Is the ROAD to Housing Act an anti-housing bill? More than it was in February, at least.
@willpoffwebster.bsky.social and I explain the anti-institutional-investor provision, its many loopholes and unintended consequences, and how to fix it:
ifp.org/road-section...
video freeze frame of a bus steering wheel with no hands on it.
Enjoyed this video on some British autonomous bus trials (with safety drivers for now).
Honestly could be transformational for bus service in high wage suburban areas (e.g. North America)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJFD...
Excellent speech from @schatz.bsky.social Schatz on the importance of fixing anti-build-to-rent provision in the ROAD to Housing Act (h/t @pewilliams.bsky.social) (1/3)
The real problem is we would have no idea how to spend this.
Jansen Ganesh is on fire in this column on the UK’s role in the Iran conflict
www.ft.com/content/eaee...
Mr. Eliason, who advocates allowing single-stair construction for small multifamily buildings as a solution to the housing crisis, said he learned how common the design was outside the United States while working in Germany in 2019. After seeing an 11-story tower his firm at the time had designed, Mr. Eliason recalled, he turned to his boss and said: "Something is wrong here. Where's your other stair?" "He's looking at me, and said: 'What are you talking about? If there was another stair, there wouldn't be any room for the homes'"
Single-stair gets the New York Times treatment. @holz-bau.bsky.social reminds us why they call the last line the kicker: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/b... (gift link)
Claude says I am "positioning CPE at the center of the transportation abundance conversation"
thanks Claude! very cool
This California practice of awarding construction funding prior to design maturity destroys value.
87% of TIRCP ($2.6bn) construction awards are unallocated, sitting in a bank account during a period generalized infrastructure inflation — waiting for completion of design and funding plans.
Traction is never more critical than when on ice!
In rail and skating, fast and smooth acceleration matters!
Absolutely ridiculous stuff from both Amtrak and ConnDOT that will ***slow down*** service between New London and New Haven.
Ugh. Like seriously, ugh.
And this is on Amtrak. How much are they overcharging ConnDOT for electricity to make them prefer running diesels?
And this will make Amtrak have to deal with slower, lower performing SLE trains! www.ctinsider.com/connecticut/...
Conventional mainline rail projects don't have to take decades?? 🤯
credit where credit is due!! rare and admirable
I am struggling to think of any country this describes that doesn’t *also* let homeless people die on the street.
The way to increase construction productivity is to have a long pipeline of small, repetitive projects where crews become efficient by constructing the same building over and over and over. This requires by-right approval and small scopes. The canonical example: Houston townhouses.
"We don’t face some kind of formidable foe of the sort Lincoln imagined. We have been unable to defeat the designs of a second-rate demagogue and grifter, aided by third-rate bigots and authoritarians, and surrounded by fourth-rate opportunists and conspiracists." open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
It was a pleasure to speak with @bentongraham.bsky.social about passenger rail in the US.
We discussed what makes the Northeast Corridor so (relatively) successful, what can be accomplished on other publicly-owned rail lines, and, of course, what’s going on with CAHSR.
Helsinki is reviving its automation program. No cost figure on that yet, but the CBTC signaling is budgeted at 60 million € for a 43 km long system. www.railwaygazette.com/metro/helsin...
The same circumstances are true when it comes to metro systems.
China opened more metro lines in 2025 alone than exist in the entire countries of Russia, UK, or France. Over the past 4 years, China built 2.5x as much metro lines as the US has in total.
$10 flat fee for all deliveries
"'The future of rail in Bayern is electric" A few years ago Germany led the world on hydrogen train deployment - now they are pivoting to overhead electrification and batteries after H2 trains proved to be a dud. Will CA do the same? www.railwaygazette.com/infrastructu...
A good corollary to the Transportation for America's piece on moonshot transit investment from 2 weeks ago is Eno's piece from today on predictability in passenger rail investment.
enotrans.org/wp-content/u...
"The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone."
Will America build transit using the latest design best practices, like automation, electrification and through-running service?
Or will it continue to build slow, at-grade light rail lines; infrequent diesel commuter trains; and short, impossibly expensive heavy rail subway extensions?
The IRA launched a manufacturing renaissance, Trump is working hard to cancel it.
vc next to me at the cafe "that's a great insight, and I see the same thing with the robotic tennis business we've had for five years"
See also: Moulton v. Markey
