Transportation
mikethemadbiologist | October 5, 2009I realize that much of the political establishment, particular on the right, has adopted the Peter Pan philosophy of public policy: anything's possible, if you wish hard enough. Consequently, too many Americans think that our infrastructure is not only fine, but the best in the world. This, I think, has made it much harder to convince people to support the stimulus package--which should have been called a rebuilding package. But two news items underscore how the pie-in-the-sky way of thinking isn't sufficient for rebuilding a nation. On the internet front:
The report by the…
mikethemadbiologist | July 18, 2009I think this public awareness campaign should have been called, "Dude, it's not that big":
If there were only a campaign for the assholes who hog the entire subway car pole....
mikethemadbiologist | July 18, 2009One of the things that I find maddening about the Republicans' sloganeering is that they're never held accountable for the consequences of their slogans ("It's not the government's money, it's your money"--actually, it is the government's money, but that's a separate discussion). Well, the Obama administration called Republican Senator Jon Kyl's bluff, after Sen. Kyl criticized the stimulus package:
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is standing up for his colleague Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., under heavy fire from President Barack Obama's administration and national Democrats for suggesting that…
mikethemadbiologist | July 10, 2009At least when it comes to transportation, it looks that way. The NY Times had an article yesterday about how cities are getting far less of the stimulus package slated for transportation. From The NY Times, here's the issue in a pretty figure:
(click to embiggen)
The problem--and I say this as a city dweller--is that urban transportation systems, both mass transit and automobile, have reached the breaking point. A while ago, I started receiving email alerts for the Boston T (the subway), largely because I was sick and tired of waiting for 25 minutes for a train to show up after work, when…