OpenDOT Public Feedback & Involvement, Tools & Strategies...

I think they need to do away with the HOS all together,and you will find everyone fast to sleep every night just like they are now.I drive more tired now than I ever did.

Dear DOT Team and readers,

Just thought of sharing this idea with you, as I was reading through a book called "Lean Solutions" by Womack and Jones. During my last visit to US, in 2006, when I just landed up, during the initial days was commuting on the California city buses.

Many times, the buses were half-empty / were not stopping even when I used to wave my hands and while I was reflecting on some of the pointers... more »

Trains are creating a lot of noise pollution in the US. I would like to inform you about what happens in Europe where population and train traffic is a lot denser than here in the US:
Trains in Europe don't honk. Period.
Drivers are assumed to respect the red lights, barriers and bell signals at the railroad crossings. Offenders are caught by cameras just as they are caught while not-respecting a red light at other traffic... more »

I have been in the transportation profession over twenty years . I live in an area of the country that has a highway touted as the most dangerous in the country . I believe that this is directly related to drivers being paid by the mile . This type of compensation encourages drivers to drive in excess of the permitted time . Everyone in the industry knows all of the tricks to avoid detection of driving excess hours .... more »

Generators known as APU's, Alternate Power Units that allow drivers to have air conditioning, electric and heat should become standard equipment on commercial vehicles that have sleeper units. .It's unlawful to idle a truck in many places example NYC. The driver is forced to try and sleep in a cab sometimes in excess of 120 degrees Farheinheit, That is absurd. If the driver runs their vehicle they recieve tickets for... more »

The only way to truly stop drivers from driving beyond their limits is to implement electronic logs with gps tracking that can be monitored and/or downloaded by dot on a regular basis. Drivers and companies still operate unsafely due to the hours of service regulations and paperback style log books. The regulations are not being met and shippers do not care about hours of service. Shippers and Recievers would be forced... more »

I have noticed that other countries are mandating motorists education to make sure motorists know how to escape in case of a fire inside highway tunnels.

It will be an excellent idea for DOT to also mandate a similar education program.

I suggest using my LINE ITEM VOTING AND ELECTION SYSTEM, "ALIVESYS", as described at http://www.strongware.com/alivesys. Comments will be welcome.

Citizens in the United States believe that public participation in transportation planning, and many other government processes, is conducted at a much lower level than they want. But they don't want complete control. They want partnership. The data is shown by the the Arnstein Gap.

Right now, public involvement in these processes is often conducted by entities without formal training in methods. It is subject to... more »

For all the invaluable outreach to the digitally inclined, I'm not seeing any acknowledgment to those who, for whatever reason, are not on-line. Data, information, and discussion should be available in non-digital formats, with a person to help with interpreting that data (describe its sources, how developed, intended use, forensics, etc.).

Many good engineers agree there could be deep innovations providing factor of two or better improvements in energy security/efficiency, safety and arterial capacity. These include:
1) dynamic ridesharing based on location aware cell phones and in-car devices, and social networking (e.g. picking riders who like the same radio stations)
2) vehicles that can hitch to form trains while moving
3) powered roads that intermittently... more »

Disruptive Technologies: A Holistic, Pragmatic Approach

New technologies are emerging at a faster pace than Agencies can swallow. The rate of obsolescence outpaces the rate of change.

Despite the new technology flood, Agencies lack a strategy to on-board these disruptions. As a result, they often react, flounder, or simply ignore them.

We can solve these problems in four major areas of practice:

Leadership... more »

REQUIRE TRAFFIC TO KEEP RIGHT BY SPEED NOT BY TYPE OF VEHICLE

The 1,600 members of Open Source for America are dedicated to supporting and guiding federal efforts to make the US government more open through the use of open source software. We have established recommendations for all agencies to consider in their Open Government Plans, with these recommendations especially highlighting the need to remove barriers to the successful leveraging of open source software and open IT more... more »

A lot of DOT budget is passed through to state and local governments in terms of grants for public transportation.

DOT should required all DOT-funded projects to solicit online participation.

Currently, participation is mainly done in-person events and taskforces. Lots of interested parties cannot make these in-person events but would be interested in participating online.