infrastructure Archives - The Handbuilt City

Policy Mobility Sustainability Transit infrastructure Government

MDOT: “Making VMT Reduction A Mobility Goal Is Punitive, Combative, And Might Hurt People’s Feelings”

August 27, 2021August 27, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments AASHTO, aashto green book, brad sharlow, carbon footprint, climate change, congestion, department of transportation, green book, highway design standards, infrastructure, judd herzer, level-of-service, LoS, mdot, MEDC, michigan, michigan department of transportation, Michigan DOT, michigan economic development corporation, mobility, niles annelin, public transit, state law, state policy, toll roads, traffic, transit, transportation, transportation engineering, transportation planning, trevor pawl, vehicle hours traveled, vehicle miles traveled, VHT, vmt, vmt reduction

Representatives of Michigan’s Department of Transportation have, at two recent public meetings, firmly pushed back on the proposal that the agency must tie a reduction in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to funding considerations for new projects– using a dubious rationale.

Public Safety Transit infrastructure

Morning Coffee, Detroit Traffic: The Post-COVID Craze Is About To Be Wild

May 3, 2021May 3, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments ambassador bridge, bicycle safety, bike safety, car culture, cars, cycling infrastructure, cycling safety, Detroit, detroit police, detroit river, detroit traffic, dodge challenger, dodge charger, dodge durango, driving, gratiot, hi-riser, infrastructure, jeep, Mikki Taylor-Hendrix, nonmotorized infrastructure, pedestrian safety, riverfront park, traffic violence, west riverfront park, why do people always rev their dodge charger

Yesterday, Detroit was a whole traffic jam, as an increasingly vaccinated cross-section of, well, everyone, emerged from the cocoons of Michigan winter and lockdowns.

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,

Policy Energy Infrastructure

Biden Infrastructure Plan: What All Is Included?

April 2, 2021April 2, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments anna clark, biden administration, biden infrastructure bill, biden infrastructure plan, biden transportation policy, bridges, broadband internet, civilian climate corps, department of transportation, federal budget, federal deficit, federal spending, gretchen bakke, high-speed broadband, high-speed rail, infrastructure, infrastructure investment, joe biden, mdot, mobility infrastructure, nonmotorized infrastructure, nonmotorized transportation, pedestrian infrastructure, policy, port, ports, ports of entry, road safety, roads, USDoT, waterways

We must remind critics of the Biden infrastructure plan what all is included in the term “infrastructure.” It’s a little bit more than just cars.

Business & Economics Transit infrastructure Infrastructure

Black Ocean Strategy? Private Firms Are Looking To Cut Themselves A Slice Of The Infrastructure Pie.

March 25, 2021March 25, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments ann arbor, anthony townsend, austerity, autonomous cars, BRT, CASE, cavnue, chicago parking meter deal, chicago parking meters, daley the lesser, diane cross, EVs, fast bus, finance 101, ford mustang mach-e, free market, google, highways, hudson yards, infrastructure, Infrastructure Partners, invisible hand, jeff cranson, LRT, mach-e, mark de la vergne, mdot, michael heller, morgan stanley infrastructure partners, MSIP, mustang mach-e, PAV, privatization, privatization of transportation infrastructure, privatized, richard j. daley, richard m. daley, roadways, Sidewalk, sidewalk labs, SMART, smart city, smart roadways, subways, transportation infrastructure

Wall Street and Silicon Valley are looking for access to infrastructure as they seek out new markets and sources of reliable revenue streams and growth potential. It’s good work … if you can get it.

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.

Business & Economics Mobility Energy

EV Charging Infrastructure: From Demand To Reality

February 8, 2021February 8, 2021 Luo Yang 0 Comments akio toyoda, carbuzz, DC charger, DTE, electric vehicle adoption, electric vehicles, EV charging infrastructure, ICE, infrastructure, internal combustion engine, investor-owned utilities, investor-owned utility, IOU, jay traugott, michigan public service commission, modernizing the power grid, power grid, power transmission, prius, public utility, public works, Toyota, toyota prius, undervoltage, who is responsible for building EV charging infrastructure

One of our readers asked us to write a piece about how electric vehicle chargers even get installed at scale.

Urban Planning Mobility

Book Review – Ghost Road: Beyond the Driverless Car

February 4, 2021February 3, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments amazon, anthony townsend, ArgoAI, artificial intelligence, Autonomous, autonomous vehicles, AV, AV tech, AVs, BRT, car culture, cars, connected cities, connected vehicles, cruise automation, distribution, driving, Ford, fulfillment, fulfillment centers, GM, infrastructure, infrastructure deficit, infrastructure spending, integrated, jeff bezos, jeff bezos skull keg party, lidar, machine learning, microsprawl, public transit, self-driving, self-driving car, self-driving cars, smart cities, smart city, tech bro, tech bros, transit, trucks

Can autonomous cars save us? Well, no, but they can provide some vital innovation to our society. Provided we play our cards right, that is. Anthony Townsend’s book gives us the lowdown.

Driven: The Race To Create the Autonomous Car, by Alex Davies

January 20, 2021January 21, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments alex davies, anthony levandowski, argo, argo AI, auto industry, automotive industry, automotive sector, autonomous cars, autonomous vehicles, AV's, AVs, big tech, connected vehicles, Cruise, cruise automation, DARPA, driven, driven the race to create an autonomous car, driven the race to create an autonomous car alex davies, Ford, Ford Corktown, ford motor company, general motors, GM, infrastructure, mobility, mountain view, nevada, new mobility, palo alto, tech, tech bros, the race to create an autonomous car, transportation, william mitchell

Weekend Read. This book, Driven: The Race To Create the Autonomous Car, is worth reading for anyone who is interested

Policy Urban Planning Public transit Transit infrastructure

A Biden Presidency: Full Speed Ahead On Transit?

November 9, 2020November 8, 2020 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments amtrak, high-speed rail, infrastructure, infrastructure funding, mass transit, midwest high-speed rail, public transit, rail, rail infrastructure, trains, transit, transit infrastructure

Republicans have tried time and again to defund Amtrak, which receives about a tenth of one percent of the funding directed to car infrastructure every year. Will a new Democratic administration be able to (finally) push for modernizing our transit infrastructure?

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