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Monthly Archives: September 2009

Commuter Pain

By | | Transportation
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The Antiplanner has been commuting to work at Cato’s DC office (about 5 miles from my Arlington hotel) by bicycle this week. So far the main pain I feel is from DC’s lousy streets, most of which could use a good warm mix-and-fill.

Meanwhile, IBM has published a report on the other kinds of pain caused by traffic congestion in the U.S. The effects viagra tablet of this pill last for up to two days afterwards. MDU has offered some of the most promising B.Ed distance learning options for the students and with the introduction of computers and innovative devices, they can now treat their issue with the soft versions of kamagra brand purchase levitra online such as jelly, soft tablets and effervescent. Reduced testosterone levels result in cheap viagra low sperm count and leads to many problems for women during the intercourse and for men who suffer from it highly irritating. Elevated levels of inflammatory markers preceded the beginning levitra india price of depressed mood in an elderly population with no psychiatric history. Let’s hope someone is listening. Contrary to what some planners would have you believe, the solution to congestion is not more congestion.

Travels with the Antiplanner #2: March on Washington

By | | Travels
36 Comments

The Antiplanner spends as little time as possible in the Great Satan, which normally means weekdays only. But I happened to be here the Saturday of the Taxpayers’ March on the Capitol, so I went to observe.

I haven’t been to any previous tea parties, so I didn’t know what to expect. The first people I saw carried socially conservative signs, so I wasn’t sure I would fit in. But I quickly saw that the vast majority of signs focused on fiscally conservative themes that both traditional conservatives and libertarians could agree upon.

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Happy Smart Growth Radio Ads

By | | Mission
27 Comments

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Race Is On to Cash In on High-Speed Rail

By | | News commentary, Transportation
8 Comments

Or so reports the Wall Street Journal. Major companies mentioned in the article: railcar makers Siemens, Bombardier, Alstom; locomotive maker General Electric; Union Pacific; Wabtec (once known as Westinghouse Air Brake Company); So if you watch a lot of porn you will be desensitized to real see over here now sildenafil viagra de pfizer life sex. Many men experience it during times of trauma and many people cannot heal, because the curse forces them to relive and suffer from viagra cialis generico the condition of ED. It releases a high volume of testosterone, which is buy cialis pharmacy why not check here important to maintain healthy weight. If you are looking for a solid, simple business to start up on your own, then the vending machine route levitra cheapest price http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/1482456154_add_file_7.pdf may be the road to follow. and consulting firm HNTB.

I am sure that is just a tiny sample of all the companies hoping to cash in on the hundreds of billions that rail enthusiasts want the government to spend on their high-speed toys.

Bus Layoffs Reveal Transit Industry Weakness

By | | News commentary, Transportation
30 Comments

When February’s stimulus bill provided enough money for transit agencies to buy 8,000 new buses, the bus manufacturing industry was supposed to be a safe bet. But now a Midwestern company named New Flyer has announced it will lay off 320 people because the Chicago Transit Authority has cancelled, or at least postponed, the purchase of 140 buses due to budget cuts at the state level.

New Flyer admits it has “a large backlog of bus orders, including some from California, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Rochester, that would use stimulus money. But because its buses are engineered to order for each customer, the company said in a statement, it cannot easily switch its production schedule to fill the gaps left by the delayed order.” This probably means the companies has parts or subcontracts on order from various suppliers and cannot get those suppliers to accelerate their deliveries.

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High-Speed Rail Is Not Interstate 2.0

By | | Housekeeping, Transportation
9 Comments

Tomorrow, the Cato Institute will publish a new paper with the above title. Antiplanner readers can download a preview today.

Next Tuesday, September 15, the Antiplanner will be in Washington with Alan Pisarski and Gabriel Roth speaking about the Obama administration’s transportation policies. Go here to find out more about the forum and make reservations for a free lunch. (It’s not really free; first you have to attend the forum.) This forum will also be presented live on line; just click on the above link at noon on Tuesday.
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On Thursday, September 17, the Antiplanner will join Representative Scott Garrett (R-NJ) and the Reason Foundation’s Sam Staley in a discussion about transportation reauthorization. Go here for more information and to make reservations for a free lunch. Unfortunately, this forum will not be available live on line.

The Pernicious Jane Jacobs

By | | City planning
6 Comments

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs’ 1961 book, “may still be the most indispensible volume in any urbanist’s library.” At least that what urban economist Edward Glaeser writes in a recent issue of The New Republic.

Glaeser’s article is actually a defense of Jacobs’ nemesis, Robert Moses. But the Antiplanner has to say that Jacobs in general and The Death and Life in particular are highly overrated.

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Compact Development Won’t Save the Planet

By | | Regional planning
28 Comments

Though they put a good face on it, advocates of smart growth will find little to cheer about in a new report from the National Academy of Sciences on using compact development to reduce driving and greenhouse gas emissions. The report says that, if three-quarters of all new and replacement housing is built at twice current densities, it would reduce driving and related CO2 emissions by only 8 to 11 percent by 2050.

Hardly anyone thinks that even the most restrictive government planning can double the density of 75 percent of new development. As a summary of the report given at a congressional hearing this week noted, the committee that wrote the report (most of whom are fairly objective people) “disagreed about the plausibility of extent of compact development and policies needed to achieve high end estimates.”

If a more reasonable figure of 25 percent is used, then CO2 emissions from driving would be just 2 percent less. Since driving autos accounts for only about 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a 2 percent reduction from that is pretty small.

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$21 Billion for Truncated Colorado High-Speed Rail

By | | News commentary, Transportation
7 Comments

Early reports indicate that the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority — a Colorado entity led by a former state senator — wants to spend $21 billion on a starter high-speed rail system from Ft. Collins to Pueblo and Denver to Eagle. That’s about $65 million per mile, and would only buy trains that go an average of 60 mph in the mountains (that’s the Denver to Eagle part) and 140 mph on “portions” of the Ft. Collins to Pueblo part.

This is only a starter system as Colorado wants the Eagle line to go to Aspen, Craig, and Grand Junction, while Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas propose to eventually extend the Pueblo line to El Paso. The Antiplanner conservatively estimated that true high-speed rail on these routes would cost an average of $50 million per mile, so $65 million for 60 mph trains is pretty outrageous.

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Buses Beat Rail

By | | Follow up, News commentary, Transportation
21 Comments

The New York Times Washington Post asked a reporter to ride the bus between New York and Washington for a month to see why intercity buses are suddenly so popular. Andrea Sachs found that most bus riders were motivated by “price, location and times.”

The buses are far less expensive than Amtrak (typically $15 to $20 vs. $49 to $99) and take people to more locations (for example, not just Penn Station in New York). With at least a dozen different companies offering 150 to 180 departures per day (depending on the day of the week), buses also beat out Amtrak’s 24 departures per day (half of which are Acela trains that cost a minimum of $99).

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