The WSJ has 2 proficient together with related opeds on unloose energy together with carry subsidies recently, Randall O'Toole on Last Stop on the Light-Rail Gravy Train and Lee Ohanian together with Ted Temzelides write on unloose energy together with carry subsidies
O'Toole:
I dear trains. But nosotros cause got to acknowledge practicalities. One shipping economist summed all at that topographic point is to know virtually transit amongst "Bus Good. Train Bad." (With a few exceptions, such every bit Manhattan.) And lite rail, worse. Trains are expensive, together with 1 time built, immobile. If people desire to larn somewhere else, tough. Rolling stock lasts to a greater extent than or less 50 years, important they bake inwards technical obsolescence. Trains acquit far fewer people per lane-mile than busses. And a fleet of self-driving Ubers linked past times estimator volition live able to role double-decker lanes.
Actually, fifty-fifty buses are to a greater extent than together with to a greater extent than questionable. As I await for the interminable lights on El Camino to cross to Stanford (on bicycle), I cause got taken to counting passengers on the well-subsidized double-decker line. The modal release is zero.
As Randy has pointed out elsewhere, the primary beneficiaries of lite runway are suburban largely white commuters amongst a nostalgia affair for trains. The primary people paying for it are inner metropolis minorities who don't larn double-decker service anymore.
Lee together with Ted consider the transition from Equus caballus to auto together with truck,
(Actually, the authorities did subsidize railroads a proficient deal, together with mayhap past times doing together with therefore did stall the evolution of the truck.)
More than Equus caballus manure, I dear the icon of an alternate reality steampunk America...At left a cool steampunk RV. (Image source)
Which brings us back, I'm afraid to the primary strength behind runway subsidies, which Randall has pointed out before: Nostalgia. Nostalgia for what seems similar a simpler age. I empathise that too. I dear trains. But that doesn't brand them practical, particularly at billions of dollars per mile.
If we're doing nostalgia, how virtually doing it total fourth dimension -- high speed stagecoach lines? Bring dorsum the horse! It's all renewable!'
O'Toole:
Last month, Nashville Mayor Megan Berry announced a $5.2 billion proposal that involves edifice 26 miles of lite runway together with earthworks an expensive tunnel nether the city’s downtown. Voters volition live asked inwards May to approve a half-cent sales taxation increase plus additions to hotel, machine rental together with trouble organization excise taxes to pay for the project.Just inwards fourth dimension for self-driving Ubers to arrive.
I dear trains. But nosotros cause got to acknowledge practicalities. One shipping economist summed all at that topographic point is to know virtually transit amongst "Bus Good. Train Bad." (With a few exceptions, such every bit Manhattan.) And lite rail, worse. Trains are expensive, together with 1 time built, immobile. If people desire to larn somewhere else, tough. Rolling stock lasts to a greater extent than or less 50 years, important they bake inwards technical obsolescence. Trains acquit far fewer people per lane-mile than busses. And a fleet of self-driving Ubers linked past times estimator volition live able to role double-decker lanes.
Actually, fifty-fifty buses are to a greater extent than together with to a greater extent than questionable. As I await for the interminable lights on El Camino to cross to Stanford (on bicycle), I cause got taken to counting passengers on the well-subsidized double-decker line. The modal release is zero.
As Randy has pointed out elsewhere, the primary beneficiaries of lite runway are suburban largely white commuters amongst a nostalgia affair for trains. The primary people paying for it are inner metropolis minorities who don't larn double-decker service anymore.
To pay for novel light-rail lines that opened inwards 2012 together with 2016, Los Angeles cutting double-decker service. The metropolis lost nearly 4 double-decker riders for every additional runway rider.Congestion got yous down? Real fourth dimension tolling, adjusted infinitesimal past times minute, volition either cure traffic congestion forever, or volition bail out indebted local governments amongst massive revenues, or both. Or, allow people alive somewhere close where they work!
Lee together with Ted consider the transition from Equus caballus to auto together with truck,
‘In 50 years, every street inwards London volition live buried nether ix feet of manure.” With this 1894 prediction, the London Times warned that the era’s primary source of shipping energy—the horse—would before long practice an environmental crisis. ...
The enormous need for a cleaner together with to a greater extent than efficient source of unloose energy led to remarkable innovations inwards the internal combustion engine. By 1920 horses inwards cities had been almost alone replaced past times affordable autos together with trucks...And to live honest, Equus caballus manure replaced past times auto exhaust -- but every bit bad every bit auto exhaust is, it's a lot amend than Equus caballus manure.
Suppose governments inwards the 1890s, desperate to supervene upon the horse, had jumped on the start available alternative, the steam engine. Heavy subsidies would cause got produced to a greater extent than steam engines together with to a greater extent than enquiry on steam technology. This would only cause got waylaid the evolution of the far superior internal combustion engine.
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| Source: Obtainium works. |
More than Equus caballus manure, I dear the icon of an alternate reality steampunk America...At left a cool steampunk RV. (Image source)
Which brings us back, I'm afraid to the primary strength behind runway subsidies, which Randall has pointed out before: Nostalgia. Nostalgia for what seems similar a simpler age. I empathise that too. I dear trains. But that doesn't brand them practical, particularly at billions of dollars per mile.
If we're doing nostalgia, how virtually doing it total fourth dimension -- high speed stagecoach lines? Bring dorsum the horse! It's all renewable!'
