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Monthly archive for February, 2011
Rush Hour Read: New Tasers Disable Cell Phone Use by Drivers
Monday, February 28th, 2011
This past weekend Maureen Dowd wrote her New York Times column about how technology has turned cars into “a bigger, noisier and much more dangerously distracting smartphone”: Ford executives invited me to Detroit to experience their snazzy new technology firsthand. Read more ›
New Research: Scientists Claim Better Battery for Electric Cars
Monday, February 28th, 2011
President Obama would like to see one million electric cars on American roads by 2015, but if initial reports are correct, the country will fall short of this goal. The demand for electrics is not terribly high right now, and Read more ›
The Morning Dig: The Rise of the ‘Aerotropolis’
Monday, February 28th, 2011
• A fascinating feature looks at how airports and the cities around them are affecting the global economy. (WSJ) • Because of higher fuel prices, airlines in the U.S. are increasing their fares. (NYT) • The stimulus money is helping Read more ›
Rush Hour Chart: The Big Gap Between Total and Per Capita Global Emissions Leaders
Friday, February 25th, 2011
Good recently posted a wonderful infographic that appeared on Miller-McCune last fall. (Click on the image, or here, for the full pdf.) The chart’s designer, Stanford Kay, points out that countries with high total carbon emissions — such as China Read more ›
Raising the Gas Tax Would Lower U.S. Economic Vulnerability
Friday, February 25th, 2011
The last time we checked on Ryan Avent, he was making a powerful argument for high-speed rail in the United States. Earlier this week, over at the Economist, Avent made an equally strong case for raising the gas tax: The Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Shuttle Discovery Launches for the Last Time
Friday, February 25th, 2011
• NASA’s space shuttle Discovery is on its way to the International Space Station in its last flight before being retired. (AP) (NYT) • France celebrates the 30th anniversary of its first high-speed train. (RailEurope) • In a major blow Read more ›
America’s Top 15 Metropolitan Regions for Transportation
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
In a recent issue of the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell made a convincing case that ranking systems — in particular the college rankings created by U.S. News, but really all rankings — are utterly meaningless. He concludes (subscription required): Who Read more ›
The Morning Dig: BMW Takes On the Future of Transportation
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
• The last film from BMW Documentaries (above) offers a vision of how transportation is evolving and what the future holds. • A documentary about a Brazilian garbage dump and the people who work in it is competing for an Read more ›
New Report: States Spend Unwisely on Transportation
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
If recent history has shown us anything, it is that states hold great power over the transportation investments made inside their borders. Otherwise Florida could not so easily refuse billions of dollars in federal rail grants by saying — in Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Chicago Votes in Rahm Emanuel as New Mayor
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
• Rahm Emanuel was elected with an easy 55 percent majority of the vote, but he faces tough fiscal challenges when he takes office. (AP) (NYT) (Tribune) • Related: Novelist Scott Turow wrote a marvelous profile of Emanuel, published in Read more ›
The 2011 Infrastructurist Forum, Part II
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Last week, we presented views from three Members of Congress and one former governor on the following issue: What are the most important actions we need to take in the next two years to deal with America’s infrastructure crisis? This Read more ›
Systems, Not Technology, May Propel the Transportation of Tomorrow
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Last week the Economist hosted a conference on “Intelligent Infrastructure,” and one of the panels touched on a subject that often finds its way into this space: transportation in the 21st century. The topic often gives way to a parade Read more ›
The Morning Dig: The Current Condition of U.S. Dams: Not Good
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
• An article examines the science and engineering behind America’s aging dams, and the risks posed by them. (NYT) • A 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand, on Tuesday and caused significant damage to the area, killing at least 65 Read more ›
Questions Haunt China’s Rail Program
Monday, February 21st, 2011
China leads the world in high-speed rail construction, but the conductor of the country’s grand bullet network faces trouble ahead. Earlier this month Liu Zhijun, China’s railway minister and champion of its high-speed program, was relieved of his position amid Read more ›
The Morning Dig: The Battle in Urban Planning and Design
Monday, February 21st, 2011
• A fascinating article looks at landscape urbanism and how it is competing with the theories behind traditionalists and New Urbanists. (BGlobe) • New technology will allow cars to determine whether drivers are drunk or not, and would prevent inebriated Read more ›
The First Annual Infrastructurist Forum: What’s the Future of U.S. Infrastructure?
Friday, February 18th, 2011
Things are moving fast in the world of American infrastructure. In only a few short weeks since 2011 began and a new Congress took over, major announcements are hitting the airwaves: Vice President Biden proposed a six-year, $53 billion plan Read more ›
New Report: America’s Poor Infrastructure Is Holding Back Economic Growth
Friday, February 18th, 2011
We’ll catch you someday, Barbados. Earlier this week the McKinsey Global Institute released a report, “Growth and renewal in the United States: Retooling America’s economic engine” (pdf), which concludes that America’s poor infrastructure is one of the country’s foremost impediments Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Florida Senators Slam Scott for HSR Decision
Friday, February 18th, 2011
• A veto-proof majority of Florida State Senators is trying to overrule Rick Scott’s attempt to scrap Florida’s HSR line. (Miami Herald) • The Senate voted on Thursday to increase the number of flights between the West Coast and Reagan Read more ›
Rush Hour Read: Hoping for High Gas Prices
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
Christopher Mims over at Grist offers the above graphic to show why wishing for lower gas prices is like hoping for another economic disaster: [I]t took the largest economic crash since the Great Depression to bring gasoline prices down, and Read more ›
Florida Governor Rejects High-Speed Rail Funding
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
Fail. Yesterday Florida Governor Rick Scott announced he will decline $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail funding — putting a quick and unexpected end to the projected Tampa-Orlando line that was to be the Obama administration’s bullet model for the Read more ›
