- Op-Ed: Why Toronto Prefers A "Congestion Crisis" To A Road Pricing Strategy
- Patrick McKenna Named Eno Center's Next Chief Executive
- Pittsburgh Emerges As Autonomous Trucking Innovation Hub
- Toll-Related “Smishing” Remerges In Virginia, Washington State
- These are just some of the toll industry developments TRN is following.
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Op-Ed: Why Toronto Prefers A "Congestion Crisis" To A Road Pricing Strategy
Which North American city has the worst traffic congestion problems? Los Angeles, Washington, New York City, Mexico City, Boston? No, it’s Toronto, according to the most recent TomTom Traffic Index. Toronto actually holds third place in TomTom’s ranking of 387 traffic-choked cities around the globe.
In a Toronto Star op-ed column, journalist Scott Stinson calls it “a nightmare” that timid politicians and prejudiced drivers have chosen to live with by rejecting a proven countermeasure, which is road pricing, tolling, in particular. Stinson makes a concise, cogent argument for imposing road use charges, analyzes the reasons congestion pricing has failed to take hold in Canada and the US, and takes issue with the “Lexus lanes” shibboleth. He also notes that yet another study of Toronto’s “congestion crisis” is due to wind up later this year, but “[h]istory suggests that even if [the chamber organization conducting it] recommends putting a price on roads, the hurdles will still be many.”
Canada Congestion Pricing Economic & Social Considerations Affecting Transportation ETC Systems Ontario Road Use Charging (RUC-MBUF-VMT) Sweden TomTom Toronto Metro Region (GTA)Patrick McKenna Named Eno Center's Next Chief Executive
The Eno Center for Transportation announced yesterday that its board has selected Patrick McKenna To be the foundation’s next president and CEO. He will succeed Robert Puentes on October 7. Mr. Puentes announced his departure late last year, and has since assumed a Brookings Institution executive post. Mr. McKenna last week announced his intention to leave the Missouri Department of Transportation after leading the agency since 2015. Earlier in his career, he served as deputy commissioner of New Hampshire DOT and CFO in the US Senate secretary’s office. Eno board chair and former USDOT secretary James Burnley commented, “We are thrilled to welcome Patrick McKenna to the Eno Center for Transportation. He is an exceptional leader with a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities the transportation industry faces today. We are confident that his vision and expertise will drive the Eno Center to new heights.” Eno stated, “Under Patrick McKenna’s leadership, [the center] will continue to focus on its core mission to shape public debate on critical multimodal transportation issues and to build a network of innovative transportation professionals.”
Appointments-Promotions-Retirements Eno Center for Transportation Missouri Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) Transportation and Infrastructure Research & DevelopmentPittsburgh Emerges As Autonomous Trucking Innovation Hub
WESA offers an in-depth look at the nascent but promising autonomous trucking industry and the policies and strategies establishing Pittsburgh as a hub for its development. The article explains that a “stack” of synchronized technologies is required to make self-driving vehicles possible and spotlights Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovations’ stack. The company is preparing to launch a fleet of 20 fully autonomous trucks in Texas this year. WESA also gives a nod to PennSTART, a campus outside Pittsburgh that government entities and Carnegie Mellon University are developing for the testing of emerging transportation technologies.
PennDOT is reportedly working with companies like Aurora to develop appropriate regulations for fully autonomous trucks — a heavier lift than the current self-certification process required for driverless trucks with a human backup driver onboard. The new regulations, authorized in a 2023 state law, could be finalized as early as this fall. It’s predicted that land-based autonomous mobile systems could create a global demand worth upwards of $800 billion by 2026, but that figure balloons to more than $1 trillion when aerial, marine and defense systems are factored in. “Capturing one percent of that market could bring $10 billion over five-plus years and an estimated 5,000 jobs to a region with the technology stack required by such systems,” the article notes.
Economic & Social Considerations Affecting Transportation Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Pittsburgh PA Metro Area Self-Driving Vehicles Transportation and Infrastructure Research & DevelopmentToll-Related “Smishing” Remerges In Virginia, Washington State
WRIC reports, Virginia DOT is cautioning E-ZPass users about the ongoing plague of bogus text messages purporting to collect money for unpaid tolls. Recipients are encouraged to contact VDOT to verify text messages allegedly coming from the agency and to report any phone numbers and websites associated with scam messages to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Meanwhile, a second wave of the scam is now hitting Washington State, KING5 reports. WSDOT took to social media this week to warn drivers that the actual website for the state’s Good To Go! toll service is MyGoodToGo.com — not “mygoodtogoinvoice.com.”
More generally, NBC News Dallas-Fort Worth reports on FBI warnings to the public about the toll-related smishing trend. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Keith Custer (who seems to be knowledgeable about the nationwide scope of the scheme) uses the term “credential harvesting” to explain that the perpetrators are more interested in obtaining victims’ passwords, financial account numbers and other personal information than collecting payment of bogus toll bills.
Crime Beat Cybersecurity E-ZPass ETC Systems Good To Go! Toll System Virginia Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Washington State Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)These are just some of the toll industry developments TRN is following.
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