Simplicity is one of the main reasons online slots attract so many players, both new and veterans. All you have to do to spin the reels is to click a button and you can easily start winning money. Choosing the paylines, the bets and withdrawing the money requires just a single click of the mouse.

The result in online slots is determined on the basis of the random series of numbers generated by the Random Number Generator. This ensures a fair and better chance of winning compared to the traditional slots games. The payout percentages in online casinos are usually higher than in land-based casinos. Even when you place a small bet, the relative chances of winning are higher and even the amount of money you can win will be more.

Online slots is simple and easy to play, but there are many other factors that make it more convenient to play. When you want to enjoy online slots, you would require just a computer connected to Internet. You can enjoy any slots game from your home without having to visit a casino.

When playing online casino slots you are free to simply enjoy the game from your home. You dont have to go out to the casino. There is no need to purchase any ticket to the casino. Even when the weather is bad, you can simply play the game from your home. You dont even have to buy drinks which you would do if you were playing in a casino. There is no need to tip the dealer. You can even play free slots games in online casinos.

Online slots can be enjoyed round the clock and 7 days a week. You can log into the online casino account and can easily start playing slots even when it is 4 in the morning. However, this is not possible in the case when you play in a traditional casino. Online slots casinos dont have any working hour.

When playing in a land-based casino you may sometimes have to wait until another player vacates a slots machine. But, in an online casino there are unlimited number of slots machines for you to start playing from the moment you log in. This means that you dont have to waste your time at all. It is up to you to choose the type of slots game that you want to play, and never worry about availability of seat or not.

Last but not the least advantage offered by online casino slots is that the variety of slots offered is much wider. You can test all these variants for free and then choose the one that suits best to your gaming style and requirement. Contrary to the case of traditional land-based casinos, you dont have to check from one casino to another to find your favorite slots variation.

More information detailed information upon Online Casino Slots, check out our website about online gambling.

The House Transportation multi-year transportation proposal (“American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Financing Act of 2012”) maintains the  roughly 80/20 split of funding to highways/transit. But it contains several changes to the transit section:

• Mass Transit Account to be renamed Alternative Transportation Account
• Mass Transit Account funding for 2012 to be transferred to the Highway Account
• $40 billion from General Fund to be transferred to the Alternative Transportation account

So essentially the bill swaps funding sources.

Currently, 2.86 cents per gallon of motor fuel taxes goes into the Mass Transit Account, which is a subaccount within the Highway Trust Fund.   Retroactive to October 1 2012 that revenue would be transferred to the Highway Account.  The Mass Transit Account would be replaced by the Alternative

Transportation Account, and funded from the General Fund.  That $40 billion has to be matched by saving elsewhere in the federal budget, since it is a General Fund expenditure. This move presumably puts future transit funding at greater risk than the highway funding.

The Alternative Transportation Account will fund the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality, Ferry Boats & Terminals, and Federal Highways research programs (e.g., ITS, University Research) in addition to transit programs.

The American Public Transportation Association’s reaction:

“On behalf of the 1,500 members of the American Public Transportation Association and Americans who take more than 10 billion public transit trips annually, we are strongly opposed to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee proposal to divert $25 billion in dedicated fuels tax revenues from the Mass Transit Account. This represents nearly 50 percent of the federal investment in public transit authorized by the House surface transportation bill. This drastic change will clearly put public transportation projects at risk.

“This proposal seeks to undo nearly 30 years of overwhelming bipartisan support for dedicated federal investment in public transit. Since 1983, under President Ronald Reagan, fuels tax revenues have been dedicated to public transit through the Mass Transit Account of the surface transportation legislation.

“We call on Congress to continue the long-standing highway and public transit financing partnership in place today so that our country can continue to create American jobs and foster economic growth, as well as rebuild our aging infrastructure and meet the growing demand for improved and expanded transportation.”

See also: “T4 America, APTA decry proposal to end guaranteed transit funding,” MetroMagazine)

Read the full article (TransportationIssuesDaily.com): House to Change “Mass Transit” Program to “Alternative Transportation” Program

…

Larry Ehl is the founder and publisher of Transportation Issues Daily. In the public sector, Larry was Federal Relations Manager for Washington State DOT; Chief of Staff to US Senator Slade Gorton; and was twice elected to the Edmonds School Board.

Executive Summary

Until now, little has been known about the climate change reductions that might be offered by reusing and retrofitting existing buildings rather than demolish- ing and replacing them with new construction. This groundbreaking study concludes that building reuse almost always offers environmental savings over demolition and new construction. Moreover, it can take between 10 and 80 years for a new, energy-efficient building to overcome, through more efficient operations, the negative climate change impacts that were created during the construction process. However, care must be taken in the selection of construc- tion materials in order to minimize environmental impacts; the benefits of reuse can be reduced or negated based on the type and quantity of materials selected for a reuse project.

This research provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the poten- tial environmental impact reductions associated with building reuse. Utilizing a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) methodology, the study compares the relative environmental impacts of building reuse and renovation versus new construc- tion over the course of a 75-year life span. LCA is an internationally recognized approach to evaluating the potential environmental and human health impacts associated with products and services throughout their respective life cycles.1 This study examines indicators within four environmental impact categories, including climate change, human health, ecosystem quality, and resource depletion. It tests six different building typologies, including a single-family home, multifamily building, commercial office, urban village mixed-use build- ing, elementary school, and warehouse conversion. The study evaluates these building types across four U.S. cities, each representing a different climate zone, i.e., Portland, Phoenix, Chicago, and Atlanta. A summary of life cycle environmental impacts of building reuse, expressed as a percentage of new construction impacts, is shown in the following figure

Download Full Report (PDF):The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse

About the National Trust for Historic Preservation
www.preservationnation.org
“The National Trust for Historic Preservation provides leadership, education, advocacy, and resources to save America’s diverse historic places and revitalize our communities.”

AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley today issued this on-camera statement upon the release by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act. Mr. Horsley also issued a written statement which is available on the AASHTO homepage at http://www.transportation.org/ - AASHTOVideo on YouTube

MTA Bridges and Tunnels’ Henry Hudson Bridge is undergoing work to replace decades-old structural elements. - mtainfo on YouTube

Executive Summary

Some commentators and decision-makers have long assumed that biking and walking are strictly a “big city” phenomenon, and that rural America can’t benefit substantially from bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure. Previous research has found that rural Americans walk and bicycle at 58 percent of the rate that urban Americans do. However, the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) tell a different story.

For some categories of rural communities, active transportation—human-powered mobility, including biking and walking—is as common as in urban areas. The share of work trips made by bicycle in small towns is nearly double that of urban centers. Further, biking and walking count as significant means of transportation all across the countryside. In coming years, active transportation can play an even bigger role in making small town America more attractive for young families and business investment—improving economic vitality, public safety and overall health in smaller communities in every U.S. region.

This new information has several critical if not surprising policy implications.

Federal investment in biking and walking benefits rural areas as much or more than urban centers. Rural areas receive almost twice as much funding per capita as urban areas from the federal Transportation Enhancements (TE) program. There is a special need for this federal role because smaller communities are often unable to make necessary community improvements without federal support.

Active transportation programs directly benefit America’s youth, and thus can help rural areas to retain talented young people and families. Safe Routes to School, TE and other programs have made dramatic differences in the safety, health and quality of life for numerous children and families in rural communities from Florida to Idaho.

Active transportation is a smart investment relevant to all Americans at a time when our nation grapples with budget deficits, high unemployment and rising energy costs. Biking, walking and trail projects are very cheap compared to road projects and can reduce the need for costly new highways. Active transportation creates more jobs per dollar than high- way projects(5), and attracts business investment.

Read full report (RailsToTrails.org): Active Transportation Beyond Urban Centers

About Rails to Trails Conservancy
railstotrails.org
“Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., whose mission it is to create a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors to build healthier places for healthier people. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy serves as the national voice for more than 150,000 members and supporters, 20,000-plus miles of rail-trail throughout the country, and more than 9,000 miles of potential rail-trails waiting to be built.”

The BRIGHT Ride from ArtsWave on Vimeo.

Cincinnati area cyclists created a visual spectacle of serendipitous art with the first ever BRIGHT Ride in December 2011.

Introduction

In February 2011, the Energy Security Leadership Council released a report entitled Transportation Policies for America’s Future. The report examined the challenges facing the U.S. transportation system in the 21st century and provided a vision and accompanying recommendations for a more efficient, analytically thorough, and market-driven approach to national transportation policy. Most importantly, it emphasized the crucial interaction between transportation policy decisions and the energy security challenge posed by U.S. oil dependence.

Transportation Policymaking, Congestion, and Recommendations for Reauthorization

The United States accounts for more than one-fifth of the world’s daily oil consumption. This heavy dependence on a commodity whose price is both high and volatile imposes a tremendous burden on the U.S. economy. Excessive reliance on oil also constrains the totality of U.S. foreign policy, and encumbers the U.S. military, which stands constantly ready as the protector of vulnerable energy infrastructure and supply routes across the globe.

In 1970, approximately 50 percent of total U.S. oil consumption was attributable to the transportation sector. Then, the sector consumed 8 million barrels of oil per day. Today, the sector is responsible for 70 percent of total U.S. oil consumption—more than 13 million barrels of oil per day.

Notwithstanding recent progress to improve the fuel efficiency of our cars and trucks and efforts to shift towards alternative fuels, the vehicles that power the American economy will remain dependent on oil for many decades. Despite this linkage, transportation and energy policy have historically been debated in two entirely separate spheres. In fact, since the construction of the interstate highway system, a coherent, unified strategy for the federal surface transportation system has largely been absent. Characterized by indirect fees, misaligned incentives, overburdening regulations, and inefficient capital investments, the system currently faces major funding and performance challenges.

Despite covering only a small percentage of total U.S. land, metropolitan areas account for 90 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), contain more than 80 percent of the nation’s population, and experience two-thirds of total vehicle miles traveled (VMT).

Road traffic congestion today is a significant challenge to transportation system performance in major U.S. cities—and increasingly in smaller cities as well—resulting in wasteful oil consumption and severely threatening the potential future oil-saving benefits associated with more efficient vehicles and alternative fuels. In 2010, drivers in U.S. urban areas were estimated to have wasted 1.9 billion gallons of fuel—equivalent to approximately four entire days of highway petroleum consumption—idling in traffic for 4.8 billion hours. Over the past decade, the total costs of this waste and delay reach almost $1 trillion.

Download full report (PDF): Congestion in America A Growing Challenge to U.S. Energy Security

Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE)
www.secureenergy.org
“SAFE made its public launch in 2005 with the first presentation of its Oil ShockWave Executive Crisis Simulation. The fast-paced, realistic war games exercise was continually updated and refined through the years, and remains a staple of SAFE’s ongoing education campaign.”

About the Pocket Guide

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration produces the Pocket Guide to Transportation as a compact resource that provides snapshots of the U.S. transportation system and highlights major transportation trends. The Pocket Guide contains a wealth of information divided into five sections:

• Safety
• State of Good Repair
• System Use and Livable Communities
• Economic Competitiveness
• Environmental Sustainability

The Pocket Guide to Transportation supports the BTS mission to create, manage, and share transportation statistical knowledge. This contributes to data driven and evidence based decision making.

Download full report (PDF): 2012 Pocket Guide to Transportation

About the U.S. Department of Transportation
www.dot.gov
“The mission of the Department is to:

Serve the United States by ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, accessible and convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future.”