Recent Posts
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Let’s solve traffic jams by creating more!
Congress is close to approving a huge transportation bill, which in its original form allocated $300 billion to roads but only $75 billion to transit. According to the article, “House Transportation Committee spokeman Steve Hansen… cited the $70 billion that is ‘wasted each year due solely to traffic congestion and the waste of more than 5.7 billion gallons… Keep reading…
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Freeway ramp rush
Even though I work in sales, I’m really an engineer. And one thing many engineers love is transportation systems. Keep reading…
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Reaper Mall
Actually, it turns out there’s quite a lot to say about How Cities Work and Reaper Man. In Reaper Man, a mysterious set of snow globes appears in Ankh-Morpork, followed by metal shopping carts. A character realizes that if cities are like life forms - large, slow moving life forms - then there would evolve parasites to prey upon them, just as other long-lived life… Keep reading…
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Marshall and Pratchett
I started reading How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken by Alex Marshall on the plane. (I also started reading Reaper Man, but there’s not much to say about that other than that Terry Pratchett is hilarious and you should read his books). Keep reading…
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Yassky for traffic calming, hybrid taxis; not sure about bridge tolls
I met David Yassky, my city councilman last night. (Warning: no content on his site yet.) He seems as much a geek as a politician. According to a Google cached document that may disappear, “As an aide to Chuck Schumer, David helped author and pass the Brady Bill, Violence Against Women Act, the federal hate crimes law and Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances… Keep reading…
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For: alternatives to cars, civil rights online
I am a strong supporter of Transportation Alternatives, which promotes public policy to enhance public transit and bicycle use while reducing dependence on cars. New York leads all American cities by a huge margin in its percentage of residents who commute to work in ways other than driving. This is good for communities, the environment, the economy, and foreign relations,… Keep reading…