Carolyn Whelan

Just back from the Transportation Research Board conference and meetings (http://www.trb.org/calendar/), Carolyn Whelan, a New York-based freelancer focused on alternative energy, climate change, trade, and travel, guest blogs for PopSci.com, focusing on new fossil-fuel emissions cutting technologies for infrastructure and transport which will (hopefully) play a prominent role in the Obama administration.

As the globe went ga-ga for Obama on the eve of his inauguration, builders and pundits at the recent transportation conference in Washington were angling for a piece of the green stuff Obama’s pledged – and some eco street-cred, too.

Just back from the Transportation Research Board conference and meetings, Carolyn Whelan, a New York-based freelancer focused on alternative energy, climate change, trade, and travel, is guest-blogging for PopSci.com, focusing on new emissions-cutting technologies for infrastructure and transport which may play a prominent role in the Obama administration.

Like retailers did with the Internet, transit officials are borrowing a host of space-age applications from the military, enabling real-time reaction, response, repair, and rerouting in routine and emergency situations.

Or so said gadget and system developers at the Transportation Research Board's annual shindig this week, where some 10,000 folks in the road, rail, air, and boat transit world meet to talk riveting topics like pedestrian wait times at stop lights and measuring traffic flow over snow.