Electric cars! Robocars! Smart transit stations! Solar-powered buses! Free WiFi in transit corridors! These are some of the ideas proposed by seven cities that made the cut from 71 original applicants for President Obama’s “smart city” challenge. The Obama administration promises to give away $40 million to some lucky winner, with more likely in future years.
These are almost all stupid ideas that will do little to fix the real transportation problems in the cities that are applying for the funds. But the federal government has offered funds for these kinds of projects, so these kinds of projects is what cities will do.
Almost all of the applicants, for example, mentioned self-driving cars or robocars. But, as the Antiplanner has shown before, no new infrastructure is needed for the self-driving cars being developed by Google, Volvo, Volkswagen, Ford, and other companies to operate. All they really need is clear road stripes, consistent road signs and signals, smooth roads, and perhaps some standards for road construction detours. None of the applicants will do these things; instead, they will fritter away the federal funds on things that self-driving cars won’t need.
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Most of the applicants promise to spend a large portion of their grants on nutsy transit improvements. Austin promises “walk-in medical clinics and groceries waiting to be picked up from locked refrigerators” at transit stations. Columbus wants to have “smart cards” good for both transit and car-sharing services. Portland wants to create a smart-phone app that will tell people whether they should take transit, car share, or walk to any particular destination. Pittsburgh wants to use solar cells to recharge electric buses.
Most of these cities have real transit problems. Some have large maintenance backlogs. Many have cut bus services to pay for other nutsy ideas like commuter rail. More have unfunded pension and health-care obligations. The ideas proposed in these applications are not going to fix their real problems, they are just going to drain money from what little funds they have available to fix those problems.
This kind of “tomorrowland” planning is exactly what the federal government should avoid, as most of these ideas are doomed to failure. Let private software developers write apps. Let private businesses locate near transit stations if there are enough people who actually use those stations to attract such businesses. Unfortunately, when someone who is ready to give away $40 million says “jump,” city officials will do it, even if it is off a cliff.
The Antiplanner wrote (with emphasis added):
Almost all of the applicants, for example, mentioned self-driving cars or robocars. But, as the Antiplanner has shown before, no new infrastructure is needed for the self-driving cars being developed by Google, Volvo, Volkswagen, Ford, and other companies to operate. All they really need is clear road stripes, consistent road signs and signals, smooth roads, and perhaps some standards for road construction detours. None of the applicants will do these things; instead, they will fritter away the federal funds on things that self-driving cars won’t need.
Many U.S. cities are atrocious when it comes to maintaining street and road infrastructure within their corporate limits. Examples inlclude not signposting turns in numbered roads (usually U.S. or state routes), and failure to keep lines painted and pavement and bridge decks reasonably smooth – these are just not a priority for them (sometimes this is rationalized – with the theory of “induced” demand for road capacity playing a part). If state and U.S. routes within a municipality are maintained by a state DOT (usually depends on state law) then the maintenance is usually better.
I have figured out where a mouse lives in L”Enfant Plaza WMATA train station. I don’t want to touch anything in that subway system, and I surely don’t want my groceries to be stored there waiting for me to pick them up!
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Hard not to be cynical about this considering the condition of existing systems.
If you want to get paid for doing something stupid, just turn to the U.S. government. The U.S. government is paying researchers to play video games, it is paying researchers to study the effects of cocaine on Japanese quail and it has spent millions of dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly. What about our homegrown American made prostitutes.
-$750,000 for a football (or as we call it soccer) field for Guantanamo detainees
– If you can believe it, the U.S. government has spent $175,587 “to determine if cocaine makes Japanese quail engage in sexually risky behavior”.
– The federal government has shelled out $3 million to researchers at the University of California at Irvine to fund their research on video games such as World of Warcraft. Wouldn’t we all love to have a “research job” like that?
– China lends us more money than any other foreign nation, but that didn’t stop our government from spending 17.8 million dollars on social and environmental programs for China.
– A total of $1.8 million was spent on a “museum of neon signs” in Las Vegas, Nevada. I love neon as much as the next guy, but seriously?
– The federal government spends 25 billion dollars a year maintaining federal buildings that are either unused or totally vacant. They actually relented for once, selling the Old Post Office building in DC to Donald Trump to convert but not demolish into a new hotel. But that’s one out of thousands of buildings.
The real story here is that $40 million ain’t shit in the entire $4T federal budget.
I wonder if they’ll ever put QR codes on street signs?
The few thousands I pay in federal taxes ain’t shit in a $40 million throwaway budget, either. Does anyone suppose I can just keep my money?
FREE federal money, for real, NO strings attached, honest!
“Does anyone suppose I can just keep my money?”
Yes. Just leave the country. And you don’t even have to move to Somalia!
“The few thousands I pay in federal taxes”
Wait. The few thousands? My wife and I pay tens of thousands in federal taxes, and we don’t even clear $100k.
Sounds like you’re getting off easy, comrade.