Jennifer Botchie, assistant editor for Transport Topics’ Web news team since July, has joined the print staff’s ranks as a reporter.

Along with all the attention focused on choosing the next president on Nov. 7 came the less dramatic task of voting on the public referendums found on 42 state ballots. In at least eight states, those initiative included issues of importance to trucking and transportation.

A “smart” road and a “smart” bridge at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute are helping researchers develop ways to improve road and vehicle safety for trucks, automobiles and buses.

Mexican regulators have given their approval to the use of 53-foot semitrailers behind long-nose conventional power units on designated highways, which should open main routes in Mexico to the type of tractor-trailer configuration that is common in the United States.

A “smart” road and a “smart” bridge at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute are helping researchers develop ways to improve road and vehicle safety for trucks, automobiles and buses.

Lingering problems with opening the U.S.-Mexico border to international trucking will remain on hold until after this week’s U.S. presidential election, according to a senior official in the Mexico transportation and communications ministry.

Identical twins, identical safe-driving accomplishments.

The governing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which rules on air quality matters for the Los Angeles basin, ordered heavy-duty government trucks and airport taxis in Southern California to start using alternative fuels and buying lower-emission models beginning in 2002.

Trucking industry and government negotiators in Ontario have hammered out a tentative agreement over fuel surcharges.

A federal court decision casts doubt on the authority of California municipal governments to regulate trucking activities, but runs counter to other court decisions that have upheld local controls.