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Volpe Center Highlights - March/April 2004

Published and Presented

Focus | Workshops | New Role for Dr. Richard R. John | Safety
Mobility | Global Connectivity | Environmental Stewardship | Security
Organizational Excellence | Highlighting Volpe Experts | Awards
Published and Presented

• Transportation Planning Capacity Building. Volpe's Planning and Policy Analysis Division provides ongoing support to the FHWA/FTA Transportation Planning Capacity Building (TPCB) Program. The program provides products and services designed to help decisionmakers, transportation officials, and staff resolve the increasingly complex issues they face when addressing transportation needs in their communities. Recently, Volpe developed "Transportation Planning Capacity Building Program: Annual Report Fiscal Year 2003," which was released in January. The Volpe team, led by Mr. John Boiney of the Division, included Ms. Elizabeth Machek and Ms. Kristin Lovejoy of EG&G Technical Services, a Volpe Center on-site contractor.
• Runway Visual Range Systems Performance. Mr. Thomas Seliga of Volpe's Surveillance and Assessment Division presented "Temporal and Spatial Behavior of Visibility Obtained from Runway Visual Range (RVR) Sensors during Snowfall Events at Several Major Airports" at the 20th International Conference on Interactive Information Processing Systems for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, 84th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Washington, January 1116, 2004. The paper was co-authored by Mr. David Hazen of Titan/System Resources Corporation and Mr. Stephen Burnley of the Federal Aviation Administration. It can be found at http://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/72244.pdf.
• Handbook of Transportation Engineering. The Volpe Center supports noise mitigation programs of the Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Railroad Administration, and various state and local agencies in the measurement and modeling of techniques pertaining to the mitigation of transportation-related noise. Dr. Judith Rochat of the Environmental Measurement and Modeling Division has contributed the chapter "Transportation Noise Issues" to the latest edition of the Handbook of Transportation Engineering (McGraw-Hill, 2004, Myer Kutz, Editor).
• Electronic Payment Systems. On January 13, 2004, the Volpe Center published "ORANGES Evaluation Phase I Risk Assessment Report: Phase I of the U.S. DOT Sponsored Evaluation of the ORANGES Electronic Payment Systems Field Operational Test" for the Federal Highway Administration Joint Program Office. It can be found at http://www.itsdocs.fhwa.dot.gov//JPODOCS/REPTS_TE//13966.html.
• GPS Integrity. Ms. Karen VanDyke of the Volpe Center's Center for Navigation presented "Status Update on GPS Integrity Failure Modes and Effects Analysis" at the 2004 National Technical Meeting of the Institute of Navigation, held in San Diego, California, January 2628, 2004. Co-presenters included Mr. Karl Kovach of ARINC and Mr. John Lavrakas and Mr. Brian Carroll of Overlook Systems.
• Columbia Space Shuttle Accident. Dr. James Hallock, Chief of Volpe's Aviation Safety Division, recently presented two lectures on the Columbia Space Shuttle Accident. On January 27, 2004, Dr. Hallock lectured on the forensic analysis of the accident to the Boston University student chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Forensic analysis consists of a failure causation analysis; in the case of the Columbia Shuttle, this task included investigating the physical failures that led to its destruction. On January 28, 2004, at the invitation of the Office of the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Hallock presented a "Review of the Columbia Accident" at the Department of Energy (DOE) Senior Leadership Conference in Alexandria, Virginia. The lessons learned from the accident were of particular interest to many groups in the DOE that deal with high levels of risk.
• Information Systems Security. Mr. David Sawin of the Volpe Center's Infrastructure Protection and Operations Division delivered "Security Awareness Virtual Initiative -- Hands-on Demonstration" at the National Information Systems Security Conference and Exposition, held February 913, 2004, in Jacksonville, Florida. The Division developed and maintains the Security Awareness Virtual Initiative (SAVI) for the Federal Aviation Administration. SAVI, a new Web-based learning tool, is an "at-the-desk" alternative to more traditional methods of promoting a security-aware workforce.

An electronic data recorder, or "black box," installed under the front seat of an automobile collects and stores information about crashes--such as vehicle speed, braking, and passenger seat belt use--that can be used in the investigation of accidents.

• In-Vehicle Technologies. Mr. Marco DaSilva of the Volpe Center's Accident Prevention Division presented, "In-Vehicle Technologies: Automated Collision Notification and Event Data Recorders," to the Massachusetts Division of the Federal Highway Administration on January 8, 2004. His presentation covered event data recorders (EDRs), or black boxes, supplied by the original equipment manufacturers or available in the aftermarket. In addition, Mr. DaSilva assessed automated collision notification (ACN) systems currently available to vehicle owners and discussed the legal issues surrounding the crash data obtained by the EDR and ACN systems. His presentation was based on the results of a task currently being conducted by the Volpe Center in support of the light vehicle platform under the U.S. DOT's Intelligent Vehicle Initiative/Intelligent Transportation System program.

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