Giant fleet of small scheduling nightmares

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

Austin Traffic: Poor planning

So prop-1 failed, no bad rail, no gloating from me. We still have a major commuting problem. Repeat after me though, we don’t have a traffic problem. One of the problems we have, that comes from growth is so many places are having infrastructure work. Google are all over south Austin laying underground conduit for fiber optic cables, mostly though they are not the problem, apart from a half day here or there where the close off a lane. The RapidBus dedicated lanes have caused some problems downtown, but slowly people have got used to not using the bus lanes, … Continue reading Austin Traffic: Poor planning

Austin doesn’t have a traffic problem

Tomorrow is voting day for Texas and Austin, there is some excitement over the new 10 district system in Austin among the political classes, but not much among the voters. One of the big issues, at least for me and the general media has been the traffic, and more specifically congestion. Up for vote is Prop-1. a mixed rail and roads bond with a cost of $1.4 billion. It has become a total political football, although either way it is a win/win for the urbanists who either get rail and can pursue density; or don’t get rail and can use that … Continue reading Austin doesn’t have a traffic problem

Drive my car

Beep beep’m beep, beep yeah. Having driven a couple of hundred miles back in the UK, it’s remarkable to compare the experience to my now normal Texas drives. I rented a Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer, manual shift, of course. Overall a pretty decent car although not comparable to my normal drive, at least a decent size car. First of there is the whole Petrol and refueling thing. You can’t pay at the pump. This makes no sense at all. Second, the pumps have no auto-fill setting, which mean you have to stand and hold it, breathing in the fumes. 3.When … Continue reading Drive my car