Great video of a classic old plane doing a low-level fly-by. The sound of the old rotary-piston props is just beautiful.
Tag Archives: planes
Photo – Milan Apron
Planes lined up on the apron in Milan, Italy during a layover from our recent trip to Rome. They clearly don’t have enough jetways as it seems all inbound flights deplane on the apron.
American Transportation Infrastructure
The Economist has a good look at our transportation infrastructure and (lack of) innovation. You should read the whole thing.
A few highlights:
- According to the World Economic Forum America ranks 23rd for overall infrastructure quality.
- America’s road fatality rate is 60% above the OECD average.
- Total public spending on transport and water infrastructure is 2.4% of GDP
- In 2006, road taxes at all levels only provided 72% of the money spent on highways
These are symptoms. Symptoms of the problems plaguing our transportation infrastructure. It strikes me as self-defeating that the solutions being called for always involve more government. More taxes. More spending.
The article makes the following observations:
Petrol-tax revenues, for instance, are returned to the states according to the miles of highway they contain, the distances their residents drive, and the fuel they burn. The system is awash with perverse incentives. A state using road-pricing to limit travel and congestion would be punished for its efforts with reduced funding, whereas one that built highways it could not afford to maintain would receive a larger allocation.
and
Cost-benefit studies are almost entirely lacking. Federal guidelines for new construction tend to reflect politics rather than anything else.
Why then aren’t we looking outside the box? Let’s solve the problem, not band-aid the symptoms. The problem, in this case, is that Politics trumps solutions.
The article, however, does put forth some good solutions to the problem of disparate funding structures and the true costs being hidden.
Economists press for direct user fees. An early Obama administration flirtation with a tax on miles driven attracted little support, but some cities have run, or are thinking of running, pilot schemes. Congestion charges present another possibility. State governments have increasingly turned to tolls to fund individual projects, but tolling inevitably meets stiff public resistance.
Ah, now we’re talking. Use fees and tolls. Gas consumption fees do not correlate to road/transporation usage and costs. Pay for what you use. This, more than anything, will cause people to make the most efficient use of our resources and infrastructure.
Brazil To Hand Over Airports To Private Sector
“We want to combine the urgency of the works with public and private investments,” Mr. Palocci said.
via WSJ.com.
Remember one of the problems we’ve isolated, in government “politics trumps solutions.” When the government brings in the private sector to help expedite projects it is because it’s the only solution they can find to that problem.
Emirates Airlines Has Big Ambitions
“Emirates’ strategy is aggressive,” says Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the chief executive of Air France, who complains that Emirates is siphoning off passengers from Europe’s traditional hubs. “Europe is at the center of the global aviation world. It’s the result of aviation history.”
via Emirates Airlines Has Big Ambitions – NYTimes.com.
Great article on the wild success and growth of Emirates Airlines. The European carriers sound a little off their game… seeking their government’s involvement to help fight off Emirates. If the market is telling you what airline they want to fly, and it isn’t yours, getting the government to intervene isn’t a very fair way to win back market share. See what your competitors are doing right and do it better. Serve the customer… the traveling public.
Photo
My photo taken from the skybridge while boarding a flight to leave Beijing, China.