Weekend links: Keep calm and carry on

by Eric Fidler • August 27, 2011 12:54 pm

NOAA satellite image of Irene

Goodnight, Irene: Hurricane Irene is fast approaching. Metro will stay open; follow @WMATA for updates. (NOAA, WMATA) ... Amtrak has canceled almost all trains in the region. (Reuters) ... Pepco warns customers that power restoration might take "mulitple days." ... New York is making a massive, unprecedented effort to cease subway service and evacuate 370,000 residents. (NYT)

Wind power blowback hits the UK: The vast majority of Britons favor wind power, yet constructing windmills frequently faces vehement opposition. (NYT)

Build on CaBi's success: A Post op-ed by David says CaBi has been a great success and should expand to other jurisdictions and NPS land. Also, setting up the entire system for DC and Arlington cost just a fraction of a single highway interchange.

Gas tax vs. fuel efficiency: Raising fuel efficiency standards may unwittingly increase driving while reducing the gas tax revenue necessary to maintain the roads driven on. Is raising the gas tax a better alternative? (Infrastructurist)

Gabe & others for Chicago BRT: Gabe Klein is pushing for new BRT lines in Chicago, though a local advocacy group has an even more ambitious program. Some criticized DDOT when he headed it for not making bus priority much of a priority. (TTP)

Sprawl is more than low-density: While "sprawl" is usually associated with very low density neighborhoods, it can be high-density, too, when there are apartment complexes surrounded by large, unwalkable suburban-style arterials. (New Jersey Future)

Young people driving much, much less: People of all ages are driving less, but people aged 20-39 far more than any other age group. Does this reduction foretell a change in transportation policy? (Sightline Daily, Nolan)

Planner right hooked by turn he banned: A San Francisco city planner who fought for a ban on right turns at a dangerous intersection was hit by a tourist driver making that very illegal right turn. Police didn't ticket the driver. (Streetsblog SF)

Washington not the next capital of the world: The Economist debates where the next "capital of the world" is. They cut Washington from the running because it "has little going for it except the authority of the United States." (More Intelligent Life)

And...: The dream of a railroad connecting Russia and Alaska lives on. (MSNBC) ... Buy a house in Baltimore for $10,000. (Baltimore Sun) ... A DDOT customer service center will replace an art gallery that's been living rent-free in the Reeves Center. (City Paper)

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here if you still have power.

19 comments

Tags: Alaska, Amtrak, Arlington, arts, Baltimore, bike safety, BRT, bus priority, buses, California, Capital Bikeshare, Chicago, crash charges, DC, DDOT, demographics, density, enforcement, freight rail, fuel efficiency, Gabe Klein, gas taxes, Illinois, links, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, NPS, real estate prices, roads, Russia, San Francisco, sprawl, UK, Virginia, weather, wind energy, WMATA, youth

Eric Fidler has lived in DC and suburban Maryland his entire life. He likes long walks along the Potomac and considers the L'Enfant Plan an elegant work of art. He also blogs at Left for LeDroit, LeDroit Park's (only) blog of record.

Comments
Add a comment »

From the link:It is international without being cosmopolitan; it inspires respect but not imitation; it has political power, but not the power of example.

Pretty damning words. And very true. Too bad CMs are still more busy catching flies from each other and ignoring their neighboring jurisdictions than working together to make Washington at least a serious contender for World Capital.

by Jasper on Aug 27, 2011 1:18 pm

I thought the More Intelligent Life article was pretty fair. And, it's hard to dismiss the appeal of London/NYC/Tokyo as capitals of the world.

What we have here in DC is in the process of becoming something greater. It's not the high-voltage city that I experience when I go to NYC or the city of Western history for the last 1000 years as you have in London. Though, none of those great cities have had the historic quirk of being without representation in the government of their countries.

I'm here right now because I sense things are in the process of becoming. Also, it's easier to park my car. ;)

by AltHippo on Aug 27, 2011 2:18 pm

Re: gas tax. Please, please, please, GGW, no links to articles based on Freakonomics "analysis." Real economists understand that markets fail, that policies involve compromise, and that politics and governance issues matter. Freakonomics analysis is written, as far as I can tell, by precocious tenth grade boys.

"The trouble with being a contrarian is you need to know exactly when to stop." - Krugman. All freakonomics does is try to find some economic law which points in the opposite direction to common sense. God forbid they go and talk to anybody about their assumptions, usually implicit, about how things actually work in the real world.

Economics is an important discipline. Freakonomics gives it a terrible name.

/rant

by DavidDuck on Aug 27, 2011 2:50 pm

Or at least a small warning "(Freakonomics)" next to the link, like a pdf warning? Is that too much to ask?

Jasper what are CMs?

by DavidDuck on Aug 27, 2011 2:52 pm

@ AltHippo:Though, none of those great cities have had the historic quirk of being without representation in the government of their countries.

Euhm... You do realize that London is the Capital of a Kingdom right (actually, two or three depending on how you count). And that the King of the UK still has absolute power, only deferring his power to parliament. Sure Lizzy II can't do much without the prime ministers approval, but in the past, parliament was not much more than an advisory board, filled with friends, family and (financial) supporters.

Similarly, Tokyo is the capital of an Empire. Sure, Japan goes faster through prime ministers than Italy these days, but that was not always the case.

@ DavidDuck: what are CMs?

City Council Members.

by Jasper on Aug 27, 2011 3:21 pm

It isn't just Freakonomics analysis leading to support of a higher gas tax. The effects of higher fuel economy standards have been covered many times over. It is hard to find an economist who supports something other than a higher gas tax, a cap and trade system, and/or congestion charges.

by movement on Aug 27, 2011 4:30 pm

1) The Economist is right. 2) I tend to associate sprawl with a lack of mixed uses rather than density per se. You can have townhouses or apartments for miles and miles and thats sprawl even though it may have higher density than a more traditional town or village.

by spookiness on Aug 27, 2011 10:15 pm

@movement

Great. Those economists can feel all pure and superior. Meanwhile, in the real world, folks who actually are working to reduce CO2 in the real world and reduce our petroleum consumption will use the tools they have available. And the CAFE standards are a darn good tool, and have in fact reduced fuel consumption and CO2 - by a big number. Blaming CAFE standards for sprawl is like blaming safety standards for highways for sprawl.

Wanna get a gas tax through this congress? How about a gas tax that would reduce consumption enough to match what the CAFE standards will get? My guess is that would be 50-100 cents a gallon. Good luck.

And guess what? Gas taxes aren't perfect either. Sometimes the vehicle purchase is made by someone who does not pay for the gas. Market fail sometimes.

This is an example of Jevon's paradox which in my opinion is hard to measure but is often smart folks come along and tell us it is a big problem. However, it is easy to find estimates of the rebound effect from CAFE standards and they are not very big, see the wikipedia article for CAFE standards for a reference to an NAS study. (The found increases of 1-2% in driving for a 10% increase in milage). In fact, I am fairly sure that EPA or DOT includes this analysis in the documentation of their rules. It is a small, examined problem, which freakonomics never bothers to mention.

by DavidDuck on Aug 28, 2011 12:04 am

@DavidDuck: You're being unfairly critical of economists. Almost every economist who has studied this issue thinks that a higher gas tax is a better policy than a CAFE standard. But the vast majority of economists also understand that the political process doesn't always pick the best policy -- and if a higher gas tax is politically impossible (which seems to be the case for the US right now), then having a CAFE standard is still much better than doing nothing at all.

by Rob on Aug 28, 2011 11:27 am

Either we are not seeing images of trees other than those that line streets that have fallen or there is something unique to street trees that makes them particularly susceptible to falling. Maybe it is an inability of their roots to spread in one direction or the other. I don't know. Whether recent sidewalk or curb work gave those fallen trees the fatal blow, I don't know. Yes, it was the big older trees that fell - as we have heard, these are the trees we love and value. I also heard the mayor say that there root systems were very strong.

We need understanding on this issue. So here's hoping for an informed discussion on this topic in the days to come, and I include myself in that!

by Jazzy on Aug 28, 2011 11:34 am

Well, I see the new comments policy lasted about a fortnight.

by Kolohe on Aug 28, 2011 11:55 am

A gas tax, like a carbon tax, could be politically feasible if you simply added the word "rebate" on the end. The way it would work is that every cent of additional gas tax collected over-and-above the status quo would be divided equally among every man, woman, and child in the US and sent out annually as a rebate check. People like getting a check in the mail from Uncle Sam almost as much as they like low taxes, so as long as too much money didn't get eaten up in administrative costs, it should be workable.

The great advantage of rebating all the extra gas tax money is that you wouldn't be adding any funds to the Highway Trust fund, which induces driving demand by funding more roads.

Another small advantage of the rebate check is that it could be used to offset tax delinquencies. Billions of dollars in small dollar balances (less than $500) are owed to the IRS that are never collected. They can't be offset with most government payments like Social Security by law/policy but it would be much more politically feasible to offset those balances with a gas/carbon tax rebate.

by Falls Church on Aug 28, 2011 1:43 pm

Duh -- CAFE was implemented to extend oil resources, to help the domestic economy and limit the need to fight foreign wars. Manufacturers have only a small incentive to provide fuel efficiency; compared to the 12 mpg people got before CAFE, it has indeed extended fuel resources. It has nothing to do improving the environment and road maintenance, or reducing driving, which require different tools to address. I cannot imagine why anyone would intertwine these issues.

by goldfish on Aug 28, 2011 2:20 pm

@Jasper

Even if we had a well-adjusted Council full of (insert your favorite CM here) types, upping the game of the DC metro area to "world capital" level would still require heavy investment and support from the federal government, as well as those "neighboring jurisdictions" you mentioned. Under the present political climate and set of circumstances, such support is not forthcoming.

For instance, look at the London Underground's capital upgrade plan: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/corporate/our-upgrade-plan-london-underground-february-2011.pdf

Can anyone seriously imagine Metro being able to undertake something like this? I don't just mean due to internal WMATA dysfunction - Ray LaHood couldn't push something like that through if he wanted to.

DC Voting Rights and statehood are all well and good, but London has 73 Members of Parliament - more than one tenth of the entire body. It's just a whole different level.

That's not really correct, nor has it been for quite a long time. The UK is a constitutional monarchy, with legal restrictions on the monarch's authority. You can ask Charles I and the hilariously named Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David (aka Edward VIII aka The Duke of Windsor) about what happens when you piss off Parliament. And Charles was at least legitimately trying to usurp Parliamentary authority - Edward just wanted to marry an American vamp divorcee!

by Dizzy on Aug 28, 2011 2:48 pm

@Jazzy

Street trees are, by nature, next to the street, and thus next to a lot of impervious surface. You're not going to get much root structure under the roadway because of that - therefore, when the ground is saturated with water, they are more susceptible to being uprooted.

I don't think recent construction had anything to do with it, just the ton of rain that saturated the ground and loosened things up. Add in some relatively high winds, and something's got to give. In this case, it's the soil-root connection.

by Alex B. on Aug 28, 2011 6:06 pm

@ Dizzy:Can anyone seriously imagine Metro being able to undertake something like this?

The Londoners could not 15 years ago. The Tube was in the tubes. When I was in London in '97, the Tube was horrific, and they were desperate about it, because they thought they could not afford to get it done. Now, 14 years later, they have a fantastic Jubilee Line and other great improvements. The New York subway is also improving.

It's not easy, especially in the current hysterical political climate, but it can be done. It just should not depend on one man.

It's odd that I, as an immigrant, have to remind you, the native, that this is the land where the sky is the limit.

That's not really correct, nor has it been for quite a long time.

We're not disagreeing about Lizzy's lack of power. I am disagreeing with AltHippo that Londoners always have had representation in their parliament. They did not. The UK/England/London started as a pretty absolute monarchy with no representation of anybody, other than the monarch. Again, the Londoners went from zero to something, so can DC.

by Jasper on Aug 28, 2011 8:44 pm

The Gabe Klein Cult is a little creepy.

by Bruce on Aug 28, 2011 10:43 pm

Jasper,

If that was your point - that DC can eventually gain representation - then that's fine as far as it goes. The UK example isn't the best, though - for as long as there has been a Parliament, London has been heavily represented in it - not surprising, since the city was founded in the year 43 and has been the focal point of England in a way DC never has been in the U.S. Moreover, even when the English monarch was absolute, his being located in London ensured that the townspeople had more influence on him than residents of any other city (sometimes that influence was quite forceful - the river entrance to the Tower of London was built in part because the king's men kept getting attacked by hungry and destitute locals).

In any case, even with a voting member of Congress from DC, the entire Greater Washington area will still have far less representation than the other proposed "world capitals." That is a more fundamental structural and demographic issue.

Also, sorry to disappoint you, but I too am an immigrant. Moreover, I came from a place with an even grander and more vital Metro than London! So I know that great things can be accomplished. Then again, building the thing required Stalinist efforts... literally. So perhaps not the best model ;)

by Dizzy on Aug 29, 2011 10:34 am

@ Dizzy:In any case, even with a voting member of Congress from DC, the entire Greater Washington area will still have far less representation than the other proposed "world capitals."

Humbug. There are plenty of world capitals with straight up proportional representation, i.e. no districts, those capitals do fine. Hell, I'm from a country with that, AND the government is not even in the capital!

DC is not neglected because of lack of representation. The entire US is being neglected...

building the thing required Stalinist efforts... literally.

Ah, that one. A well done job, I hear. Did Muscovites have representation at the time?

by Jasper on Aug 29, 2011 11:50 am