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April 07, 2008

Shared Propulsion

Via BoingBoing:
Artist beats ticket for 'driving' pedal car

Is it transportation or is it art?

Shared Propulsion

Via BoingBoing:
Artist beats ticket for 'driving' pedal car

Is it transportation or is it art?

January 05, 2008

Traffic jam as an indicator of success

Traffic jams are not a measure of failure in the transportation system, they are measures of success in the activity/land use system, to wit: would you rather be a candidate with a traffic jam (from Baltimore Sun): The Swamp: An Obama traffic jam

or one with no traffic at all (from San Diego Union Tribune)

Duncan Hunter keeps on, despite lacking funds, attention

October 10, 2007

Top 100 Academic Blogs Every Professional Investor Should Read

The Transportationist makes Top 100 Academic Blogs Every Professional Investor Should Read .
I haven't given much in the way of stock tips on the blog, but hey, if someone can profit from reading this, more power to them.

May 27, 2007

Transportation among our ant overlords

From BBC: 'Living plugs' smooth ant journey

Ants seeing holes along a major ant highway will use themselves to form plugs to fill the hole, and enable their comrades a smoother journey.

May 02, 2007

The Truth Behind 4/29

Was the MacArthur Maze Meltdown a conspiracy? This site: 4/29truth.com aims to discover the truth. Some great links from the site, as well as a brilliant send-up of 9/11.

February 07, 2007

Road rage: Someone is unhappy with traffic enforcement

From the Evening Standard: Three injured in new letter-bomb attack. This is the fourth in a wave of letter-bomb attacks, one attacked Capita, which administers the London Congestion Charge, one Speed Check Services, which does traffic enforcement, and one today at DVLA, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Administration.

It recalls the The Mad Bomber of New York City in the 1940s, though the pace is much faster in this case.

December 26, 2006

Advisor to "nearly every president on transportation since Truman"

According to
this article
I have now been credited as advisor to "nearly every president on transportation since Truman". For the record, I was born in the Lyndon Johnson administration (and near the end of that), not the Andrew Johnson administration.

Reference:
Cars at crux of tension between Metro and suburbs
FRESH LOOK — Transit road map hinges on city, county, region agreement
By Nick Budnick
The Portland Tribune Nov 27, 2006
http://www.portlandtribune.com/rethinking/story.php?story_id=116425643065543400

June 13, 2006

Road Trip

We returned from a road trip from Minneapolis to Pittsburgh last night. We went to Pittsburgh to attend the lovely wedding of Jason Hong, a friend of ours from Berkeley quizbowl, who is now a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. We stopped for the night outside Toledo on the way there and outside Milwaukee on the way back.

Random observations in roughly chronological order.

Continue reading "Road Trip" »

June 07, 2006

Pirate Party of the United States

I have always been a fan of third parties ... here is one which is one day old, the
Pirate Party of the United States
. It takes its lead from Sweden's Piratpartiet and has a clear "information wants to be free" agenda. Copyright and patents must have their uses, but clearly, they are being exploited for private gain and not the public good. I believe a good open debate on what is property and what property deserves the state's monopoly of force to defend is warranted.

I would imagine if they thought about it, The Pirate Party would be for "free roads" too, though.

May 27, 2006

The Thick Of It

I have just started watching The Thick of It on BBC Four and BBC America. A weird combination of Yes Minister and The Office, it hilariously captures the rise of public relations over substance in the bureaucracy. It reminded me of the politically hyper-sensitive reign of current Congressional candidateElwyn Tinklenberg as Transportation Commissioner in Minnesota during the Ventura administration.


My favorite quote of course is in Episode One when the then Minister of Home Affairs is being told to resign, and he suggests the Transport Minister resign instead, and the political aide says something like "We can't fire him. Transport, that's important stuff, you know, cars, trucks, roads" and the doomed Minister of Home Affairs says "I know what Transport is".

-- dml

April 14, 2006

Welcome to The Transportationist

This is my new blog on transportation policy, planning, and economics.

-- David Levinson
http://rational.ce.umn.edu

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.