general motors Archives - The Handbuilt City

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Urban Planning Mobility Michigan Midwest

Infrastructure: Think Outside The Smartphone-Driven Profit Motive

July 1, 2022July 1, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments autonomous vehicles, CASE, chip shortage, connected autonomous shared electric, effects of covid on transit, effects of covid19 on transit, Electric cars, elon musk, farebox recovery ratio, Ford, ford f-150, Ford F150, ford motor company, FRR, future of mobility, general motors, GM, mary barra, MEDC, midwest, new mobility, semiconductor shortage, smart cities, smart city, smartcities, smartcitiesworld, Tesla, transit, trevor pawl, triple zero, zero emissions vehicles

One of Michigan’s most visible mobility spokespeople recently said in a webinar that smartphone ownership and profitable markets were the two hindrances to developing sustainable mobility solutions in the state. It’s a politically horrific, functionally dubious, but baffling thing to say.

auburn-hills-transit-downtown-michigan-SMART-service-funding

Urban Planning Transit infrastructure

Into Exurban Oblivion: Auburn Hills Mulls Ditching Transit Service

February 21, 2022February 21, 2022 Guest 0 Comments auburn hills, bus, bus ridership, buses, calley wang, chrysler, DaimlerChrysler, DDOT, Detroit, divergent diamond, diverging diamond, editorial, farebox recovery ratio, fca, FCAU, fiat chrysler, Flint MTA, Ford, general motors, great lakes crossing, how is transit funded, mdot, michigan department of road engineering, michigan department of transportation, Nat Zorach, nimbyism, public transit, retrofitting the suburbs, ridership, RTA, rta michigan, SMART, stellantis, suburban transit, the handbuilt city, transit, transit funding, transit millage, transportation, Urban planning

In one of the farthest-north suburbs of Detroit, a municipality’s elected representatives are discussing the possibility of eliminating fixed-route transit, which has the support of an overwhelming percentage of the electorate, to save around $800,000 per year. In this guest co-editorial, Calley Wang and Nat Zorach argue that this is a really, really terrible idea.

Business & Economics

Everyone And Their Mom Is Making An Electric Car. Few Will Prevail.

January 12, 2022January 12, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments apple car, auto show, autonomous car, car culture, car dealerships, car parc, cars, carvana, ces, ces las vegas, chrysler, customer service, dyson, electric car, Electric cars, fisker karma, Ford, frothy markets, general motors, handbuilt mba, hybrid, lordstown, lucid, naias, next big thing, nikola, nissan, polestar, range rover, self-driving car, sony, sony ev, stellantis, Tesla, volvo, volvo xc40 recharge, vroom

Sony makes great headphones and great gaming consoles. Will they be able to make a great EV? Will everyone wading into the increasingly muddy waters of the “blue” ocean of electric vehicles be able to compete? Probably not.

escalade-blocking-bus-stop-dc

Mobility Public Safety

“We’ve Got A Delegation, Bro”: Exemptions to DC Law, If You’ve Got The Money

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments cadillac, Cadillac Escalade, cager, cagers, car culture, cars, cycling, cycling infrastructure, cycling safety, dc pedestrian fatalities, dc vision zero, driver, drivers, escalade, four seasons hotel dc, four seasons total landscaping, general motors, georgetown, georgetown dc, pedestrian safety, safe streets, sidewalks, suv, suvs, vision zero, vision zero dc, walkability, walking

Car culture sucks. Even in the nation’s capital, where the city doesn’t seem able to prevent cars from parking all over sidewalks, at bus stops, and its drivers from telling you that they’re allowed to, because.

empty-surface-parking-lot

Business & Economics Mobility Culture & Language

Cars, Advertising, and The Cult of Individualism

October 6, 2021October 5, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments advertising, adverts, automobile, bmw, car culture, cars, citroen, commercials, cult of individuality, Ford, general motors, individualism, land rover, marketing, mercedes-benz, mobility, motorcar, nissan, renault, television, tv, volkswagen, volvo

Cars don’t kill people, people kill people! At least, they do when they’re only thinking of themselves– as opposed to the complex ecosystem of different people who use streets and sidewalks. Marketing

Business & Economics Mobility Culture & Language

Sidebar: GM Says They’re Serious About Electrification? Prove It.

June 17, 2021June 17, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments belle isle, belle isle detroit, belle isle grand prix, bud denker, cadillac lyriq, car culture, cars, Electric cars, F-150 Super Duty State of Mind, find new roads, general motors, GM, grand prix, lear, lear corporation, mary barra, michigan accent, range anxiety, rick waggoner, roger penske, sunburn, sunscreen, triple zero, who killed the electric car

GM talks about its commitment to electrification, and then displays a spread of exclusively gas-powered cars at the Belle Isle Grand Prix.

Business & Economics Mobility Energy Automotive

EV Charging Networks: Drive Infrastructure, Not Just Cars

June 8, 2021June 7, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments acquisition, ampacity, battery storage, chevrolet bolt, chevrolet volt, distributed energy resources, distributed generation, electric grid, electric panel, EV chargers at home, EV charging infrastructure, ev charging networks, general motors, GM, grid storage, insourcing, level 1 charger, level 2 charger, level 3 charger, li-ion, lithium-ion battery, load center, outsourcing, photovoltaics, power grid, public ev charger, public ev charging networks, rick waggoner, rooftop solar, utility-scale battery storage, utility-scale solar, v2g, vehicle-to-grid, vehicle-to-grid connectivity, who killed the electric car

A few weeks ago, I had a chat with some folks from A Major Automaker, one of the Big Two-And-A-Half,

Business & Economics Urban Planning Transit infrastructure Infrastructure

Michigan Population Numbers: How Long Before We Just Admit That This Strategy Isn’t Working?

April 27, 2021April 27, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments 1837 border war, add lane miles, aging population, big two and a half, chaldeans, chrysler, Congress, congressional seats, fca, fiat chrysler, Ford, ford motor company, funding infrastructure, general motors, GM, Gretchen Whitmer, growth, infrastructure, infrastructure and economic growth, infrastructure investment, japan, level-of-service, matt maddock, mdot, meshawn maddock, michigan, michigan legislature, ohio, population decline, population growth, rail, rail infrastructure, refugees, rightsizing, rightsizing cities, rightsizing infrastructure, shrinking cities, stellantis, tokyo, toledo border war, transit, trucks, trump, US Congress, vmt, vmt reduction, whitmer

The census numbers are in, and we’re unsurprised to learn that population growth is stagnant in parts of the great,

Business & Economics Mobility Tech

Mispricing the Chevrolet Bolt, And Other Strange Corporate Decisions

March 2, 2021March 2, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments asymmetrical information, batteries, battery technology, Big Two-and-a-Half, Bolt EUV, chevrolet bolt, chevrolet EUV, chevrolet volt, chevy bolt, chevy volt, economics, electric car, Electric cars, electric vehicles, EUV, EV charging infrastructure, F-150, F-150 Super Duty, F-150 Super Duty State of Mind, Ford, general motors, GM bolt, GM volt, LG chem, lithium-ion battery, market failure, market information, pareto optimality, talk to the invisible hand, who killed the electric car

The Chevrolet Bolt originally sold poorly. It’s now selling well, but at an average of a 30% discount off its full MSRP. Maybe that suggests it wasn’t priced right to begin with.

Mobility Energy

The “Mobility” Council’s Report: Buy A Car, Peasants

February 26, 2021February 26, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments alisyn malek, big gretch, bob babik, borgwarner, canals, cavnue, CFME, cory connolly, council on future mobility and electrification, electrification, electrified vehicles, emily frascaroli, energy innovation business council, Ford, ford motor company, general motors, google, governor whitmer, Gretchen Whitmer, infrastructure, international trade, leland stanford, liberapay, london crossrail, luo yang, mark de la vergne, mdot, MEDC, mobility initiatives, mongol invasion of japan, monumental infrastructure, moon landing, moon landing hoax, NASA, panama canal, patreon, paul ajegba, sidewalk infrastructure partners, sidewalk labs, siege of constantinople, siege of tyre, supercruise, trade, transcontinental railroad, tremaine phillips, trevor pawl, tupac shakur, wsp

The Michigan Council on Future Mobility and Electrification said that Google’s Cavnue project is “one of the most ambitious mobility initiatives in history.” We looked through the history books and picked our top four competitors.

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