On the Move

“The Geography of Recession”

Here’s an interesting take from an Austin intelligence firm on how geography shapes global infrastructure, politics and economies.

Navigable rivers and ports, arable land, borders, weather and other natural features play a big role in how available resources are tied up or freed up, according to Stratfor. Such givens influence how governments and economies organize to meet challenges and also how well they succeed.

• The Geography of Recession

Excerpt:

Taken together, the integrated transport network, large tracts of usable land and lack of a need for a standing military have one critical implication: The U.S. government tends to take a hands-off approach to economic management, because geography has not cursed the United States with any endemic problems. This may mean that the United States — and especially its government — comes across as disorganized, but it shifts massive amounts of labor and capital to the private sector, which for the most part allows resources to flow to wherever they will achieve the most efficient and productive results.

Laissez-faire capitalism has its flaws. Inequality and social stress are just two of many less-than-desirable side effects. The side effects most relevant to the current situation are, of course, the speculative bubbles that cause recessions when they pop. But in terms of long-term economic efficiency and growth, a free capital system is unrivaled. For the United States, the end result has proved clear: The United States has exited each decade since post-Civil War Reconstruction more powerful than it was when it entered it. While there are many forces in the modern world that threaten various aspects of U.S. economic standing, there is not one that actually threatens the U.S. base geographic advantages.

psi – check your tires

Here’s a new year’s resolution you might adopt: Check the air pressure on your vehicle’s tires at the beginning of each month.  I was reminded of this when I checked mine at the beginning of this week.  I began to notice my vehicle, a 2005 Dodge Caravan, was not handling as well as it should.  Some of you may think it is oxymoronic to use handling characteristics in reference to a minivan but the thing just didn’t feel right.  Sure enough, each tire was 4 psi – pounds per square inch – low.  The ‘bus has new tires, maybe two months old, and I checked them in mid November, prior to a trip to Houston.  I was surprised how much the tires went down following the recent cold snap.  So, maybe you should make checking your tires a monthly chore.  Just being one or two psi down can really affect miles per gallon plus, it just feels better.

Pigs will fly!

As a married man of a certain age, one expects to be given Yuletide tasks.  It is a given that your regular round will be interrupted with missions for which it could be said you are not the most adapted member of the family.  But it came to pass this holiday season that my dear wife provided me with one of the most extraordinary chores I have ever had to perform at this or any other Christmas.  It involves flying pigs at the Mexican border.

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Holiday travelers feeling the spirit

Though millions of people still look for work, Americans are starting to spend and travel more as a hobbled economy appears to limp toward a long recovery.

Over the Christmas and New Year’s break, 87.7 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home, up 3.8 percent from last year’s bleak season and the largest jump in six years, according to AAA.

That means one in four U.S. residents will soon be on the roads, riding rails or in the air to see friends and family this season. Travelers budgeted an average of $1,009 per household for the holidays, with two-thirds expecting to spend at least as much as they did at this time last year, an AAA survey indicates.

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Where’s the Loop 1604 Christmas tree?

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  Been busy working on my big website update as well as the usual holiday tasks.

Speaking of the holidays, for the past few years, somebody has always decorated one of the trees in the median between the Loop 1604 mainlanes and frontage roads around Christmastime, usually in the vicinity of Blanco, Huebner, or Bitters.  This year, I haven’t spotted one.  Has anyone seen it?  If not, I wonder what happened to the person who used to do it.

I-35 closed this weekend

With some dozen announcements about construction and lane closures apparently wrapped up for the week, the biggest snag to watch for will be on Interstate 35 near Fort Sam Houston.

In about an hour, crews will shut down all southbound main lanes of I-35 from Walters Street to New Braunfels Avenue so they can do bridge work, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

The lane closures could last to as late as 5 a.m. Monday, with motorists detoured to the frontage road.

Alternative routes include Rittiman Road to Austin Highway and then Broadway; or Coliseum Road to Houston Street.

To check current traffic conditions, go to TransGuide.

Transportation Museum Christmas Show

It’s been a while since I posted here but I’ve been busy setting up “Santa’s railroad Wonderland” at the Texas Transportation Museum.  In its eleventh year, this eight night event has become a significant source of revenue for this small, independent museum, which receives no government funding of any kind, from city, county, state and federal levels. So we get by, solely, on visitor support.  We must be doing something right because we are still here after 45 years.

 Click http://www.txtransportationmuseum.org/SHD.htm for more information about “Santa’s Railroad Wonderland.”

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MPO approves long-range plan; Tommy starts to get it

As reported here last week, the San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) policy board was scheduled to vote on the ”Mobility 2035” long-range regional plan yesterday.  Toll opponents were angry because the plan included numerous projects in three corridors (I-35 North, Loop 1604, and I-10 West) pigeon-holed as toll-concession projects, also known as Comprehensive Development Agreement (CDA) projects.  As I explained previously, because current projections show little to no gas-tax funds being available during the time span of the plan, those projects had to have creative funding ”placeholders” assigned to them in order to continue planning work on them, those placeholders being CDAs.

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TexasHighwayMan.com update coming soon

If you’ve visited my website lately, you’ve probably noticed that it hasn’t been updated in a while (since May in fact.) I’ve had a busy summer– a big project at work that invaded some of my free time, the duties of being the father of a now 14-month old (which I have loved every minute of), and the time I’ve invested into this new blog have all left precious little time for keeping-up my website.

However, the blessings of time-off for the holidays and some personal leave will allow me to completely update and overhaul my site, hopefully by New Year’s Day. In addition to updating all the information, I will be improving the design and format, dropping some obsolete pages, and slightly re-organizing the remaining pages to be more logical and easier to navigate. My companion site about Germany will see a similar face lift shortly thereafter.

So let me offer my apologies for allowing my site to go stale.  I hope you’ll enjoy the new site!

Loop 410 closed this weekend

About an hour ago, state officials announced that construction workers will close eastbound Loop 410 on the Northeast Side this Sunday.

Crews will shut down all main lanes between Starcrest and Perrin Beitel from 7 a.m. until sometime Monday morning so they can do bridge work, the Texas Department of Transportation said.

Worthy alternative routes include Austin Highway and Wurzbach Parkway.

Motorists should also watch out for various lane closures through next week on this part of the freeway and its intersecting roads. Check TransGuide before you head out.

Also in late this afternoon from TxDOT:

Have a great weekend everyone. Stay Warm!