Via The String of ‘Safest Airline Years’ Is Over – NYTimes.com
Airline crash fatalities since 1947
15 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, transport economics
Winston’s big port up North won’t have any business
10 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, rentseeking, transport economics
In the first shot in the pork-barrelling for a by-election, veteran New Zealand populist Winston Peters wants to stop the expansion of the Port of Auckland and move the extra shipping traffic up north to the Port of Whangarei:
And we will upgrade the Auckland to Northland railway line and build the rail link to your port
The Port of Whangarei is about two hours north by car from Auckland. Auckland is a global city of approaching 2 million. Whangarei is the only city up North, with a population of 50,000.
45% of the import traffic to the Port of Auckland is cars. Around 90% of light vehicle imports in New Zealand come through the Port of Auckland. The rest may go through Littleton.
|
|
|
Jellicoe and Freyberg wharves are located between the two container terminals. |
Bledisloe multipurpose Wharf |
Striving to move some of this light vehicle imports from the Port of Auckland up north to the Port of Whangarei where they be unloaded from a ship onto trains for a short train ride to Auckland, unloaded again onto trucks all seems unnecessary expense.
Photo: Port of Whangarei.
Auckland appears to have spare container capacity up until at least 2035, so this port up North will simply not have much to do in terms of extra container traffic because it will have to compete on the basis of cost and proximity to markets.
Photo: The Marsden Point Oil Refinery on the opposite shore of Whangarei Harbour.
The traffic that is coming under pressure regarding capacity of the Port of Auckland is multi-cargo traffic such as building materials, vegetables, wheat, vehicles and other goods. The situation is further aggravated by the rapid increase in the number and increased size of cruise ships.
As a good part of the market for the multi cargo traffic is in Auckland, landing them away from their main market just makes no sense and will not happen unless the port of Auckland is prohibited by law from expanding and ships are not allowed to divert to ports such as Wellington and Christchurch.
The number of cruise ships visiting Auckland in the last 10 years to about 90 and is expected to reach one 20 by 2020 and 150 by 2030. That traffic cannot be diverted up north to the Port of Whangarei.
Any export traffic that would be viable to send through the Port of Whangarei up north will already be going through it. Export competitiveness is highly sensitive to costs as exporters must simply take the going price in the international market.
What’s the point of buying a driverless Mercedes if you can’t be seen inside it (and driving it)!?
09 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
Charts showing there’s never been a better time to own a car
06 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in population economics, technological progress, transport economics Tags: the good old days, The Great Enrichment
Why does food taste different on planes?
05 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
If you think the food airline companies serve up is bland or unappetising, it’s not necessarily their fault. Essentially, you leave your normal sense of taste behind at the airport departure gate.
Get on board a plane and cruise to a level of thousands of feet, and the flavour of everything from a pasta dish to a mouthful of wine becomes manipulated in a whole host of ways that we are only beginning to understand.
Taste buds and sense of smell are the first things to go at 30,000 feet…
The combination of dryness and low pressure reduces the sensitivity of your taste buds to sweet and salty foods by around 30%…
via BBC – Future – Why does food taste different on planes?.
Tourist driver accidents as the price for international reciprocity over international driving permits
02 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in international economic law, international economics, transport economics
I am feuding with Gareth Morgan on Twitter on charging regimes for tourists. I raised the point about whether foreign countries would recognise international driver permits issued in New Zealand if we started imposing tests on international tourists before they could be issued with driver licences and therefore rent a car. Car rentals are a major form of tourist transport
When I pointed out other countries may retaliate and not recognise international driving permits issued in New Zealand, if we started imposing driving tests or other restrictions on tourist that come here, he thought that point was completely irrelevant. His responses show why he is the successor to Sir Bob Jones as the national contrarian and has an equal number of hits as well as big misses as Sir Bob.
Reciprocity is central to a large number of international concessions which New Zealanders enjoy overseas. These reciprocal arrangements include international driving permits as well as working holiday schemes, health insurance and old age pension reciprocal arrangements, double tax treaties and easy access to tourist and business visas to name but a few.
Who Drives on the Wrong Side of the Road? (blue = left) http://t.co/sblf6hgpXl—
Amazing Maps™ (@amazingmap) July 17, 2015
By the way, in common with the Cook Islands, China does not recognise international driving permits. A local licence must be obtained after a payment.
New Zealand recognises international driver permits issued in China because that such a huge and growing tourist market.
The price of having foreign tourists drive New Zealand roads is more accidents because of their inexperience, including because they are driving on the wrong side of the road and are tired from the international flight.
The benefit is New Zealanders can drive in other countries on international driving permits, including where they drive on the wrong side of the road and have more accidents because they are tired from the international flight. That’s the brutal calculus behind it that people prefer to ignore.
Should young women pay the same car insurance premiums as young men?
28 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, rentseeking, transport economics Tags: gender neutral insurance premiums, offsetting behaviour, sex discrimination
Thrill-seeking young men are prone to drive too fast, late at night, and cause horrific fatalities. Young males are 10 times more likely to be killed or injured than a driver aged over 35.
Young women’s car insurance premiums increased by 50% after insurers adjust their prices to comply with new European "gender neutral" rules on premiums.
.
A B-25 bomber crashes into the Empire State Building, 1945
24 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, politics - USA, transport economics Tags: Empire State Building
The dangers of texting while driving
19 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, transport economics
HT: Tomáš Kříha
Voter demographics alert: the politics of road rage
19 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, Public Choice, transport economics Tags: road rage, voter demographics
.
Follies of Infrastructure: Why the Worst Projects Get Built, and How to Avoid It – Bent Flyvbjerg
16 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in managerial economics, organisational economics, theory of the firm, transport economics Tags: Bent Flyvbjerg, cost overruns, mega-events, mega-projects
We are about to board a plane, so when is the plane going to crash?
06 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in transport economics Tags: air crashes
Why Can’t Public Transit Be Free? – The Atlantic
01 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, transport economics Tags: activists, do gooders, free public transport, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
The earliest urban experiment in free public transit took place in Rome in the early 1970s. The city, plagued by unbearable traffic congestion, tried making its public buses free.
At first, many passengers were confused: “There must be a trick,” a 62-year-old Roman carpenter told The New York Times as he boarded one bus. Then riders grew irritable. One “woman commuter” predicted that “swarms of kids and mixed-up people will ride around all day just because it doesn’t cost anything.”
Romans couldn’t be bothered to ditch their cars—the buses were only half-full during the mid-day rush hour, “when hundreds of thousands battle their way home for a plate of spaghetti.” Six months after the failed, costly experiment, a cash-strapped Rome reinstated its fare system.
Three similar experiments in the U.S.—in Denver, Colorado, and Trenton, New Jersey, in the late 70s, and in Austin, Texas, around 1990—also proved unfruitful and shaped the way American policy makers viewed the question of free public transit.
All three were attempts to coax commuters out of their cars and onto subway platforms and buses. While they succeeded in increasing ridership, the new riders they brought in were people who were already walking or biking to work. For that reason, they were seen as failures.
A 2002 report released by the National Center for Transportation Research indicated that the lack of fares attracted hordes of young people, who brought with them a culture of vandalism, graffiti, and bad behavior—which all necessitated costly maintenance. The lure of “free,” the report implied, attracted the “wrong” crowd—the “right” crowd, of course, being wealthier people with cars, who aren’t very sensitive to price changes.
HT: http://m.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/why-cant-public-transit-be-free/384929/
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments