DCist reports that DC city councilmembers Tommy Wells and Mary Cheh proposed legislation that would allow the mayor to designate apartment buildings where residents would not be allowed to purchase residential parking permits. This innovative legislation would mark a sharp turn away from typical … [Read more...]
New funding for roads in Georgia
The Georgia Department of Transportation recently approved $102 million in projects to improve the state's infrastructure. The department gave the go ahead on these projects as the state is in the midst of a debate over a new proposed one percent sales tax to help fund infrastructure.Highway … [Read more...]
E-books for everyone!
The era of liberals writing e-books about market urbanism is upon us! I knew about Matt Yglesias' upcoming "Kindle Single" The Rent is Too Damn High, but Ryan Avent's The Gated City took me by surprise. Ryan's book has a "print length" of 90 pages, costs $1.99, and despite the name "Kindle Single," … [Read more...]
New standards for ridiculousness in historic preservation
Because Arlington County, VA is not home to many properties over 100 years old, planning officials have turned their historic preservation efforts to those properties they do have to preserve. The Sun Gazette reports: The first phase of the effort focused on only a very narrow slice of property … [Read more...]
Setting the right transit safety standards
Two years ago, two trains on Metro's red line collided killing nine people in DC. In response to this tragic accident, Metro is spending $1 billion to improve the system's safety. WMATA's interim General Manager told the Washington Post: “The system is absolutely safer than it was a year ago,” said … [Read more...]
More Libertarians on Jane Jacobs
The Ludwig von Mises Institute publishes a podcast performed by Jeff Riggenbach called "The Libertarian Tradition", which discusses significant figures in the libertarian movement. The most recent edition is dedicated to Jane Jacobs, who's ideas are highly regarded by many libertarians, despite the … [Read more...]
Not Marshmallows, but a Really, REALLY Big Lollipop
In the last post, commenter AWP helped me realize that the marshmallow mountain analogy could be improved upon, since one person eating a marshmallow prevented another person from eating that same marshmallow. But the road cannot be subdivided as simply. Yes, a nit-picky implication of the … [Read more...]
Urban[ism] Legend: Transportation is a Public Good
In a recent post, commenter Jeremy H. helped point out that the use of the term "public good" is grossly abused in the case of transportation. Even Nobel economists refer to roads as "important examples of production of public goods," ( Samuelson and Nordhaus 1985: 48-49). I'd like to spend a … [Read more...]