It’s lovely that they’re going to renovating it some, but I hope it is well-known that any less than a 5 foot wide bike lane adjacent to 8-foot wide parking stalls does not even meet AASHTO’s inadequate standards. The only place along the proposed reconstruction (working from I think the 75% design documents, as of …
Author Archives: DavidChase
Bicycle contraflow lanes
Will, I don’t live or ride near the proposed lane on Hemenway Street, but we need more of these. Anywhere that we have low-speed one-way streets whose primary purpose is to prevent excess cut-through traffic, we should allow 2-way traffic for bicycles. Excluding bicycles serve no useful purpose (they’re not very noisy, they’re not very …
Interesting article on unions and pensions
Will, Interesting article here, partly on recents trends in union-busting, but also on public employee pensions. Proposes, in the final paragraphs, that perhaps pensions should be put to a vote, just like bonds. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/mayjune_2011/features/the_fallacy_of_union_busting029139.php I’m not certain this would work well, because the public tends to have anti-Keynesian impulses (“I’m cutting back, so should the …
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Two more articles on the unions/pay/pensions issue
Today, NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/business/02leonhardt.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=leonhardt&st=cse . Summary: it’s not the pay, it’s the pension and disability benefits. And the work rules. Recently, Fortune/CNN: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/28/are-public-unions-our-convenient-economic-scapegoats/?section=magazines_fortune . Summary: the unions are (generally) not the cause. Neither article supports the current moves to strip unions of the right to strike and/or engage in collective bargaining.
A “contrary” view on the pension fund problems
Via Brad Delong‘s blog: http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/the-origins-and-severity-of-the-public-pension-crisis It argues, roughly, that the current shortfall is attributable to the recent stock market plunge, that pension funds, because of their size and long-term outlook, need not and should not invest like individuals, and that the size of the shortfalls, as a share of future state receipts, is not that alarming. …
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