Culture of Progressive Longitudinal Training in the Public Transit Industry

Author(s):  
Edward Bart ◽  
Amber Reep

Professional and workforce development is important to maintaining the safe and reliable operational integrity of the public transportation industry in the United States. This paper discusses a new concept of professional and workforce development called longitudinal training and its benefits, influences, challenges, examples, and culture. Additionally, these factors are directly associated with new advances in technology, educational techniques, paradigms, and strategies for workforce and professional development.

Author(s):  
Kevin Dennis ◽  
Maxat Alibayev ◽  
Sean J. Barbeau ◽  
Jay Ligatti

Mobile fare payment applications are becoming increasingly common in the public transportation industry as a convenience for customers and as part of an effort to reduce fare management costs and improve operations for agencies. However, there is relatively little literature on vulnerabilities and liabilities in mobile fare payment applications. Furthermore, few public agencies or supporting vendors have policies or established processes in place to receive vulnerability reports or patch vulnerabilities discovered in their technologies. Given the rapidly increasing number of data breaches in general industry IT systems, as well as that mobile fare payment apps are a nexus between customer and agency financial information, the security of these mobile applications deserves further scrutiny. This paper presents a vulnerability discovered in a mobile fare payment application deployed at a transit agency in Florida that, because of the system architecture, may have affected customers in as many as 40 cities across the United States, an estimated 1,554,000 users. Lessons learned from the vulnerability disclosure process followed by the research team as well as recommendations for public agencies seeking to improve the security of these types of applications are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Jodi Godfrey ◽  
Gennaro Saliceto ◽  
Roberta Yegidis

Destructive natural disasters such as hurricanes or other extreme weather events challenge many industries, especially the public transit industry. The 2017 hurricane season proved to be tumultuous, with three major hurricanes devastating the United States in less than 2 months. The challenges faced in Florida, in response to Hurricane Irma, precipitated best practices and lessons learned related to monitoring and reporting the status of transportation infrastructure, identifying temporary alternative solutions, and coordinating and communicating with emergency operations centers, state departments of transportation, and individual transit agencies. Sharing the lessons learned from recent firsthand experiences will undoubtedly improve the public transit industry’s emergency preparedness, response, and recovery activities.


Author(s):  
Paul Schimek

Differences in automobile and public transportation use in Canada compared with that in the United States are described. In Canada public transit use is almost twice as high per capita as in the United States. Automobile use is almost 20 percent lower per capita, or about the same as the U.S. level of the 1970s. Gasoline prices, which have been about US$0.13/L (US$0.50/gal) higher in Canada than in the United States since 1984, slowed the growth in Canadian automobile ownership and driving and created a more efficient automobile fleet, resulting by the early 1990s in 40 percent less highway fuel consumption per capita compared with that in the United States. One explanation for the higher level of transit use in Canada is more compact urban densities, as evidenced by the significantly lower share of single-family detached houses. The influx of public subsidies for transit in the 1970s in both countries had different effects: a much larger increase in service in Canada and deeper fare cuts in the United States but similar increases in unit cost of service. Each new transit trip in 1992 beyond the 1970 ridership level cost about four times as much to attract in the United States as it did in Canada.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-281
Author(s):  
Sylvia Dümmer Scheel

El artículo analiza la diplomacia pública del gobierno de Lázaro Cárdenas centrándose en su opción por publicitar la pobreza nacional en el extranjero, especialmente en Estados Unidos. Se plantea que se trató de una estrategia inédita, que accedió a poner en riesgo el “prestigio nacional” con el fin de justificar ante la opinión pública estadounidense la necesidad de implementar las reformas contenidas en el Plan Sexenal. Aprovechando la inusual empatía hacia los pobres en tiempos del New Deal, se construyó una imagen específica de pobreza que fuera higiénica y redimible. Ésta, sin embargo, no generó consenso entre los mexicanos. This article analyzes the public diplomacy of the government of Lázaro Cárdenas, focusing on the administration’s decision to publicize the nation’s poverty internationally, especially in the United States. This study suggests that this was an unprecedented strategy, putting “national prestige” at risk in order to explain the importance of implementing the reforms contained in the Six Year Plan, in the face of public opinion in the United States. Taking advantage of the increased empathy felt towards the poor during the New Deal, a specific image of hygienic and redeemable poverty was constructed. However, this strategy did not generate agreement among Mexicans.


Author(s):  
Halyna Shchyhelska

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of Ukrainian independence. OnJanuary 22, 1918, the Ukrainian People’s Republic proclaimed its independence by adopting the IV Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada, although this significant event was «wiped out» from the public consciousness on the territory of Ukraine during the years of the Soviet totalitarian regime. At the same time, January 22 was a crucial event for the Ukrainian diaspora in the USA. This article examines how American Ukrainians interacted with the USA Government institutions regarding the celebration and recognition of the Ukrainian Independence day on January 22. The attention is focused on the activities of ethnic Ukrainians in the United States, directed at the organization of the special celebration of the Ukrainian Independence anniversaries in the US Congress and cities. Drawing from the diaspora press and Congressional Records, this article argues that many members of Congress participated in the observed celebration and expressed kind feelings to the Ukrainian people, recognised their fight for freedom, during the House of Representatives and Senate sessions. Several Congressmen submitted the resolutions in the US Congress urging the President of United States to designate January 22 as «Ukrainian lndependence Day». January 22 was proclaimed Ukrainian Day by the governors of fifteen States and mayors of many cities. Keywords: January 22, Ukrainian independence day, Ukrainian diaspora, USA, interaction, Congress


1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onker N. Basu

In accounting research, the role of organizational leaders has been underrepresented. The limited research dealing with leadership issues has focused on the impact of leadership on micro activities such as performance evaluation, budget satisfaction, and audit team performance. The impact of leadership on the structure of accounting and audit systems and organizations has been ignored. This paper focuses on the impact that past Comptrollers General have had on the working and structure of one federal audit agency, the United States General Accounting Office (GAO). In addition, it also focuses on the influence of the two most recent Comptrollers General on one important audit related activity, i.e., the audit report review process. Using qualitative field research methods, this paper documents how the organizational leadership impacts its long-term audit practices and thereby influences auditing, especially in the public sector.


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