Posted on Thursday June 18th by The Infrastructurist | 352
- Ray LaHood suggests delaying the new transportation bill by 18 months. House transpo leaders are hopping mad — their analogies for the announcement include a bomb being dropped, a “slap in the face,” and an “earth-shattering” event. Also they report feeling “non too pleased” and “mortified.” (NYT and AP)
- The administration released new guidelines for high speed rail. The “high” deserves to be in quotes as the trains only have to be able to hit 110 mph–but that’s been the case all along. (StreetsBlog)
- In the two-wheeling Valhalla of Copenhagen, if you’re the 500,000th person to ride by a digital counting gizmo, you get a fancy new bike. We bet things get busy when the counter displays 499,990 or so. (Copenhaganize)
- Clean energy for Europe? How about massive solar farms in the Sahara. The plan’s called Desertec. We think a new name might boost the odds of success. (Green Inc.)
- When Zip Car finally turns a profit that should shut up all the doubters about car sharing, says TreeHugger.
- Jet fuel from plant sources–oily-seed producers jatropha and camelina, as well as algea–tested as well or better as the goop from dead dinosaurs in a Boeing trial. (Environmental Capital)
- Google Map images of strangely shaped towns around the world. The pic above is of lovely Sun City, Arizona. (SEO Co)
- The Fox News writer who dragged a cyclist through Central Park on the hood of his SUV got arrested. He has a history of anger management issues. (Gawker)
June 18th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Baby steps to high-speed rail - we’re following the model of the Chinese when we should be following the Spanish investment model - $150 billion over 10-15 years will put regional high speed rail in place, and a continued investment would connect those megaregions.
Why hasn’t any freewheeling entrepreneur considered putting up a massive solar farm in the Mojave desert?
June 18th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
$150 billion in an economy about 10 percent the size of ours, I might add.
-JR
June 18th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
May I also add that the Japanese Shinkansen, which opened in 1964, started off at 130 mph. Their trains were going 130 mph FORTY-FIVE years ago. Look, I get it, Europe and Asia have higher tax revenue, and more centralized government. But what we lack in tax revenue and strong central government, surely we could have made up for with time.
In any case, it isn’t much of a surprise that the $8 billion in ARRA money is only expecting a 110 mph return on its investment. It’s such a relatively small amount of money, and has to be spent so quickly, that the only things it could realistically be used for are track and signaling improvements etc. to existing passenger rail, in order to increase speed.
So, it’s not that the Obama White House or the FRA are setting low standards, it’s just that 110 mph trains are what can realistically be achieved with only $8 billion.