!! AARRRGH !!
Oh, the frustration!
As Peter Galuszka has noted, EMR has not posted much at BRB of late.
This is NOT just due to travel, holidays, snow or even the process of aging.
At SYNERGY there are a number of new projects and Perspectives well on the way to publication BUT
The PLAN was to get out the next version of CITIZEN MEDIA that includes THE LITMUS TEST before other items were published.
Many of those who have worked on THE LITMUS TEST (TLT) believe TLT is an important step toward protecting intellectual inquiry from Idea Spam – as distinguished from Personal Relationship Spam and Enterprise Spam which are two more widely recognized forms of electronic communication pollution.
TLT is intended to provide a firewall to protect citizens not just from Idea Spam but from Intentional Information Sabotage.
Alas, progress on the CITIZEN MEDIA redraft is slow; TOO SLOW when there is an immediate threat that can undermine peace, security, economic prosperity, social stability and environmental sustainability in the Commonwealth and across the US.
That danger is INFRASTRUCTURE MANIA. Agencies are about to waste $ Trillions on infrastructure.
Both the Elephant Clan and the Donkey Clan are posed to dump outrageous sums on outrageously wasteful infrastructure in the name of ‘jobs,’ ‘recovery’ and ‘economic growth’
The President’s State of the Union speech contains non-specific language proposing nation-wide ‘action.’
In the Commonwealth, The Clown Show is about endorse pandering politicians scheme to dump $4 Billion onto a road builders, equipment suppliers and land speculators wish list.
Mr. Bacon has focused on the debt that will flow from this activity. This IS a major concern, BUT…
Debt and lining political contributors pockets is just the tip of the iceberg.
STRAWS IN THE WIND
Earlier this week when Neal Pierce (Washington Writers Group) published “New Infrastructure Strategy: Yes, Build – BUT” EMR hoped that he could just cite Pierce toss out an attaboy and keep working on CITIZEN MEDIA. http://citiwire.net/post/2496
No such luck. Neal’s ‘buts’ are valid BUT pale compared to the real reasons to be concerned about wasting Trillions of dollars on ‘infrastructure.’
INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT WHAT?
As explored at more length below in the section on GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE, infrastructure is NOT a free standing thing. What is called “infrastructure” is ONLY REALLY INFRASTRUCTURE if supports a needed and functional STRUCTURE – in this case, the built environment to support human civilization (aka, functional human settlement patterns).
Otherwise it is just a waste of time and money.
As spelled out in THE PROBLEM WITH CARS – PART THREE of TRILO-G the Autonomobile is a primary cause of dysfunctional human settlement patterns. Why build more of what made Urban settlement patterns dysfunctional?
WHAT COMES AFTER THE AUTONOMOBILE? (Forthcoming) is a follow up to THE PROBLEM WITH CARS which articulates the physical and economic reasons why Large, Private vehicles cannot provide Mobility and Access to Urban citizens.
One of the key reasons is that:
At the present time half of the working adults in the US cannot afford to buy and maintain a Large, Private Vehicle that is fuel efficient AND safe to drive on the Interstate Highway System.
In the context of:
● The rising cost of energy and Peak Petroleum, and
● The demonstrated inability of Agencies to build and maintain infrastructure required to operate Large, Private Vehicles;
There obviously must be a successor to the Autonomobile if Urban citizens are to have Access and Mobility.
These facts also mean that Agencies must solve the Affordable and Accessible Housing Crisis if there is to be a solution to the Mobility and Access Crisis.
Both are solved ONLY if there are functional, Balanced and sustainable human settlements.
Building more of the infrastructure that caused settlement pattern dysfunction will not just create more debt, it will make EVENTUALLY solving the Affordable and Accessible Housing Crisis and the Mobility and Access Crisis much more expensive, and perhaps impossible.
THE ROADWAY CHOIR
How does one know that Billions at the Regional scale and Trillions at the nation-state scale need to be thrown at ‘the infrastructure problem?’
The Roadway Choir has been singing that song for decades.
The annual reaffirmation of faith in the Access and Mobility Myth from the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) arrive on 20 January. TTI’s Urban Mobility Report STILL has the same tragic flaws that were pointed out in Column # 39 (of 131) “Spinning Data, Spinning Wheels” back on 20 September 2004.
It also continues to be used to justify spending money to solve the WRONG problem as pointed out in “Driven Apart” See DRIVEN APART, FINALLY at BRB 6 October 2010.
(By the way, the comments following this post document need for THE LITMUS TEST as noted by CRS at the end of the comments.)
In a ONE PAGE follow-up to Driven Apart, Julia NAILS the problems with the TTI report. Note the reference to “land use patterns.” Read it and weep.
http://www.ceosforcities.org/news/entry/2958/2010-umr-remains-a-flawed-and-misleading-guide-to-urban-transportation
The Transportation Research (sic) Board (TRB) annual meeting was just held in the Federal District. The TRB meeting is the annual pilgrimage of The Roadway Choir to the Mecca of transportation funding and dysfunction. Ken Orski reports The Roadway Choir is STILL in full throat with the same old songs. (EMRs favorite is “Give Us More Money to Spend on the Roadway to Gridlock,” a true classic!)
(Observer has suggests that if VDOT spent as much on SLUG LINES each month as they did on hotel bills and entertainment at TRB, they would reduce congestion twice as much – by any useful measure – as the $4 Billion serving of asphalt pork. Yes there are some Shared Vehicle System spices but the real money is in Autonomobile pork. See http://www.slug-lines.com/
THE ENVIROS
Those who claim to be the Anti-Roadway Choir are not helping much.
In the context of the $4 Billion pork package a leader of the environment / smarter growth crowd is quoted as saying:
“Our nation is broke – we cannot afford to try to build our way out of congestion”
That statement sends the WRONG message. There are many who still believe with enough tax cuts for the rich and reductions in NPR spending, ‘our nation’ will be rich…
To paraphrase Will Owen: “No matter how much money is thrown at the problem, there are almost NO infrastructure solutions to the Mobility and Access Crisis.” See Chapters 13,14 and 25 of THE SHAPE OF THE FUTURE, THE PROBLEM WITH CARS – PART THREE of TRILO-G and WHAT FOLLOWS THE AUTONOMOBILE (Forthcoming).
Saying ‘the nation is broke’ (which Bacon and others say is yet some ways off) is continuing the practice by what is now called “The Environmental NGOs and their Enterprise Partners” to reach for the LOW HANGING RHETORICAL FRUIT.
The message must be FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION!
Ya HEAR?
CONVENTIONAL OBLIVIOUSNESS
Then there are well-meaning but poorly informed who clap for The Roadway Choir.
Two comments on BRB will illustrate this problem.
In the comments following “The Vice Tightens,” 14 January:
At 9:01 AM on 15 Jan 11:
“Jim, you and EMR have some very interesting long term ideas about transportation and land use. However, your ideas will take a long
time to organize, enact, plan and implement. And those are just the pre-requisite steps before the ideas start to have an impact. In the meantime?”
These ideas are NOT “long term.” As noted REPEATEDLY the biggest change will be inside the heads of those who believe Business-As-Usual is an intelligent or sustainable strategy.
And at 9:11 AM on 15 Jan 11:
“As an aside, here are the transportation projects which could be funded by the additional debt.”
Citing a VDOT laundry list is just clapping for The Roadway Choir.
ON HIGH SPEED RAIL
One of the things current administration has gotten right about infrastructure is to appoint Ray LaHood as Secretary of US DOT. For a very good summary of the perspective of Joe Boardman AmTrak’s President.
http://www.masstransitmag.com/print/Mass-Transit/Backbone-of-an-Industry/1$13234
Boardman does a fine job of putting rial and High Speed Rail (HSR) in context of US infrastructure needs. One problem he doe not focus on the key to HSR success – the pattern and density of land use within half a mile of the HSR platforms, including across the platform transfers to other Shared Vehicle Systems. (Full disclosure: Although EMR does not think he has ever met Boardman, because of where he has worked before AmTrak, there are probably at least a dozen shared acquaintances.)
In the same issue of Mass Transit Magazine there is a great (greatly misleading) story about how to end oil dependence. T. Boone Pickens says “Hydrofrac the whole country” and it will result in a 100 year supply of fuel for Large, Private Vehicles.” And after 100 years, hydrofraced water tables (Thank you MGM) and investment in a whole new energy infrastructure with MORE DYSFUNCTIONAL Urban settlement patterns ?
Well, Collapse.
http://www.masstransitmag.com/print/Mass-Transit/Ending-Our-Oil-Dependence/1$13235
In a 4 Dec 10 post on his Boomergeddon Blog, Jim Bacon jumped on “the railroad to nowhere” band wagon.
http://boomergeddon.us/wordpress/2010/12/04/the-rail-line-to-nowhere/#comments
Not wanting to let this pass, EMR posted the following comment which sums up his view on HSR:
Before Jim races on to whack another mole…
First:
It is counterproductive to talk about the usefulness of ANY infrastructure investment unless it is in the context of the settlement pattern that this infrastructure is intended to support.
Second:
With respect to High Speed Rail (HSR) the settlement pattern of concern is that within half a mile of the station platforms (including across-the-platform transfers to other modes) the line between stations should take the most reasonable, least costly, lowest environmental impact route.
Third:
Any discussion of HSR must be considered in the context of whether the US policy is to evolve a functional and sustainable settlement pattern and a surface transport system to support this settlement pattern or if the nation-state policy / goal will continue to follow an unsustainable trajectory that involves subsidizing dysfunctional systems that rely on Large, Private Vehicles and Aircraft on routes of under 1000 miles.
Fourth:
One must understand the geographical context of any discussion.
California has two MegaRegions about 500 miles apart – that is the sweet spot for HSR.
Topography, physics and economics dictate that there are two ways to get from the Cores of one MegaRegion to the Cores of the other.
One route is up the Pacific Ocean side of the Coast Range which has lots of places where one would NOT want to run a REAL HSR for many economic, social and physical reasons.
The other route is via the Central Valley which has a lot of space and not much else. There are very similar, low intensity areas along the HSR between Paris and the South of France and along the major HSR lines in Spain e.g Madrid to Barcelona.
If there is to be HSR between the two MegaRegions it needs to be up the Central Valley. The choice of starting a segment is due more to what is ‘shovel ready’ than where the trip demand is or will be.
Fifth:
Ken Orski (quoted in the original post) and those he spends his time with were and are scared witless that HSR will syphon off money from their beloved roadway pork barrels.
And So:
HSR anywhere or a California HSR may or may not be a prudent use of federal stimulus dollars.
But it is not a “bridge to nowhere.”
This is pure whack a mole aka, tossing rocks at empty pigeon holes.
EMR
Jim responded the that he agreed on the substance. So EMR jumped on his Citizen Media soap box.
Jim:
As usual we agree on the substance.
But it is the substance that needs to be the focus of discussion.
Whack-A-Mole and Tossing Rocks only builds the wall between substance / fact / science and fosters The Anger of Ignorance.
AntiPartisanship is the right path but citizens of the US are still over fat and over satisfied by years of Mass OverConsumption and they are not yet ready to stop the Whack-A-Mole and Tossing Rocks At Empty Pigeon Holes (TRAEPH – someone could do something with those letters… perhaps TRAP?)
By the time they are ready will there be any resources left to build on? Will the genetic proclivities that got humans to this point prevent them from reaching a sustainable trajectory?
EMR sees no answer beyond the scale of the Alpha Community (ALPHA VIL 21 and THE CURRENT TRAJECTORY) but sustainability STRARTS at the New Urban Region scale and for those in MegaRegions, perhaps is not possible at smaller scales.
Keep up the good work, abandon the Whacker and the Rocks.
EMR
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
While on the topic of ‘infrastructure,’ GREEN Infrastructure has a nice sound but, as SYNERGY has noted in the past, green infrastructure is not an end-all and be-all.
The “inaugural” National Green Infrastructure Conference 2011 sponsored by The Conservation Fund will be held in 23 to 25 February in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. (Those environmental NGO’s and their Enterprise Partners again?) If you read the hype (conference “agenda”), one would think green infrastructure IS a end-all and be-all.
Creating functional and sustainable green infrastructure is a fine idea. In fact it is a vital goal on the path to a sustainable trajectory for human civilization as it has evolved to it’s status in January 2011.
Viable green infrastructure is supported by almost everyone except those who see functional settlement patterns as a conspiracy to rob citizens of their personal right to live off of subsidies that support spacial dysfunction – specifically the “Agenda 21″ crowd.
Green infrastructure – by whatever name – is necessary to support humans and the environment upon which humans depend for air, water, food and shelter. However, before green infrastructure is anointed as the end-all and be-all driver of land use decisions, let us be clear:
Green infrastructure is not alone. There is ALSO a need for black infrastructure (sidewalks, paths, streets, roadways, rails, bridges and tunnels), blue infrastructure (water supply and precipitation management), gray infrastructure (waste water, solid waste and air pollutant management), red infrastructure (energy generation, transmission and distribution), purple infrastructure (cultural, historical, psychological, aesthetic and amenity) and invisible infrastructure (the electromagnetic spectrum).
All are critical to support modern Urban humans and to protect the natural system upon which all life depends. Given the current role of Homo sapiens on the planet, black, blue, gray, red, purple, green
and invisible infrastructures must be designed to support FUNCTIONAL human settlement patterns.
Currently settlement patterns are DYSFUNCTIONAL from economic, social and physical perspectives. Freezing in place major components of green infrastructure in that context is counterproductive, if not suicidal.
That is the case because there is already far more land devoted to Urban land uses than can be efficiently used in the foreseeable future.
Those scattered Urban uses of land cannot be supported by any infrastructure – black, blue, gray, red, purple, green or invisible. The only cohort that focusing on one infrastructure component at a time – and without regard to the structure to be served – benefits are those who hold land speculatively in the hopes of future demand for MORE scattered Urban land uses.
Before deciding what and where green infrastructure should go, consideration must be given to functional settlement patterns for 95 percent of the population who can efficiently occupy for their daily activities ONLY about 5 percent of the land area of the lower 48 in the US. That leaves 95 percent of the land area for green, blue and purple activities.
Intelligent design of functional human settlement patterns rarely conflicts with functional green, blue or purple infrastructure. However, green infrastructure in the wrong place can render human settlement patterns dysfunctional. See USE AND MANAGEMENT OF LAND – PART FOUR of TRILO-G.
INVISIBLE INFRASTRUCTURE
It is foolhardy to design ANY infrastructure in a vacuum just as it is foolhardy to over design black infrastructure to serve Autonomobiles.
As those who understand the Access and Mobility Myth know, it is not possible for citizens in Regional agglomerations to live where they want, work where they want, seek services where they want and then have Agencies, Enterprises or Institutions design black infrastructure to get them where they want to go when the want to go there and arrive in a timely manner.
It is becoming clear that the same is true for the invisible infrastructure. See the front page story of the 30 Nov WaPo Health and Science section which asks:
“Are we headed for a smartphone meltdown? As demand for the data-hungry [actually band-width hungry] devices skyrockets, mobile networks risk collapse : Cellphone traffic needs wider road.”
This story is written from the perspective of the telecoms who what more bandwidth for their most lucrative services. The story sounds like it could have been penned by Autonomobile advocates – The Roadway Choir. It is just not possible for “everyone” to have band width hungry devices that work at the same time especially with millions of pages of “content farms” being planted every day.
Ironically, on the front page of the A section of the very same edition of WaPo is answer:
“With faster cellphones come souped-up bills: New cellphone options, in a language foreign to many.”
Invisible infrastructure charge should reflect actual use and then scarce resources will be fairly allocated. It is called “the market.” (Yes, there must be a decision arrived at by democratic processes for what ‘everyone’ should have access to and then beyond that, the more you use, the more you pay. E.g. everyone gets PDFs to support useful activity free, everyone pays for the download of movies and entertainment and the bigger the download, the more one pays.)
THE REAL MARKET SOLUTION
So, infrastructure boils down to this:
● First, functional and sustainable human settlement patterns
● Second, fair allocation of location variable costs.
Pandering politicians have taken up the chant of The Anger of Ignorance Crowd:
“No gas tax” by which they mean “no CAR tax.” What they really mean is “increase the subsidy for use of my Large, Private Vehicle.”
After all cars and Wrong Size Houses in the Wrong locations have led us out of the last seven recessions. And, while shelter values continue on a downward trajectory – especially outside Radius = 20 Miles in the Virginia portion of the National Capital SubRegion – CARS ARE COMING BACK.
Ford recorded record profits in the last quarter of 2010. Anyone who owns a business knows why. Business owners have been dunned with notices / ads about that huge tax break for “light trucks” used in their business – write off the full value in one year. If you have cash flow and an old pickup / van / SUV or one without a DuraMax engine, an Allison Transmission and dual wheels the end of 2010 was the time to buy.
GM sales are up too – in China. But watch out, China now realizes the stupidity of trying to meet citizen needs for Access and Mobility with Private Vehicles so they are now taxing SMALL cars. They do not want to clog the roads for the Communist Party leaders and the ‘entrepreneurs’ who drive Large, Private Vehicles.
Consumers are not stupid. Unsafe Nanos are sitting on sales lots in India. Recall from above, even in the US:
At the present time half of the working adults in the US cannot afford to buy and maintain a Large, Private Vehicle that is fuel efficient AND safe to drive on the Interstate Highway System.
If you think the Autonomobile industry understands the shape of the future, check out the headliners at the Washington D.C. Autoshow. And be ready for WHAT FOLLOWS THE AUTONOMOBILE (Forthcoming.)
All this renewed AUTO MANIA and INFRASTRUCTURE MANIA will come to a crashing conclusion unless citizens start to pay the full cost of their current civilization. That means there is a need for ‘some tax.’ Do not rely on Public Private Partnerships tolls to generate cash for infrastructure UNTIL there agreement of the settlement pattern that needs to be provided with Mobility and Access. THEN it will be clear that there is NO low-hanging plum projects upon which to slap tolls.
THE ROAD AHEAD
The Mobility and Access Crisis will not be solved without Fundamental Transformation of the human settlement pattern – and that includes black, blue, gray, purple, green and invisible infrastructure to support functional and sustainable human Regions and Communities, AND.
Neither the Mobility and Access Crisis nor the Affordable and Accessible Housing Crisis can be solved – nor will health care, education, public safety and national security stop being bottomless pits – until there is Fundamental Transformation of governance structure, AND.
Mass OverConsumption and the exhaustion of finite resources will not stop – a sustainable trajectory for human civilization will not be achieved – without a change in the economic system, AND
None of these Fundamental Transformations can be achieved without CITIZEN MEDIA.
In this context, recall THE BOTTOM LINE from Chapter One of the most recent version of CITIZEN MEDIA. (In light of the events in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen note especially the roll of global, instantaneous communications.)
Citizens cannot make well informed decisions on their own best interest on ANY topic until they have a reliable source of reliable information.
That is true for Fundamental Transformation of human settlement patters,
That is true for Fundamental Transformation of governance structure (the topic Observer was addressing)
That is true for Fundamental Transformation of the economic system.
Without a reliable source of sound information democracy and market economies are not possible. This reality must be seen in the global context:
On a small planet with Global economic, social and physical interconnections, GROSS INEQUITY at the Community-, SubRegional-, Regional-, MegaRegional- and continental-scales OR between ethnic and religious groups
is NOT sustainable.
All citizens must have the opportunity to prosper based on effort, ability and acceptance of responsibility for their actions – individual and collective. Success cannot be based on gambling, happenstance and inheritance or on inequitable distribution of resources and opportunity at ANY scale.
Avoiding Collapse of civilization as-it-has-evolved and the survival for Homo sapiens comes down to understanding that:
In a ‘flat’ world with:
● wide-spread literacy,
● Global, instant communications / information dissemination, and
● Wide distribution of weapons of mass destruction / massive stockpiles of weapons of conventional destruction / ubiquitous access to weapons of inter-personal destruction:
There is no alternative but to make Fundamental Transformations of governance structure. The conflict started in Tunisia and now spreading to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen and beyond makes this crystal clear. These conflicts are based on economic dysfunction in societies with literacy, and instantaneous global communications.
Transformations in governance structure can facilitate evolution of Fundamental Transformation of humans settlement patterns, governance structures and of economic systems. These three Transformations are imperative if citizens are to achieve a sustainable trajectory for their civilization.
The question remains:
Will the genetic proclivities toward competition, acquisition, consumption and xenophobia that got Homo sapiens to this point in their evolution prevent the emergence of an Urban society with a sustainable trajectory?
Will human beliefs and superstitions that have become hardwired into society thwart evolution of a sustainable advanced-technology based civilization, or perhaps a stable New Bronze Age or will they result in the end of human society as has evolved over the past 13,000 years?
Will those at the top of the economic food chain realize they must close the Wealth Gap to survive?
The answers will depend on whether citizens can evolve Citizen Media to provide the information they need to make intelligent decisions in the voting booth and in the marketplace.
AARRRGH!
Ok, now back to CITIZEN MEDIA
EMR
