Posts filed under “Transit”
How to Densify
Let me make one other quick point on the topic of density and productivity. If you read Ed Glaeser, you see him arguing, in compelling fashion, that dense collections of human capital are the secret to innovation and growth. And I believe him. From this position, he’ll argue against foolish restrictions on new housing supply. [...]
Red Train, Blue Train
Yesterday, Megan McArdle tweeted: Okay, I like trains and all, but the bemoaning of America’s lack of high-speed rail seems out of proportion to any possible benefits. Of course, many folks who support new investments in high-speed rail would no doubt say that the number of angry denouncements of rail programs seem out of all [...]
Another Fine Mess I’ve Gotten Myself Into
Early this year, the wife and I became parents. Having become parents, we found ourselves (or I have found myself; I shouldn’t necessarily implicate the wife in my fretting) stressing out about all the various future situations in which our daughter might be in danger. Car accidents are up there near the top of the [...]
High-Speed Rail is Cheap
Like Matt, I love this attack on HSR: Federal taxpayers can’t afford high-speed rail in California or anywhere else. A Cato essay on high-speed rail points out that the cost of California’s HSR could be $81 billion and a national system could cost $1 trillion. Samuelson is right: the Obama administration’s HSR dreams “represent shortsighted, [...]
Triangle Transit
I didn’t realize that Yonah Freemark was a fellow native of the Triangle (from Durham; the transit blogosphere now has two corners of the Triangle locked down). He’s put up a nice primer on the possibility of transit in the Triangle region, at the end of which he sounds a somewhat skeptical note: Or — [...]
Words to Remember
Pay attention: Using Federal Highway Administration statistics, Subsidyscope has calculated that in 2007, 51 percent of the nation’s $193 billion set aside for highway construction and maintenance was generated through user fees—down from 10 years earlier when user fees made up 61 percent of total spending on roads. The rest came from other sources, including [...]
Creative Funding
From Bloomberg: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said his goal to speed up construction of 12 transit projects and ease congestion in the second-biggest U.S. city requires “creative†funding help from Washington. Villaraigosa is pushing a plan to complete about $20 billion of subway and rail-line work by 2019, 20 years sooner than an initial [...]
On Car Sharing
I’m sure that in a very transit-oriented city like New York, car-sharing does generate some mode shifting from walking or biking or taking the train to driving, though I would guess that even in New York, the net effect of the service is less driving (in no small part because non-drivers are sure to find [...]
Understanding Metro
Prince George’s County has updated its transportation plan to include an extension of Metro’s Green Line to Fort Meade (which, one imagines, would be a step toward its eventually extension to BWI). Matt has some good comments on the plan: [T]he key thing to keep in mind is that when you’re talking about new heavy [...]
You Can’t Go Home Again, Unless You’re Driving and Willing to Sit in a Lot of Traffic
I have to say, I am extremely disappointed with the hometown. Raleigh is showing itself to be remarkably backward on planning issues. Have a look at this; it’s stone age transportation planning. Background: some time ago, it was determined that Raleigh should have an Outer Loop. This was classic speculative highway building, essentially designed to [...]