Congestion can be solved by charging more for driving. Even a modest amount would start affecting how much people drive. The money could be used for better roads and improving other transit options that aren't so space-inefficient. That said, this would likely be unpopular to implement until the effects were visible. See congestion pricing in NYC as an example.
Is there evidence sanctions strengthen a regime? With Russia at war right now, sanctions do indeed seem to be helping Ukraine with Russia having a budget crisis.
If this just replaces steel beams or allows more post frame construction, the walls wouldn't change. Actually, if used in post frame style construction, it would allow for more space for insulation with less thermal bridging.
Totally agree on taxing undesirable behavior--everyone complains about 'traffic' and the potential traffic impacts of something. If noise/pollution was taxed appropriately perhaps traffic would be less of a concern.
A government needs to get revenue somehow and wages are just a very convenient way to do so. However, with all the modern technology that we have now, I think there are options available that are not being taken (such as fair land use tax with computer calculated values)
The higher level story is that the administration deliberately used an app that circumvents records laws, lied about it under oath, and then did not take any accountability whatsoever for their actions. "Carelessness is contagious"
US manufacturing is at an all time high in terms of output. Less people are needed in that sector because it's an area where automation is highest. I agree that there is a national security reason to have tariffs to protect some manufacturing, but that should be a precision targeted tariff if anything.
I'm not even sure that it is to the detriment of our domestic laborers. It certainly makes domestic manufacturing less competitive, especially the lowest skill/barrier to entry manufacturing. However, the US manufactures a LOT still, there are loads of reasonably well paying jobs for lower skill worker. I will say that housing and healthcare costs are high in the US but those are not things that are imported.
Crossing guards aren't a substitute for good road design. There should probably be a narrower road by schools to slow people down as well as raised crosswalks. Similar to https://maps.app.goo.gl/TpAiphV8iJZ7j6mY9 as an example. This is across from a school in England where a very high percentage walk
Great article. It wouldn't be that difficult for schools and cities to encourage walking or biking. There are lots of easy things that could be done. My daughter's school doesn't properly clear the sidewalks during winter. The giant parking lot is always immaculate though. They actually renovated and rerouted traffic to make it less safe for pedestrians. My daughter's friend was hit in a crosswalk (with a crossing guard!) by a parent leaving school after dropping her kid off. No penalty to the driver.
Let Ukraine attack Russia through European territory. Let them take Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg. Ukraine is boxed in right now but all those other places are lightly defended
Why should we subsidize driving exactly? Charge per mile based on how much vehicle weighs and pollutes and charge enough to cover the cost of maintaining the roads. Many of the poorest people can't even afford a car. Insurance, fuel, maintenance are expensive and paying for roads is expensive.
Another option is to make deals with universities or schools for access for their students where they pay a certain amount per year and the students can all have access
It's the tragedy of the commons. Driving is very convenient, however it is also VERY space inefficient and congested streets with drivers slows down busses and makes public transit worse. Furthermore, the price of driving is not born fully by drivers. The noise and particulate pollution, increased danger to the public, and space taken by cars is not paid for by drivers in any meaningful way.
Focusing on development is not a panacea--I see plenty of places that are trying to 'develop' but it is just sprawl. Plenty of places give huge incentives and pays for road upgrades for things like corporate parks that never fill up or pay for the investment.
Roundabout also have the effect of not needing expensive traffic lights and not needing as wide of roads. They increase throughput and thus can decrease backups. If you only have 2 lanes instead of 4 it is much less expensive to maintain.
> One issue with our neighbourhood is that SUVs use our road to skip past 2 junctions that get congested during school drop-off/pickup. The moms sometimes look ridiculously tiny in their urban tanks, but they speed through a residential road to shave off a minute from their school run. People in cars appear to act more selfishly than people outside of cars (has there been any research on that?) and I think roads should be designed with that in mind.
There are school busses--need to penalize people driving children to school as long as there are busses. The 'school run' needlessly increases traffic and danger and causes expensive decisions in school design.
At some point when you clear out all the actual places to go in order to add parking and make it easy to drive there, people realize there is nothing down there and stop going, at which point you just have what happened to Detroit.