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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Obama stumps in McLean for transportation funding, congressional action
Posted by:
Transportation Funding
()
Date: July 17, 2014 07:45AM
Obama stumps in McLean for transportation funding, congressional action
http://www.insidenova.com/news/fairfax/obama-stumps-in-mclean-for-transportation-funding-congressional-action/article_26caadc8-0cdd-11e4-b07c-0019bb2963f4.html
President Obama on July 15 urged more funding for transportation infrastructure and technology and an end to gridlock in Congress.
“We know that in a 21st-century economy, businesses will set up shop wherever they find the best roads and bridges and the fastest rail and Internet, the smartest airports [and] the smartest power grids,” he said. “First-class infrastructure attracts first-class jobs and right now our investments in transportation are lagging the rest of the world.”
Obama pressed Congress to finance the Highway Trust Fund, which helps states support transportation projects. If lawmakers let the fund run out of money, about 700,000 jobs would be jeopardized, including 17,000 in Virginia, he said.
Congress is pondering short-term fixes to the problem, but this only will allow the same crisis to occur again down the line, Obama said.
“Congress shouldn’t pat itself on the back for averting disaster for a few months,” the president said.
Obama made his remarks following a tour of the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, located near the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters in McLean.
“Looks like a bunch of smart folks here,” he said after meeting researchers in one of the laboratories.
Researchers briefed the president about experimental technologies that could cut commuting time, save people money and improve their quality of life. One researcher told Obama that Americans in the aggregate spend about 5.5 billion hours per year commuting.
Urban traffic congestion costs the United States about $121 billion per year, said Joseph Peters, the facility’s director of operations research and development.
Peters showed Obama a demonstration video featuring self-driving tractor-trailers, which can follow each other safely and closely and allow the rear vehicles to save fuel by drafting in the front truck’s wake.
Using such vehicles effectively could double the capacity of the nation’s trucking lanes, Peters said.
In the middle of the tour, the president climbed some metal steps and slid behind the wheel of a blue Saturn sedan – the first time he’d sat in the driver’s seat in six years, he said.
“They’re finally letting me drive again,” Obama joked. “It’s so exciting.”
The car, a simulator for driverless-vehicle technology that engineers are exploring, was hoisted on metal supports and faced a semicircular screen, onto which images of a moving road were projected. Obama noted the vehicle lacked a radio and that he was driving too quickly.
The president then walked into a testing garage, where an engineer showed him three cars outfitted with technology allowing them to communicate with other vehicles, potentially reducing accidents and pollution.
After the tour, Obama exited the building and spoke to about 190 people sweltering in the harsh, muggy July heat.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx first pumped up the crowd, which was composed of employees from the research center and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“Our engineers here are proving that talking cars are not just science fiction, that they’re right here and within reach,” Foxx said. “And soon they may be on the road, too.”
Foxx pressed for infrastructure improvements across the country, noting that transportation networks in some areas are “relics of another era.” About 65 percent of roads nationwide are in sub-par condition, he said.
Fox advocated for a long-term transportation-funding bill, such as the Obama administration’s proposed “Grow America Act.”
“We need policies that help us cut red tape and help build projects faster,” he said.
President Obama sits behind the wheel of a car for the first time in six years while test driving a video simulator July 15 at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean
Attachments:
http://www.insidenova.com/news/fairfax/obama-stumps-in-mclean-for-transportation-funding-congressional-action/article_26caadc8-0cdd-11e4-b07c-0019bb2963f4.html
President Obama on July 15 urged more funding for transportation infrastructure and technology and an end to gridlock in Congress.
“We know that in a 21st-century economy, businesses will set up shop wherever they find the best roads and bridges and the fastest rail and Internet, the smartest airports [and] the smartest power grids,” he said. “First-class infrastructure attracts first-class jobs and right now our investments in transportation are lagging the rest of the world.”
Obama pressed Congress to finance the Highway Trust Fund, which helps states support transportation projects. If lawmakers let the fund run out of money, about 700,000 jobs would be jeopardized, including 17,000 in Virginia, he said.
Congress is pondering short-term fixes to the problem, but this only will allow the same crisis to occur again down the line, Obama said.
“Congress shouldn’t pat itself on the back for averting disaster for a few months,” the president said.
Obama made his remarks following a tour of the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, located near the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters in McLean.
“Looks like a bunch of smart folks here,” he said after meeting researchers in one of the laboratories.
Researchers briefed the president about experimental technologies that could cut commuting time, save people money and improve their quality of life. One researcher told Obama that Americans in the aggregate spend about 5.5 billion hours per year commuting.
Urban traffic congestion costs the United States about $121 billion per year, said Joseph Peters, the facility’s director of operations research and development.
Peters showed Obama a demonstration video featuring self-driving tractor-trailers, which can follow each other safely and closely and allow the rear vehicles to save fuel by drafting in the front truck’s wake.
Using such vehicles effectively could double the capacity of the nation’s trucking lanes, Peters said.
In the middle of the tour, the president climbed some metal steps and slid behind the wheel of a blue Saturn sedan – the first time he’d sat in the driver’s seat in six years, he said.
“They’re finally letting me drive again,” Obama joked. “It’s so exciting.”
The car, a simulator for driverless-vehicle technology that engineers are exploring, was hoisted on metal supports and faced a semicircular screen, onto which images of a moving road were projected. Obama noted the vehicle lacked a radio and that he was driving too quickly.
The president then walked into a testing garage, where an engineer showed him three cars outfitted with technology allowing them to communicate with other vehicles, potentially reducing accidents and pollution.
After the tour, Obama exited the building and spoke to about 190 people sweltering in the harsh, muggy July heat.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx first pumped up the crowd, which was composed of employees from the research center and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“Our engineers here are proving that talking cars are not just science fiction, that they’re right here and within reach,” Foxx said. “And soon they may be on the road, too.”
Foxx pressed for infrastructure improvements across the country, noting that transportation networks in some areas are “relics of another era.” About 65 percent of roads nationwide are in sub-par condition, he said.
Fox advocated for a long-term transportation-funding bill, such as the Obama administration’s proposed “Grow America Act.”
“We need policies that help us cut red tape and help build projects faster,” he said.
President Obama sits behind the wheel of a car for the first time in six years while test driving a video simulator July 15 at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean
Attachments:
Re: Obama stumps in McLean for transportation funding, congressional action
Posted by:
Cvy9n
()
Date: July 17, 2014 07:46AM
Let's continue to import 1.1 million legal immigrants and allow another 500,000 illegal immigrants to cross our borders to compete for whatever jobs don't get exported or eliminated via technology.
Yup, nobody owes born-in-the-USA Americans a damn thing. Our commitment is to the foreign born, fighting wars to save them from themselves and allowing the socially and economically oppressed into the USA so they can work at slave wages for limo liberals and county club conservatives
Yup, nobody owes born-in-the-USA Americans a damn thing. Our commitment is to the foreign born, fighting wars to save them from themselves and allowing the socially and economically oppressed into the USA so they can work at slave wages for limo liberals and county club conservatives
Re: Obama stumps in McLean for transportation funding, congressional action
Posted by:
Albatross
()
Date: July 17, 2014 10:45AM
And Democratic candidates take a pass to avoid being seen with him.
Re: Obama stumps in McLean for transportation funding, congressional action
Posted by:
Yes So Very True
()
Date: July 17, 2014 10:52AM
>Let's continue to import 1.1 million legal immigrants and allow another 500,000 illegal immigrants to cross our borders to compete for whatever jobs don't get exported or eliminated via technology.
>Yup, nobody owes born-in-the-USA Americans a damn thing. Our commitment is to the foreign born, fighting wars to save them from themselves and allowing the socially and economically oppressed into the USA so they can work at slave wages for limo liberals and county club conservatives
NAIL HIT SQUARE ON THE HEAD
>Yup, nobody owes born-in-the-USA Americans a damn thing. Our commitment is to the foreign born, fighting wars to save them from themselves and allowing the socially and economically oppressed into the USA so they can work at slave wages for limo liberals and county club conservatives
NAIL HIT SQUARE ON THE HEAD
Re: Obama stumps in McLean for transportation funding, congressional action
Posted by:
Where's HILLARY!!!!
()
Date: July 17, 2014 10:53AM
Absent from the latest fundraising tour...
Re: Obama stumps in McLean for transportation funding, congressional action
Posted by:
"pumped up the crowd"
()
Date: July 17, 2014 10:54AM
They're fucking government drones. You can't "pump" jack shit out of them...