Some people do dangerous things at railroad crossings. Marco daSilva, a systems safety program manager at Volpe, The National Transportation Center described how recent work, in support of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), has captured images of a car whose driver had run the safety gates and stopped only inches from a passing Amtrak train, of a pedestrian lifting his bike over the barrier to scoot across tracks as a train approaches, and of parents taking kids for a stroll on active railroad bridges. "We've even seen a woman pushing a baby stroller under the closing gates," explained daSilva.

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Program evaluators have reported that the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) risk-reduction program, Clear Signal for Action (CSA), could significantly transform the railroad industry's safety culture when widely adopted. In a multi-year study, a team of program evaluators led by Dr. Joyce Ranney from Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, and the FRA concluded that the adoption of CSA principles and procedures provides significant improvements in overall safety. CSA is part of FRA's safety culture effort which has been ongoing since the late 1900s, with Michael Coplen as FRA's lead program manager.

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Esko Aho has a vision of how greater cooperation between business and government can create industrial synergy. The former prime minister of Finland and now a Nokia executive, Aho has first-hand knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing both public- and private-sector organizations.

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Nigel Wilson relies on the London Underground Oyster card, but not for his daily commute. Wilson uses data from transit fare cards to research and improve transit services in London. Wilson, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, was at Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, to participate in a Straight from the Source talk about automated data collection systems like the Oyster card, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority CharlieCard, and Hong Kong Octopus Card to improve public transit performance.

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What are the causes of the recent decline in motor vehicle use? Don Pickrell, chief economist at Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, and David Pace, a senior economist in Volpe's Center for Transportation Policy and Planning will present "Driven to Extremes: Has Growth in Vehicle Use Peaked?" on Thursday, May 27, during Volpe's next Transportation Trajectories event.

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When Stephen Popkin isn't performing cutting edge safety work at Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, or serving as a keynote speaker for an international human factors conference, he dedicates his time to developing the next generation of transportation professionals.

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It's a myth that fuel economy standards are new, says Kevin Green, head of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program office at Volpe, The National Transportation Center. Mandated by Congress, CAFE standards debuted in 1975. Fuel economy increases achieved by these standards saved the nation about 60 billion gallons of fuel in 2012.

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In September 2008, four crew members and a U.S. Coast Guard HH-65 helicopter perished offshore of Oahu, Hawaii, in the aftermath of a night training mission. While practicing a medical evacuation from a small boat, the helicopter's hoist cable tangled in a deck fitting. The helicopter rolled, but recovered and headed for shore. Enroute, it burst into flames, killing all aboard.

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On Thursday, May 9, 2013, Dr. Genevieve Giuliano, Director of the METRANS Transportation Center and Senior Associate Dean of Research and Technology at University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning, and Development, will speak on "Moving Freight in Metropolitan Areas: The Newest Urban Transportation Problem."

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In February, ICAO's Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection agreed to a new noise standard for new-design aircraft entering into service in 2017 (and for lower-weight aircraft entering into service in 2020). Volpe's detailed environmental and economic analysis provided the data supporting this new standard.

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"Safety is number one" at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), said the agency's deputy administrator, Bill Bronrott. Bronrott gave a talk titled "Fostering a Safety Culture in the Truck and Bus Industry" during a recent visit to Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center.

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Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and electric vehicles (EV) operating at low speeds may be a hazard to pedestrians and bicyclists. Research by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) found that the incidence rate of pedestrian crashes was higher for HEVs than for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

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Does the design of a neighborhood affect the level of a person's physical activity? Do people who live in more compact areas get more physical activity than those who live in sprawling neighborhoods? Join Volpe and Ann Forsyth, professor of urban planning and director of the Masters in Urban Planning program at Harvard University, for a talk on "Measuring Walkability: The Health Question."

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The National Transportation Safety Board recently called on Volpe engineering psychologist Dr. Jordan Multer to serve on an expert panel during an investigative hearing into a fatal train accident that took the lives of three crewmembers and caused an estimated $14.79 million in damages.

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Marco P. daSilva, senior general engineer and program manager at Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, will present "Advancing Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety and Trespass Prevention" on Tuesday, April 9, during Volpe's next Transportation Trajectories event.

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A casual sport shirt and khakis are Terry Sheehan's version of dressing for success. "You have to always be ready—you never know where you might end up," he said. Sheehan, the Regional Emergency Transportation Representative (RETREP) for the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) New England Region, is prepared to be deployed anywhere at any time. When superstorm Sandy hit New York in October 2012 instead of its expected target in Connecticut, Sheehan was told to rush to the city with his own car, his own food and water, and cash. "There were no planes, no trains, no power, and no ATMs or credit cards," he pointed out.

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Dr. Joseph M. Sussman, JR East Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Engineering Systems Division at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will present "Considering Transportation as a Complex Sociotechnical System" on Wednesday, April 17, during Volpe's next Straight from the Source event.

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Nearly all cracks in rails are hidden—so says Dr. David Jeong, senior mechanical engineer at Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center. Jeong and his colleagues, in support of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), have been examining the mechanics of metal fatigue and crack growth in the country's network of rail steel.

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A recent analysis by staff at Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, aims to identify whether and to what extent industry-planned alternative jet fuel production can contribute to aviation carbon neutral growth goals. The international aviation industry has committed to carbon neutral growth starting in 2020, which means that carbon dioxide emissions will not grow as aviation demand increases.

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Kevin Green, Chief of Volpe's Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program Office, will present "Fuel Economy Standards: How Did We Get Here? Where Are We Going?" on Wednesday, March 20, during Volpe's next Transportation Trajectories event.

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"Overcoming adversity used to be part of the American DNA. Can we build that back into our national character?" It's more than a philosophical question for Stephen Flynn, co-founder of the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security and professor of political science at Northeastern University. Flynn is passionate about preparing transportation and other infrastructure to withstand attacks from nature, time, and malicious actors.

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Volpe engineer Kevin Green recently received SAE International's Barry D. McNutt Award for Excellence in Automotive Policy Analysis. This distinguished award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the development of improved federal automotive policy.

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Braving bitter temperatures and a subway delay, several students from Harvard University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences made a post winter break trek to Volpe, The National Transportation Center, to learn about Volpe and the federal government's new Pathways Programs.

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Some states are exploring the implementation of alternative energy technologies and alternative fuel facilities along publicly-owned highway rights-of-way (ROW) to curb the impacts of climate change and achieve other benefits. In a report prepared for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Volpe researchers describe the state of practice in accommodating renewable energy technologies and alternative fuel facilities within highway ROWs.

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Dr. Nigel H.M. Wilson, civil and environmental engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will present "Using Automated Data Collection Systems to Improve Public Transport Performance: Applications at Transport for London" on Wednesday, March 6, during Volpe's next Straight from the Source event

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Finding a dream home and then hearing a loud highway just beyond the property line is a common complaint from potential home buyers. Staff at Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, are conducting research to understand how to reduce the amount of motor vehicle noise from roadways.

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A study recently published by Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, provides a deeper understanding of the broader trends that impact the severity of runway incursions. Runway incursions, which are the unauthorized presence of vehicles, pedestrians, or aircraft on runways, can range in severity from creating a tarmac delay to causing a collision.

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Dr. Aviva Brecher shares an interest in rail electromagnetic emissions and the impact of exposure on safety and health with Dr. Masateru Ikehata, a senior researcher with Japan's Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI). Electric rail, like most electrical equipment that we are all exposed to in everyday life, produces electromagnetic fields (EMF) and radiation (EMR) that can potentially interfere with other electrical devices, if not properly shielded, and can potentially affect humans.

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An evolving maritime domain awareness tool is helping countries on the western coast of Africa combat human traffic smuggling, illicit drug trade, piracy, and illegal fishing on their waterways.

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Terrence M. (Terry) Sheehan, community planner and emergency transportation expert in Volpe's Center for Transportation Logistics and Security, will present "Lessons Learned from Sandy, Irene and Katrina: Restoring Normalcy to the Transportation System through Effective Emergency Response" on Thursday, February 28, during Volpe's next Transportation Trajectories event. Sheehan is a U.S. DOT Regional Transportation Representative and the lead Federal Emergency Support Function-One Official for New England, New York and New Jersey.

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Dr. Stephen Flynn, professor and founding co-director of the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security at Northeastern University, will present "Shock and Consequences: The Case for Bolstering Infrastructure Resilience" on Tuesday, February 12, during Volpe's next Straight from the Source event.

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Volpe recently completed its first-ever Innovation Challenge, a competition for staff to receive funding to develop unique solutions to emerging transportation issues. Recognizing that today's challenges are complex, the Innovation Challenge encouraged staff to work together in multidisciplinary teams, leveraging Volpe's unique breadth and depth in expertise.

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More than 500 people die each year while trespassing on rail lines. In West Palm Beach, Florida, one particularly dangerous stretch of rail is currently the subject of a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and local community-based project being led by Volpe, the National Transportation Systems Center.

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Wake turbulence—the disturbed air immediately behind an aircraft—is potentially hazardous to following and nearby aircraft if not operationally accounted for. To ensure safety, wake separation standards are devised to alleviate the adverse effect of wake turbulence. This has increasingly become a significant issue at the crowded space on and above runways, as it negatively affects capacity.

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The U.S. DOT's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program seeks innovative research proposals from small businesses to address specific research challenges facing the modal administrations. The SBIR Program Office at the Volpe Center has posted the first of two SBIR Program solicitations for fiscal year 2013, inviting small businesses to submit research proposals that address high priority goals within the U.S. DOT.

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There was a time when travel safety could be improved by training drivers and designing crash survival into vehicles. That is no longer the case, said Dr. Qi Van Eikema Hommes, senior electronics engineer in Volpe's Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies. "Your car is no longer a simple mechanical system—it may be controlled by dozens of microprocessors."

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Researchers who conduct naturalistic driving studies to understand driver performance face the proverbial needle-in-the-haystack problem. Cars outfitted with sensors and video cameras record driver behavior and road and traffic conditions, providing massive amounts of naturalistic data. To shed light on driver safety, researchers must comb through huge datasets to locate the safety-critical events.

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During Hurricane Sandy, Volpe community planner Terry Sheehan assisted in disaster relief efforts. Sheehan, a part of Volpe's Center for Transportation Logistics and Security, was responsible for coordinating the transportation of life saving and life sustaining supplies such as food, water, blankets, and generators to affected areas, coordinating the movement of utility crews from other states to affected areas, and assisting in organizing housing for responders who were sent on-site.

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International cooperation between the United States, Japan, and the European Union is helping accelerate the research and development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) standards and technologies by fostering collaboration between professionals on three continents. Volpe transportation planner Elizabeth (Eli) Machek recently traveled to Japan as part of the cooperative efforts of the U.S.-Japan ITS Task Force.

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The findings from a decade of wake turbulence research are helping reduce airport delays, shorten final approaches to airports, and reduce fuel burn and emissions. Wake turbulence, the movement of air created by an aircraft in motion, may be an esoteric field of study, but the body of knowledge from this field of research has enabled the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to make operational changes in the National Airspace System (NAS), allowing for smaller minimum aircraft separation distances in some situations and increased rates of takeoffs and landings on runways.

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Dr. David Y. Jeong, senior mechanical engineer in the Center for Infrastructure Systems and Engineering at Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, will present "Cracked Up—Broken Rails are Serious Business" on Thursday, December 6, during our next Transportation Trajectories conversation.

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You are cordially invited to join us in person or via webinar for our next Transportation Trajectories conversation, "Advancing Aircraft Wake Turbulence Research to Achieve Aviation Capacity and Safety Objectives," with Steven Lang, Director of the Center for Air Traffic Systems and Operations at Volpe. The event is at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, November 28, and is a part of Transportation Trajectories, Volpe's ongoing seminar series featuring Volpe experts.

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Victor M. Mendez, U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway (FHWA) administrator, recently spent a day at Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, to learn about Volpe's FHWA work portfolio and talk to staff about innovation. During the administrator's visit, Volpe experts briefed Mendez on a variety of efforts, including Volpe's role in the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) and efforts in economic analysis, professional capacity building, transportation planning, environmental stewardship, and program evaluation.

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The need for improved traffic incident management is urgent. Each year, dozens of emergency responders, highway workers, and tow operators are killed while responding to traffic incidents; countless more are injured or experience near-miss situations. Moving traffic threatens the safety of first responders as they provide medical assistance to victims and investigate the cause of a crash. Highway workers and tow operators are similarly at risk as they clear the scene and work to resume normal operations. Unexpected slowing, stopping, or distraction caused by the primary crash scene represent hazards to other drivers as well.

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We are currently experiencing an explosion of "big data." Big data is "a collection of digital data sets so large and complex that it is beyond the capabilities of current database management tools," said Robert C. Johns, associate administrator and director of Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center.

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In August, over 100 representatives from the airline industry and government gathered for the Air Transport Association's communications and navigation information exchange. Hosted for the third year by Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, participants from across the U.S. and abroad engaged in topics ranging from the technical—for instance, the human factors considerations of data communications technologies—to the broad—including the status for Japan's air traffic management system.

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You are cordially invited to join us in person or via webinar for our next Transportation Trajectories conversation, "Better Means to Anticipate What May Go Wrong," with Dr. Qi Van Eikema Hommes, Senior Electronics Engineer, Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies at Volpe at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, November 14, 2012. Featuring Volpe Center experts, Transportation Trajectories is a new dialogue on advancing transportation innovation for the public good.

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Fires in vehicles can pose a significant threat to life and property. Fires may result from vehicle crashes or may ignite within engine compartments or wheel wells when mechanical systems fail. With its focus on safety, the U.S. Department of Transportation is interested in mitigating the risk to life and property from vehicle fires.

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You are invited to join us in person or via webinar for our next Straight from the Source presentation, "Every Day Counts: An Innovation Initiative," with Federal Highway Administrator Victor M. Mendez, at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 25. Every Day Counts is designed to identify and deploy innovation aimed at shortening project delivery, enhancing the safety of our roadways, and protecting the environment.

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It's no secret that small businesses are critical to the U.S. economy. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that small businesses represent over 99 percent of all U.S. firms and create over 60 percent of the net new jobs in the U.S. The entrepreneurial spirit of small businesses provides a thriving hotbed for innovation, but many lack the funding and resources to compete with large companies.

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Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center, was recently showcased on a new cable TV series, Your Federal Government. The 30-minute episode features Director Robert Johns discussing Volpe's history and our unique role in the federal government, functioning as both a consultant and a federal agency.

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When sleep takes a back seat for a railroader, the on-the-job consequences can be fatal. A new interactive, multimedia website aims to reduce on-the-job fatigue by educating railroad employees about the importance of healthy sleep and helping them make informed decisions about sleep to improve workplace performance.

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The sun is shining, skies are clear, and you remember seeing a weather map free of storms. Yet your flight sits on the taxiway for what seems to be a long time, queued for takeoff. A recent study completed for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suggests that your delay is likely caused by another flight's missed departure or arrival.

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