The Extra Dimension

By The Nexus

The Extra Dimension features deep discussions on how technology intersects with society. Welcome to the heart of the technological convergence.... more

· Technology

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FAQs about The Extra Dimension:

How many episodes does The Extra Dimension have?

The podcast currently has 77 episodes available.

The Extra Dimension episodes:

November 03, 2016The Extra Dimension #16: Transportation – Long Distance
Come on a journey with Brandon Johnson, Brian Mitchell, and Ian R Buck as they explore the intricacies of planes, trains, and boats.

Transportation Miniseries
Cycling
Public Transit
Individual Car Ownership
The Future
Overview:
Planes
Why Flying is So Expensive – YouTube
Things that go into the cost of a flight:
Fuel
Crew
Airport fees
Taxes
FAA
TSA
International Transportation Tax
Airplane
Maintenance
Administrative costs of airline
Insurance
Very little of it goes to profit for the airline
How Budget Airlines Work – YouTube
Budget airlines reduce costs by:
Ordering planes in bulk.
They still buy new planes because they are the most efficient.
Only use one type of plane. Reduces cost of training staff.
Less luxury features.
Seats don’t recline.
No seat pockets to clean in between flights.
Flight attendants in the beginning of their careers, with as little training as possible.
Flight attendants do more roles, like check people in and clean the plane.
Food and drinks are not included with the ticket.
Duty-free sales.
Don’t operate out of big airports, or when they do they fly at less busy times.
Schedule planes for many flights a day, so they are always making money.
Not having assigned seats encourages passengers to show up early.
Use the point-to-point model.
No connections.
Have customers print tickets at home, or a kiosk.
Having passengers walk up steps to the plane instead of jetways.
Phantom flights | The Economist
Hidden-city tickets are a way to take advantage of the weird economics of airline pricing.
Hypothetical Delta prices:
Atlanta -> Cincinnati $251 (they’re the only ones who fly direct)
Atlanta -> Cincinnati -> Dallas $197 (other airlines fly Atlanta -> Dallas)
You could buy the cheaper ticket and just get off in Cincinnati.
This exploit only works as long as few people use it.
Big Plane vs Little Plane (The Economics of Long-Haul Flights) – YouTube
Hub-and-spoke model
Hub airports allow airlines to run far fewer routes; hub-to-hub trunk routes, and hub-to-secondary routes.
Trunk routes require large capacity, so you see really big planes flying those.
Point-to-point model
Direct flights from secondary airports to other airports.
Less demand for most of those routes requires smaller planes.
Until recently, smaller planes could not make long enough flights and were not efficient enough.
Now that small planes have longer range, we see a rise in Long and Skinny routes.
E175
Boeing: 787 Dreamliner
Trains
Why Trains Suck in America – YouTube
Cities 200-300 miles apart are in the sweet spot for trains to be quicker than planes.
Trains were a huge factor in the economic development of America.
Freight hauling is where the money is, so passenger cars existed primarily to advertise a railway to the business executives who would be deciding which company to contract with.
Once cars and planes took those executives away, there was little point to keeping passenger cars.
This Is Why Americans Can’t Have Nice Trains | Al Jazeera America
Passenger trains in America operate on other companies’ lines, so they are not given priority.
In Europe, not much freight is transported via rail.
American cities are much less densely populated than European cities, so they are less walkable.
Amtrak is not subsidized enough to get out of the vicious cycle: no money means they can’t improve, which means low ridership, which means no money.
Amtrak offers a “fellowship” for writers, artists, creatives — this is part of the aesthetic draw of train travel, as efficiency isn’t really there
Writing Powered by Amtrak – The New Yorker
Lower cost of tickets and lower supervision (TSA checks aren’t really present on trains) make law enforcement raids of Amtrak somewhat frequent?
DEA, Amtrak, and Civil-Asset Forfeiture – The Atlantic
High speed rail in the Midwest is unfortunately stalled
Minnesota | Midwest High Speed Rail Association
Boats
Slower
Cheaper
Far less pollutive than planes
Though cheap dirty fuel is legal in international waters
Water-locked
More effective for shorter distance and pleasure cruises
Ferries
People
Cars
Trains
Train ferry – Wikipedia

Image: train_ferry_sirkeci_ank14_mp.jpg
Cargo
Water taxis
Water busses
Cruise ships
Some longer distances in Northern Europe
Blends with pleasure cruise
How Maritime Law Works – YouTube
Maritime law!
Arrested Development – You’re A Crook Captain Hook – YouTube
A country owns the sea up to 12 miles from shore. “Territorial Waters.”
Innocent Passage is allowed through Territorial Waters. Innocent purposes do not include:
Fishing
Polluting
Weapons practice
Spying
Innocent passage must be done quickly and without stopping on shore.
Another 12 miles out is the Contiguous Zone.
Four types of laws can be enforced by a country here:
Customs
Taxation
Immigration
Pollution
Within 200 miles from shore: Exclusive Economic Zone
It is International Waters, but the nearest country is the only one allowed to harvest natural resources there.
When two countries’ shores are less than 400 miles from each other, it is up to them to figure out who gets access to what.
Most times they divide it at the equidistant point.
International Waters
All Oceangoing vessels are required to be registered at some country.
When the vessel is in International Waters, the home country’s laws apply onboard.
When the vessel enters another country’s territorial waters, the laws of that country applies.
Baby nationality
According to the UN, a baby born in International Waters should inherit its parent’s nationality, regardless of what country the vessel is registered to. Most countries follow this.
If a baby is born in Territorial Waters of the US, it automatically gets American citizenship. Not always true in other countries’ Territorial Waters.
In an Age of Privilege, Not Everyone Is in the Same Boat – New York Times
Boats, and to a lesser extent planes, are places where we increasingly see a differentiation between rich and middle class
Some cruises physically separate the most expensive, exclusive rooms. If you’re not in, you don’t even know they exist.
Other cruises make the expensive stuff visible; it advertises the services, but can lead to resentment among the passengers.
FRENCHMAN FULFILLS LONGTIME DREAM OF MANKIND BY `WALKING’ ACROSS ATLANTIC OCEAN IN 61 DAYS | Deseret News
Environmental comparisons for Brian’s trip
Plane would be ~900 kg/person of CO2 emissions
Boat was ~20 kg/person of CO2 emissions
Trains while moving can have zero emissions
Attributions
“Fireflies and Stardust” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
“It’s a Wonderful Life” Paramount Pictures
Copyright
The Extra Dimension is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to https://thenexus.tv/ted16.
This episode of The Extra Dimension has a Fringe episode. You should really listen to The Fringe #407: The Plan Was Planned!
Listen to more at The Nexus and follow us on Twitter and Google+ for our latest episodes and news.
...more
1h 7min
November 03, 2016The Extra Dimension #16: Transportation - Long Distance
Transportation Miniseries
Cycling

Public Transit

Individual Car Ownership

The Future
Overview:
Planes
Why Flying is So Expensive - YouTube
Things that go into the cost of a flight:
Fuel

Crew

Airport fees

Taxes
FAA

TSA

International Transportation Tax

Airplane

Maintenance

Administrative costs of airline

Insurance

Very little of it goes to profit for the airline

How Budget Airlines Work - YouTube
Budget airlines reduce costs by:
Ordering planes in bulk.

They still buy new planes because they are the most efficient.

Only use one type of plane. Reduces cost of training staff.

Less luxury features.
Seats don’t recline.

No seat pockets to clean in between flights.

Flight attendants in the beginning of their careers, with as little training as possible.

Flight attendants do more roles, like check people in and clean the plane.

Food and drinks are not included with the ticket.

Duty-free sales.

Don’t operate out of big airports, or when they do they fly at less busy times.

Schedule planes for many flights a day, so they are always making money.

Not having assigned seats encourages passengers to show up early.

Use the point-to-point model.

No connections.

Have customers print tickets at home, or a kiosk.

Having passengers walk up steps to the plane instead of jetways.

Phantom flights | The Economist
Hidden-city tickets are a way to take advantage of the weird economics of airline pricing.

Hypothetical Delta prices:
Atlanta -> Cincinnati $251 (they’re the only ones who fly direct)
Atlanta -> Cincinnati -> Dallas $197 (other airlines fly Atlanta -> Dallas)

You could buy the cheaper ticket and just get off in Cincinnati.

This exploit only works as long as few people use it.

Big Plane vs Little Plane (The Economics of Long-Haul Flights) - YouTube
Hub-and-spoke model
Hub airports allow airlines to run far fewer routes; hub-to-hub trunk routes, and hub-to-secondary routes.

Trunk routes require large capacity, so you see really big planes flying those.

Point-to-point model
Direct flights from secondary airports to other airports.

Less demand for most of those routes requires smaller planes.

Until recently, smaller planes could not make long enough flights and were not efficient enough.

Now that small planes have longer range, we see a rise in Long and Skinny routes.
E175

Boeing: 787 Dreamliner

Trains
Why Trains Suck in America - YouTube
Cities 200-300 miles apart are in the sweet spot for trains to be quicker than planes.

Trains were a huge factor in the economic development of America.

Freight hauling is where the money is, so passenger cars existed primarily to advertise a railway to the business executives who would be deciding which company to contract with.

Once cars and planes took those executives away, there was little point to keeping passenger cars.
This Is Why Americans Can't Have Nice Trains | Al Jazeera America

Passenger trains in America operate on other companies’ lines, so they are not given priority.

In Europe, not much freight is transported via rail.

American cities are much less densely populated than European cities, so they are less walkable.

Amtrak is not subsidized enough to get out of the vicious cycle: no money means they can’t improve, which means low ridership, which means no money.

Amtrak offers a “fellowship” for writers, artists, creatives -- this is part of the aesthetic draw of train travel, as efficiency isn’t really there
Writing Powered by Amtrak - The New Yorker

Lower cost of tickets and lower supervision (TSA checks aren’t really present on trains) make law enforcement raids of Amtrak somewhat frequent?
DEA, Amtrak, and Civil-Asset Forfeiture - The Atlantic

High speed rail in the Midwest is unfortunately stalled
Minnesota | Midwest High Speed Rail Association

Boats
Slower

Cheaper

Far less pollutive than planes
Though cheap dirty fuel is legal in international waters

Water-locked

More effective for shorter distance and pleasure cruises
Ferries
People

Cars

Trains
Train ferry - Wikipedia
Image: train_ferry_sirkeci_ank14_mp.jpg

Cargo

Water taxis

Water busses

Cruise ships

Some longer distances in Northern Europe
Blends with pleasure cruise

How Maritime Law Works - YouTube
Maritime law!
Arrested Development - You're A Crook Captain Hook - YouTube

A country owns the sea up to 12 miles from shore. “Territorial Waters.”
Innocent Passage is allowed through Territorial Waters. Innocent purposes do not include:
Fishing

Polluting

Weapons practice

Spying

Innocent passage must be done quickly and without stopping on shore.

Another 12 miles out is the Contiguous Zone.
Four types of laws can be enforced by a country here:
Customs

Taxation

Immigration

Pollution

Within 200 miles from shore: Exclusive Economic Zone
It is International Waters, but the nearest country is the only one allowed to harvest natural resources there.

When two countries’ shores are less than 400 miles from each other, it is up to them to figure out who gets access to what.
Most times they divide it at the equidistant point.

International Waters
All Oceangoing vessels are required to be registered at some country.

When the vessel is in International Waters, the home country’s laws apply onboard.

When the vessel enters another country’s territorial waters, the laws of that country applies.

Baby nationality
According to the UN, a baby born in International Waters should inherit its parent’s nationality, regardless of what country the vessel is registered to. Most countries follow this.

If a baby is born in Territorial Waters of the US, it automatically gets American citizenship. Not always true in other countries’ Territorial Waters.

In an Age of Privilege, Not Everyone Is in the Same Boat - New York Times
Boats, and to a lesser extent planes, are places where we increasingly see a differentiation between rich and middle class

Some cruises physically separate the most expensive, exclusive rooms. If you’re not in, you don’t even know they exist.

Other cruises make the expensive stuff visible; it advertises the services, but can lead to resentment among the passengers.

FRENCHMAN FULFILLS LONGTIME DREAM OF MANKIND BY `WALKING' ACROSS ATLANTIC OCEAN IN 61 DAYS | Deseret News
Environmental comparisons for Brian’s trip
Plane would be ~900 kg/person of CO2 emissions

Boat was ~20 kg/person of CO2 emissions

Trains while moving can have zero emissions
Attributions
"Fireflies and Stardust" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

"It's a Wonderful Life" Paramount Pictures
Copyright
The Extra Dimension is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to http://thenexus.tv/ted16.
...more
1h 7min
September 17, 2016The Extra Dimension #15: Transportation – Individual Car Ownership
All your favorite Nexus hosts gather to talk about the dominance of the car in transportation, and what it means for both individuals and society as a whole.

Transportation Miniseries
Cycling
Public Transit
Long Distance
The Future
Overview
Pros
No physical effort
Door to door
High speed/shorter commute
Can get to places inaccessible to other forms of transportation
Longer distances
Can carry things like groceries or pets
Most convenient from an individual perspective
Cons
No physical effort
Have to be focused on driving for the entire commute
Pay for gasoline
Pay for insurance
Pay for maintenance
Traffic
Encourages living further from work/school
More pollutive per person than public transportation, walking, or cycling
Cars spend most of their existence parked – not being used
Inefficient for society as a whole (much better and more efficient uses of space, moving people, etc.)
Leaves behind segments of the population who cannot drive – particularly the very young and very old
Neutral
Don’t have to interact with people
Pay for huge amounts of car infrastructure via taxes
Links
The future of commuting – Vox
The utter dominance of the car in American commuting – Vox
How working women, cheap cars, and Starbucks killed carpooling – Vox
Driving to work alone is still the most dominant form of commuting.
Percentage rose slightly since 2000, mostly because there is less carpooling.
There are more cars per household than before, and the number of cars a person owns is the best predictor of the likelihood of driving to work alone.
Less people per household, which affects carpooling a lot because most carpools are within a household.
Lower gas prices and more fuel-efficient cars.
Women entering the workforce has an interesting effect: more income per household means they can afford more cars; spouses often have different work destinations; women are more likely to do other chores along their commute, which makes carpooling infeasible.
Suburbs: when you live in an area where you have to drive no matter what you want to get to, carpooling is infeasible.
Even with recent trends away from driving alone, they aren’t moving back towards carpooling.
Income isn’t really a predictor anymore of whether a household owns a car or not.
Decreasing cost of car ownership.
Cars last a lot longer than they used to, so it’s really easy to get a used car.
Long commutes make you fat, tired, and miserable – Vox
Having a long commute by car is associated with poor health, but it usually isn’t a direct cause.
Less likely to exercise.
Less likely to make food at home.
Purchase more non-grocery store food (like fast food.)
Sleep less.
Even if you exercise, long commutes are associated with higher blood pressure and chronic neck or back pain.
People with long commutes are also generally more stressed and less satisfied with life.
Most people with long commutes choose them because they want a larger house or a better neighborhood, but they are almost never enough to offset the drawbacks of the commute.
Carpooling is a great way to prevent the stress part of a long commute, because you are socializing with people instead of simply losing a couple of hours. But what if your carpool buddies don’t want to listen to the podcasts you like?
Young people are driving less than their parents. But why? – Vox
The many reasons millennials are shunning cars – The Washington Post
Young people drive way less today than young people in the past.
The dip in driving came at the beginning of the recession, when jobs were scarce and gas was expensive. So it was thought that this might just be a temporary change.
As we have gotten further from the recession, it seems like it is a permanent trend: Generation Y prefers to do less driving than Generation X.
Likely contributing factors:
“Americans reaching driving age today have no living memory of consistently cheap gasoline.”
In addition to gas prices, auto insurance costs have also risen, as the cost of repairs has gone up.
It is more difficult to get a permit/license when you are very young now.
As student debt has gotten bigger, paying that back eats into car payment funds.
There is a greater preference to live near city centers. In some cities, the higher cost of living is offset by easy access to public transportation and more walkable neighborhoods.
Information technology has made it way easier to live without owning a car. It is easier to use other forms of transportation like public transit or car sharing. It is also easier to stay home when your social life is largely online.
If you are in the habit of being productive on your phone while in transit, driving is much less appealing.
Even so, the car’s dominant position isn’t going anywhere soon.
Highways gutted American cities. So why did they build them? – Vox
» 60 Years of Urban Change: Midwest
If the highway system were built from scratch today, would it go through city centers? Probably not. So why did cities agree to do it?
Local governments were offered lots of money if they built highways, but they didn’t get a lot of control over where they went.
The car industry successfully framed highway building as a public responsibility.
Shifted from building privately-owned toll highways to publicly-owned highways funded by taxes on gasoline (well, 43-74% funded by gas).
Perception has stuck around that highways are self-funding, even though they’re not.
Allowed highways to expand much more quickly.
1939 World’s Fair model built by GM called Futurama showed big, wide highways that are only accessible by on- and off-ramps.
Credited with introducing the concept to the American public.
Promised to solve the traffic congestion problems of the day.
A 1947 map and 1955 document called the “Yellow Book” outlined the paths the interstate system would take – both through the countryside, and city centers.
Contributors to the document included members of the auto industry and highway engineers.
Notable lack of urban planners; the profession barely even existed at the time.
The majority of funding came from the federal government, because Eisenhower was really enthusiastic about the project; he wanted it to facilitate troop movements and mass evacuations in the event of a nuclear attack.
States were essentially getting highways for free, as long as they agreed to the routes in the Yellow Book.
Suburbs were starting to get big, so highways were seen as ways to bring commuters into the city centers.
Highways were used to get rid of “urban blight,” aka low-income, often African-American neighborhoods.
Some neighborhoods were able to prevent highways from coming through, but they were almost always higher income and had more political capital.
People displaced by highway construction had to move to other highways, leading to overcrowding and increases in crime rates.
Those who could afford it moved to the suburbs, taking tax money away from the cities that the highways were supposed to serve.
Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system totally fails them – Vox
Curbing Metro Mobility’s Growth | streets.mn
About 80% of American seniors live outside of urban areas, where driving is the only viable form of transportation.
Harder to get goods and services.
Isolated from friends and family. This can affect health in a number of ways.
Nobody to monitor and give health advice.
Psychological effects of isolation.
Society misses out on seniors who would volunteer their time if they could get places.
Our population is getting older.
Drivers past the age of 75 are much more likely to be involved in a fatal crash – partly because they are more likely to die as a result of a crash, but also because of slower reaction times and poor eyesight.
We need a better solution than public paratransit shuttles, which you have to schedule long ahead of time, and typically arrive within a wide window of time. Also, some disabilities which disqualify you from driving do not qualify you to use paratransit.
Possible solutions:
Multi-use neighborhoods that are accessible by wheelchair.
Elder village model.
Organization that provides services to the elderly so they can stay in their homes.
Both paid staff and volunteers.
Subsidized Uber.
Self-driven cars.
The “fundamental rule” of traffic: building new roads just makes people drive more – Vox
Expanding road capacity doesn’t alleviate traffic; people just drive more, and it remains congested.
This is because you are not charged to use roads, so using them more is the most logical thing to do.
Even improving public transit doesn’t solve the problem; the people who take transit instead of driving are replaced by other people who drive more.
The only method that has effectively reduced traffic is congestion pricing: charging for road use at peak traffic times.
It is a bit regressive, but so are current systems for funding roads.
Why free parking is bad for everyone – Vox
Donald Shoup of UCLA: charge for parking anywhere where # of cars > # of spots to park.
Reasons why it’s currently free:
Parking meters emerged a few decades past the invention of the car.
“It’s hard to start charging people for something that the government owns and had been free.”
Space is finite, and therefore parking spots should be considered a limited good.
Lots of costs to maintain, which shafts those who don’t use cars.
~$1750 to build, ~$400 annually to maintain.
Building standards of many dense cities require parking space to be included, costing around $30k-$50k. The price is passed onto the consumer.
The unused lots of buildings forced to comply is wasted space.
So many govt decisions to allow for free parking makes a world in which a car is necessary to have.
People looking for *free* spots adds to congestion as well as CO2 emissions.
Free parking = larger demand for parking -> more miles driven.
Suggested Solution: charge for parking based on “market price.”
If a spot is occupied >80%, raise the price on the meter by $0.25/hour, <60% lowers by $0.25/hour.
One Scientifically Proven Thing Actually Makes People Happier – YouTube
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Jahzzar – Magic Mountain
Free Music Archive: Jahzzar – Last Dance
Copyright
The Extra Dimension is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to https://thenexus.tv/ted15.
This episode of The Extra Dimension has a Fringe episode. You should really listen to The Fringe #395: TED #15 — You’re Not Posting All That, Are You?!
Listen to more at The Nexus and follow us on Twitter and Google+ for our latest episodes and news.
...more
1h 10min
September 17, 2016The Extra Dimension #15: Transportation - Individual Car Ownership
Transportation Miniseries
Cycling

Public Transit

Long Distance

The Future
Overview
Pros
No physical effort

Door to door

High speed/shorter commute

Can get to places inaccessible to other forms of transportation

Longer distances

Can carry things like groceries or pets

Most convenient from an individual perspective

Cons
No physical effort

Have to be focused on driving for the entire commute

Pay for gasoline

Pay for insurance

Pay for maintenance

Traffic

Encourages living further from work/school

More pollutive per person than public transportation, walking, or cycling

Cars spend most of their existence parked - not being used

Inefficient for society as a whole (much better and more efficient uses of space, moving people, etc.)

Leaves behind segments of the population who cannot drive - particularly the very young and very old

Neutral
Don’t have to interact with people

Pay for huge amounts of car infrastructure via taxes
Links
The future of commuting - Vox

The utter dominance of the car in American commuting - Vox
How working women, cheap cars, and Starbucks killed carpooling - Vox
Driving to work alone is still the most dominant form of commuting.

Percentage rose slightly since 2000, mostly because there is less carpooling.
There are more cars per household than before, and the number of cars a person owns is the best predictor of the likelihood of driving to work alone.

Less people per household, which affects carpooling a lot because most carpools are within a household.

Lower gas prices and more fuel-efficient cars.

Women entering the workforce has an interesting effect: more income per household means they can afford more cars; spouses often have different work destinations; women are more likely to do other chores along their commute, which makes carpooling infeasible.

Suburbs: when you live in an area where you have to drive no matter what you want to get to, carpooling is infeasible.

Even with recent trends away from driving alone, they aren’t moving back towards carpooling.

Income isn’t really a predictor anymore of whether a household owns a car or not.
Decreasing cost of car ownership.

Cars last a lot longer than they used to, so it’s really easy to get a used car.

Long commutes make you fat, tired, and miserable - Vox
Having a long commute by car is associated with poor health, but it usually isn’t a direct cause.
Less likely to exercise.

Less likely to make food at home.

Purchase more non-grocery store food (like fast food.)

Sleep less.

Even if you exercise, long commutes are associated with higher blood pressure and chronic neck or back pain.

People with long commutes are also generally more stressed and less satisfied with life.

Most people with long commutes choose them because they want a larger house or a better neighborhood, but they are almost never enough to offset the drawbacks of the commute.

Carpooling is a great way to prevent the stress part of a long commute, because you are socializing with people instead of simply losing a couple of hours. But what if your carpool buddies don’t want to listen to the podcasts you like?

Young people are driving less than their parents. But why? - Vox
The many reasons millennials are shunning cars - The Washington Post
Young people drive way less today than young people in the past.

The dip in driving came at the beginning of the recession, when jobs were scarce and gas was expensive. So it was thought that this might just be a temporary change.

As we have gotten further from the recession, it seems like it is a permanent trend: Generation Y prefers to do less driving than Generation X.

Likely contributing factors:

“Americans reaching driving age today have no living memory of consistently cheap gasoline.”

In addition to gas prices, auto insurance costs have also risen, as the cost of repairs has gone up.

It is more difficult to get a permit/license when you are very young now.

As student debt has gotten bigger, paying that back eats into car payment funds.

There is a greater preference to live near city centers. In some cities, the higher cost of living is offset by easy access to public transportation and more walkable neighborhoods.

Information technology has made it way easier to live without owning a car. It is easier to use other forms of transportation like public transit or car sharing. It is also easier to stay home when your social life is largely online.

If you are in the habit of being productive on your phone while in transit, driving is much less appealing.

Even so, the car’s dominant position isn’t going anywhere soon.

Highways gutted American cities. So why did they build them? - Vox
» 60 Years of Urban Change: Midwest
If the highway system were built from scratch today, would it go through city centers? Probably not. So why did cities agree to do it?

Local governments were offered lots of money if they built highways, but they didn’t get a lot of control over where they went.

The car industry successfully framed highway building as a public responsibility.
Shifted from building privately-owned toll highways to publicly-owned highways funded by taxes on gasoline (well, 43-74% funded by gas).

Perception has stuck around that highways are self-funding, even though they’re not.

Allowed highways to expand much more quickly.

1939 World’s Fair model built by GM called Futurama showed big, wide highways that are only accessible by on- and off-ramps.
Credited with introducing the concept to the American public.

Promised to solve the traffic congestion problems of the day.

A 1947 map and 1955 document called the “Yellow Book” outlined the paths the interstate system would take - both through the countryside, and city centers.
Contributors to the document included members of the auto industry and highway engineers.

Notable lack of urban planners; the profession barely even existed at the time.

The majority of funding came from the federal government, because Eisenhower was really enthusiastic about the project; he wanted it to facilitate troop movements and mass evacuations in the event of a nuclear attack.

States were essentially getting highways for free, as long as they agreed to the routes in the Yellow Book.

Suburbs were starting to get big, so highways were seen as ways to bring commuters into the city centers.

Highways were used to get rid of “urban blight,” aka low-income, often African-American neighborhoods.

Some neighborhoods were able to prevent highways from coming through, but they were almost always higher income and had more political capital.

People displaced by highway construction had to move to other highways, leading to overcrowding and increases in crime rates.

Those who could afford it moved to the suburbs, taking tax money away from the cities that the highways were supposed to serve.

Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system totally fails them - Vox
Curbing Metro Mobility’s Growth | streets.mn
About 80% of American seniors live outside of urban areas, where driving is the only viable form of transportation.
Harder to get goods and services.

Isolated from friends and family. This can affect health in a number of ways.
Nobody to monitor and give health advice.

Psychological effects of isolation.

Society misses out on seniors who would volunteer their time if they could get places.

Our population is getting older.

Drivers past the age of 75 are much more likely to be involved in a fatal crash - partly because they are more likely to die as a result of a crash, but also because of slower reaction times and poor eyesight.

We need a better solution than public paratransit shuttles, which you have to schedule long ahead of time, and typically arrive within a wide window of time. Also, some disabilities which disqualify you from driving do not qualify you to use paratransit.

Possible solutions:
Multi-use neighborhoods that are accessible by wheelchair.

Elder village model.
Organization that provides services to the elderly so they can stay in their homes.

Both paid staff and volunteers.

Subsidized Uber.

Self-driven cars.

The "fundamental rule" of traffic: building new roads just makes people drive more - Vox
Expanding road capacity doesn’t alleviate traffic; people just drive more, and it remains congested.

This is because you are not charged to use roads, so using them more is the most logical thing to do.

Even improving public transit doesn’t solve the problem; the people who take transit instead of driving are replaced by other people who drive more.

The only method that has effectively reduced traffic is congestion pricing: charging for road use at peak traffic times.

It is a bit regressive, but so are current systems for funding roads.

Why free parking is bad for everyone - Vox
Donald Shoup of UCLA: charge for parking anywhere where # of cars > # of spots to park.

Reasons why it’s currently free:
Parking meters emerged a few decades past the invention of the car.

“It's hard to start charging people for something that the government owns and had been free.”

Space is finite, and therefore parking spots should be considered a limited good.

Lots of costs to maintain, which shafts those who don’t use cars.
~$1750 to build, ~$400 annually to maintain.

Building standards of many dense cities require parking space to be included, costing around $30k-$50k. The price is passed onto the consumer.

The unused lots of buildings forced to comply is wasted space.

So many govt decisions to allow for free parking makes a world in which a car is necessary to have.

People looking for *free* spots adds to congestion as well as CO2 emissions.
Free parking = larger demand for parking -> more miles driven.

Suggested Solution: charge for parking based on “market price.”
If a spot is occupied >80%, raise the price on the meter by $0.25/hour, <60% lowers by $0.25/hour.

One Scientifically Proven Thing Actually Makes People Happier - YouTube
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Jahzzar - Magic Mountain

Free Music Archive: Jahzzar - Last Dance
Copyright
The Extra Dimension is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to http://thenexus.tv/ted15.
...more
1h 10min
August 11, 2016The Extra Dimension #14: Transportation – Public Transit
Savannah Haslow, Andrew Bailey, and Ian R Buck discuss transportation and public transit.

Transportation Miniseries
Cycling
Individual Car Onwership
Long Distance
The Future
Overview
Pros
Cheap
Most efficient system at scale
Fewer cars on the road
Don’t have to bother with parking
Sense of community?
Cons
Buses not running on time
Missing the bus
Only viable on routes that the planners have planned for
Transfers compound travel time
Waiting for the bus in the rain
Sometimes subways have fires
Links
The future of commuting – Vox
How suburban sprawl hurts the poor – Vox

Suburban sprawl and bad transit can crush opportunity for the poor – Vox
Twofold problem: jobs are moving away from city centers, and poor people can’t afford to commute out there because cars are expensive and buses take too long
Public transit is often a poor choice for commuting because reliability is paramount
Some cities have high housing costs, but very cheap public transit systems that work well; NYC, DC, San Fran.
Long commutes (and sprawling metro areas) are correlated with lower economic mobility.
Designing public transit that works well becomes very difficult as sprawl increases.
The typical US metro resident can only reach 30% of jobs in their metro area.
Interesting statistic: median income of rail riders is higher for most metro areas than the median income of bus riders. Conjecture: rail systems are built on routes that serve wealthier riders?
Transit lines that connect high- and low-income neighborhoods can have positive impacts by reducing isolation of communities.
The real reason American public transportation is such a disaster – Vox
Cul-de-sacs are also bad for transit
As suburbs expanded, they did not initially invest in strong transit lines, so it is hard to change that after the fact
The suburbs were expanding at about the same time that the streetcar lines were all dying, so there wasn’t much opportunity for expansion
The attitude that public transit is a welfare makes it a politically charged issue
National politics is skewed towards rural interests
We all have to transfer downtown!
Everything you need to know about the streetcar craze – Vox

The real story behind the demise of America’s once-mighty streetcars – Vox
Streetcars run on rails, share the road with cars, make frequent stops, and largely serve downtown areas (as opposed to light rails that are separate from the road, have less frequent stops, and connect suburban areas to city cores.)
Phased out in favor of busses. This is popularly attributed to meddling by car companies, but it was probably just helped along by them.
Streetcar companies, in order to operate as a monopoly, had to agree to things like keeping fares 5 cents and maintaining the pavement around their tracks.
This was fine until WW1. Once 10% of the population had cars, the street cars no longer operated as a monopoly. They had to maintain the pavement around their tracks, which served cars, and they couldn’t raise fares to reflect actual costs. Gridlock meant that they couldn’t run on time.
Oh, and inflation meant that 5 cents was worthless at that point.
Only in cities where they maintained right-of-way did they survive.
Problem: they cost way more than busses, but aren’t nearly as fast as light rails. In the long term they can be cheaper than busses.
Pros
Tourists and first-time users are more likely to use them than busses
Encourage more growth in an area because the lines are permanent
Green!
Building the lines creates local jobs
Cons
Fires are bad

Cause of Sunday’s electrical fire at Steel Plaza T station remains under investigation | WPXI
These startups want to do for buses what Uber did for taxi rides – Vox

How the Microtransit Movement Is Changing Urban Mobility – CityLab
Microtransit: like Uber, but specifically for work commutes
Routes are partially predetermined, but alter themselves on the fly based on demand
It’s kind of the dream of overall efficiency: using data on overall demand to only send vehicles where they are needed, and reducing travel time when compared to rigid transit routes
Private companies running these companies will likely encounter legal hurdles like Uber has
Problem: in the short term, they could be bad for public transit, because they attract higher-income passengers
“The fear is that by creating a segregated, two-tiered transport system, we’d be allowing for fast, comfortable service for those who can afford it — and slower, less frequent service for those who can’t.”
Okay, but right now we essentially have that situation; it’s just that the higher tier is owning your own car
The best end-game scenario is that municipal transit systems will provide these, possibly as last-mile services
The Beacon : Students have mixed feelings about metro buses
Should we use transit buses to get students to and from school?
Use of Public Transit in U.S. Reaches Highest Level Since 1956, Advocates Report – The New York Times
Train to Nowhere | The Verge
Twin Cities – Google Maps
Pittsburgh – Google Maps
Green Line on University – Google Maps Street View
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Broke For Free – Something Elated
The Bus is Late | Satellite High
Copyright
The Extra Dimension is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to https://thenexus.tv/ted14.
This episode of The Extra Dimension has a Fringe episode. You should really listen to The Fringe #390: TED #14 — A Boxerful of Bailey!
Listen to more at The Nexus and follow us on Twitter and Google+ for our latest episodes and news.
...more
1h 7min
August 10, 2016The Extra Dimension #14: Transportation - Public Transit
Transportation Miniseries
Cycling
Individual Car Onwership
Long Distance
The Future
Overview
Pros
Cheap
Most efficient system at scale
Fewer cars on the road
Don't have to bother with parking
Sense of community?
Cons
Buses not running on time
Missing the bus
Only viable on routes that the planners have planned for
Transfers compound travel time
Waiting for the bus in the rain
Sometimes subways have fires
Links
The future of commuting - Vox
How suburban sprawl hurts the poor - Vox

Suburban sprawl and bad transit can crush opportunity for the poor - Vox
Twofold problem: jobs are moving away from city centers, and poor people can’t afford to commute out there because cars are expensive and buses take too long
Public transit is often a poor choice for commuting because reliability is paramount
Some cities have high housing costs, but very cheap public transit systems that work well; NYC, DC, San Fran.
Long commutes (and sprawling metro areas) are correlated with lower economic mobility.
Designing public transit that works well becomes very difficult as sprawl increases.
The typical US metro resident can only reach 30% of jobs in their metro area.
Interesting statistic: median income of rail riders is higher for most metro areas than the median income of bus riders. Conjecture: rail systems are built on routes that serve wealthier riders?
Transit lines that connect high- and low-income neighborhoods can have positive impacts by reducing isolation of communities.
The real reason American public transportation is such a disaster - Vox
Cul-de-sacs are also bad for transit
As suburbs expanded, they did not initially invest in strong transit lines, so it is hard to change that after the fact
The suburbs were expanding at about the same time that the streetcar lines were all dying, so there wasn’t much opportunity for expansion
The attitude that public transit is a welfare makes it a politically charged issue
National politics is skewed towards rural interests
We all have to transfer downtown!
Everything you need to know about the streetcar craze - Vox

The real story behind the demise of America's once-mighty streetcars - Vox
Streetcars run on rails, share the road with cars, make frequent stops, and largely serve downtown areas (as opposed to light rails that are separate from the road, have less frequent stops, and connect suburban areas to city cores.)
Phased out in favor of busses. This is popularly attributed to meddling by car companies, but it was probably just helped along by them.
Streetcar companies, in order to operate as a monopoly, had to agree to things like keeping fares 5 cents and maintaining the pavement around their tracks.
This was fine until WW1. Once 10% of the population had cars, the street cars no longer operated as a monopoly. They had to maintain the pavement around their tracks, which served cars, and they couldn't raise fares to reflect actual costs. Gridlock meant that they couldn't run on time.
Oh, and inflation meant that 5 cents was worthless at that point.
Only in cities where they maintained right-of-way did they survive.
Problem: they cost way more than busses, but aren’t nearly as fast as light rails. In the long term they can be cheaper than busses.
Pros
Tourists and first-time users are more likely to use them than busses
Encourage more growth in an area because the lines are permanent
Green!
Building the lines creates local jobs
Cons
Fires are bad

Cause of Sunday’s electrical fire at Steel Plaza T station remains under investigation | WPXI
These startups want to do for buses what Uber did for taxi rides - Vox

How the Microtransit Movement Is Changing Urban Mobility - CityLab
Microtransit: like Uber, but specifically for work commutes
Routes are partially predetermined, but alter themselves on the fly based on demand
It’s kind of the dream of overall efficiency: using data on overall demand to only send vehicles where they are needed, and reducing travel time when compared to rigid transit routes
Private companies running these companies will likely encounter legal hurdles like Uber has
Problem: in the short term, they could be bad for public transit, because they attract higher-income passengers
“The fear is that by creating a segregated, two-tiered transport system, we'd be allowing for fast, comfortable service for those who can afford it — and slower, less frequent service for those who can't.”
Okay, but right now we essentially have that situation; it’s just that the higher tier is owning your own car
The best end-game scenario is that municipal transit systems will provide these, possibly as last-mile services
The Beacon : Students have mixed feelings about metro buses
Should we use transit buses to get students to and from school?
Use of Public Transit in U.S. Reaches Highest Level Since 1956, Advocates Report - The New York Times
Train to Nowhere | The Verge
Twin Cities - Google Maps
Pittsburgh - Google Maps
Green Line on University - Google Maps Street View
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Broke For Free - Something Elated
The Bus is Late | Satellite High
Copyright
The Extra Dimension is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to http://thenexus.tv/ted14.
...more
1h 7min
July 24, 2016The Extra Dimension #13: Transportation – Cycling
Ian R Buck and Brian Mitchell discuss transportation and cycling.

Transportation Miniseries
Public Transit
Individual Car Onwership
Long Distance
The Future
Overview
Pros
Good exercise
Correlated with increased happiness
Good for environment
Cheap
If more people bike, roads are safer
Easy to park
Cons
WAY slower than driving when destination is more than a mile or two
Tiring; only suitable for those physically capable of keeping it up
At the mercy of the weather
If city is not set up with bikes in mind, it can be quite dangerous
Quite often, people who commute by bike are not doing so by choice; they’re just doing it until they can afford a car
Links
The future of commuting – Vox
Why Minneapolis was voted the most bike-friendly city in America – Vox
The Copenhagenize Index 2015 – Bicycle-friendly Cities
Things cities can do to be more bike friendly:
Bike lanes
Bike trails
Bike sharing programs
Bike spots on public transportation
Lower speed limits
Fewer than 4% of Americans walk or bike to work. Here’s how to change that. – Vox
No cul-de-sacs
Cul-de-sacs might not be so bad if they had trails leading across, where cars cannot go
Allow for mixed-use neighborhoods, so more amenities are available within walking/biking distance of their homes
Narrow lanes, convert lanes into turning lanes
Connect bike lanes/trails
“THE FREE PARKING SUBSIDY IS WORTH AS MUCH AS $127 BILLION ANNUALLY”
Walking in the Twin Cities: It’s hard out there for a pedestrian – StarTribune.com
Biking or walking to work will make you happier and healthier – Vox
Bike share users are mostly rich and white. Here’s why that’s hard to change. – Vox
People who use them don’t really need them
Concentrated in wealthier neighborhoods
Often laid out with tourists in mind, not long-term users
Supply is unreliable, especially on warm days
Again, most low income bikers are not doing it by choice
Where ‘Share the Road’ is Taken Literally – The New York Times
It’s not just hipsters on bikes – cycling is most popular for poor people – Vox
Copyright
The Extra Dimension is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to https://thenexus.tv/ted13.
This episode of The Extra Dimension has a Fringe episode. You should really listen to The Fringe #387: TED #13 — Mom, Do You Have A Car I Could Borrow?!
Listen to more at The Nexus and follow us on Twitter and Google+ for our latest episodes and news.
...more
46min
July 23, 2016The Extra Dimension #13: Transportation - Cycling
Transportation Miniseries
Public Transit
Individual Car Onwership
Long Distance
The Future
Overview
Pros
Good exercise
Correlated with increased happiness
Good for environment
Cheap
If more people bike, roads are safer
Easy to park
Cons
WAY slower than driving when destination is more than a mile or two
Tiring; only suitable for those physically capable of keeping it up
At the mercy of the weather
If city is not set up with bikes in mind, it can be quite dangerous
Quite often, people who commute by bike are not doing so by choice; they're just doing it until they can afford a car
Links
The future of commuting - Vox
Why Minneapolis was voted the most bike-friendly city in America - Vox
The Copenhagenize Index 2015 - Bicycle-friendly Cities
Things cities can do to be more bike friendly:
Bike lanes
Bike trails
Bike sharing programs
Bike spots on public transportation
Lower speed limits
Fewer than 4% of Americans walk or bike to work. Here's how to change that. - Vox
No cul-de-sacs
Cul-de-sacs might not be so bad if they had trails leading across, where cars cannot go
Allow for mixed-use neighborhoods, so more amenities are available within walking/biking distance of their homes
Narrow lanes, convert lanes into turning lanes
Connect bike lanes/trails
“THE FREE PARKING SUBSIDY IS WORTH AS MUCH AS $127 BILLION ANNUALLY”
Walking in the Twin Cities: It's hard out there for a pedestrian - StarTribune.com
Biking or walking to work will make you happier and healthier - Vox
Bike share users are mostly rich and white. Here's why that's hard to change. - Vox
People who use them don’t really need them
Concentrated in wealthier neighborhoods
Often laid out with tourists in mind, not long-term users
Supply is unreliable, especially on warm days
Again, most low income bikers are not doing it by choice
Where 'Share the Road' is Taken Literally - The New York Times
It's not just hipsters on bikes - cycling is most popular for poor people - Vox
Copyright
The Extra Dimension is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to http://thenexus.tv/ted13.
...more
46min
May 02, 2016 The Extra Dimension #12: The Brian Mitchell Show — Meetup
Ian R Buck, Brandon Johnson and Ryan Rampersad secretly planned to attend Brian Mitchell's Senior Seminar Presentation at the University of Minnesota Morris on Saturday morning. This is a short variety episode from a few hours later of our meetup.

Note: This is a variety episode — this is not a thorough or technical discussion, though it fits in The Extra Dimension as it was originally planned.
Links
You can find Brian’s slides and his paper. Availability of this material might change in the future. Download it and archive it while it’s fresh.
Production Notes
I wanted to record this special occasion meetup as a podcast, and figure out how to produce the first non-studio episode. After ordering the wrong cable type, and buying a last minute adapter, it worked! This episode is about an hour long after editing. The audio was a combination of Nexus 6P audio OGG recording and a Sony pocket recorder, and I hand adjusted the playback for each track to realign after drifting. Due to the environment, situation and equipment, this audio is not as high quality as I usually like, but it will suffice.
Copyright
The Extra Dimension is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to https://thenexus.tv/ted12.
Listen to more at The Nexus and follow us on Twitter and Google+ for our latest episodes and news.
...more
1h 3min
May 01, 2016 The Extra Dimension #12: The Brian Mitchell Show -- Meetup
Note: This is a variety episode -- this is not a thorough or technical discussion, though it fits in The Extra Dimension as it was originally planned.
Links
You can find Brian's slides and his paper. Availability of this material might change in the future. Download it and archive it while it's fresh.
Production Notes
I wanted to record this special occasion meetup as a podcast, and figure out how to produce the first non-studio episode. After ordering the wrong cable type, and buying a last minute adapter, it worked! This episode is about an hour long after editing. The audio was a combination of Nexus 6P audio OGG recording and a Sony pocket recorder, and I hand adjusted the playback for each track to realign after drifting. Due to the environment, situation and equipment, this audio is not as high quality as I usually like, but it will suffice.
Copyright
The Extra Dimension is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to http://thenexus.tv/ted12.
...more
1h 3min

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How many episodes does The Extra Dimension have?

The podcast currently has 77 episodes available.