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Monthly archive for April, 2011
Rush Hour Charts: Breaking Down the Cost of Gas
Friday, April 29th, 2011
Derek Thompson at the Atlantic offers a chart-filled look at gas prices. First, the “four major components”: via the U.S. Energy Information Administration Second, a pie chart that depicts the relative importance of several factors that play a role in Read more ›
What’s Ailing America’s Transportation System?
Friday, April 29th, 2011
A long piece in a new issue of the Economist provides a great overview of America’s ailing transportation system. The country’s poor overall infrastructure quality, its heavy congestion and lengthy commute times, its crowded air hubs, its limited passenger rail Read more ›
The Morning Dig: The South Struggles to Recover
Friday, April 29th, 2011
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy • Residents are assessing the terrible damage and beginning their plans to rebuild. (AP) (NYT) • A complete rundown of transportation for William and Kate at the Royal Read more ›
New Tech Helps You Avoid Traffic and Find Parking
Thursday, April 28th, 2011
The traffic later, now. A pair of pilot programs — say that three times fast — will soon make life a bit easier for drivers in San Francisco, and hopefully, in time, beyond. The first, called Smarter Traveler, gives users Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Devastating Tornados Rip Across South
Thursday, April 28th, 2011
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy • Dozens of tornadoes killed at least 200 people in several states in the South, the worst outbreak in nearly 40 years. (AP) (NYT) • An article uncovers Read more ›
New Report: Higher Gas Prices Mean Less Sprawl
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
Earlier this month a pair of researchers at the University of Quebec in Montreal released a working paper that examined the link between gas prices and urban sprawl (pdf). Georges Tanguay and Ian Gingras analyzed data from the 12 largest Read more ›
The Morning Dig: What’s Happened to Biosphere 2, the Human Terrarium
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
• A video (above) and article explore how that project in Arizona is used today, 20 years after it opened. (AP) • New documents reveal that Al-Qaeda wanted to target the Brooklyn Bridge. (NYT) • An article examines the stunning Read more ›
For and Against High-Speed Rail: Redux
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
In our last (and first) edition of For and Against High-Speed Rail, we discussed Megan McArdle’s argument that a coast-to-coast network of fast trains is implausible in a country as vast as America, as well as Guillaume Pépy’s explanation that Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Obama Lays Out Plan on Gas Prices
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
• In his weekly video address (above), the President shared his concerns about rising gas prices and vowed to step up his work to transition to a cleaner-energy economy. • Both bidders for the New York Stock Exchange are pledging Read more ›
Rush Hour Read: The ‘Highway of Death’
Monday, April 25th, 2011
Inter-city buses are gaining popularity these days, but you do not want to take them along Highway 101, which extends from the Texas border through the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The U.S. government, which previously has cautioned drivers about taking Read more ›
D.C. Bikeshare to Add 25 Locations
Monday, April 25th, 2011
Capital Bikeshare is doing well. Very well. Well enough for the program to boast nearly as many riders in chilly February as in noticeably less chilly November: 48,215 to 48,217. Well enough to have enticed more than 8,000 new members Read more ›
The Morning Dig: How to Effectively Price Parking in Cities
Monday, April 25th, 2011
MBA: The Right Price for Parking from Streetfilms on Vimeo. • An interesting Streetsfilm video (above) looks at an innovative pricing scheme for street parking in San Francisco. • It was a “miracle” that there were no major injuries or Read more ›
Shining a Light on ‘City Vs. Suburb’
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Is this a city or a suburb? Or neither? Christopher Leinberger has responded to the semantically flawed conclusion of Joel Kotkin that suburbs, not cities, are where people have flocked en masse over the past ten years. Kotkin used 2010 Read more ›
The Morning Dig: A Cool Time-Lapse Video of Paris
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Le Flâneur (music by The XX) from Luke Shepard on Vimeo. • Using more than 2,000 photographs, Luke Shepard, a student at the American University of Paris, created a neat video of his temporary home city (above). • Japanese residents Read more ›
Should China Hit the Brakes on Infrastructure Development?
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
China is making like Casey Jones and watching its speed. The country has announced it will pump the brakes on its fast trains — taking them down to 186 miles per hour (300 km/h) from 217 mph (350 km/h) — Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Forget Amtrak – Take the Bus!
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
• An interesting article looks at the rise of companies like Megabus and Boltbus. (BusinessWeek) • IBM has created new software, currently being tested in California, that predicts when traffic will get bad. (AP) • Lawsuits are brewing between BP Read more ›
America’s Low Gas Prices: A Global Perspective
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
If you can read this chart, your glasses are too strong. Last week, with gas prices already hovering around $4 per gallon, the Maryland General Assembly refused to raise the state gasoline tax. Local legislator Joseph “Sonny” Minnick said exactly Read more ›
The Morning Dig: The Strange Consequences of China’s Housing Bubble
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
• A fascinating article reveals how Chinese men who don’t own property are often shunned by potential dates. (NYT) • The plane carrying Michelle Obama on Monday had to abort its landing at Andrews Air Force Base because of an Read more ›
Is Zipcar a Good Investment?
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Zipcar went public last week, and how. On its first day of trading, the company raised $174.3 million and finished up 56 percent. All told, Zipcar sold 9.7 million shares of stock at $18 a pop and earned itself a Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Marking One Year Since the Gulf Oil Spill
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
• A year after the Gulf oil spill, residents on the coast are still recovering from Deepwater Horizon’s mess. (AP) • Related: A year ago BP was in financial peril — today the company is much stronger, and appears to Read more ›
