Day: 2014-05-27

Speed Control in Israel (updated)

When drivers pass by, they almost stop completely due to the holes and to avoid car damages.
| David Levinson

The following appeared across the email transom. The source is unknown. The forwarder stated:

One of my Internet Buddies sent it claiming it to be an Isreali invention. Who knows. Maybe it’s a joke, but none-the-less it appears to be a great idea, unless of course people swerve out of their lane and cause an accident!

When drivers pass by, they almost stop completely due to the holes and to avoid car damages.
When drivers pass by, they almost stop
completely due to the holes and to avoid car damages.
This is a strategy currently used in Israel as a high-speed control. It is more economical than using cameras, radar, police officers, etc.
This is a strategy currently used in Israel as a high-speed control.
It is more economical than using cameras, radar, police officers, etc.
They move them around every day!
They move them around every day!

Update: part of an ad campaign by Pioneer Suspension.

Hi Dr. Levinson, I searched for the message that was written on the road in the pictures and came up with this:

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/fake-potholes.shtml

More on “Transport as Utility”

| David Levinson

Fred Salvucci, former Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation, and now at MIT writes in a comment on Transport as Utility:

This topic is very interesting. Our electric utility systems fail temporarily and rarely, and we are so shocked that there are political investigations when it happens. (Why did it take so long to restore service? Why did the disruption occur to begin with?) A few decades ago there was serious discussion of lifeline concepts to provide some base access to water or electricity, at low rates for everyone, but much higher marginal rates for usage above the base amount, so. One could introduce progressivity, and feedback against excessive use fairly efficiently.

A Political Economy of Access: Infrastructure, Networks, Cities, and Institutions by David M. Levinson and David A. King
A Political Economy of Access: Infrastructure, Networks, Cities, and Institutions by David M. Levinson and David A. King

Our transportation systems fail persistently to provide even basic service to the entire jurisdiction, and are dominated by history, ( let us do tomorrow what we did yesterday for a cost not too much higher than the rate of inflation, and we will be considered a success). Political control of gas taxes and transit fares heve led rates to rise much slower than inflation, with substantial lags between catastrophic failures, and severely constrained quality and quantity of service as a result, generally reducing accessibility in very uneven ways. It seems extremely worthwhile to explore in a serious and detailed way the possibility of treating transportation as a utility.