Transportation
Bullet train won’t improve urban transportation
(image courtesy California High-Speed Rail Commission) Even on its best day, California’s high-speed rail project was always going to struggle to deliver on its grandiose promises – a best day that was unfortunately Nov. 4, 2008. That was the day California voters approved a modest and fantastical version of what …
Urban flight: Removing cars won’t revive our cities
As happened in the 1960s and 70s, America is witnessing a great exodus from some, but not all, of its cities. This time, even West Coast cities, with their sublime weather and ports on the Pacific Ocean, also are seeing residents flee paradise. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, in …
Another San Francisco Treat
The network is in such straits that local transit agencies are looking at a grim scenario in which BART cancels weekend service and closes “nine stations just to keep the lights on elsewhere,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports. When they do run, trains won’t arrive in 15-minute intervals – instead …
Planners push transit, but it’s a hard sell in Western cities
Planners push transit, but it’s a hard sell in Western cities by Wendell Cox Over the six decades that transit subsidies have been virtually universal, governments and media have urged people to give up driving and switch to transit. Yet transit’s share of total urban travel was near modern lows …
Pothole vigilantes fill in for the government’s failure
One of my favorite movies is “Brazil,” by the Monty Python comedy troupe’s alum Terry Gilliam. In the most-telling scene, Harry Tuttle, played by Robert De Niro, breaks into an apartment, not to rob it, but to fix a broken air conditioning system. That’s because the vast government bureaucracy, Central …
The California Climate Quandary
Actually, there’s no predicament at all. One of these concerns is truly alarming, the other not worth worrying about at all. OC voters, in fact voters over the entire state, need not be concerned with the climate. There is no crisis now nor on the horizon. Fuel prices, however, …
Urban bike lanes no answer to climate change ‘code red’
But not in California, where the barriers to having a constructive debate about this issue are many. They start with the huge logical gap between the state’s goal to have “eligible” renewable power sources and zero-carbon resources supply 100 percent of California’s electricity retail sales and the electricity used by …
Massachusetts Fails to Learn the Lesson of the “Success” From California’s AB 5
The top court in Massachusetts shut down a gig work ballot measure last week in a litigation battle brought on by opponents of independent contracting work. The ballot measure, that was anticipated to pass with over 80% of Uber and Lyft drivers in support in opinion surveys, would have classified …
To Make California Dream a Reality for All, Remove Homebuilding Roadblocks
California’s median home price set a new record of $849,080 in March, according to the latest figures from the California Association of Realtors. In 35 of California’s 58 counties, 50 percent or more of the homes sold above the asking price in March. Given these continued troubling statistics, encouraging desperately …
There’s No Such Thing as Free Public Transportation Either
Whether it’s suspending the gas tax, $400 gift cards, or $200 refund checks – these proposals to help Californians cope with high gas prices all have varying degrees of merit. But free public transportation? That was a real head scratcher. Gov. Newsom, in his $11 billion relief package for Californians, …
Bullet train won’t improve urban transportation
(image courtesy California High-Speed Rail Commission) Even on its best day, California’s high-speed rail project was always going to struggle to deliver on its grandiose promises – a best day that was unfortunately Nov. 4, 2008. That was the day California voters approved a modest and fantastical version of what …
Urban flight: Removing cars won’t revive our cities
As happened in the 1960s and 70s, America is witnessing a great exodus from some, but not all, of its cities. This time, even West Coast cities, with their sublime weather and ports on the Pacific Ocean, also are seeing residents flee paradise. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, in …
Another San Francisco Treat
The network is in such straits that local transit agencies are looking at a grim scenario in which BART cancels weekend service and closes “nine stations just to keep the lights on elsewhere,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports. When they do run, trains won’t arrive in 15-minute intervals – instead …
Planners push transit, but it’s a hard sell in Western cities
Planners push transit, but it’s a hard sell in Western cities by Wendell Cox Over the six decades that transit subsidies have been virtually universal, governments and media have urged people to give up driving and switch to transit. Yet transit’s share of total urban travel was near modern lows …
Pothole vigilantes fill in for the government’s failure
One of my favorite movies is “Brazil,” by the Monty Python comedy troupe’s alum Terry Gilliam. In the most-telling scene, Harry Tuttle, played by Robert De Niro, breaks into an apartment, not to rob it, but to fix a broken air conditioning system. That’s because the vast government bureaucracy, Central …
The California Climate Quandary
Actually, there’s no predicament at all. One of these concerns is truly alarming, the other not worth worrying about at all. OC voters, in fact voters over the entire state, need not be concerned with the climate. There is no crisis now nor on the horizon. Fuel prices, however, …
Urban bike lanes no answer to climate change ‘code red’
But not in California, where the barriers to having a constructive debate about this issue are many. They start with the huge logical gap between the state’s goal to have “eligible” renewable power sources and zero-carbon resources supply 100 percent of California’s electricity retail sales and the electricity used by …
Massachusetts Fails to Learn the Lesson of the “Success” From California’s AB 5
The top court in Massachusetts shut down a gig work ballot measure last week in a litigation battle brought on by opponents of independent contracting work. The ballot measure, that was anticipated to pass with over 80% of Uber and Lyft drivers in support in opinion surveys, would have classified …
To Make California Dream a Reality for All, Remove Homebuilding Roadblocks
California’s median home price set a new record of $849,080 in March, according to the latest figures from the California Association of Realtors. In 35 of California’s 58 counties, 50 percent or more of the homes sold above the asking price in March. Given these continued troubling statistics, encouraging desperately …
There’s No Such Thing as Free Public Transportation Either
Whether it’s suspending the gas tax, $400 gift cards, or $200 refund checks – these proposals to help Californians cope with high gas prices all have varying degrees of merit. But free public transportation? That was a real head scratcher. Gov. Newsom, in his $11 billion relief package for Californians, …
