[extropy-chat] Psychology of investments in infrastructure

[Samantha Atkins]

On Jun 20, 2006, at 9:46 AM, Mike Linksvayer wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 20, 2006 at 08:33:18AM -0700, Samantha Atkins wrote:
>> I have rarely seen it that underutilized.
>
> I haven't read the entire thread closely but I think you're talking
> about VTA light rail.  It is grossly underutilized when measured
> against capacity anp estimates used to sell the system.
> See http://www.ti.org/vaupdate32.html
>
>> We spend many tens of
>> billions of dollars every year of lost productivity sitting in a box
>> on wheels driving to and from work.   We spend much more than that on
>> be box and the liquid gold that fuels it.  Clearly this is sub-
>> optimal to say the least.
>
> Suboptimal for what set of constraints?

Productivity for one.  I would give a lot to have all those wasted  
hours to use on meaningful tasks.  Poor utilization of waking hours  
for millions of people day after day.   Poor utilization of money to  
pay for the cars, gas, upkeep, roads, parking in order merely to drag  
physical bodies to some central location whether physical presence is  
needed or not.  A lot of this is ritualistic stupid behavior.   Not  
to mention that cars and trucks in the US account for 66% of our oil  
use.   If we could cut that significantly we might not be involved in  
a costly pointless war or two.   A large economic drain could be  
lifted to the degree we telecommute or have some other means of  
"going in to work" when we actually physically need to be there.

>
> The constraints are going to change soon and building more inflexible
> political trophy transit lines is very short-sighted.  See
> http://ideas.4brad.com/node/410
>

There are not just political trophies although I agree that transit  
could have much more modern solutions.  Self driving cars that run on  
petrol are not enough although at least much of the productivity  
could be reclaimed.  In the short term I think the expanding oil  
crunch will finally make telecommuting real popular and fill the  
coffers of companies building software and systems to make it work.

- samantha