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Monthly archive for February, 2010
The Week in High Speed Rail: Tragedy on Amtrak
Friday, February 26th, 2010
• Yesterday, a Northeast Corridor Amtrak train hit and killed two 10th-grade girls in Norwood, just southwest of Philadelphia. More details surrounding the incident haven’t been released yet, though some are speculating it was suicide. (NYTimes & WaPo) • Chicago Read more ›
What Does TIGER Look Like? A Graphic Depiction
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Over at Fast Company, they’ve posted the above graphic by Rob Vargas. It depicts some of the projects that nabbed pieces of the $777 million (out of a total of $1.5 billion allotted) the government has handed out in TIGER Read more ›
IBM’s Pulse 2010: The Time Is Now to Stop Infrastructure Waste
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Infrastructurist attended this year’s IBM Pulse 2010 conference, held this week at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The emphasis was on the company’s new energy initiatives — specifically, their Smart Building Solution, a combo of IMB’s business analytics and Read more ›
The Morning Dig: What Do You Do When Your City Is Sinking?
Friday, February 26th, 2010
• Jakarta is sinking: By 2025, the sea level could rise high enough to hit the Presidential Palace in the city center (pictured). So what’s the solution? Time for a new capital city: “If we have a good plan … Read more ›
Is Dubai Falling Apart?
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
First it was the swift and unexpected — and largely still unexplained — closing of the Burj Khalifa just a few days after its opening (the story they’re sticking to is a broken elevator).[SButtonZ button="digg"] Now it’s a near-catastrophe in Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Toyota Will Drive You to Work Edition
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
A Eurostar train in London. • Magnanimity or folly? Toyota will provide free transportation to everyone in the world whose vehicle is involved in the recent recall. In the U.S., that means 2.3 million free rides! (Detroit News) • Be Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Building a ‘City With a Soul’
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010The Verdict: The Stimulus Has Created Jobs
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Following a controversial AP study finding that stimulus spending on roads and bridges has had virtually no effect on local unemployment levels, the general consensus is that the $862 billion stimulus as a whole, including the $35.6 billion committed by Read more ›
The Morning Dig: “Kickin’ A$$ for the Working Class” Edition
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Senator Harry Reid stumping for AFGE. • The American Federation of Government Employees thinks the 40,000 American transportation security officers should have collective bargaining rights. This is politically tricky, as the withdrawal by TSA nominee Errol Southers recently demonstrated. (WaPo) Read more ›
The Sidewalks of Today and Tomorrow: Is Concrete Our Only Option?
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
For most pedestrians, the sidewalk is an unnoticed facet of the everyday streetscape, like a telephone pole, traffic signal, or postal box. But the choices made about the materials to use for building and installing sidewalks can significantly affect the Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Toyota’s Safety Shortcuts, Greed Exposed
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
New York’s Kosciuszko Bridge • A 2009 internal Toyota document reveals how the company sidestepped its growing sudden-acceleration problem and delayed the implementation of several safety regulations–to the tune of hundreds of millions in savings. (LATimes) • New York’s DOT Read more ›
The Week in High Speed Rail
Friday, February 19th, 2010
• Here comes Japan! Central Japan Railway Co. says it will join other foreign companies in competing to develop the high-speed railway line in Florida, possibly partnering with General Electric. (TampaBay) • Meanwhile, Siemens is wasting no time in expanding Read more ›
Is a FOX Show Trying to Derail U.S. High Speed Rail?
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Are the writers of a FOX TV show trying to sully the reputation of HSR before it even gets off the ground? A reader writes:[SButtonZ button="digg"] I thought that you might find this anecdote interesting: We watched the Pilot episode Read more ›
How Do Americans Get to Work? Transit Patterns in Major Cities
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Every year, millions of Americans spend more than 100 hours commuting to and from work — more time than the full duration of a two-week vacation. So how are all these people, the bulk of them in urban areas, getting Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Government’s Spending Plan on HSR Is a Mistake, Expert Claims
Thursday, February 18th, 2010The Evening Dig: Three Tesla Executives Killed in Plane Crash
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010The TIGER Grants: Which States Were the Big Winners?
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
Today, the Department of Transportation announced the awarding of $1.5 billion in Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants. The money went to more than 50 projects in states ranging from Maine to Hawaii to South Carolina. So which states Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Nevada, Home of Sin City and Radioactive Waste?
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
• South Carolina’s Governor is preparing to file a lawsuit in an attempt to force President Obama to open a disposal facility for radioactive waste in Nevada, the plans for which were just canned. (Miami Herald) • Hezbollah’s leader has Read more ›
The Evening Dig: Behold, the Monster Train
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
• Union Pacific has quietly been setting records, running a “monster” freight train from Dallas to Long Beach. And monster it was: The train’s length was a solid 3.5 miles. (PopMech) • A car you can take on the train? Read more ›
Who Will Clear the Seabeds of WWII Mines for Gas Pipelines? Robots
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
There are few industries where robots are as necessary as in the field of mine removal, where the dangers are too great for actual humans to get involved. In preparation for the construction of one of the largest underwater pipelines Read more ›
