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Books > Business & Economics > Industry & industrial studies > Transport industries > General
The purpose of this book is to enlighten the public of the
tremendous potential of natural gas. America currently has an
oversupply of cheap natural gas. And it has huge reserves, enough
to take care of this country's energy needs for the rest of this
century and more. Only a few other countries have more reserves
than are found in the United states. There is a massive drilling
campaign underway within the continental U.S. resulting from
discovery of new shale oil fields or plays and the development of
horizontal drilling techniques and fracturing. This has resulted in
the production of more natural gas than the country can currently
use. America is in position to be free of dependence on foreign
oil, to be free of smog and pollution of air resulting from the
exhaust of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles and relief from the
high prices of gasoline and diesel at the pump. All the country
needs to do is switch to natural gas to power its cars, buses,
trucks and trains. But America needs to wake up to the fact of
these new-found riches. Switching to natural gas can put millions
of people to work, put extra dollars in every motorist's pocket and
leave hundreds of billions of dollars in circulation in America
instead of being sent overseas. The U.S. is way behind other
countries in the number of natural gas vehicles on the road.
Sixteen countries have more vehicles powered by natural gas than
this country. There are two countries with 20 times as many natural
gas vehicles on the road than this country, this despite the U.S.
having nearly the most natural gas reserves and the most developed
transportation system. Switching to natural gas on a wholesale
basis in America is not happening. There are too many people in and
out of Congress and too many entities preventing it from happening.
This report seeks to answer whether and to what degree there are
forces and entities that are maintaining the price of gasoline and
diesel at artificially high levels, how fast can conversion to
natural gas as a fuel for transportation be accomplished, what are
the obstacles that must be overcome, are there people and entities
standing in the way and what are the benefits of converting to
natural gas as a fuel for transportation.
Several fiery rail accidents in 2013-2015 in the U.S. and Canada
carrying crude oil produced from the Bakken region of North Dakota
have raised questions at many levels on the safety of transporting
this, and other types of crude oil, by rail. Sandia National
Laboratories was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy to
investigate the material properties of crude oils, and in
particular the so-called "tight oils" like Bakken that comprise the
majority of crude oil rail shipments in the U.S. at the current
time. The book provides a literature survey of public sources of
information on crude oil properties that have some bearing on the
likelihood or severity of combustion events that may occur around
spills associated with rail transport. The book also contains
background information including a review of the notional "tight
oil" field operating environment, as well a basic description of
crude oils and potential combustion events in rail transport.
Policymakers at all levels of government are debating a wide range
of options for addressing the nation's faltering economic
conditions. One option that is once again receiving attention is
accelerated investments in the nation's public infrastructure --
that is, highways, mass transit, airports, water supply and
wastewater, and other facilities -- in order to create jobs while
also promoting long-term economic growth. This book examines policy
issues associated with using infrastructure as a mechanism to
benefit economic recovery. Discussed are state-level driver data
and the effect of look-back periods on recidivism prevalence;
restraint use and minimum drinking age laws; electronic stability
control; mobile device use while driving; the impact of fuel price
increases on the aviation industry; aviation safety; and the
assessment of potential mariner-training needs.
As the U.S. population ages, access to safe and reliable
transportation alternatives is critical to helping older adults
remain in their homes as long as possible. HHS, DOT, VA, and other
federal agencies may provide funds to state and local entities to
help older adults access transportation. This book examines the
federal programs that provide funding for transportation services
for older adults and the extent to which the programs that fund
these services are coordinated; and how state and local
transportation agencies and aging network organisations in selected
states coordinate transportation for older adults and the
challenges they face in coordinating or providing these services.
The book also addresses the federal programs that provide funding
for NEMT services; how federal agencies are coordinating NEMT
services; and how NEMT services are coordinated at the state and
local levels and the challenges to coordination.
The Modern Silk Route is offering a potential land-bridge between
China and Europe through Central Asia and Russia that offers a
complement to existing shipping routes, and is attracting growing
interest by a selected number of multinational companies. However,
the main role of the Silk Route is to support the development and
integration of the region. Connectivity to the east and west, over
exceptionally long distances, is critical to the development of the
Central Asian countries, when trading globally and between
themselves. Facilitating trade and transportation across many
borders, remains a major challenge more than twenty years since the
breakup of the former Soviet Union. The book revisits trade and
transport connectivity through the Central Asia countries along the
old Silk Route, based on knowledge from project implementation and
field research. It takes the modern perspective of supply chain
efficiency and logistics performance, which depends not only on
infrastructure but also markets and policies. Since the breakup of
the Former Soviet Union connectivity of Central Asia is a prominent
agenda. The focus has been on physical improvements of specific
transport corridors. But logistics performance remains very low,
caused by inefficiencies, at national levels, of services and of
trade and transport agencies, as well as lack of cross-border
integration of trade and transit. The book suggests that the policy
focus should not be just on physical trade routes. Rather, it
stresses the focus on supply chain reliability, and proposes policy
packages and enabling implementation practices, consistent across
countries in the region in areas such as transportation, customs
and border clearance, trade or transit. It also highlights the
complementarity of the current initiatives, including the recent
development of the Eurasian Customs Union, or the rising of trade
and investment from China.
The increase in domestic supplies of natural gas has raised new
interest in expanding its use in the transportation sector. This
book considers issues related to wider use of natural gas as a fuel
in passenger cars and commercial vehicles. This book is designed to
help fleets understand the cost factors associated with fueling
infrastructure for compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. It
provides estimated cost ranges for various sizes and types of CNG
fueling stations and an overview of factors that contribute to the
total cost of an installed station; and describes how the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) used the VICE model to establish
guidance for fleets making decisions about using CNG.
AirInsight's 2013 Newsletter Compendium
Policymakers at all levels of government are debating a wide range
of options for addressing the nation's faltering economic
conditions. One option that is once again receiving attention is
accelerated investments in the nation's public infrastructure -
that is, highways, mass transit, airports, water supply and
wastewater, and other facilities - in order to create jobs while
also promoting long-term economic growth. This book examines policy
issues associated with using infrastructure as a mechanism to
benefit economic recovery. Discussed are federal traffic safety
programs; the reasons why fuel-efficient vehicles are not sold
domestically; infrastructure banks and debt finance; highway bridge
conditions; emergency relief for disaster damaged roads and transit
systems; harbor maintenance finance and funding; characteristics of
Puerto Rico's Maritime trade and potential side effects of
modifying the Jones Act.
Trade growth between the United States and China has increased U.S.
interest in how the Chinese transportation system handles exports.
The Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials, and National Cooperative
Highway Research Program sponsored a scanning study to identify how
China provides intermodal access to its ports and uses investment
strategies to foster freight mobility and intermodal connectivity.
The scan team learned that China's national, provincial, and
metropolitan transportation policy is closely coordinated with the
country's economic policy and social harmony goals. The
transportation system is expanding rapidly to meet global
intermodal freight demands and promote expansion into
underdeveloped regions of the country. This book discusses the
freight mobility and intermodal connectivity in China as well as
provides an overview of U.S.-China commercial relations, including
major trade disputes.
Transportation is important. It is about people and how they live
their lives, how they get to work, how they get their children to
school, how they buy food, clothes, and other necessities, and how
families visit one another around the country. It is also about
business. Transportation is critical to how the supply chain
functions, how raw materials get to factories, how goods get to
market, how food gets from farmers to kitchen tables, and how
energy products move from areas of production to areas of
consumption. An efficient national transportation network allows
business to lower transportation costs, which lowers production
costs and enhances productivity and profits. It allows American
business to be competitive in the global marketplace and for the
Nation's economy to prosper and grow. One need only look at the
Interstate Highway System to see how that investment in the
transportation network has benefited the nation and encouraged
tremendous economic growth over the past two generations. This book
discusses findings and recommendations made by the Special Panel on
21st century freight transportation, as well as federal freight
policies.
This review is biennially produced by the United Nations Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). It
describes the environment within which the transport sector is
developing and the principal challenges that this environment poses
to governments, the transport industry and society at large. The
publication also focuses on tracing the significant development of
roads, railways, shipping, ports, inland waterways and air
transport industries and infrastructure in the region. In addition,
it considers the changing delivery mechanisms across all transport
sectors and discusses urban transport issues. Finally, the review
examines the process of globalization, trade agreements related to
transport, regionalism, collocation of production transport
facilities, as well as intermodal transport systems.
Federal agencies (excluding the U.S. Postal Service) spend about $3
billion annually to acquire, operate, and maintain about 450,000
civilian and non-tactical military vehicles. Agencies may lease or
buy vehicles from GSA, which also issues requirements and guidance
on fleet management. In recent years, Congress and the President
have raised concerns about the size and cost of federal agencies'
fleets. In 2011, the President directed agencies to determine their
optimal fleet inventories and set targets for achieving these
inventories by 2015 with the goal of a more cost-effective fleet.
This book discusses the notion of adopting leading practices and
how they could improve management of federal vehicle fleets;
overall increase in number of vehicle masts that some agencies
decreased their fleets; and strategies needed to address aging
delivery fleet.
For some time, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the
U.S. transit industry having been working to improve the
understanding and practice of transit asset management. There is
considerable evidence that this is a critical area of focus.
Improving transit asset management is now a national policy. To
advance transit asset management, this book provides a
transit-specific asset management framework for managing assets
individually and as a portfolio of assets that comprise an
integrated system. The book provides flexible, yet targeted
guidance to advance the practice and implementation of transit
asset management. This book also examines the extent to which
selected transit agencies follow leading asset management practices
to prioritise capital investments, and challenges in using these
practices, the extent to which these agencies measure the effects
of capital investments, and FTA initiatives to support transit
agencies' use of leading practices.
A small federal agency, NMB facilitates labour relations in two key
transportation sectors -- railroads and airlines -- through
mediation and arbitration of labour disputes and overseeing union
elections. Established under the Railway Labor Act, NMB's primary
responsibility is to prevent work stoppages in these critical
industries. This book discusses the national mediation board's
strengthening plan and control to better facilitate rail and air
labour relations.
The "Top 25 Airports KPIs of 2011-2012" report provides insights
into the state of airports performance measurement today by listing
and analyzing the most visited KPIs for this functional area on
smartKPIs.com in 2011. In addition to KPI names, it contains a
detailed description of each KPI, in the standard smartKPIs.com KPI
documentation format, that includes fields such as: definition,
purpose, calculation, limitation, overall notes and additional
resources. While dominated by KPIs reflecting cost performance and
material handling, other popular KPIs come from categories such as
transportation, time performance, delivery quality and warehousing.
This product is part of the "Top KPIs of 2011-2012" series of
reports and a result of the research program conducted by the
analysts of smartKPIs.com in the area of integrated performance
management and measurement. SmartKPIs.com hosts the largest
catalogue of thoroughly documented KPI examples, representing an
excellent platform for research and dissemination of insights on
KPIs and related topics. The hundreds of thousands of visits to
smartKPIs.com and the thousands of KPIs visited, bookmarked and
rated by members of this online community in 2011 provided a rich
data set, which combined with further analysis from the editorial
team, formed the basis of these research reports.
Increasing concerns over the effects of climate change have
heightened the importance of accelerating investments in green
growth. The International Energy Agency, for example, estimates
that to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent by 2050,
global investments in the energy sector alone will need to total
US$750 billion a year by 2030 and over US$1.6 trillion a year from
2030-2050. Despite global efforts to mobilize required capital
flows, the investments still fall far short. Bloomberg New Energy
Finance argues that by 2020 investments will be US$150 billion
short from the levels required simply to stabilize CO2 emissions.
For the East Asia and Pacific region alone, the World Bank study
Winds of Change suggests that additional investments of US$80
billion a year over the next two decades are required. Multiple
factors affect green investments, often rendering them financially
not attractive. Private investment flows, therefore, depend on
public sectors interventions and support. As in many countries
public sector resources are scarce and spread across many competing
commitments, they need to be used judiciously and strategically to
leverage sufficient private flows. Many governments, however, still
lack a clear comprehensive framework for assessing green investment
climate and formulating an efficient mix of measures to accelerate
green investments and are unfamiliar with international funding
sources that can be tapped. To address this challenge, the World
Bank, with support from AusAID, conducts the work on improving the
financing opportunities for green infrastructure investments among
its client countries. This activity attempts to identify practical
ways to value and monetize environmental externalities of
investments and improve the promotion and bankability of green
projects. This research report, as a key step in this activity,
provides a structured compendium of ongoing leading initiatives and
activities designed to accelerate private investment flows in green
growth. It summarizes current investment challenges of green
projects as well as proposed solutions, financing schemes and
instruments, and initiatives that have set the stage for promoting
green growth. The results of this work are intended to benefit the
international community and policymakers who are seeking to deepen
their knowledge of green investment environment. In addition, it is
hoped that this work will be useful to practitioners, including
fund managers and investors, seeking to have a better understanding
of current trends, global initiatives, and available funding
sources and mechanisms for financing green projects.
Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are
not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or
access to any online entitlements included with the product. The
Latest Tools and Techniques for Managing Infrastructure AssetsFully
updated throughout, this practical resource provides a proven,
cost-effective infrastructureasset management framework that
integrates planning, design, construction, maintenance,
rehabilitation, and renovation. Public Infrastructure Asset
Management,Second Edition, describes the most current methodologies
for effectively managing roads, bridges, airports, utility
services, water and waste facilities, parks, public buildings, and
sports complexes. This comprehensive guide covers information
management and decision support systems, including proprietary
solutions and new technological developments such ascloud storage.
The book discusses total quality management, economics, life-cycle
analysis, and maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction
programming. Up-to-date examples and real-world case studies
illustrate the practical applications of the concepts presented in
this thoroughly revised reference. This new edition features:
Planning, needs assessment, and performance indicators Database
management, data needs, and analysis Inventory, historical, and
environmental data In-service monitoring and evaluation data
Performance modeling and failure analysis Design for infrastructure
service life Construction Maintenance, rehabilitation, and
reconstruction strategies, policies, and treatment alternatives
Dealing with new or alternate concepts Prioritization,
optimization, and work programs Integrated infrastructure asset
management systems Visual IMS: an illustrative infrastructure
management system and applications Available asset management
system and commercial off-the-shelf providers Benefits of
implementing an asset management system Sustainability,
environmental stewardship, and asset management Future directions
for infrastructure asset management
We're all familiar with the TSA by now - from the daunting lines to
the X-ray machines to the curious three ounce rule governing
liquids. But many question whether this strange assortment of
regulations, meant to protect the two million people a day
travelling through US airports, actually works. In this riveting
expose, former TSA administrator Kip Hawley unveils the agency's
ongoing battle to outthink and outmaneuver terrorists, navigating
bureaucratic limitations and public disdain to stay one step ahead
of catastrophe. Citing foiled terrorist plots and near misses that
have never been publicly revealed, Hawley suggests that the
fundamental flaw in America's approach to national security is the
belief that we can plan for every contingency. Instead, he argues,
we must learn to manage reasonable levels of risk so we can focus
our near-term energy on stopping truly catastrophic events while,
in the long-term, engaging passengers to support a less rigid and
more sustainable security strategy. This is a fascinating glimpse
inside one of the country's most maligned agencies and the complex
business of keeping Americans safe every day.
Greening Growth in Pakistan through Transport Sector Reforms: A
Strategic Environmental, Poverty, and Social Assessment identifies
reforms that can help Pakistan manage its environmental priorities
given transport s impacts on air quality, noise pollution, road
safety, hazardous-materials transport, climate change, and urban
sprawl. The policy options are contextualized in light of the
government of Pakistan s 2011 Framework for Economic Growth and its
strategic objectives. This analytical work examines the poverty,
social, and environmental aspects associated with reforms that
would increase the freight transport sector s productivity to meet
the Framework s goals. It focuses on the following areas: Analyzing
the policy and institutional adjustments required to address the
environmental, social, and poverty aspects of increased
transportation efficiency in Pakistan Identifying policy options
for the government of Pakistan to better serve the population, to
enhance social cohesion, and to foster equitable benefit sharing
with low-income or other vulnerable groups Developing a broad
participatory process to give a voice to stakeholders who could be
affected by enhancements of freight transport productivity Making
robust recommendations to strengthen governance and the
institutional capacity of agencies to manage the environmental,
social, and poverty consequences of freight transportation
infrastructure The book also presents information on the economic
and institutional analyses undergirding this report and details its
methodology. Greening Growth in Pakistan through Transport Sector
Reforms is intended for policy makers, civil society, the private
sector, and academics who wish to participate in dialogues on
Pakistan s trade and transport sectors priorities. It is hoped that
this report will stimulate debate that steers these sectors and
their participants in the direction of greening economic growth."
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