The UK's Personal Independence Payment (PIP) program is possibly the closest-ever attempt at socialism for car ownership, now accounting for 1 in 7 new car sales in the country. I look forward to the papers studying the impacts. Gift link to WSJ article: www.wsj.com/world/uk/uni...

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume? Historian: That page was burned in the Library of Alexandria, and no modern copies survive.

🚨 Updated version of Transportation for the Abundant Society (with Jonathan Levine) now posted. It’s our answer to the question, what does “abundance” mean in the context of transportation policy? We think it’s distinct from domains like housing. Feedback welcome. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I'd known Glasgow's 1896 subway is 3rd-oldest after London and Budapest. New to me: Glaswegians said no to newfangled electric traction and chose cable propulsion because fellow Scotsman Andrew Hallidie proved cable cars work in SF in 1873 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow...

It was a pleasure presenting last week at the Conference on Empirical Legal Studies at Northwestern. I learned a lot, both from other people's work and their feedback on my paper (on shocks to firm location). A warm and welcoming community as well. It was my first CELS; looking forward to next time.

Greg Shill@gregshill.com · last wk.

I’ll just need your 875 N. Michigan on that

When I was in practice, my firm asked me to go to London for "a few weeks, a month maybe." The 6 months I spent there were foundational for my career. One habit I picked up was reading the Financial Times—for reasons of focus, quality, and perspective. Like the broader UK press, they're permabears.

Guy Berger@econberger.bsky.social · 6d ago

Indeed job postings creeping up, +2.5% Y/Y. Not a boom, but things are getting better

The placement of lots of local govt capital assets (schools, fire stations, etc) assumes that the local development landscape is more or less fixed in time—demand for those services will always exist nearby. However, we know this isn't true. We don't think enough about decline in local govt.

Lake forever, part 1 for now. infrastory.substack.com/p/the-great-...

The Great Lakes Are a Managed System

Gates, turbines, and locks.

infrastory.substack.com

Interesting thread. To me the open question is what to do with Georgism today given its (to me, contingent) origin in laissez-faire land use controls. In modern America, where LU regulation is intense in magnitude and layered in source, how to arrive at a "true" valuation as a tax basis?

Erik Loomis@erikloomis.bsky.social · last wk.

This Day in Labor History: October 5, 1886. Henry George accepted the nomination of the United Labor Party for the mayor of New York City. Let's talk George's Single Tax and the fight for reform in the Gilded Age!

Speed cameras are unlawful in New Jersey but the state does allow local police to use photos from these 'Safety Sticks' to identify drivers who park illegally in crosswalks. They then get a parking ticket in the mail... www.nj.com/traffic/2026...

Cameras are catching illegal parkers in N.J. towns, and tickets are arriving in the mail

The solar-powered roadside cameras snap pictures of vehicles parked in restricted areas.

nj.com

I'm also 95, spiritually, and my involvement will be limited.

I’ll just need your 875 N. Michigan on that

I missed this decision. FRA gave Brightline West a Buy America waiver to buy ten trains from Siemens, two of which will be made in Germany. Alstom sued FRA, saying they shouldn't have granted that waiver. District Court dismisses on standing. DC Circuit: You do have standing—but you still lose.

I really wish people would stop trying to convince me that their catastrophism should be reflected by financial markets that clearly don't see it the same way.

They did the cartoon!

Brian JM Quinn@bjmquinn.bsky.social · 2w ago

The YOLO S-1: Hey, it might kill us all, but we’ll make a ton of money on the way down… giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Stuff like this needs to come with a warning label for normies.

Water is an example of something that's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.

Evan Zoldan@eczoldan.bsky.social · 2w ago

This year's Great Lakes Water Conference topic is Water, Technology, and Law. Speakers will address how new technology can both imperil and protect water safety and security. Registration below: www.utoledo.edu/law/academic...

Notably, travel times also did not increase outside the congestion zone. This mirrors what we have seen in other aggregate congestion pricing impacts. For example, it was predicted that drivers would change their routes to avoid the zone, creating new congestion; this, too, did not happen.

Adam@adamshap.bsky.social · 2w ago

NYC’s congestion pricing program cut ambulance travel times by over a minute

Richard Scarry predicted this

Maciek Hamela@maciekhamela.bsky.social · 2w ago

With the Strait of Hormuz closed, Iraq has resorted to moving its oil across the desert to Syria in hundreds of tanker trucks, in true Mad Max style. From there, it will be shipped to worldwide markets.

Maybe the next AI model will be able to get my printer to reliably connect to my computer.

#SaveTheWagons

Bring a Trailer@bringatrailer.bsky.social · 2w ago

Aired in October 1976, this Dodge Aspen Wagon commercial starred actor Rex Harrison, from "My Fair Lady" and "Cleopatra" 📼: YT // Bionic Disco

Private opulence, public squalor: Galbraith (1958), calling for more investment in public goods $1B a mile to extend a metro line to a sparsely-populated area and surrounding the terminal station with a parking lot: exemplary of 2026 transit planning

Yonah Freemark@yonahfreemark.com · 3w ago

You should not, in fact, be spending $1 billion per mile to extend your metro line if you’re going to surround the last station on the line with a surface parking lot www.transitchicago.com/rle/renderin...

Here’s a total return chart for the biggest bond fund vs. a leading S&P 500 ETF since 2020, with all dividends reinvested. Equities outperforming is the dramatic difference, but don’t sleep on the bond fund having terrible absolute returns (negative, on a real basis).

Greg Shill@gregshill.com · 2y ago

Today’s a day ending in Y, aka another good day to not own bond funds.

Even though the Pennsylvania legislature did not pass a long-term solution to the transit fiscal cliff faced by PA transit service providers (unlike the ILGA passing the NITA Act for IL transit providers), SEPTA has released its Accelerate Plan to modernize service. wwww.septa.org/news/acceler...

Someone smarter than me first said it but the paradox of American urban expressways is that they can only be repaired: the political costs of removal are too high but the financial costs of replacement (after a catastrophic closure, e.g. Embarcadero after Loma Prieta) are also too high

Doug Gordon@brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 3w ago

Definitely not great that this highway will be locked in for another couple of generations, but it's also refreshing to hear a DOT commissioner say that fixing an urban highway is not ideal. Even that is a big change. But lacking a better federal DOT, we're kinda screwed.

Life in Milwaukee moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Lake Michigan! Live!@lake-michigan.live · 3w ago

Current* conditions near Milwaukee, WI:

Fake news! (Indiana has not required front tags for 70 years.)

The Onion@theonion.com · 3w ago

Glamour Of Lamborghini Negated By Indiana Plates

Litmus tests can operate in two ways. One is as gatekeeper. But the second, darker role is as moral license. This is characteristic of extremist groups. Group/cult members get a license to transgress, while outsiders doing the same act merely justify their lesser status or even subhuman treatment.

Trains.

Raising kids involves a series of incredibly personal and extremely kid-specific choices. It’s important to remember that most everyone is doing their best.