@Pat Yep, acronyms abound and are confusing. I do try to keep them explained in the blog posts, but I admit to missing from time to time. I keep them in these posts because they are duplicates of my tweets that I am still posting and tweets are still character limited. I may have to reconsider for toots.

@Pat Interesting note: Most DOT agencies use straight letter abbreviations (PHMSA, FRA, NHTSA, etc) MARAD uses the old DOD convention of making real acronyms using as many letters of each word as seems appropriate - MARAD short for MARitime ADministration. I frequently have to correct my internal assumption that MARAD is a DOD agency.