Liberal Talk Radio

Yesterday I linked to a Bob Herbert column that argued for more federal funding for infrastructure, and used Minneapolis’ collapsed I-35W bridge as its central example.
Well, this article in today’s NYT says the bridge died of a design flaw, not neglect:
The conventional wisdom is that the Interstate 35W bridge, aged and due for major [...]

Good Bob Herbert column today:
We appear to have forgotten the lessons of history. Time and again an economic boom has followed periods of sustained infrastructure improvement. It’s impossible to calculate all of the benefits from (to mention just a few) the Erie Canal, which connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean and helped make [...]

A new study purports to demonstrate that in many cases, wealthy individuals are incentivized to use public transit:
An interesting snippet:
Alternatively, if Wrich * F < C then some rich people will take public transportation. In this case, a four ring city can be one outcome. In the inner ring, the rich take public transportation. [...]

Remember how the American car makers fought increased fuel efficiency increases tooth and nail? Apparently the executives and lobbyists don’t talk much to the R&D departments.

Flexcar users now must pay exorbinant rental car taxes. It’s a funny unintended consequence: taxes on rental cars and hotel lodging are supposed to be gimmes for local governments: you get to tax tourists who can’t vote! But all of a sudden Flexcar has created a whole class of renter-constitutents, and it’s [...]

Or, what happens when people who think snarky=intelligent spend too much time in a room alone together, drunk. The Strangler urges a no vote for Rail:
Sound Transit/RTID Proposition No. 1
VOTE NO
The joint roads and transit ballot measure shackles expansion of Sound Transit’s popular light-rail system to a massive roads- expansion package that could never [...]

Great article on ways in which the airline industry is incredibly stupid.
I can only add that I, too, would be more than willing to pay a modest additional sum for some extra service and a few more inches of legroom.

Since Bruno won’t let me post anything inflammatory on OrphanRoad, I’ll have to go off on the Seattle Times here.  Their headline today: “Should You Trust Sound Transit?”
You’re all smart people, so I won’t bore you with a discussion of the semiotics of this statement (basically, by asking the question, it sets up a mental [...]

Autopia notes that Japan’s first high speed rail opened 43 years ago today, with maximum speeds of 187mph. Since then, they’ve been dilligently expanding it year by year. Will there be any high-speed rail in the U.S. 43 years from today? Color me skeptical. But this is what happens when you [...]

A funny joke, except you just know that an idea like this was floated in the Ford boardroom more than once.