Transportation
Blog
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save the Planet
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save The Planet Steven Greenhut | December 4, 2024 SACRAMENTO – After my recent column chiding urbanists for their visceral dislike of suburbia and cars, I’ve been bemused by posts from a subset of their movement: hard-core bicyclists. Lots of people, myself included, enjoy an occasional ...
California
Unleash Private Sector to Repair 10 Freeway
Newsom should channel spirit of Northridge quake rebuild when repairing 10 Freeway
CalTrans veteran Jerry B. Baxter said in November 1994 that repairing the battered freeway system “posed one of the greatest challenges to the California Department of Transportation in its nearly 100-year history.” But “it also proved to be one of its greatest triumphs, testing the mettle and ingenuity of Caltrans employees in ...
Blog
Read latest about road diets
Car-free cities about social engineering, not public demand
Scientific American insists that car-free cities are the future, because the data from facial analysis caught by surveillance cameras proves that “people do not like looking at cars.” Or maybe the trend is just another planning movement led by elitists who believe their vision of a city is the only ...
Blog
Post-COVID travel has recovered – except for urban transit
Highways, airlines, and Amtrak all carried more travel in August 2023 than the same month before the pandemic, according to data recently released by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Urban transit, however, is languishing at less than 72%, and it would be even lower except that August had one more ...
Blog
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Misusing ‘externality’ theories to bolster government power
In a recent article, economist Timothy D. Terrell pointed out problems in modern economic theory that deal with what economists call externalities, or spillover costs, noting that in a world in which value is subjective, attempts to find objective ways to allay costs are elusive and generally end in failure. ...
Blog
Read latest on California's failing transit systems
Transit systems battle crime to restore fallen ridership
Although I usually drive, sometimes I take the bus in Orange County, the last time a year ago. As you might expect in car-centric Southern California, almost all the other riders were poor people, some no doubt recent immigrants of unknown official status. I know many recent immigrants, and the ...
Blog
Learn About "15-Minute" Cities
Trendy ‘15-minute cities’ get their 15 minutes of fame
But that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily as charming and practical as their devotees portray them to be. “A 15-minute city,” explains the National League of Cities, “enables residents to access most daily amenities within a 15- to 20-minute walk, bike or other mode of transportation from any point in a ...
Blog
Transit bailout will only delay the day of reckoning
Transit bailout will only delay the day of reckoning By Steven Greenhut | June 29, 2023 It was inevitable that the California Legislature would bail out the state’s ailing public-transportation systems, which are facing dire fiscal crises as federal pandemic aid dries up. Although he had resisted a cash infusion ...
Blog
Read about push to increase driving costs
Is It A War On Traffic … Or A War On Cars?
It’s expected that the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will release a study this summer that will offer, reports the Los Angeles Times, “a blueprint for a congestion pricing scheme similar to ones in cities such as London, Stockholm and Singapore, where commuters pay to drive in city centers.” ...
Blog
Read about CA's war on suburbs
To reduce costs, California also needs to build new suburbs
The three myths that have led to this predicament are the following: Nuclear power and natural gas power causes unacceptable harm to the environment; reservoirs and desalination plants cause unacceptable harm to the environment; and single-family homes nestled in sprawling suburbs cause unacceptable harm to the environment. These are myths. ...
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save the Planet
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save The Planet Steven Greenhut | December 4, 2024 SACRAMENTO – After my recent column chiding urbanists for their visceral dislike of suburbia and cars, I’ve been bemused by posts from a subset of their movement: hard-core bicyclists. Lots of people, myself included, enjoy an occasional ...
Unleash Private Sector to Repair 10 Freeway
Newsom should channel spirit of Northridge quake rebuild when repairing 10 Freeway
CalTrans veteran Jerry B. Baxter said in November 1994 that repairing the battered freeway system “posed one of the greatest challenges to the California Department of Transportation in its nearly 100-year history.” But “it also proved to be one of its greatest triumphs, testing the mettle and ingenuity of Caltrans employees in ...
Read latest about road diets
Car-free cities about social engineering, not public demand
Scientific American insists that car-free cities are the future, because the data from facial analysis caught by surveillance cameras proves that “people do not like looking at cars.” Or maybe the trend is just another planning movement led by elitists who believe their vision of a city is the only ...
Post-COVID travel has recovered – except for urban transit
Highways, airlines, and Amtrak all carried more travel in August 2023 than the same month before the pandemic, according to data recently released by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Urban transit, however, is languishing at less than 72%, and it would be even lower except that August had one more ...
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Misusing ‘externality’ theories to bolster government power
In a recent article, economist Timothy D. Terrell pointed out problems in modern economic theory that deal with what economists call externalities, or spillover costs, noting that in a world in which value is subjective, attempts to find objective ways to allay costs are elusive and generally end in failure. ...
Read latest on California's failing transit systems
Transit systems battle crime to restore fallen ridership
Although I usually drive, sometimes I take the bus in Orange County, the last time a year ago. As you might expect in car-centric Southern California, almost all the other riders were poor people, some no doubt recent immigrants of unknown official status. I know many recent immigrants, and the ...
Learn About "15-Minute" Cities
Trendy ‘15-minute cities’ get their 15 minutes of fame
But that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily as charming and practical as their devotees portray them to be. “A 15-minute city,” explains the National League of Cities, “enables residents to access most daily amenities within a 15- to 20-minute walk, bike or other mode of transportation from any point in a ...
Transit bailout will only delay the day of reckoning
Transit bailout will only delay the day of reckoning By Steven Greenhut | June 29, 2023 It was inevitable that the California Legislature would bail out the state’s ailing public-transportation systems, which are facing dire fiscal crises as federal pandemic aid dries up. Although he had resisted a cash infusion ...
Read about push to increase driving costs
Is It A War On Traffic … Or A War On Cars?
It’s expected that the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will release a study this summer that will offer, reports the Los Angeles Times, “a blueprint for a congestion pricing scheme similar to ones in cities such as London, Stockholm and Singapore, where commuters pay to drive in city centers.” ...
Read about CA's war on suburbs
To reduce costs, California also needs to build new suburbs
The three myths that have led to this predicament are the following: Nuclear power and natural gas power causes unacceptable harm to the environment; reservoirs and desalination plants cause unacceptable harm to the environment; and single-family homes nestled in sprawling suburbs cause unacceptable harm to the environment. These are myths. ...
