Archive for October, 2009
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 [...]
Paper of the Day
I’ve previously linked to research showing that while it’s not clear that sprawl leads to obesity, it does seem to be the case that the obese opt to live in sprawl, such that there is a correlation between the two. Here‘s something more on the connection: In this paper, we examine the effect of changes [...]
On Geoengineering
Brad DeLong links to an interview with Ken Caldeira. It includes this: e360: Right. Well, a lot of people think of geoengineering as a quick and cheap fix for global warming. Is it? Caldeira: Let’s pretend for a moment that putting dust in the stratosphere is easy to do and works reasonably well… and that [...]
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 [...]
The Need to Cut Emissions
Will Wilkinson quotes me arguing that geoengineering should be our last hope, for use after other plans, including emission cuts, have failed, and he writes: I’ve thought the matter through, but I still don’t understand this ordering of priorities.  I understand the strategic political motivation to make all potential technological fixes to global warming seem like wacky, [...]
Strange Comments From Scott Sumner
He begins a post by quoting this from Paul Krugman: The chapter opens with the “global cooling†story — the claim that 30 years ago there was a scientific consensus that the planet was cooling, comparable to the current consensus that it’s warming. And he says: Why does Krugman keep doing this? Why does he [...]
Hydraulic Macro
To return for a moment to the discussion of structural versus cyclical factors in business cycles, let me draw attention to a few interesting posts on the topic, from Steve Waldman, Charles Davi, Tyler Cowen, and James Hamilton. I think these guys present some plausible scenarios about the way a downturn might unfold, and I [...]
Paper of the Day
Available here. This is the abstract: This paper suggests a cause of low density in urban development or urban sprawl that has not been given much attention in the literature. There have been a number of arguments put forward for market failures that may account for urban sprawl, including incomplete pricing of infrstructure, environmental externalities, [...]
If the Grass Looks Greener, It’s Important to Understand the Nature of the Fence
One of the things about politics is that solutions always seem easier to implement and more promising before they stand a real chance of being implemented. People who have for one reason or another fallen in love with the idea of a carbon tax watch the difficulty Congress is having negotiating a passable climate bill [...]
Encouraging News of the Day
From Richard Layman: It happened that Matt Johnson was at the ACT monthly meeting on Tuesday, so we talked after. Matt is a blogger, both on his own blog, Track Twenty-Nine, and within Greater Greater Washington. Although Matt is “young,” he’s already probably forgotten more about fixed rail transit especially railroads, than I will ever [...]