So basically what we've done is flip the distribution system upside down such that all goods are moved to big box retailer, resulting in a transfer of the transportation cost to the customer.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Stick to hard lines
Obama announced today new C.A.F.E standards for American automobile manufacturers. However, there is a loophole that states that in 2021, the car companies can renegotiate on the 54.5 mpg regulation if they "claim the standard is unattainable." Which basically means that they have less of an incentive to innovate dramatically if they know they have an opt out option in the future. The Obama administration should stick to more strict guidelines that are not allowed to be deviated from. This is how we can expect revolutionary breakthroughs in vehicle technology.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Deteriorating infrastructure no surprise to anyone.
Geez no surprise here.
A couple things to note:
-Simply spending on highway/road maintenance equates to nothing less then a regressive tax on the poor.
- A fix it only approach hardly adds mobility for anybody. For every $1 spent on road maintenance, $1.50 should be spent on new infrastructure.
-Unfortunate to say, but politics will get in the way of any attempt at a high speed rail network in the U.S. Do I hear 2 term limit for congressman.
-And for gosh sake, increase the federal gas tax while slowly transitioning to a VMT tax.
A couple things to note:
-Simply spending on highway/road maintenance equates to nothing less then a regressive tax on the poor.
- A fix it only approach hardly adds mobility for anybody. For every $1 spent on road maintenance, $1.50 should be spent on new infrastructure.
-Unfortunate to say, but politics will get in the way of any attempt at a high speed rail network in the U.S. Do I hear 2 term limit for congressman.
-And for gosh sake, increase the federal gas tax while slowly transitioning to a VMT tax.
Deregulation doesnt work
As was demonstrated in our recent financial meltdown, deregulation not only is not the solution, it's one of the greatest accelerators to complete chaos. Deregulated transportation systems benefits nobody. Not the operators and especially not the user. Strict network, fair, route and design regulation is needed to ensure greater accessibility, which is one of the primary purposes for public transit to begin with. If there was a level of compatibility between competing operators, this could alleviate some of the network discrepancies.
On the same topic but a whole new level, transit cards across cities should be completely compatible. Why is it that I can't my CTA Chicago transit card and use it on the Metro System in D.C.? You would think this is something Visa or Mastercard would be getting behind. They have the capability and capacity to implement such a solution.
http://www.humantransit.org/2011/07/an-oxford-innovation-take-the-bus-that-comes.html
On the same topic but a whole new level, transit cards across cities should be completely compatible. Why is it that I can't my CTA Chicago transit card and use it on the Metro System in D.C.? You would think this is something Visa or Mastercard would be getting behind. They have the capability and capacity to implement such a solution.
http://www.humantransit.org/2011/07/an-oxford-innovation-take-the-bus-that-comes.html
Monday, June 20, 2011
Privitization of transport networks
Transport Politic discusses the possibility of privatizing our nations intercity rail operator, beginning with Amtraks Northeast corridor. The most heavily used corridor in the country. Having private operators competing for customers would result in cheaper fares in the NE, but only if the infrastructure is still owned by the public, i.e. the Federal Govt. Having owner operator type operation would result in biased selection of passenger train operators.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)