Category Archives: Transportation

Some Surprising Possible Consequences of Autonomous Vehicles

My in-box these days is flooded by commentaries and studies dealing with our autonomous vehicles (AV) future. It’s hard to keep up, but three recent items struck me as particularly interesting. The first was from Scientific American, “How Pedestrians Will … Continue reading

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Virginia Tech OK’s Intelligent Infrastructure Initiative

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors voted Monday to approve a $78 million plan to make the university a leader in “intelligent infrastructure.” The term encompasses everything from self-driving cars and drones to smart construction and energy systems — areas, in the words of President Tim Sands, that are “related to energy systems for the cities of the future and the way that people move in and around those cities.” Continue reading

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New Misinformation on Public-Private Partnerships

Anticipation that the Trump Administration’s trillion-dollar infrastructure plan will be based largely on long-term public-private partnerships (P3s) has led to a number of attacks on the P3 concept, most of which either fail to understand what it is or deliberately misrepresent it. Continue reading

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Rights and Wrongs of Interstate Tolling

Rights and Wrongs of Interstate Tolling The prospect of a $1 trillion federal infrastructure program has led to numerous hands out for pieces of the action. Some officials are presenting the mismanagement of their highway systems (“years of under-investment” in … Continue reading

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Progress on Trucks and Tolling?

Politico reported last week (Feb. 8th) on an interview with Chris Spear, the relatively new CEO of the American Trucking Associations. Spear told Politico that ATA sees room to compromise on toll finance—for newly constructed roads or bridges. But he … Continue reading

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