DOJ news release: “James Robert Liang, a Volkswagen engineer, pleaded guilty today for his role in a nearly 10-year conspiracy to defraud U.S. regulators and U.S. Volkswagen customers by implementing software specifically designed to cheat U.S. emissions tests in hundreds of thousands of Volkswagen “clean diesel” vehicles, the Justice Department announced today. Liang’s plea agreement… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Transportation
US traffic fatalities up sharply in 2015 to 35,092
“The nation lost 35,092 people in traffic crashes in 2015, ending a 5-decade trend of declining fatalities with a 7.2% increase in deaths from 2014. The final data released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed traffic deaths rising across nearly every segment of the population. The last single-year… Continue Reading
New devices allow any vehicle to transmit alerts for help after accidents
WSJ.com – “…Devices like the Automatic Pro can bring almost any vehicle—even a jalopy you bought when *NSYNC was popular—into the smartphone age. They look like USB thumb drives and plug into the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD-II) port found in almost every almost every car sold in America since 1996. These ports are often hidden under… Continue Reading
NYS DMV employs enhanced facial recognition technology to catch ID thieves
Ars Technica: “In January, the New York State DMV enhanced its facial recognition technology by doubling the number of measurement points on a driver’s photograph, a move the state’s governor says has led to the arrest of 100 suspected identity thieves and opened 900 unsolved cases. In all, since New York implemented facial recognition technology… Continue Reading
GAO Report – Aviation Safety
Aviation Safety: FAA’s Risk-Based Oversight for Repair Stations Could Benefit from Additional Airline Data and Performance Metrics [Reissued on September 2, 2016], GAO-16-679: Published: Jul 28, 2016. Publicly Released: Jul 28, 2016. “The extent to which U.S. airlines contract out aircraft maintenance to domestic and foreign repair stations (as opposed to performing maintenance in-house) has… Continue Reading
Bureau of Transportation Statistics released National Transit Map data
“The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) today released National Transit Map data, a geospatial database containing the information from 270 transit agencies that provides open, machine-readable data about their stops, routes, and schedules. The national, openly available map of fixed-guideway and fixed-route transit service in America will allow the U.S. Department… Continue Reading
Extra Perk – Free stories delivered to NYC subway riders on lines with Free Transit WirelessWiFi
NYT- Subway Reads: Free E-Books, Timed for Your Commute – Sponsored by Penguin Random House – “On Sunday, Subway Reads started delivering novellas, short stories or excerpts from full-length books to passengers’ cellphones or tablets. The idea is for riders to download a short story or a chapter and read it on the train. Subway… Continue Reading
Bike Index helps to fight bicycle theft
Help us fight bicycle theft—register your bike: “The Bike Index makes stolen bikes harder to sell and easier to recover by making sure important information about your bike is there when you need it the most. The process is simple, secure, and free. Learn more or register your bike now. So far we’ve registered 89,737… Continue Reading
Volkswagen Agrees to Record Settlement in Emissions Case
FTC Charges Volkswagen Deceived Consumers with Its “Clean Diesel” Campaign: In two related settlements, one with the United States and the State of California, and one with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), German automaker Volkswagen AG and related entities have agreed to spend up to $14.7 billion to settle allegations of cheating emissions tests… Continue Reading
Where Does All the Money Go: Shifts in Household Spending Over the Past 30 Years
Brookings – Shifts in Household Spending Over the Past 30 Years, Jun 2016. “Economic progress occurs unevenly, diffusely, and at times unpredictably: whole categories of spending diminish or grow as technology and preferences shift. For instance, as the relative price of clothing has plummeted, the share of spending going to clothing has declined; at the… Continue Reading
App for Pocket Guide to Transportation 2016
“The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has introduced its most innovative product – a smartphone app for the Pocket Guide to Transportation 2016. The Pocket Guide is a popular, quick reference guide to significant transportation statistics. The new app allows users to take all the informative graphics and tables from the… Continue Reading
Airline Passenger Rights: The Federal Role in Aviation Consumer Protection
Airline Passenger Rights: The Federal Role in Aviation Consumer Protection, Rachel Y. Tang, Analyst in Transportation and Industry. August 17, 2016. “The 1978 deregulation of the airline industry in the United States eliminated federal control over many airline business practices, including pricing and domestic route selection. However, the federal government continues to legislate and enforce… Continue Reading
