports

Based in Germany Dating Back into the 20th Century, ROOMAIF Is Apparel and Equipment Company That Is at The Vanguard of Boxing, MMA and Fitness, With Equipment That Is Built for Victory.




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FMI Releases North American Engineering and Construction Outlook, Third Quarter 2019 Report

The publication offers comprehensive construction forecasts for a broad range of market segments and geographies in the U.S. and Canada, as well as information on key market drivers.




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TOP platform Offers Freelancers a Fresh Opportunity to Make Money Online

TOP platform is an international campaigner that invites all freelancers no matter where they might be in the world to sign up and explore the opportunity to make money online by offering services through this digital marketing agency.




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Seminole PowerSports Located In Sanford, Florida Announces Generators For Sale

Generators for sale in preparation for Hurricane Matthew




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Seminole PowerSports is now Carrying the 2017 Can-Am Maverick X3

Sanford, Florida Power Sports dealership has 2017 Can-Am Maverick's available for sale.




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Seminole PowerSports Offers 2017 YZF-R6 Yamaha Priority Delivery Program

Sanford, Florida Power Sports dealership participates in Yamaha pre-order program.




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Seminole PowerSports Hosts Meet and Greet with Cristy Lee from All Girls Garage

Sanford, Florida Power Sports Dealership Welcomes Cristy Lee for the Kickoff of "Tour de Florida"




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Seminole PowerSports Extends Motorcross Program to Continue Educating Consumers on Motorcross Safety

Sanford, Florida Power Sports Dealership Continues Partnership with Kyle Farnell




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GTA Consumers Meet with Jonathan T Kam from Roadsport Honda

Roadsport Honda is a 14-year Consumer Choice Award Winner. The company has been in business since 1974 and it is GTA's leading Vehicle Service shop, Vehicle parts sales, Body shop & Automotive Sales & Leasing Service Provider.




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Powersports Company BMS Motor Announces Scot Kenney, President of 23 Powersports, has been Named as the Worldwide Manufacturer's Representative for the Company

To accommodate rapid growth and expansion of the product line, BMS promotes one of their top dealers to lead them into the next decade.




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New And Notable: Cities For People, Transportation Infrastructure Security, Railway Noise And Vibration

For more than forty years Jan Gehl has helped to transform urban environments around the world based on his research into the ways people actually use — or could use — the spaces where they live and work.


In Cities For People (Washington : Island Press, 2010), his revolutionary new book, Gehl presents his latest work creating (or recreating) cityscapes on a human scale. He clearly explains the methods and tools he uses to reconfigure unworkable cityscapes into the landscapes he believes they should be: cities for people.


Taking into account changing demographics and changing lifestyles, Gehl explains how to develop cities that are lively, safe, sustainable, and healthy.


“Jan Gehl is our greatest observer of urban quality and an indispensable philosopher of cities as solutions to the environmental and health crises that we face. With over half the world’s population now in urban areas, the entire planet needs to learn the lessons he offers in Cities for People.” --Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation


The book is extensively illustrated with over 700 photos and drawings of examples from Gehl’s work around the globe. Jan Gehl is based in Copenhagen.

Intelligent Transportation Systems, or ITS, integrates different computing, control, and communication technologies to help monitor and manage traffic management that helps reduce congestion while saving lives, time, and money.

While mobility and safety are the primary objectives of any good transportation system, security has also become an equally important consideration in their design and operation.

This new work, Transportation Infrastructure Security Utilizing Intelligent Transportation Systems (Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2008), provides a comprehensive treatment of techniques to leverage ITS in support of security and safety for surface transportation infrastructure.

Through the book's multidisciplinary approach, readers gain a comprehensive introduction to the diverse aspects of transportation infrastructure security as well as how ITS can reduce risks and be protected from threats with such topics as computer systems, risk analysis, and multi-modal transportation systems.

This book, which will serve as a textbook and guide, provides:

  • Current ITS approaches to security issues such as freight security, disaster and evacuation response, HAZMAT incidents, rail security, and ITS Wide Area Alerts
  • Guidance on the development of a regional transportation security plan
  • Securing ITS itself and privacy issues involved in any collection and use of personally identifiable tracking data
  • Exercises, question-and-answer sections, and other helpful review tools for the reader
Filling a gap in the practical application of security, this book offers both students and transportation professionals valuable insights into the new security challenges encountered and how to manage these challenges with the use of computerized transportation systems.


Railways are an environmentally friendly means of transport well suited to modern society.


However, noise and vibration are key obstacles to further development of the railway networks for high-speed intercity traffic, for freight and for suburban metros and light-rail.


Railway Noise And Vibration: Mechanisms, Modelling And Means Of Control (Amsterdam : Elsevier, 2009) brings together coverage of the theory of railway noise and vibration with practical applications of noise control technology at source to solve noise and vibration problems from railways.


Each source of noise and vibration is described in a systematic way: rolling noise, curve squeal, bridge noise, aerodynamic noise, ground vibration and ground-borne noise, and vehicle interior noise.


This work also discusses in full the theoretical background and practical workings of railway noise, including the latest research findings, and forms an extended case study in the application of noise control techniques.


Author David Thompson is Professor of Railway Noise and Vibration at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton (U.K.).




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New And Notable: Transport For Suburbia, ArcGIS & High Speed Passenger Rail

The need for effective public transport is greater than ever in the 21st century. With countries like China and India moving towards mass-automobility, we face the prospects of an environmental and urban health disaster unless alternatives are found--it is time to move beyond the automobile age.

But while public transport has worked well in the dense cores of some big cities, the problem is that most residents of developed countries now live in dispersed suburbs and smaller cities and towns. These places usually have little or no public transport, and most transport commentators have given up on the task of changing this: it all seems too hard.

Transport For Suburbia: Beyond The Automobile Age (London: Earthscan, 2010) argues that the secret of European-style public transport lies in a generalizable model of network planning that has worked in places as diverse as rural Switzerland, the Brazilian city of Curitiba and the Canadian cities of Toronto and Vancouver. It shows how this model can be adapted to suburban, exurban and even rural areas to provide a genuine alternative to the car, and outlines the governance, funding and service planning policies that underpin the success of the world's best public transport systems.

Getting To Know ArcGIS Desktop (Redlands, Calif.: ESRI Press, 2010) introduces principles of GIS as it teaches the mechanics of using ESRI’s leading technology.

Key concepts are combined with detailed illustrations and step-by-step exercises to acquaint readers with the building blocks of ArcGIS Desktop including ArcMap, for displaying and querying maps, ArcCatalog, for organizing geographic data, and ModelBuilder, for diagramming and processing solutions to complex spatial analysis problems.

Its broad scope, simple style, and practical orientation make this book an ideal classroom text and an excellent resource for those learning GIS on their own.

The factors affecting the economic viability of high speed rail lines include the level of expected riders, costs, and public benefits, which are influenced by a line's corridor and service characteristics.

High speed rail tends to attract riders in dense, highly populated corridors, especially when there is congestion on existing transportation modes.

Characteristics of the proposed service are also key considerations, as high speed rail attracts riders where it compares favorably to travel alternatives with regard to door-to-door trip times, prices, frequency of service, reliability and safety.

In High Speed Passenger Rail: Viability, Challenges And Federal Role (New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2010), a strategic vision for high speed rail is offered, particularly in relation to the role that high speed rail can play in the national transportation system, clearly identifying potential objectives and goals for high speed rail systems and the roles that federal and other stakeholders should play in achieving each objective and goal.

The recently enacted Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 will likely increase the federal role in the development of high speed rail, as will the newly enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.




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New & Notable: Inventing L.A.'s Autopia, Rival Trancontinental Rails, Rules For Sustainable Communities & Transportation Privatization

In 1920, as its population began to explode, Los Angeles was a largely pastoral city of bungalows and palm trees. Thirty years later, choked with smog and traffic, the city had become synonymous with urban sprawl and unplanned growth.

Yet Los Angeles was anything but unplanned, as Jeremiah B.C. Axelrod reveals in this compelling, visually oriented history of the metropolis during its formative years. In a deft mix of cultural and intellectual history that brilliantly illuminates the profound relationship between imagination and place, Inventing Autopia: Dreams And Visions Of The Modern Metropolis In Jazz Age Los Angeles (Berkeley: University Of California Press, 2009) shows how the clash of irreconcilable utopian visions and dreams resulted in the invention of an unforeseen new form of urbanism--sprawling, illegible, fractured--that would reshape not only Southern California but much of the nation in the years to come.

At 401 pages, it could seem like a daunting read, but those interested in Los Angeles history, urbanization, or the rise of the automobile will find this enjoyable. It's a great compliment to the Metro Library's historic transit and transportation studies collection. Many of these documents, which date back to 1911, have been digitized and are available on our website in full-text PDF.

Axelrod focuses on the 1920s when Los Angeles was growing at a fast clip. As we noted back in July, the number of automobile registrations in Los Angeles County quadrupled between 1914 and 1922 - making it very clear that the city's embrace of the auto would set the stage for decades of congestion and other issues.

Going back further in history is another equally seminal story about transportation in the West. Acclaimed historian Walter R. Borneman has written a dazzling account of the battle to build the first transportation system across America.

Rival Rails: The Race To Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad (New York: Random House, 2010) is an action-packed epic of how an empire was born—and the remarkable men who made it happen.

After the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, the rest of the country was up for grabs, and the race was on. The prize: a better, shorter, less snowy route through the corridors of the American Southwest, linking Los Angeles to Chicago.

Borneman lays out in compelling detail the sectional rivalries, contested routes, political posturing, and ambitious business dealings that unfolded as an increasing number of lines pushed their way across the country.

The author brings to life the legendary business geniuses and so-called robber barons who made millions and fought the elements—and one another—to move America, including:

William Jackson Palmer, whose leadership of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad relied on innovative narrow gauge trains that could climb steeper grades and take tighter curves;

Collis P. Huntington of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific lines, a magnate insatiably obsessed with trains—and who was not above bribing congressmen to satisfy his passion;

Edward Payson Ripley, visionary president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, whose fiscal conservatism and smarts brought the industry back from the brink; and

Jay Gould, ultrasecretive, strong-armer and one-man powerhouse.

In addition, Borneman captures the herculean efforts required to construct these roads—the laborers who did the back-breaking work, boring tunnels through mountains and throwing bridges across unruly rivers, the brakemen who ran atop moving cars, the tracklayers crushed and killed by runaway trains.

From backroom deals in Washington, D.C., to armed robberies of trains in the wild deserts, from glorified cattle cars to streamliners and Super Chiefs, all the great incidents and innovations of a mighty American era are re-created with unprecedented power in this new work destined to be a classic.

Turning now to urban planning, author Patrick Condon discusses transportation, housing equity, job distribution, economic development, and ecological systems issues and synthesizes his knowledge and research into a simple-to-understand set of urban design rules that can, if followed, help save the planet.


Seven Rules For Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies For The Post Carbon World (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2010) clearly connects the form of our cities to their ecological, economic, and social consequences. This book takes on a wide range of complex and contentious issues and distills them down to convincing and practical solutions.


Of particular importance is how city form affects the production of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The author explains this relationship in an accessible way, and goes on to show how conforming to seven simple rules for community design could literally do a world of good. Each chapter in the book explains one rule in depth, adding a wealth of research to support each claim. If widely used, Condon argues, these rules would lead to a much more livable world for future generations—a world that is not unlike the better parts of our own.


In Last Exit: Privatization And Deregulation Of The U.S. Transportation System (Washington, D.C.: Brookings, 2010), Clifford Winston reminds us that transportation services and infrastructure in the United States were originally introduced by private firms.

The case for subsequent public ownership and management of the system was weak, in his view, and here he assesses the case for privatization and deregulation to greatly improve Americans satisfaction with their transportation systems. How can this be done?

Writing in the New York Times, Harvard University economics professor Edward L. Glaeser points out that:

Because the public sector controls almost all roads, airports and urban transit, we see the downsides of public control on a daily basis, but we don’t experience the social costs that could accompany privatization. A private airport operator might try to exploit its monopoly power over a particular market or cut costs in a way that increases the probability of very costly, but rare, disaster.

The complexity and risks of switching to private provision means that Mr. Winston is wise to call for experimentation rather than wholesale privatization. An incremental process of trying things out will provide information and build public support.

Yet many of Mr. Winston’s recommendations are incremental and can be done without privatization or much risk.

The book covers privatization and deregulation of roads, airports, air traffic control, mass transit, intercity buses and railway networks.




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Research Roundup: Social Media For Public Transportation, Funding The Needs Of An Aging Population & An Overview Of U.S. Parking Management Strategies

Each and every day, social media tools change the way that organizations
interact with their users.

A recent report from the Center For Urban Transportation Research at University of South Florida titled Routes To New Networks: A Guide To Social Media For The Public Transportation Industry (66p. PDF) explains how these new platforms offer not only more personal one-on-one interaction than traditional media, but also represent the essence of niche marketing.

It is undeniable that social media is all the buzz. For some, utilizing new media tools may come as second nature. For others, however, entering the world of social media means taking a giant leap into the world of online communications.

One thing is certain – social media platforms are allowing a new opportunity for transportation providers to directly communicate with their target audiences. Communication is moving in this direction – with or without your organization.

The report analyzes the usefulness of and applications for social networks, written blogs, audio/video blogs, microblogs (e.g. Twitter), photo sharing, video sharing, user-generated content and mobile web content.

The report states that key points to consider when determining which tool(s) to use are:

1) Who is my target audience and what tools are they using?
2) What type of information do I want to communicate?
Content must always resonate with your audience. What can you provide that would be of value?

Earlier this year, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) published Funding The Public Transportation Needs Of An Aging Population (57p. PDF).

It explains how rapid growth in the number of older people in the United States during the coming decades will lead to greatly increased needs for expanded and enhanced public transportation services. This report:
a) identifies the range of actions that will be needed to expand mobility options for older people, including accessible public transportation services;
b) quantifies the demand for these public transportation services; and
c) estimates the funding that will be needed to provide them.
Needed actions have been identified by means of a review of the extensive literature on this
subject. The actions needed to expand mobility options for older people include:
  • Enhancements to fixed-route public transportation operations and planning such as additional bus operator training, incorporating travel needs of older people in route planning and stop placement, and coordination with other agencies and transportation providers
  • Enhancements to public transportation vehicles such as low-floor buses, kneeling buses, improved interior circulation, additional stanchions and grab bars, ergonomic seating designed for older riders, and accessibility features either required or encouraged by ADA like lifts and ramps, larger letters on head signs, and stop announcements
  • Actions to help older people take advantage of existing services, like presenting information in ways that are easy to read and as clear as possible, information and assistance programs to connect older people with appropriate services, and outreach and training programs
  • Expansion of supplementary services including flexible route and community transportation services, ADA complementary paratransit, non-ADA demand-responsive services, taxi subsidy programs, and volunteer driver programs
  • Application of universal design strategies at transit facilities, bus stops, and on streets and sidewalks in the immediate vicinity of transit facilities and stops
These are the actions of greatest concern to public transportation agencies, but they are not the
only actions needed.

Other important actions include assuring supportive services to caregivers
who provide transportation, encouraging further development of unsubsidized private
transportation services, increasing the availability of accessible taxicabs, coordinating with non-emergency medical transportation provided under Medicaid and Medicare, and supporting
modifications to automobiles and roadways to increase the safety of older drivers.

Finally, we wanted to take a closer look at U.S. Parking Policies: An Overview Of Management Strategies put out by the Institute For Transportation And Development Policy in New York.

This report highlights best practices in parking management in the United States.

In the last decade, some municipalities have reconsidered poorly conceived parking policies to address a host of negative impacts resulting from private automobile use such as traffic congestion and climate change. Unchecked, these policies have proven to be a major barrier to establishing a balanced urban transportation network.

Many aspects of current parking management in the United States do not work reliably or efficiently for anyone: Motorists find themselves circling for long periods in search of a place to park; retail employees take choice parking locations away from potential customers; developers are compelled to provide more parking than the market requires; and traffic managers encounter difficulty handling traffic generated by new parking as there is often no link between parking price, supply and the amount of available road space.

Finally, the old parking paradigm doesn’t work for the environment, as hidden subsidies encourage over reliance on private car use — a major, growing contributor to global warming and air pollution.

This report identifies core sustainable parking principles and illustrates how smarter parking management can benefit consumers and businesses in time and money savings, while also leading to more livable, attractive communities.




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2010 Transportation Ballot Measures: An Examination Of Key Trends And Results

Election Day has come and gone. Yesterday, our daily Transportation Headlines highlighted the Center For Transportation Excellence's state-by-state results of all transportation ballot measures in 2010.

43 of 56 measures passed: a 77% success rate.


But what does it mean for local and national transportation issues? The pundits, planners, pollsters and prognosticators have only just begun reading the tea leaves as well as the writing on the wall.

This Friday, CFTE will host a webinar recapping the outcomes of this year's transportation measures across the country and take a look at key trends from other recent elections.

This is a great opportunity to learn how communities are using ballot measures to improve their transportation systems, so we wanted to share more information about it:
Free Webinar: Trends And Results From 2010 Transportation Ballot Measures (Register Here)
Hosted by the Center for Transportation Excellence, NAPTA and APTA State Transit Association Leaders

Fri, Nov 5, 2010 10:00 AM - 11:00 PM PST
In advance of the webinar, the following resources might be worth reviewing:



In other post-election news, Jim Oberstar (D-MN), Chair of the House Transportation And Infrastructure Committee, was defeated after 18 terms in the House of Representatives. John Mica (R-FL), the Committee's Republican leader, said in a statement today:

“Among my top legislative priorities will be passing a long-term federal highways and transit reauthorization, a long-overdue Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization, a new water resources measure, and a long-term Coast Guard reauthorization.

“I will also focus on major initiatives to find ways within the Committee’s jurisdiction to save taxpayer dollars. That includes better management and utilization of federal assets, including real property, and more efficient, cost effective passenger rail transportation, including a better directed high-speed rail program.”


We also wanted to share more information about CFTE, which does an excellent job rounding up information about transportation measures and election results. They also serve as a "clearinghouse for information in support of quality transportation choices. "

CFTE is committed to two main objectives: (1) responding to transit’s critics and (2) equipping local leaders with the information they need to be successful with their public transportation initiatives and ballot measures.

How does CFTE accomplish its mission? Their goal is to deliver the message of sensible transportation choice by:
  • Creating case studies that illustrate the power of effective public transportation
  • Developing “tool kits” that aid local leaders in communicating the benefits of their programs
  • Maintaining an interactive website that provides clear information on effective public transportation development
  • Reaching out to media sources with the arguments in support of sensible transportation choice
  • Mobilizing in response to media coverage of the opposition with Letters to the Editor, Op/Ed submissions, editorial board meetings, etc.
  • Tracking legislative efforts and ballot measures and reporting on the outcomes and trendsTracking research outcomes and publicizing research results to the media, stakeholders, and local leaders

Now more than ever, as state governments struggle with massive budget deficits, and communities suffer under burgeoning traffic, support for sensible transportation solutions is in peril. Opponents using erroneous arguments and fomenting fear are eroding the great strides made over the past decade.

Supporters of balanced, practical transportation development look to CFTE for assistance with:
  • Distributing information that proves the effectiveness of public transportation
  • Engaging the opposition wherever and whenever they appear
  • Coaching community leaders in techniques for engaging the opposition in their own communities
  • Promoting transportation victories at the local, state, and national levels
Image courtesy of Flickr




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Digitization And Transportation: Northwestern University's Google Books Project

Beginning today, Northwestern University's Transportation Library begins its Google Books Digitization Project.

The University Libraries and Google are partnering to digitize hundreds of thousands of print volumes from their collections, rendering the contents readily available to scholars and researchers worldwide.

This is no small undertaking. The Transportation Library alone is one of the most extensive in the United States, containing over 500,000 items.

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a consortium of the Midwest's Big Ten Schools' plus the University of Chicago, signed on to digitize their libraries in June, 2007 but the process is just getting underway this Fall.

The project is expected to take several years, but the Transportation Library is one of the first campus libraries to send library items to Google for digitization. Google covers the transportation and digitization costs and Northwestern has received a generous donation from the Office of the Provost to help cover other technical costs.

We are told that books sent to Google for digitization may be off the shelves for up to three months. Once everything eligible for converting into electronic format has been digitized, those searching the library catalog will have the choice of borrowing the original print item or accessing the full-text document online.

Results from Google Book Search show up in both general Google searches as well as through the dedicated Google Books site.

The entire Google Books project has been a source of controversy over the last decade. Some hail the initiative's capacity to provide "anytime, anywhere" access to all of human knowledge. Others question the application of copyright laws for works published in one place but accessed around the world.

The Google Books enterprise is a complicated endeavor. While access to the ever-increasing (and increasingly digitized) world of knowledge is great, how can Google maintain a high-level of retrievability from a growing pool of millions of items? A recent article in The Atlantic highlights this challenge, with a concise overview of "Rich Results," Google's latest search algorithm that helps users find what they're looking for...even when they don't specifically ask for it.

Last month, Google speculated that it had scanned more than 15 million books from more than 100 countries in over 400 languages since 2004. Google Books' Engineering Director James Crawford went on to state:

"Our shared vision of bringing all the incredible content stored in the world's books online depends on working with libraries, publishers, authors and book lovers.

The greater the diversity of content on the web, the more useful it becomes. And the more people who can access the information cataloged in books, the more enlightening those works become."

Our goals are the same. Here at Metro's Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library & Archive, we have embarked on a digitization project of our own (sans Google) as outlined here. We want to provide greater access to our rich collections, make items more easily findable and retrievable, and preserve information and knowledge for generations to come.




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New And Notable: Oil On The Brain, Transport Geographies & Early Downtown Los Angeles

Oil On The Brain: Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip To Your Tank is a smart, surprisingly funny account of the oil industry — the people, economies, and pipelines that bring us petroleum, brilliantly illuminating a world we encounter every day.

Americans buy ten thousand gallons of gasoline a second, without giving it much of a thought. Where does all this gas come from?

Author Lisa Margonelli’s desire to learn took her on a one-hundred thousand mile journey from her local gas station to oil fields half a world away.

In search of the truth behind the myths, she wriggled her way into some of the most off-limits places on earth: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the New York Mercantile Exchange’s crude oil market, oil fields from Venezuela, to Texas, to Chad, and even an Iranian oil platform where the United States fought a forgotten one-day battle.

In a story by turns surreal and alarming, Margonelli meets lonely workers on a Texas drilling rig, an oil analyst who almost gave birth on the NYMEX trading floor, Chadian villagers who are said to wander the oil fields in the guise of lions, a Nigerian warlord who changed the world price of oil with a single cell phone call, and Shanghai bureaucrats who dream of creating a new Detroit.

Deftly piecing together the mammoth economy of oil, Margonelli finds a series of stark warning signs for American drivers. Rave reviews for Oil On The Brain include:

“If you drive a car, you must read this book.” —Mary Roach, author of Stiff

“By giving voice to the people who are the links in the global oil chain, Margonelli invites us to leapfrog all the rhetoric, dry statistics, and dire pronouncements about oil in order to truly understand it.” —Fast Company

“Hugely enjoyable, compulsively readable, and brilliantly reported.” —Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do with My Life?

The PBS Newshour conducted an extensive interview with the author, which can be found here.

Transport Geographies: Mobilities, Flows And Spaces brings together a formidable range of expert insight to introduce the key ideas, concepts and themes of transport geography.

Using an issues-based, qualitative approach, the contributors feature a wide range of case-study material.

This work explores the relationship between transport geography and wider geographical concerns, as well as connections to other areas of study -- economics, engineering, environmental studies, political science, psychology, spatial planning, sociology and transport studies.

The book highlights the role of transport geography in globalization, and its interplay with economic, social and environmental geographies at a range of spatial scales. It reviews contemporary policy and the role transport geographers can play in policy debates.

Both empirically informed and theoretically robust, this compelling text shows the significance of transport in terms of the needs and demands of future travel.

Growing south from the plaza where the city of Los Angeles was founded as a tiny pueblo in 1781, the area now known as downtown L.A. was first developed in the late 1800s as a residential neighborhood, complete with churches and schools.

As the population surged at the turn of the 20th century, the downtown area was transformed into a busy business and entertainment center of shops, banks, hotels, and theaters.

The explosion of the postcard craze in the early 1900s coincided with this period of downtown's tremendous growth toward a formidable metropolis.

Early Downtown Los Angeles
is a collection of vintage postcard images offers a glimpse into the changing city through the 1940s. Transportation is afforded its own chapter.

It includes rarely seen images of La Grande Station, the passenger terminal constructed by the Santa Fe Railroad in 1893. Santa Fe and Southern Pacific's competitive rail pricing fueled the real estate boom and unprecedented population growth throughout the region in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Early interior images of Union Station, Angels Flight, and other rail lines are of particular topical interest.




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Portland Wins PRCA Award Following Successful Work on Baladna IPO

Strategic communications agency Portland has won the PRCA 2020 'Best IPO' campaign award for its support to Baladna's IPO on the Qatar Stock Exchange.




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Creating Opportunities Out of Nothing: The Start Up Story of Nigerian Kator Hule

Kator redesigned the traditional model of micro-finance to work for Nigerian entrepreneurs




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Envision Financial Systems Expands Sales Force for New Opportunities

Move reflects expansion of capabilities to serve a broader range of asset managers and investment administrators




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Envision Financial Systems Launches Upgraded Portal

New interface features better security, accessibility




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Temporary Road Closure - Upper Coomera

Streets affected: Days Road (lane closure with traffic control – expect delays) between Williamson Road and Abraham Road

Region:

Category:

Date: 
Thursday, May 7, 2020 - 16:30 to Thursday, May 21, 2020 - 03:00
planned: 
1
Read more: 

Also affected: Williamson Road (lane closure with traffic control – expect delays) between Billinghurst Crescent and Days Road

Start date: 7 May 2020

End date: 20 May 2020

Duration: 6:30am – 5pm

Reason: Bus bay works




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Temporary Road Closure - Bundall

Streets affected: Slatyer Avenue (lane closure with traffic control – expect delays) between Ponciana Crescent and Richmond Avenue

Region:

Category:

Date: 
Thursday, May 7, 2020 - 19:00 to Monday, June 8, 2020 - 00:30
planned: 
1
Read more: 

Also affected: Racecourse Drive (lane closure with traffic control – expect delays) between Slatyer Avenue and Mentone Avenue

Start date: 7 May 2020

End date: 7 June 2020

Duration: 9am – 2:30pm

Reason: To facilitate installation of new signal footing and pole