Written by Shane Skelton, Aii Executive Director For the many Americans who still begrudge the major societal shift from cash to credit and debit cards, the future may become even more troublesome as mobile wallets become more common. What’s more, is that while mobile wallets are still catching on, a…
Last August, we released a rail safety report, “Back on Track: Bringing Rail Safety into the 21st Century,” which focused on technologies and best practices that if incorporated would improve passenger and freight rail safety. At the time we noted that we wanted to kick start a conversation on the…
In a new twist to a long running solar energy battle, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of Nevada denied a provision to grandfather approximately 17,000 solar customers into the original utility rate and voted to keep the new metering policy in place. Solar advocates can claim a small victory in…
On December 2, 2015, the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Energy & Commerce’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a markup (vote) on a discussion draft bill aimed at facilitating the deployment of broadband Internet service. Among other things, the bill aimed to remove barriers to broadband access by…
A contribution by Chanil N. De Silva; Policy Director at Nouveau Inc. High-speed Internet had in the past been associated with affluence, while many households used dial-up modems and many more had no Internet access at all. Over time, the Internet – initially developed as a defense resource – has become…
A contribution by Chanil N. De Silva; Director of Policy at Nouveau Inc. The NTSB released its annual “Most Wanted” transportation safety improvements for 2016. The list covers aviation, highway, marine, rail and pipeline networks and has been called a “roadmap from lessons learned to lives saved”. This year’s list…
A contribution by Chanil N. De Silva; Director of Policy at Nouveau Inc. President Obama signed a five-year, $305 billion, surface-transportation funding bill into law on Friday December 4th. The bill, known as the FAST Act (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act) is the first long-term transportation-funding bill since 2005. The…
What if you could get from Los Angeles to San Francisco, or from Washington, DC to Columbus, OH in 30 minutes, moving comfortably at up to 800 miles per hour[1], all without parking at an airport, waiting in a long security line, or leaving your water bottle and toiletries behind?…
As technology continues to improve, the manner in which we use the Internet, TV, water, electricity, and other utilities has changed dramatically. The Internet allows us to watch movies or find answers to any question online in a moment. High definition TV make it possible to track a puck with…
A contribution by Chanil N. De Silva; Director of Policy at Nouveau Inc. California has been suffering one of the worst droughts on record, reaching its 4th year in 2015. The severity of the situation led Gov. Brown of California to declare a drought state of emergency in January and…
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A well built, well maintained, modernized infrastructure network is a key component of a strong economy. The state of U.S. infrastructure has been in decline in recent years, and is nowhere near the envy of the world as it once was. While only tangentially related, the U.S. economy has also…
Higher standards and better safety technology have helped reduce the danger of railroad crossings over the half-century. Every safety improvement gets closer to an accident-free system, but track crossings remain inherently risky. With crossing related fatalities on the decline throughout the 21st century, the nine percent uptick in deaths in…
Click here to read the report The nation’s bedrock infrastructure is aging, and railroads are no exception. Tracks and rail beds are not equipped to handle the demands of growing traffic. From the 4,400 percent growth of oil train shipments to the recent devastations in commuter rail incidents, the…
Train accidents happen. It’s why so many independent bodies exist to drive the rail industry towards constant improvement. But even with the less than 16 accidents per million miles travelled in 2014 reported by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), every incident carries the possibility of loss of life, disruption of…
