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Monthly archive for April, 2009
The Daily Dig
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
April 14: The president and vice president stopped by the DOT to celebrate 2000 stimulus projects and that many of them are coming in cheap, cheap, cheap. (WaPo) The president may have been a bit misleading in his language — Read more ›
Knucklehead Politicians Want to Tear Down Beautiful Train Station
Monday, April 13th, 2009
When your city is in the midst of a slow-motion extinction, what’s the best course of action? According to Detroit’s city council, due prudence requires immediately leveling the most magnificent structure in town. Michigan Central Station, the century-old Beaux Arts Read more ›
Obama Celebrates 2000th Stimulus Project and Settles Blood Feud Over Who Had First One
Monday, April 13th, 2009
After presiding over the raucus White House Easter Egg Hunt this morning, Obama and Biden mosied over to the DOT headquarters in Washington to celebrate a milestone for the stimulus bill — transportation project number 2000. It’s a $68 million Read more ›
Priority Number Two: Sewer Guru Says It’s Time To Get Serious About The ‘S’ Word
Monday, April 13th, 2009
Rose George never expected to spend two and half years of her life researching shit. Or, to be more polite, sanitation. But, recognizing how neglected the subject was in popular discourse, she decided to step into the breach. Happily, the Read more ›
Australia: Hell on Earth
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
There are some stories — more and more these days, unfortunately — that just hurt to read. An article in today’s LA Times about Australia and the challenges that it faces from global warming is one of them. An ambitious Read more ›
Amtrak Employees Undertake Daring Rescue Mission For Lost iPhone
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
So, the absent minded editor of a certain infrastructure news site recently had an adventure in losing things on Amtrak trains. The experience was revealing and – spoiler alert – the much-slagged government owned and operated rail line acquitted themselves Read more ›
To Save The Nuclear Industry, Shut Down Indian Point
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
[SButtonZ button="digg"] Right now there probably isn’t a bigger advocate of nuclear power in the country than I am. I’ve just published a book, Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America’s Long Energy Odyssey Read more ›
Foreign Spies Infiltrate America’s Grid — A Plot Point Of ’24′ Come To Life?
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
Today the Wall Street Journal reports that “cyberhackers” have infiltrated the U.S. power grid, as well as parts of the water and sewer systems. This all probably sounds chillingly familiar to fans of a certain action series on Fox–after all, Read more ›
A Vehicle For The Times
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Accustomed as I am to hearing everyone complain about their economic woes – I do, after all, work in the besieged newspaper industry – it was a pleasant shock to hear from a friend that his bicycle accessory company had Read more ›
Gallery: North Korea’s Secret Infrastructure
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
[SButtonZ button="digg"] Last year, two Austrian tourists managed to enter North Korea by train at a border crossing that has been closed to foreigners since 1994. Lucky for us, they took lots of pictures. Below are a few samples from Read more ›
WWJD? Probably Not Mail In Traffic Tickets Smeared In Dog Sh*t
Monday, April 6th, 2009
A story just came across the AP wire that a man in South Dakota has been convicted for sending in a traffic citation, cash payment, and a note smeared in animal excrement. The man pleaded guilty to “mailing injurious articles” Read more ›
Chart: New High Speed Rail Projects Around The World
Monday, April 6th, 2009
[SButtonZ button="digg"] Everywhere you look, from Argentina to Saudi Arabia, there’s a country planning a new high-speed rail line. Inspired by the success of fast train systems in Europe and Japan, politicians see these links as a way to speed Read more ›
Michigan Is Best In Country At Buckling Up — Massachusetts Is Worst
Monday, April 6th, 2009
[SButtonZ button="digg"] With our top transportation official lauding Americans for their improvements in seat belt use, we decided to review the top and bottom of the class, according to new 2008 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Read more ›
Highway Deaths Fall To Lowest Level Since JFK Administration
Monday, April 6th, 2009
[SButtonZ button="digg"] While the statistics on the economy remain stomach-churningly bad, the transportation numbers in this country just keep getting better and better. First we learned (and kept learning), that Americans are driving less. Then we found out that traffic Read more ›
Obama: “I Am Always Jealous Of European Trains”
Saturday, April 4th, 2009
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy During the president’s town hall meeting in France today, he took the opportunity to speak very frankly about his longstanding envy of the Continent’s rail system. In the Read more ›
Gallery: Cell Phone Towers Pretending To Be Trees
Friday, April 3rd, 2009Stimulus Update: More Than 10 Percent Of Highway Money Has Already Been Granted
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
The cash spigot has officially been turned on. The House Transportation committee released a report yesterday detailing what’s happening with the $65 billion in infrastructure funds (of the non-energy variety, anyway) contained in the stimulus package. Short version: it’s getting Read more ›
Three Mile Island — Thirty Years Later
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
Thirty years ago this week, the Three Mile Island accident shook the nuclear industry to its core. A meltdown – the thing that all the experts insisted couldn’t happen – happened. Hollywood, which had just released “The China Syndrome” starring Read more ›
James Howard Kunstler: Investing In Infrastructure For An Age Of Scarcity
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
A few years ago, author James Howard Kunstler famously convinced petro-billionaire and Bush crony Richard Rainwater to build an off-the-grid rural compound because the fabric of American society would soon be threatened by skyrocketing energy prices. The Long Emergency, Kunstler’s Read more ›
Is Privatizing Roads Really A Solution To Our Transportation Budget Woes?
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009[SButtonZ button="digg"] In the debate over future transportation policy, the President and Congressional leaders are faced by the need for new revenues and have largely avoided gas taxes, carbon taxes, or other mechanisms that could solve budget problems. One frequently Read more ›