Free Republic

>Last year, the average American driver wasted 38 hours sitting in traffic. While the occasional traffic jam inconveniences most drivers, some unlucky people live in the nationÂ’s most congested cities. In addition to spending an average of 42 hours a year in traffic, drivers in these cities face peak hour congestion that can increase travel time during rush hour by 15% or more. INRIX, a traffic information and services group, collects data for individual road segments. In its 2012 Traffic Scorecard, INRIX calculated the amount of time that congestion added to driversÂ’ peak hour commute for each road. After aggregating...

The Senate took the first step toward circumventing sequestration Thursday night with a bipartisan vote that would put furloughed air traffic controllers back on the job. The House is expected to take up the measure Friday, and the White House has promised to consider any bill which it receives. The Senate vote came in response to passengers angered this week by long delays at several major airports. If the Senate bill wins House approval and is signed into law by President Obama, the furloughed controllers are not expected to return to work before Saturday

Maybe just because I'm a bit of a trainspotter/planespotter geek, I really dig this site: charts all commercial aircraft in the air worldwide in real time (except unfortunately US carriers on 5 min. delay due to unique American security concerns). Elsewhere -as I recently did in Europe- you can glance at FlightRadar24 when you hear a roar, get the flight #/carrier online and bingo there it is on the tailfin overhead 30 seconds later. Users can click on any plane (moving) over any chosen worldwide flight radar map and get flight #, carrier, plane type, basic stats, flight info,...

The death of a resident of the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Ata is being investigated, after he keeled over and suffered an apparent heart attack – as police handed him a traffic ticket. The 64-year-old man died on the spot Saturday evening. His funeral was set for Monday. The man suffered the attack as he was speaking to a female traffic police officer, who stopped him for an alleged driving offense. The policewoman said that the man had shown no signs of panic, nor had he indicated that he had any health problems. The two talked as she wrote...

The chairman of the Australian company behind Chicago's red-light program resigned this week and trading in the company's stock was suspended amid an intensifying investigation into allegations of corruption in its Chicago contract. Redflex Holdings Ltd. announced the extraordinary actions just days after board members were briefed by an outside legal team hired to examine ties between the company's U.S. subsidiary and the city official who oversaw its contract, a relationship first disclosed in October by the Tribune. In a brief statement Thursday to the newspaper, the company also revealed for the first time that it is sharing information with...

A government lawyer’s attempt to get dismissed nearly $700 in traffic tickets given to the U.S. Postal Service is being met with a hearty and humorous, Heck no. In a Jan. 22 letter sent to both the city of East Cleveland, Ohio, and the company that operates the city's photo-enforcement program, Postal Service attorney Jennifer S. Breslin says two school-zone speeding citations and five red-light infractions by postal trucks in December should be ignored. “In providing mail service across the country, the Postal Service attempts to work within local and state laws and regulations, when feasible,” wrote Breslin, after reminding...

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi has stepped into the leadership void left by a state Supreme Court that seems more concerned with quelling embarrassment than fixing the historically dysfunctional Philadelphia Traffic Court. Pileggi wants to abolish the city's Traffic Court and transfer its authority over moving violations to Municipal Court. The Delaware County Republican's proposal comes in the wake of a scathing report documenting widespread ticket-fixing at Traffic Court for the friends and families of the politically connected. **SNIP** The report was ordered by Supreme Court Justice Ronald D. Castille after the FBI raided judges' homes and the court. It...

WASHINGTON - Interstate 270 is considered one of the most choked roads in the Washington region, but solutions for the gridlock are few and far between. Figures from the Maryland Department of Transportation show about 114,000 cars use I-270 daily, and that number is expected to jump to 200,000 in the next 10 to 15 years. "Everyone who is familiar with 270 knows it is jammed up in the morning rush hour and evening rush hour," says Gus Bauman, who studies transportation and funding and who chaired a Maryland Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation Funding. One proposal to ease congestion...

There aren’t more, because some people just don’t like to pay tolls, and others haven’t figured how they can take advantage of the lanes. Transurban is happy to have anybody’s toll money, whether they are locals or long-distance travelers, but the lanes are designed largely for the benefit of local travelers. The entrance and exit system reflects that. The Tysons area business and civic leaders with whom I’ve talked express optimism about the lanes and seem hopeful about the two new access points at Westpark Drive and Jones Branch Drive. At this early stage, the most vexing thing about the...

The possibility that autism is linked to traffic pollution has been raised by researchers in California. Their study of more than 500 children said those exposed to high levels of pollution were three times more likely to have autism than children who grew up with cleaner air. However, other researchers said traffic was a "very unlikely" and unconvincing explanation for autism. The findings were presented in the Archives of General Psychiatry journal. Data from the US Environmental Protection Agency were used to work out levels of pollution for addresses in California. This was used to compare exposure to pollution, in...

A new video showing police inaction in the face of Arab rock attacks has caused anger among residents of the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem. The video was taken as an Arab gang attacked Israeli drivers who were stuck in traffic. A massive traffic jam forms daily between the Adam junction, just minutes north of Jerusalem, and the Hizme checkpoint at the entrance to the city. “We just sat there and got hit,” related one of the drivers. “We had no way to respond.” The video showed that it was not only the drivers who found themselves silent in the...

Ultimate road rage.

Linky Here

people not driving around as much in Obama's Kenyan style economy but not to worry...Soon in California and other states they will have spanking new high speed trains to commute to their non-existent jobs LINK ONLY ALLOWED>>>> http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-22/traffic-congestion-down/55120930/1?csp=34news 

Here you'll be able to pay a ticket, view how your traffic violation took place, and find answers...

YORK TOWNSHIP— The driver of a Strathmeyer Forests Inc., van and possibly others riding in the van that struck a car at the intersection of Cape Horn Road and Starlight Drive this morning and fled the scene on foot, according to responders. It happened just before 8am. The female driver of the car was taken to York Hospital after being extricated from her vehicle. UPDATE: York Area Regional Police issued a release that a hit and run accident occurred on Cape Horn Road at Starlight Drive and 6 Hispanic males ran west from scene. Two have been apprehended, and...

DES MOINES — The Iowa House voted Tuesday to ban red light cameras on a 58-42 vote that broke largely — but not completely — along party lines. The bill now goes to the Senate, where there seems to be little chance that it will make it to the floor for a vote. The legislation took a long route to Tuesday’s vote. A camera ban had momentum at the start of the session, including tentative support from the governor and one legislator offering a constitutional amendment to ban the devices in the state. But as the session wore on, support...

Vehicle Miles Driven And The Ongoing Economic Contraction By Doug Short March 24, 2012 The Depart of Transportation's Federal Highway Commission has released the latest report on Traffic Volume Trends, data through January. Travel on all roads and streets changed by 1.6% (3.5 billion vehicle miles) for January 2012 as compared with January 2011. The 12-month moving average increased by 0.10%, which is the second month of increase after nine consecutive months of decline (PDF report). Here is a chart that illustrates this data series from its inception in 1970. I'm plotting the "Moving 12-Month Total on ALL Roads," as...

This is a new one on us: there’s something called “autonomous vehicles” inching off the drawing board and onto the freeways. These self-driving cars apparently are spawned by techies at Google, Caltech and other places. According to the L.A. Times, the cars “use radar, video cameras and lasers to navigate roads and stay safe in traffic without human assistance.” Seems interesting. It couldn’t but help that mad rush on the 57 we navigate every morning and evening. But wait...

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - A traffic advisory has been issued for Thursday, September 22, 2011. The right northbound lane (bottom deck) and the left southbound lane (upper deck) of the Brent Spence Bridge and the 4th Street Entrance Ramp (northbound) will be closed. Long delays are possible. Motorists are advised to use alternate routes if traveling through the area.

The defendants stood before the hearing officer, traffic citations in hand, each accused of running a red light in Miami Gardens, as captured by one of the city’s 29 intersection cameras. Within minutes, seven of the cases were dismissed, with the hearing officer ruling they had tripped the cameras while making a legal right turn on red. The remaining three, who will now have to pay a $277 ticket, were sent off with a cheerful “Have a good day … and drive carefully.’’ While presumably those three violators weren’t happy with the outcome, neither are the municipalities in South Florida...

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has fired a 23-year veteran employee who appeared in uniform three years ago in a pornographic video. Traffic officer John K. Dancler was discharged Monday. He challenged his firing on the same day, filing an appeal with the city’s five-member Civil Service Commission, said Maggie Whelan, general manager for the city’s Personnel Department. Dancler was hired in 1988 and earned nearly $56,000 annually. Whelan would not give a reason for the termination. Another traffic officer who appeared in the video, Vaughn Dorsey, still works for the department, Whelan said.

RIVERSIDE - A fourth highway worker since early May has been struck in a freeway accident and is now in critical condition, Caltrans officials said. The worker, who has not yet been identified, is an employee of Skanska, a Caltrans subcontractor, said Caltrans spokeswoman Terri Kasinga. He was struck today on the westbound 91 freeway at Van Buren Boulevard. Three other Caltrans workers have been struck in freeway accidents in the last two months. Richard Gonzalez, 52, was picking up trash June 20 on the 15 Freeway connector to Highway 94 in San Diego when he was struck by a...

Carmageddon ended 16-17 hours ahead of schedule, said the mayor at a Sunday morning news conference.

Thought this video was kind of cool. Hope I'm not breaking any rules.

Sorry, Prius owners. Starting Friday, your yellow sticker no longer works in California's car pool lanes while driving solo. The car pool privileges, originally allowed as an incentive for people to buy low-emission vehicles, have expired. The change affects 85,000 hybrid car owners -- about a third of them in Los Angeles. Bruce Yonemoto, 60, a professor of studio art at UC Irvine who commutes from downtown Los Angeles several times a week, said he often saves more than an hour during choked traffic because the yellow sticker on the rear bumper of his Prius gave him the right to...

Warning: The video below may cause you never to want to leave your house again. A School of Visual Arts thesis project by artist Ron Gabriel, named "3-Way Street," tracks a camera at the Manhattan intersection of 28th Street and Park Avenue. The New York mayhem known as street traffic ensues.

St. Paul, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Transportation is warning motorists to watch out for roads that might buckle without warning. MnDOT spokesman Kent Barnard said the heat and humidity had caused pavement to heave on some Twin Cities metro highways. Monday afternoon lanes were closed in I-94 in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Barnard said heat damaged roads in more than 20 places. Barnard said he has not heard of accidents associated with buckling pavement. But he'd heard reports of damage to cars. Older concrete highways are more prone to heave up, as debris fills the cracks between the...

Millions hit the road to be with family and friends for barbecues and other outdoor activities on Memorial Day weekend. It’s no coincidence that police around the country were staked out on the side of the road in anticipation. That’s because the federal government encourages states to shake down travelers who pose no threat to others.

There are variations in driving styles on our roads and most motorists will fall into a distinct characteristic type depending on how they approach the task of driving. As you read through this list, you are likely to recognize yourself or someone you drive with. Which driving character are you? Nervous Nick: This driver lacks confidence in their driving abilities and is intimidated by traffic and highway speeds. The “Nervous Nick” will always drive at the speed limit or lower and will not accelerate enough to merge safely with highway traffic. They will display moments of indecision when it comes...

After lobbying federal officials hard and long for $270 million for the Springfield-to-New Haven high-speed rail project, Connecticut landed just $30 million Monday. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the distribution of $2 billion for fast train projects, and Connecticut was counting on a hefty share. Despite earlier signals from LaHood that Connecticut and the rest of the Northeast stood a solid chance, he ended up giving more than half the money to projects in the Midwest and California. Despite heavy traffic congestion and dense population, Connecticut got less than 2 percent of the funding. "Any money for high-speed rail...

Nothing will ruin a pleasant drive quicker than the sight brake lights coming towards you on the highway. Miles ahead, someone or something has spooked the bejeezus out of traffic and now you're about to pay for it with your free time. The mighty flow of America's highways is about to be plugged by you and a couple hundred of your closest strangers. The next time a traffic jam's iron grip has you in its clutch, you can at least take heart knowing that scientists have figured out why they happen and who's to blame. Follow the jump for this...

To what lengths will cash strapped Democrat controlled states, counties and municipalities go to fatten their coffers to pay for their inflated budgets? While law enforcement should be chasing “bad guys” – the crack dealer, the murderer, the thief – those types of law breakers only strain an already tight budget filled with this gimme program and that gimmie program. No, all you have to do is follow the money trail. One look at Rhode Island will illustrate just that. Truck drivers are prime targets for any number of traffic violations apart from speeding. The fact that they are “just...

RALEIGH -- David N. Cox says he was merely exercising his right to petition the government, but a state Department of Transportation official has raised allegations that Cox committed a misdemeanor: practicing engineering without a license. Cox and his North Raleigh neighbors are lobbying city and state officials to add traffic signals at two intersections as part of a planned widening of Falls of Neuse Road. After an engineering consultant hired by the city said that the signals were not needed, Cox and the North Raleigh Coalition of Homeowners' Associations responded with a sophisticated analysis of their own.

The Arlington Chamber of Commerce wants to see a speedy end to the county's HOT lanes lawsuit, arguing that the cost of suing to stop the construction of high-occupancy toll lanes is damaging the county's reputation and hurting efforts to improve transportation on busy interstates. Chamber President Rich Doud said the lawsuit could undermine efforts to relieve traffic congestion in Arlington, damage the county's relationship with the private sector and drive up the HOT lanes project's cost as the lawsuit drags on. The chamber includes ending the lawsuit on its list of public policy priorities for 2011. The county spent...

Driving to a Mariners game, Duane Innes saw a pickup ahead of him drift across lanes of traffic, sideswipe a concrete barrier and continue forward on the inside shoulder at about 40 mph. A manager of Boeing's F22 fighter-jet program, Innes dodged the truck, then looked back to see that the driver was slumped over the wheel. He knew a busy intersection was just ahead, and he had to act fast. Without consulting the passengers in his minivan — "there was no time to take a vote" — Innes kicked into engineer mode. "Basic physics: If I could get in...

If you’re planning on getting in or out of the lovely city of Vancouver this morning, especially near Pearson Air Museum or Portland International Airport, you should pack some extra patience and, maybe, a book on tape. Vice President Joe Biden is in town for a 1 p.m. get-out-the-vote rally for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, which means police and the Secret Service have already started blocking off potentially safe and secure routes. “We’ve never had a president or vice president come to the Portland area without it seriously disrupting traffic,” said Portland police Capt. Todd Wyatt. Which brings us to...

Local law enforcement and federal agents conducted a checkpoint operation Tuesday afternoon in Douglas County, the Federal Air Marshal Service told the AJC. "This is a live operation intent on deterring would-be terrorists or criminal activity," Nelson Minerly, spokesman for the federal agency, told the AJC. The operation created a big distraction to motorists heading eastbound on I-20 in rush hour, and many motorists let the AJC and the WSB traffic center hear about it. But the operation, which also involves the Transportation Security Administration, is top-secret before it happens, Minerly said. “We don’t advertise when they’re going to happen...

This is what you might call a close shave. Quite an amazing video that must have been taken from a surveillance camera. A man is walking down the street when a car comes into view almost nailing the guy when it hits the wall and then careens off down the road. Then the driver gets out of the car and runs off leaving the car in the, middle of the road. The pedestrian is OK because of his quick reaction to getting out of the way. Amazing footage. Follow the link below to see the video of The Man Who...

WASHINGTON - Imagine having to pay to travel on most of the major roads in the region. The idea creating 1,650 miles of "variably priced" lanes on Capital Beltway, Interstates 270, 66 and 95, Route 50, the George Washington Parkway and others, is being floated as a "what-if" scenario by area transportation officials. "Congestion is a major threat to the economic vitality of the region and the quality of life its residents enjoy," says a new report from the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board. Charging a variable toll to drive major commuter routes would increase speeds 15 mph to...

HUAIAN COUNTY, CHINA—So you think struggling home from Ontario’s cottage country was tough? Think again. And consider, if you will, the case of Chinese trucker Pang Laisuo. On Sunday his coal-laden transport truck was caught in a traffic jam near here, about 240 kilometres north of Beijing. Pang knew he’d have something of a wait. What he didn’t know was that it would last 18 hours. “Everyone who pulled up at 4 o’clock Sunday afternoon ended up being stuck there until 10 o’clock Monday morning,” says Pang, a lean and grizzled man in his 50s speaking at a roadside stop...

A massive traffic jam in north China that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said. Bumper-to-bumper gridlock spanning for 60 miles (100 kilometers) with cars moving little more than a half-mile (one kilometer) a day at one point has improved since this weekend, said Zhang Minghai, director of Zhangjiakou city's Traffic Management Bureau general office. But he said he wasn't sure when the situation along the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway would return to normal. The traffic jam...

A nine-day traffic jam outside Beijing has drivers fuming, street vendors turning a quick profit and Chinese traffic authorities struggling for answers. Traffic has been slowed to a crawl since August 14 on a 100-kilometer stretch of National Expressway 110 that runs between Beijing and Heibei province. Officials say the jam is caused by an increase in trucks carrying goods to Beijing and by highway maintenance work along the route. Highways have become numerous and complicated in and around Beijing in recent years as the Chinese public has made a large shift to motorized travel over the past 30 years....

BETHESDA, Md. - When candidates are vying for votes it can be hard to get them to agree on issues. But WTOP managed to get all the major candidates in the Maryland governor's race to make the same pledge: Not to distract drivers by waving campaign signs at them. This pledge comes after political volunteers created 10 miles of delays on Interstate 270 last week by waving signs from the Falls Road overpass. Some drivers were furious about the delays. Others believe roadside distractions of any kind are a hazard that can cause crashes. "We would never condone stopping traffic."...

After driving the new Scion tC in San Diego all day, I got back on the Amtrak Surfliner at 3 p.m. and headed north to Los Angeles, the laptop plugged in to a convenient 120-volt, three-pronged outlet and me typing the whole way. Again, I could look out the window and see, in addition to a one- to two-foot west swell at Trestles, traffic slowly crawling along on Interstate 5. I was glad not to be in a car. Is there anyone who loves driving in stop and go traffic for 128 miles? (One guy said that because I took...

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s traffic congestion could double in the next couple of decades, with Charlotte drivers facing the same types of delays Chicago drivers face now. That was the conclusion of a 2007 John Locke Foundation report. It recommended $12 billion of spending to clear North Carolina’s congested urban roads and prepare for future traffic growth. Many traffic problems outlined three years ago continue to cause concerns today. Randal O’Toole, senior fellow with the Cato Institute, recently tackled the issue from a national perspective in the book Gridlock: Why We’re Stuck in Traffic and What to Do About It....

THEY have been credited with supernatural or paranormal properties since the days of ancient Egypt. Now the putative power of pyramids is to be harnessed by Indian police to cut road accidents. Traffic officers in Nagpur, 870km west of Mumbai, have agreed to allow small pyramids to be placed at 10 accident-prone sites in the city to see if their claimed positive energy can reduce crashes. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sahebrao Patil said the road safety initiative came about after a meeting with an expert in Vastu, an ancient Hindu system of construction which is similar to Chinese Feng...

We have all read about road rage in big metropolitan cities like like LA, NY, and Chicago, where some nut has gotten fed up with the traffic, so he goes berserk and either does damage to other vehicles, or pulls out a gun to shoot those whom he perceives as the problem. But have you ever seen a dog commit road rage?    Well in this video you will see a dog in a man's way on a road, but instead of moving out of the way, the dog decided to tear off the man's license plate from his car....

You knew his name, and his smooth soothing voice. Marty Ambrose was the dean of Houston traffic reporters. Over the years his calm voice shepherded millions of Houston drivers safely through the calamity of congestion that is Houston’s rush hour traffic. What you may not know about Marty is that his voice and his demeanor matched in real life, too. He was a gentleman and a gentle man who dedicated his time, talent and gifts to numerous Houston charities and causes both on and off-the-air. ....

We have all found ourselves riding around town looking for a place to park our car, just to find them all taken. So we decide to drive around the block a few times in the hopes that someone will leave and we can grab the spot. Then just about the time we are ready to give up the hunt, we spot a person getting into their car. Finally we have a sense of relief knowing that we will soon have a choice spot to park our car. Well in this video you will be presented with two men in...