An occasional update on items from Motordom – the world of auto dominance.
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THE INFRASTRUCTURE CULT
A brilliant piece (i.e. I really agree with it) by Charles Marohn, in the New Urban Network News, on another push by the American Society of Civil Engineers to convince everyone of the need to spend trillions of dollars on a failing proposition: the Ponzi-scheme growth system of new roads and “the fake prosperity of a land use pattern that is bankrupting us, housing bubble and all.”
We have a government that can borrow and tax as much money as needed and a Federal Reserve to print whatever Congress lacks the “courage” to raise. Combine that with a cult-like belief that the path to prosperity in America is to create more growth through more infrastructure spending, and you have a recipe for financial disaster. There is no negative feedback loop here that will slow this madness.
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PEAK TRAVEL?
Further to sources mentioned in Price Points, here’s another contribution to the growing evidence that the developed world may have reached another peak:
TRENDS IN PASSENGER TRANSPORT IN EIGHT INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES
Adam Millard-Ball and Lee Schipper
… we show that increases in total activity (passenger travel) have been the driving force behind increased energy use, offset somewhat by declining energy intensity. We show that total activity growth has halted relative to GDP in recent years in the eight countries examined.
If these trends continue, it is possible that accelerated decline in the energy intensity of car travel; stagnation in total travel per capita; some shifts back to rail and bus modes; and at least somewhat less carbon per unit of energy could leave the absolute levels of emissions in 2020 or 2030 lower than today.
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