ARTICLES

5/11/2023· Transportation

Leaving Money on the Table, Part 1: Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) Service And Brokers

By: Ned Einstein

This installment explains how the two major forms of wheelchair transportation were fragmented by oversight failures in the Johnson Administration. Not only did this fragmentation evolve into extraordinary levels of corruption, but the consolidation of these two types of programs was rarely, if ever, effected.

3/6/2015· Transportation

Stop Positioning and Crossing Orientation

By: Ned Einstein

Except in rural areas with vast distances between intersections, a bus stop can reasonably be placed in one of three positions:

7/8/2015· Transportation

Buses and Motorcoaches: Seating and Securement

By: Ned Einstein

Comparing their relative safety to that of other vehicles, a number of motorcoach features come immediately to mind: Mass, monocoque construction pneumatic suspension, and fully-padded, forward-facing seats. Yet incidents like these still occur:

4/12/2021· Transportation

Defending Public Transportation Contractors, Part 1: Lead Agencies and Brokers

By: Ned Einstein

For decades, motorcoach providers have provided commuter-express service, under contract, to transit agencies (and, occasionally, to municipalities, counties or regions which do not have formal transit agencies). Particularly in the past 20 years, this role has expanded:

5/20/2021· Accident Prevention & Safety

Crossing Accidents: Who is Usually at Fault and Who is Usually Blamed

By: Ned Einstein

The most common crossing accidents are simple vehicle-pedestrian accidents where a car, SUV or pickup truck strikes a pedestrian. Because impact forces closely reflect the inverse of the square of the masses, no pedestrian is a remote match for even the slightest automobile traveling at a crawl. As a simple illustration, a 100-lb. pedestrian colliding with a 2000-lb. car will not experience twenty time the impact forces that the vehicle does.

2/13/2021· Transportation

COVID-19, Shenanigans and Liability Part 2: Making Money by Compromising Health

By: Ned Einstein

Amtrak, the heavily-subsidized enemy of the motorcoach industry, is now outdoing its airline industry colleagues. But as a quasi-government monopoly, the taxpayers will effectively cover the damages if problems develop. That Amtrak may not even belong in most parts of the country is …

12/1/2021· Transportation

Transportation Network Companies - Even Worse Than Expected

By: Ned Einstein

The “Bad Regulations” series noted above identified a litany of institutional and industry-wide failures to stop the incursion of TNC’s from gutting the taxicab industry. Alongside the successful decimation of that sector, and the near-collapse of tour and charter service caused by the COVID-19 (and our failures to mitigate it), few noticed that fixed route transit ridership had declined by roughly 10 percent during the two years preceding COVID-19.

6/29/2016· Transportation

Buses and Motorcoaches: The Danger Deterrent

By: Ned Einstein

Like most fields, public transportation is swollen with studies, both in the U.S. and abroad. Yet some of the most fascinating things seem to be never studied, or rarely studied.

9/28/2018· Transportation

Safety Compromises, Part 10: Passenger Assistance -- Standards, Practices and Disincentives

By: Ned Einstein

An industry outsider (say, a juror) might consider the variation in passenger assistance within the public transportation industry alarming. Exploring a single theme like boarding and alighting illustrates the extremes

8/19/2016· Transportation

Buses and Motorcoaches: The Case for Mandatory Sleep Apnea Testing, Part 2

By: Ned Einstein

The notion of "screening" driver-candidates for Sleep Apnea screening is not merely unsupportable, it is a delusion. In 2011, 517 truck drivers in Australia were tested for Obstructive Sleep Apnea ("Assessing Sleepiness and Sleep Disorder in Truck Drivers" in SLEEP, 2011). According to an anonymous self-evaluation questionnaire (a "multivariable apnea prediction index, based on self-report measures"), only 12% felt they had it, while roughly 4.4% had tested positive for it. Yet when all of them were tested, 41% more of them had this condition. The testing also found that a full 50% of the study participants were obese, and 49% of them smoked cigarettes. Neither of these parameters are included among the handful of criteria currently employed by either the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's or Federal Railway Administration's "recommended" screening exercise -- although, In fairness, the size-17 male neck (or size 16 female neck) serves as a proxy for obesity. At the same time, as noted below, it also captures plenty of "false positives."