Asian-Americans have one-quarter the traffic death rate of Americans as a whole
The Japanese risk of dying in a traffic accident is one-sixth the American risk, David Zipper pointed out before explaining all the ways Japan makes its roadways safer — but I pointed out a more...
View ArticleMost of the time, the road is far too big, and the rest of the time, it’s far...
Casey Handmer did a bunch of transport economics when he worked at Hyperloop: Let’s not bury the lede here. As pointed out in The Original Green blog, the entire city of Florence, in Italy, could fit...
View ArticleOne can build a commuter rail network, an intercity network, or a...
Rail systems are, by their nature, one dimensional, Casey Handmer explains: Any disruption on a rail line shuts down the entire line, imposing high maintenance costs on an entire network to ensure...
View ArticleDomes are over-rated
Any article about Moon or Mars bases needs to have a conceptual drawing of habitation domes, but domes have significant drawbacks, Casey Handmer reminds us: Domes feature compound curvature, which...
View ArticleCastle design assumes the enemy will reach the walls
The battlements along the top of a castle wall were designed to allow a small number of defenders to exchange fire effectively with a large number of attackers, and in so doing to keep those attackers...
View ArticleThe US has about 250 billion square feet of residential floor space
The US has about 250 billion square feet of residential floor space, spread across about 100 million individual buildings: The majority of that square footage is found in single family homes, which...
View ArticleThe problem is particularly acute in Los Angeles and San Francisco
A recent Boston Consulting Group survey found that many office buildings are at risk of becoming “zombies,” with low usage, high vacancy and quickly diminishing financial viability: The problem is...
View ArticleThe federal court decision affecting homeless tent encampments in America
Five years ago, a federal court issued a crucial ruling, Martin v. Boise, affecting homeless tent encampments in America: People experiencing homelessness, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said,...
View ArticlePopulation centers were once built with defense as a top priority
As part of Kyiv’s reconstruction effort, city administrators and government officials should consider modifications to bolster the city’s defenses: Had the Ukrainian government constructed the dam in a...
View ArticleHaving garbage-strewn subways that effectively serve as mobile homeless...
It’s always jarring to come home to the US, Chris Arnade notes, often from much poorer countries, to find that our infrastructure is infinitely worse: But it was what happened after I left the airport...
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