Volpe Center: Volpe Center Highlights

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Volpe Center Highlights - Fall 2004

Security

Volpe Center Hosts Symposium on Balancing Security and Mobility

On May 6, 2004, the Volpe Center hosted a one-day symposium on Balancing Security and Mobility, the third in a series of recent outreach events sponsored by the Center to highlight current research and development efforts in innovative transportation technologies. The symposium featured three panels. The first examined the different objectives of DOT and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the challenges of incorporating homeland security requirements into the existing procedures for meeting the nation's transportation safety and mobility needs. The speakers emphasized that the DOT response-and-recovery operations reinforce the DHS security goals, and that making infrastructures and vehicles safer and more robust would also support the DHS goals, as they create a system that is more resistant to catastrophic attacks.

The second panel focused on new frontiers in biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics, remote sensing, and simulation, and highlighted the applications of these technologies for traffic monitoring, security surveillance, and the processing of passenger and vehicular traffic at ports and border crossings. The final panel examined the challenges and prospects of integrating security into the global transportation system. Panelists discussed ways to make security countermeasures economically and operationally sustainable, globally enforceable, and conducive to infrastructure resilience and transparent supply chains. The symposium concluded with a plenary session where the attendees and speakers agreed that significant progress had been made in aligning the two agencies' security and transportation mobility objectives, but that challenges remain in ensuring operational feasibility, user acceptance, economic viability, and long-run sustainability of many security countermeasures. Dr. Bahar Barami of Volpe's Economic and Industry Analysis Division organized the symposium.

Controlling Hazardous Materials in the U.S. and Military Mail Systems (USPS)

One of the greatest challenges facing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is the control of hazardous materials (HAZMAT), both declared and undeclared, in the mailstream. Many of these materials are common household items, such as cosmetics, cleaning supplies, alcoholic beverages, and aerosols. In the wrong circumstances, seemingly mundane items can become deadly. The Volpe Center is supporting the USPS in its efforts to train postal employees and military personnel, and to inform the public, about HAZMAT. For the Army Post Office/Fleet Post Office, the Center developed a set of training materials consisting of a 30-minute video titled Keep the Mail Safe One Parcel at a Time, job aides, and posters for military personnel that staff overseas, domestic, and fleet mail-acceptance facilities. Mr. Terry Sheehan of the Service and Operations Assessment Division assisted in the video production, as well as in training validation aboard the USS Harry S. Truman and the USS Iwo Jima in Norfolk, Virginia.

The Center also developed HAZMAT training materials to help the USPS streamline the standard operating procedures for retail facilities and for processing and distribution facilities to ensure that all USPS mailing guidelines are uniformly understood, implemented, and communicated to employees and the public. In March 2004, Mr. Sheehan joined USPS officials in Seattle, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and Denver to lead focus groups assessing the training materials. Two training videos were produced in spring 2004: a retailing video, Be Part of the Solution, and a processing and distribution video, Thinking Outside of the Box. Input from the focus groups and early response to the videos was used to prepare train-the-trainer sessions delivered throughout the summer. More than 600 USPS trainers are now delivering HAZMAT training to more than 300,000 USPS employees nationwide.

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