Category: transport

automation, culture, environment, films, Life, technology, transport, workLeave a comment

The machines are coming – 2049?

Mark Cathcart

It is notoriously difficult to predict the future. I lived my life at IBM, following Alan Kays 1982 aphorism The best way to predict the future is to invent it In my career I got many things right, and many things wrong. While Amazon was still a small time bookseller, and Youtube for the most part didn’t exist, it was obvious both business models would thrive. While I couldn’t convince IBM to pursue either of these opportunities with ny success, we demonstrated the technology perfectly. My “Wired for Life” Presentation contains some of my wins, and many of my losses. … Continue reading The machines are coming – 2049?

environment, Politics, tax, transport, travel, waterLeave a comment

Trains, horns and taxes

Mark Cathcart

I’ve been  frustrated that my blog has been withering but I just didn’t want to be an endless stream of rants about the #potus45 administration. So this isn’t about them, at all. While I have in mind a summery I’ll steer clear for now. So, meanwhile back in beautiful Colorado, the natives are getting worked up over a plan to install “quiet zones”  for all the railroad crossings in town. As much as I can’t envisage enjoying the horn blowing, and we can barely hear them in the night, apparently many can and do like them and have a nostalgia … Continue reading Trains, horns and taxes

automation, Life, Politics, politics, technology, transport2 Comments

Giant fleet of small scheduling nightmares

Mark Cathcart

In tenuous link between my recent posts on automation, here and especially here, where back in November I discussed autonomous vehicles and their impact on employment. I also said: While many cities are salivating over the ability of self-driving, autonomous … Continue reading Giant fleet of small scheduling nightmares

environment, Life, Politics, politics, tax, transport2 Comments

Dystopian Future it is then

Mark Cathcart

In his acceptance speech, President elect Trump said, among other things: We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it. This from a man, who tweeted: The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012 I’ve no idea what to expect now from the Trump … Continue reading Dystopian Future it is then

automation, banking, Life, Politics, politics, tax, technology, transport2 Comments

Bring back what jobs?

Mark Cathcart

Look, the jobs that are lost, are not coming back, get over it. When Trump claims he’ll bring back jobs, he either has no idea what he is talking about, or he envisions some dystopian future where Americans are more like slaves than they’ve been since, well, slaves. I will bring our jobs back to the U.S., and keep our companies from leaving. Nobody else can do it. Our economy will “sing” again. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2016 China and Mexico are not the problem, automation is. Even if Trump were able to force companies to bring … Continue reading Bring back what jobs?

environment, Life, Politics, politics, transport, waterLeave a comment

The Greatest Social Challenge of our Generation — Strong Towns

Mark Cathcart

This is one of the best blogs of many on the Strong Towns blog. American suburbia is only viable with heavy government subsidy and planning — It would be unaffordable otherwise. As we see the Growth Ponzi Scheme unwinding and the first decades of what journalist Alan Ehrenhalt has called The Great Inversion, Americans are experiencing a return to normal living conditions. In many ways, it’s a traumatic transition; who-moved-my-cheese on a continental economic scale. Source: The Greatest Social Challenge of our Generation — Strong Towns Continue reading The Greatest Social Challenge of our Generation — Strong Towns

Life, Politics, politics, transport, travel1 Comment

Does the Austin Mayor use Cabs?

Mark Cathcart

In the fallout from the withdrawal of Uber and Lyft from Austin, following a defeat on Prop-1, Mayor Adler has come up with his 7-point plan to manage the vacuum. He, along with many others are hoping that Austin is such a jewel in the Uber/Lyft crown, that they’ll soon be back, tail between their legs asking to be allowed to operate in Austin again. I’m not so sure. This farce could have been completely avoided if Austin, and by implication Mayor Adler, and more importantly his predecessor, Mayor Leffingwell, had actually been planning for the future rather than retrospectively … Continue reading Does the Austin Mayor use Cabs?

healthcare, Life, Politics, politics, tax, technology, transport, workLeave a comment

Government US style

Mark Cathcart

It’s clear that many Americans view “Big government” as a bad thing, it seems though that they are OK with lots of branches of small government, that is ineffective, costly and open to misuse, and often technology challenged. Given the size of the USA, any government is going to be a big government. With over nearly 320-million people, and almost the largest country in geography in the world, most people clearly are clueless about the scale and the challenges of delivering services in what was the worlds most advanced country. Listen to this 10-second clip from NPR’s Morning Edition today, a … Continue reading Government US style

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Will self driving cars save Austin from itself?

Mark Cathcart

If you had 100 destinations you’d have removed some of the major bottlenecks, but we don’t. We have the Central Business District. It’s a major constraint and getting people in cars in and out of it no matter how automated the cars are will have the same fundamental problems and constraints. Anyone who says otherwise really doesn’t understand the problem. Continue reading Will self driving cars save Austin from itself?