Current public policies are the cause of Climate Change and growing economic hardship. Moving 2 tons to move a person forces Americans to pay about $2.76 trillion per year on traffic. 16% of our income ($813/monrh) is spent on transportation. Often with some difficulty of finding a spot, cars are pared 95% of the time.
- $756 billion per year for oil.
- $871 billion per year in accidents, alternate data source.
- 40,100 road-deaths in 2017.
- 2.31 million injuries in 2013.
- $305 billion per year in congestion.
- $109 billion per year in car damage from poor road maintenance.
- $723 billion per year in land use at $1 per square foot per year (cost of a garden plot, apartments are normally $2-5 square foot per month with mulitple floors in a single square foot of land).
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Summary of the Speed and Scale of the changes coming by digitizing mobility:
- Tony Seba Future of Transportation as a Service
- McKinsey, The second great inflection point in mobility
- Red Bull TV, JPods starts at 9:30 (2016) on the future of transportation (self-driving cars for off-network, JPods for urban networks, and Hyperloops for highspeed networks between cities)
- $500 million Hyperloop Certification Center in West Virginia Announcement and a 2-minute summary.
- Pirates and Patriots:
- Tesla purposefully violates existing laws to deliver 3 billion self-driving miles on roads and a 9X better safety record. An example of violating laws, operating a car with no person in it, Tesla’s promotional video on “Smart Summon”
- Column: Cities crack down on electric scooter scofflaws, while trying to untangle the chaos of a new technology
- Uber Became Big by Ignoring Laws (and It Plans to Keep Doing That).
- Elon Musk’s Boring Company gets initial OK to expand Loop
- Praetor Capital 2021 estimate of PRT capital value of $31-58 billion.
- Pitchbook, “Q1 2021 Emerging Tech Research: Mobility Tech”
- Bloomberg: Energy Storage is a $620 Billion Investment Opportunity to 2040
- Material Handling: Automated Transit Networks (ATN) Systems Market 2022-28 Growth By Leading Players: Boeing, ULTra, Vectus, 2getthere, Modutram, Cabinentaxi, Glydways, Urbanloop, JPods, skyTran
- Reuters: Musk’s Boring Company valued at $5.6 bln after latest funding round
- Swyft Cities wins TechCrunch — Google
- World Bank, $2-3 trillion per year thru 2050, Destination: resilient and sustainable transport for all
Capital Investments:
- Morgan Stanley: Why Waymo Is Worth A Staggering $175 Billion Even Before Launching Its Self-Driving Cars
- McKinsey and Company: ‘A physical version of the Internet’: How Hyperloop could be the broadband of transportation
- $28 billion was invested in mobility startups in 2017
- 40x ROI on Kiva’s $775 sale to Amazon
- Mar 5, 2020: Valued at $30bn, Waymo considers its next move “outside investors lined up this week to pour $2.25bn into Waymo”
- Transportation poised for wild ride over next decade
- CNBC: Goldman pledges $750 billion for ‘large opportunities’ in sustainable finance
- Ford takes $2.7 billion hit as it drops efforts to develop full self-driving cars
- Even After $100 Billion, Self-Driving Cars Are Going Nowhere
Deployment:
- Macon
- Solar Mobility Franchise Agreement
- Pitch deck
- DFW:
- New way to travel could be coming to DFW—Plano takes next step to consider possibilities
- Click on Item 7: https://nctcog.swagit.com/play/09082022-712
- Prep for Oct 21: CERTT First Round Info Packet: https://www.jpods.com/LMC/TX/CERTT_1stPacket_TransPod_JPods.pdf
- JPods PowerPoint for Oct 21:
Economy:
- 2022: The Fed Finds That 37% Of U.S. Firms Are Close To Default
- World Economy in one graph
- Changes in World’s Reserve Currency
- April 2023, Seeking Alpha, The U.S. Dollar: The Demise Of The World’s Reserve Currency
- Ray Dalio, Changing World Order pdf
- Jan 2023, Seeking Alpha, Portfolio Adjustments For A Changing World Reserve Currency Basket
- 2022 JPMorgan predicts $6 gasoline by the end of the summer. SPR was used to soften this for the election.
- Rising fuel costs are a massive problem for business and consumers — Here’s why they’re so high
- Goldman Sachs expects oil prices to surge to nearly $140 a barrel this summer — but it will feel like $160
- YouTube on Structural Inventory Shortfalls
- Gasoline inflation of 70% (June 2021-2022) will likely continue until US cuts demand by 70%.
- Gas prices, loan rates ‘a real problem for auto demand’: Analyst
- Wall Street Warns of Trouble Brewing in Auto Loans as Prices Dip
- Share of 90+ delinquent auto loan balances in the United States from 2003 to 2022
Paths to War:
- How partisans view each other
- 51% expect political violence to increase.
- Lethal Mass Partisanship:
- Financing Putin’s war: Fossil fuel imports from Russia in the first 100 days of the invasion
Governments:
- Consequence of oil-wars: THE GHOST OF GWOT HAUNTING THE MILITARY RECRUITING CRISIS
- Dec 2023, Shelved Penn Station fixes could avoid $17 billion expansion — if transit agencies actually work together: Post investigation
- May 2023, Could billions in cash save downtown SF? A look at plans for the future of Salesforce Transit Center, empty $2 billion facility
- Inflation Reduction Act summary
- 26 states Autonomous Vehicles | Self-Driving Vehicles Enacted Legislation
- New Projection: U.S. Pedestrian Deaths Jumped in First Half of 2021
- California’s effort to create high-speed rail line to cost another $5B more
- PBS: Atlanta City Street, July 15, 2021
- ‘It’s a disgrace, frankly’: The O’Hare trains to nowhere
- We Could Never Afford America’s Highways — Even Before COVID-19
- Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze – South Carolina, Vince Graham
- The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth
- Cuomo: I Reached Out to Tesla to Help Fix the Subway System’s Signal Problems
- Engineers to Pedestrians: No ‘Walk’ Signs for You!
- Senator Beach and the Georgia Senate Transportation hearing, March 12, 2019 on solar-powered mobility networks.
- Mass Transit: L.A. is hemorrhaging bus riders — worsening traffic and hurting climate goals
- Americans Shouldn’t Have to Drive, but the Law Insists on It
- Subway Performance Reaches Major Milestone – On-Time Performance Crosses 80% for the First Time in Six Years, Up from a Low of 58% in January 2018
- Georgia sees spike in pedestrian deaths
- Leon Drolet: Transit is fading as transportation options shift
- Hey California, you can now trade in your old car for an electric bike!
- Latin America pledges 70% renewable energy, surpassing EU: Colombia minister
- Study: U.S. Fossil Fuel Subsidies Exceed Pentagon Spending
- Boomers Are Thriving on an ‘Unprecedented’ $9 Trillion Inheritance
- 71 people were killed while traveling around Denver in 2019 — here’s where
- US Uses 11 Times More Energy Than UK (with Only 5 Times More People)
- Dallas-Fort Worth’s sprawling rail networks haven’t worked, so here’s a better idea
- Clearwater one step closer to aerial transit system in Tampa Bay
- Yet Another Report Highlights DART’s Poor Quality Transit
- Atlanta is home to three of worst traffic bottlenecks in U.S.
- TAKOMA PARK AGGRESSIVELY WORKS TOWARDS ELIMINATION OF FOSSIL FUELS
- We Could Never Afford America’s Highways — Even Before COVID-19
- Mar 3, WSJ: Amid Coronavirus Fears, Officials Say New York City Subway Is Safe
- May 5, 2020, BBC: Coronavirus: Tube numbers to be ‘severely restricted’
- London’s Tube to be overwhelmed ‘with just 15pc of passengers allowed onto carriages after lockdown’
- Bill would tie Amtrak funding to preservation of long-distance routes
- Bike safety defects in San Jose.
- Gross Domestic Product, 2nd Quarter 2020 (Advance Estimate) and Annual Update, 32.9% decrease in GDP
- Iran dumps dollar for yuan; US imposes new sanctions
- National Conference of State Legislatures summary of States enacting self-driving car laws.
- What should matter….doesn’t.
- U.S. States Face Biggest Cash Crisis Since the Great Depression
- Mass Transit ridership is 65% lower than before the pandemic
- French Government investment: First solar roadway in France turned out to be a ‘total disaster’. They did not do their math nor engineering. The collectors much be mounted over guideways.
Safety:
Self-driving cars
- 2023-12-29: This Was The Dire State Of Self-Driving Cars In 2023
- 2023-12-29: https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/29/china-robotaxi-apply-the-brakes/Facing roadblocks, China’s robotaxi darlings apply the brakes
- 2023-12-17, Kurt Cobb, Self-driving cars are driving right into their own grave
- 2023-10-27: Driverless Cars Are Losing to Driver-ish Cars
- 2023-10-24: California orders Cruise driverless cars off the roads because of safety concerns
- Tesla Is Now America’s Number One Premium Automotive Company, Outsells BMW, Lexus In Q4
- Waymo’s autonomous cars have driven 8 million miles on public roads
- $80 billion has been spent on self-driving cars with nothing to show for it.
- Dr Ortiz letting his Telsa drive him home in NYC traffic.
- Autonomous trucks reach a new milestone (with video)
- Driverless cars won’t deliver a transport revolution—and the auto industry stands to lose out
- Morgantown network of self-driving cars has been running since 1972.
- Sony reveals electric car prototype as CEO dubs mobility the next ‘mega trend’
- New York-based architect Bjarke Ingels designs Toyota’s “city of the future” in Japan
- The federal government just granted its first driverless car exemption
- Nuro’s new delivery R2 bot gets the first driverless vehicle exemption from feds
- Autonomous Milestone: NHTSA grants first-ever driverless car exemption
- Soucheray: Light rail is an even bigger disaster than we thought
- Fed Risk Summary, page 28
- Musk gets approval to expand in Las Vegas.
- Car design is about to change forever. This video encapsulates how
Climate Change:
- Car tyres produce vastly more particle pollution than exhausts, tests show
- The End of Snow Threatens to Upend 76 Million American Lives
Covid-19
- Spread of flue on the London Tube
- Coronavirus in NY: MTA chief calls subways safe — but also says avoid them
- Coronavirus May Have a Lasting Impact on Public Transit Funding
- U.S. Jobless Rate May Soar to 30%, Fed’s Bullard Says
- NY Times: A Tragedy is Unfolding: Inside New York’s Virus Epicenter
- Half of China’s Infections on Saturday Came From an International Flight
- Real Clear Politics: April 3, 2020, Virus Experts’ Early Statements Belie ‘Prescient’ Portraya
- ‘It’s positively alpine!’: Disbelief in big cities as air pollution falls
- Tech Workers Consider Escaping Silicon Valley’s Sky-High Rents
- MIT Study: NYC Subways: The Subways Seeded The Massive Coronavirus Epidemic In New York City
- Jeffrey: What Spread Coronavirus in New York City? The Subways.
Hyperloop
- Elon Musk’s Boring Company Ghosts Cities Across America
- Future of Virgin Hyperloop project in W.Va. unclear; governor says more details coming
- Get Ready To Experience The Virgin Hyperloop At Expo 2020 Dubai
- Futuristic ‘Hyperloop’ system could cut Edinburgh to London journey time to half an hour
- US pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020 to include hyperloop simulator
- EuroTube
- Sydney to Melbourne in 40 MINUTES: Ultra high-speed trains could soon slash inter-state travel times across Australia with top speeds of more than 1220km/h
- INTERVIEW: Virgin Hyperloop One moving forward in India, Dubai, and Saudi: co-founder
- Hyperloop CEO reveals where the revolutionary project is right now
- Hyperloop: Is This the Future of Transportation in NYC?
- Hyperloop a step closer to offering a green alternative to short haul flights
- $2 million study looks at hyperloop – 700 mph transit – that would cross Pennsylvania
- The XP-1 hyperloop test pod is coming to Missouri and North Carolina
- The Boring Company’s Las Vegas Loop tunnel project is coming to life
- Pittsburgh to Cleveland in 9 minutes? There is new funding to study the possible Hyperloop route
- Hyperloop could come to North Texas sooner than expected
- Is this the future of transportation? The Hyperloop pod visits the Triangle this week.
- “Virgin Hyperloop One (VHO) will zoom into Washington D.C. on Wednesday, stopping outside the United States Capitol with its XP-1 test pod”
- Hyperloop to add $4bn, 124,000 jobs in Saudi Arabia
- New report claims MO hyperloop could create $3.6B annual boost, 17K new jobs
- Show Me Hyperloop: Missouri panel confident it can win route with $300M+ test track
- Virgin Hyperloop seeks backing to build U.S. certification center
- Senator Manchin sends letter advocating for Virgin Hyperloop One to build Certification and Test Center in W.Va.
- Governor: West Virginia makes its pitch for Hyperloop high-speed pod transit development center
- Great Lakes Hyperloop Feasibility Study
- Link to a new story out to Saudi Arabia today.
- Op-ed: The hyperloop will revolutionize transportation in the post-coronavirus world, Lucas Asher
- Governor announces Hyperloop Certification Center to be built
- Hopes for Missouri Hyperloop project dashed, Branson announces West Virginia
- India: Virgin Hyperloop sets up global hyperloop certification centre
- Effect of Hyperloop Technologies on the Electric Grid and Transportation Energy
Drones
Podcars
JPods
- It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a new way to travel in Macon
- Georgia Senate Transportation Committee hearing Mar 12
- THE ROAD NOT TAKEN, How we found (and lost) the dream of Personal Rapid Transit
- Queens Mobility Company, the official Draft EIS Document, LGA Access EIS, and the JPods response
- Georgia Mobility Company
- Response to RFI, San Jose, CA
- Metro Atlanta transit plan: Here’s the project list
- JPods example networks in Tulsa
- JPods in Shaxian, China (2018)
- Boston Magazine: How to Save Transportation in Boston: Big Ideas
- Carden’s presentation on accessibility (starts at 23:20).
- San Jose Proposal and “experts” choosing the same failed tech and vendors from Indianapolis and Las Vegas.
- Las Vegas proposal. JPods networks cost $10-30 million/mile verses the Monorail at $150 million per mile ($654 million for 3.9 miles). The Monorail was recently sold in bankruptcy for $24 million.
- Videos
Fracking, oil, and energy:
- 2023-12-20, U.S. Oil Production Is A Lot More Fluff Than Substance
- Oil State of the Union
- Acceleration forever? The increasing momentum of mineral extraction
- 2022-05-10, WSJ: Gas Prices Surge to Another High, Rising oil prices on strained global market are fueling record-breaking price of gas
- % of world oil consumption
- Per capita oil consumption
- The U.S. Shale Revolution Has Surrendered to Reality
- The Oil Market Remains In The Control Of OPEC+ Until Demand Fully Recovers — Demand exceeds supply in 2022-Q3
- EIA forecasts U.S. crude oil production to fall in 2020 and 2021
- Reuters 2020: Special Report: Trump told Saudi: Cut oil supply or lose U.S. military support
- Bankruptcy:
- OIL PATCH BANKRUPTCY MONITOR
- World Oil, 2020-06, Chesapeake joins more than 200 other bankrupt U.S. shale producers
- visualcapitalist.com, 2020-07, Tracking the Growing Wave of Oil & Gas Bankruptcies in 2020
- Reuters, 2020-10, U.S. oil producers on pace for most bankruptcies since last oil downturn
- Forbes, 2020-10, As Oil Bankruptcies Surge, Vulture Investors Start Their Long Feast
- NS Energy, 2021-01, North America hit record bankruptcy debt across oil and gas sectors in 2020
- Houston Chronicle, 2021-01, Over 100 oil and gas companies went bankrupt in 2020
- Colonial Pipeline CEO warns of fuel shortages following cyberattack
- Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? And what can we do to use this global opportunity for green growth?
- The Guardian: What if Canada had spent $200bn on wind energy instead of oil?
- Columbia | SIPA: Reserve Base Lending and the Outlook for Shale Oil and Gas Finance
- Bethany McLean:
- Saudi America interview with Chris Martenson.
- Bethany McLean, Sept 2018: The Truth about Fracking and How It’s Changing the World, 7 minute summary
- Fracking March 18, 2019: “The statistics point to a one to two-million-barrel decline in production from the frackers“
- NBC News: April 8, 2019: Why much of the country is headed for $4 gas
- Seeking Alpha: April 9, 2019: U.S. Oil Production Is Starting To Grow Again
- Seeking Alpha: Oct 16, 2019: U.S. Shale Productivity Declines Even As DUCs Decrease
- Peak Oil, Feb 13, 2020: $207.5 billion in losses.
- Mar. 13, 2020: U.S. Oil Production Could Drop By A Quarter
- Oil Shock of 1973–74
- Dallas Fed: Breakeven Oil Prices Underscore Shale’s Impact on the Market ($49 to $54)
- CNBC: Missing $4,155? It Went Into Your Gas Tank This Year
- CNBC: Oil now a ‘bigger problem for markets than the coronavirus,’ analyst says
- Baker Hughes Rig Count
- CNBC: Exxon cuts capital spending by 30%, but CEO says it’s ‘committed to maintaining’ dividend
- May 6, 2020: Implied U.S. Oil Production Shows Material Drop And Looks To Be Headed For 10 Mb/D
- April 28, 2020: 3.77 Mb/D Reduction In U.S. Gasoline Supply, Bullish UGA
- May 19, 2020: UGA: Bullish With New Source Of Demand
- June 1, 2020: Bullish UGA, Undervalued By $8
- Saudi America, Bethany McLean
- June 18, 2020: U.S. Energy Dominance is Over
- June 2020, EIA Permian
- July 2020, Shale boss says U.S. has surpassed peak oil
- UGA: Bullish, Demand Exceeds Supply
- Oct 9, 2020 U.S. Oil Production Set To Decline More From Here On Out
- Bethany McLean
- Yahoo News: Bethany McLean: The Truth about Fracking and How It’s Changing the World, 7 minutes Fracking is Fed Policies
- 30 minute summary, start at minute 18:30 on the shift from oil to renewables.
Suspended trains:
Graphene
Robots
- Navy Ship
- Robot space ships landing
- Boston Dynamics, Now that I can dance
- Dancing Spots
- Examples of factory robots
Batteries
Capital
- Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure CEO: Carbon Pricing Is Necessary | Mad Money | CNBC
- Carbon offsets price may rise 3,000% by 2029 under tighter rules
Oil
- Oil Discoveries Hit 70-Year Low
- 2020-06-01: OPEC+ Wants To Eliminate Storage Overhang Before Year-End Via Aggressive Supply Cuts. Excellent Debt Wall graphic
Microgrids and Solar
- Opinion: Microgrids could prevent need for planned power outages
- Here’s how some Bay Area businesses and residents circumvented the PG&E power blackout
- Pascal Conductance in LaAIO3/SrTiO3 Channels
- Growth of Solar versus Prediction Failures
Peak Oil
Sea Ice
Policies:
- Want to Build Your City’s Economy? Think Transportation, Not Tax Breaks.
Regions with an efficient transportation network stand a better chance of boosting productivity through shorter commutes. - Exactly How Far U.S. Street Safety Has Fallen Behind Europe, in Three Bombshell Charts
- Some Reasons the Bike Always Wins
Car ownership:
- 2021: $5,435/year average car payments and insurance, plus gas = $8,135.
- 2022: AAA new car ownership/year is $10,728
- Gas/year (AAA): $2,700 per year for gas
Other tech