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- Did you know Ahmadinejad is a transportation engineer? A New Scientist article argues that Muslim extremists are disproportionately engineers–perhaps because of a “greater intolerance for ambiguity” in the profession. (How We Drive)
- A new survey finds that New Yorkers are the angriest drivers in the country. Motorists in Portland and Cleveland are the most chill. (Reuters)
- Congressman Jim Oberstar says he’ll release an outline of his plans for the new transportation bill at a press conference tomorrow morning. (StreetsBlog)
- Barbara Boxer joins the chorus of voices saying that the Highway Trust Fund will need at least $15 billion to remain solvent through the end of next year. (Pit and Quarry)
- Charles Schumer says it’s ridiculous that passengers on the Long Island Rail Road don’t have access to WiFi on the train. It would cost about $1000 per car to install. (Second Ave Sagas, Gothamist)
- A public infrastructure for electric vehicles is taking shape — one Silicon Valley firm is close to turning a profit selling charging stations for the street and garages. (Green Inc.)
- Rolling Stone has published an insightful profile of new energy secretary Steven Chu, who’s hoping the DOE will stay clear of petty scandals, so he can focus on greening our trillion dollar energy economy. (The Vine)
- China passed a stimulus at around the same time the US did. To date (for better or worse) they have built 12,000 miles of rural roads, 250 miles of highways, 1 million sq ft of airport building space, and jumpstarted construction of a national high speed rail network. (The Herald)
- Honolulu’s new transit logo reads, “I Love Rail.” Critics call this “thinly disguised rail propoganda.” When, oh, when will the all-powerful passenger rail industrial complex in this country finally let us think for ourselves??? (Honolulu Advertiser via Tranport Gooru)
Tags: HEADLINES
I might be a novice here, but i have been reading about the proposals,(dreams) for high speed rail in the US and Canada.
Many routs have been proposed, and contemplated.
Is there any good reason that they can not be put below the existing highway ( Interstate, Trans Canada,400) system?
There would be no need to expropriate new land, the trains are for the most part electric, the highways go to all the major cities already.
I think the engineering thing has more to do with socialism than anything else…it was one of the few non-ideological professions available to the upper classes in communist societies. (I know this because my mom’s Romanian, and pretty much all of her friends – whether practicing or not – were all trained as either architects or engineers.)
@Stephen Smith
Most Muslim extremists don’t come from old-model socialist countries (rather the opposite- theocracies, authoritarian govts., or even democracies). However, the reasons that drive them towards the engineering profession may be the same-i.e. restrictions on ideological-centered careers (in authoritarian countries).
Aloha,
I work on Honolulu’s rail transit project and wanted to point out that the “I Love Rail” graphic is not the project’s logo. It is used on our public access television show and newsletter when we feature testimonials.
@minden deutz
Iran’s government is only “opposite” of socialism in the sense that it’s religious instead of anti-religious, but the state is heavily involved in the economy, no doubt related to its close ties with the USSR (from what I understand, the ayatollahs were/are Russophiles).
@Stephen Smith
Gov’t involvement in economy does not equate to socialism. Socialism insists that the means of production – especially the extraction of natural resources and the manufacturing of durable goods – is a non-profit pursuit under the total control of government for the benefit of the people.
Most countries that Americans consider ‘socialist’ don’t even meet this requirement. They are capitalist democracies/republics with strong government regulation. Ironically, most of them are more economically stable and have lower unemployment than the United States conservative regime has produced. Maybe a little more ‘socialism’ will help us compete with all these other more successful countries, eh? We can start with a federally built high-speed rail system that may eventually have privately run trains running upon it. This model has worked well for central Europe. Why couldn’t it work in the United States?
@Patrick Williams –
PLEASE PUT THIS ON A T-SHIRT. Put it on some 1″ buttons. You are denying yourself revenue by not allowing people to buy merch with the TV logo.
How about a sticker?