Comments for Blueprint America

Comment on [REPORT] Bridge to Somewhere: Public Works Administration by a

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:53:51 +0000

Great post! This is not only a prime example of juxtaposition but also a bit of nostalgia and creativity where you would least expect it in the heart of the Financial District.

Comment on [VIDEO] Dubuque Smart City: With stimulus, putting the small town back to work by Brittni Behney

Brittni Behney — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:50:12 +0000

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Comment on Gridlock Sam: Freedom Fees by Frank McArdle

Frank McArdle — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 23:35:43 +0000

Whatever you want to call them, we need a user fee system to pay for the capital and operating costs of our utility systems. And the analyses of the National Study Commission on Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue, of which I was a member, suggests that we need to be spending at a rate that is at least three times that which we now invest as a nation. The current annual level of $ 80 billions should be at least $ 240 billions if we are to build out all of the investments that have a positive return on investment.

Raising such sums in this climate clearly scares the current Congress. The House leadership seems to be committed only to a program that can be supported by the existing revenue flows. That suggests that we will have only a $ 240 billion six year program, which will buy only 70% of what the last program got us,which was inadequate to keep up.

It’s time to take the entire program into the utility model and treat it as we treat,or should treat, the national grid,as the key underpinning of our national economic success.

Comment on Gridlock Sam: Too Big to Fall by Frank McArdle

Frank McArdle — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 23:23:55 +0000

I am persuaded that we will only create the right climate for transportation and other public infrastructure systems when we start envisioning them as network utilities and treating them as such. It was the original premiss of the Clean Water Act and is the central recommendation of the National Study Commission on Surface Transportation Policy and Finance, on which I was privileged to serve. There can never be an adequate flow of funds into our transportation system as long as we allow legislative bodies to set our utility rates and user fees, and the ‘gas tax’ is really a user fee. We have to allow out user fee rates to be set to generate the funds that are necessary and sufficient to meet our national performance standards. Our national performance standards have guided our investments in clean water and we should be setting enforceable national performance standards in transportation to insure that we are creating and maintaining the necessary underpinnings for our economic future.

We will only eliminate fracture critical bridges or structurally deficient bridges when we have set a national requirement that we do so and we charge the users to pay for it. We would not accept structural deficiencies from our water and electric utilities of the kind that we routinely identify and live with in transportation.

Comment on Let’s Get Back on Track for High-Speed Rail by Frank McArdle

Frank McArdle — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 23:11:30 +0000

There has to be more to the argument for high speed passenger rail than its job creations. There has to be a business case for high speed rail, one that allows us to monetize real economic benefits and understand how users will be found and how they will benefit. But in the United States it is hard to find that business case made today. There are very few places,outside the coastal corridors, where one has substantial business travel between center cities. People generally start in the suburbs and end there. Where there are center city-center city trips the costs of creating true high speed rail,both in the time it takes to create a program and the costs of construction through built up areas,are extraordinarily high. And, notwithstanding the population growth over the next 50 years, it is the trips generated by that growth that are important. I suspect that changes in communications will obviate many of the trips that we take today.

Upstate New York presents a typical case. There is great hope that investment in high speed passenger rail will somehow rescue the declining upstate economy. But how many people travel along the Buffalo/Albany corridor each day? And how many could we persuade to use high speed rail if there are suburban trip legs at the beginning and end of the journey? We might better invest in the local transportation infrastructure for freight and goods movement so that we can better exploit the commodities and agricultural production opportunities in upstate.

Comment on [VIDEO] Off the Rails by Robert R. Johnson

Robert R. Johnson — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:13:34 +0000

There is a technical alternative to high speed rail that could be faster and much cheaper to build, operate, and maintain. I call it Pneumatic People Transport; it is a modern version of the old department store air tube system for depositing cash. Costco uses one today. The technique for people transport uses air cushion support and thus has no high friction bearings or heavy loads. The people pods are esssentially preinflated air bags inside a porous cylindrical skin.

Much of the early material you used in the Detroit program of BluePrint America originated with Prof. Dan Pitera of UD Mercy. Dan is my son-in-law. I am Prof. Emeritus, Computer Science, Univ. of Utah and former VP Engineering for Burroughs in Detroit under Ray Macdonald. The engineering transition from adding machines to computers at Burroughs was my responsibility there for Ray.

Is there any interest there in learning at least one technical alternative that could be available to really blue-print America with a practical high speed transport system?

Bob Johnson

Comment on Gridlock Sam: Too Big to Fall by News & Notes — Greater City: Providence

News & Notes — Greater City: Providence — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:24:11 +0000

[...] Gridlock Sam: Too Big to Fall [Blueprint America] …as pointed out in a new book, Too Big to Fall by Barry LePatner, there are tens of [...]

Comment on [VIDEO] Detroit will encourage its residents to move by The Dee

The Dee — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:48:37 +0000

Wayne State University is a big reason why people and businesses are moving back into Midtown Detroit. This video is a good example why… http://bit.ly/f2gfye

Comment on Gridlock Sam: Freedom Fees by Michael S. Ellegood, PE

Michael S. Ellegood, PE — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:40:09 +0000

There is even a more fundamental issue than funding, it is that our DOTs and agencies responsible for public infrastructure have a documented history of not being able to deliver what they set out to deliver on budget and schedule. AASHTO published a study in 2007 (NCHRP Project 20-24) that looked at the project delivery track record of over 26,000 projects in 20 states over a five year period. They found that for projects with a construction cost over $5 mil, 30% exceeded their initial contract amounts by over 10%. Only 35% of these projects were delivered on time. This tracks with my personal experience as a Public Works and Transportation Director of a major urban county. In my opinion, we should not be asking for more money if this is our documented track record.
What we need are several things: (1) an understanding and awareness of this issue by senior transportation managers; (2) Empowered public sector project managers; (3) An array of simple but effective project management tools for the public sector; (4) An accounting system that is useful for project managers not just for the accountants; (5) A culture of project management in our transportation agencies.
Business could not long survive with a project delivery track record as abysmal as ours in the public sector, we can and must do better. When this is accomplished, we can, with impunity, ask our citizens for more money.

Comment on [REPORT] Bridge to Somewhere: Works Progress Administration by Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:15:07 +0000

Just wondering where I could find the 1939 survey regarding the best/worst programs of the New Deal (the citation from the first sentence). Thank you!

Comment on FIND A SCREENING by Ginger B

Ginger B — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:47:37 +0000

Anyone able to screen this in Washington, DC?