Ryan Avent

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What Should We Learn From Moses and Jacobs?

By Ryan Avent | | 4 Comments
There is probably no more beloved figure in urbanism than Jane Jacobs, who fought to preserve some of New York City’s most treasured neighborhoods and who gave urbanists some of the field’s fundamental texts. As Ed Glaeser notes in the New Republic this week, Jacobs died in 2006 "a cherished, almost saintly figure," while her […]

Understanding the Importance of Land Use

By Ryan Avent | | 1 Comment
Experience with case studies has made it clear to many urban planners and environmentalists that to maximize the benefits of transit investments, and to slow growth in traffic congestion, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and carbon emissions, you have to focus on land use issues. (Photo: Penn State) This knowledge has begun working its way into […]

A Last Word on ‘Cash for Clunkers’

By Ryan Avent | | 1 Comment
One thing the government’s CARS program — a.k.a. "cash for clunkers" — has clearly stimulated is commentary. For a policy involving a shade under $3 billion in federal spending, it has enjoyed no shortage of media coverage. (Photo: Newsday) In part this is because the program looks like a big success, and certainly congressional leaders […]

Toward a Positive Argument for High-Speed Rail

By Ryan Avent | | 2 Comments
In recent weeks, I’ve been busily making what you might call a negative argument for high-speed rail — pointing out the many ways in which arguments against HSR are deficient. That’s all well and good, but positive cases for HSR need to be made, as well. Now, others have already begun to do this. California […]

The Power of Transit-Oriented Development

By Ryan Avent | | 11 Comments
Back in the late 1970s, when Washington’s Metrorail system first began operating in Arlington County, Virginia, the future of Arlington and other old, inner suburbs was far from certain. Across the Potomac, the District of Columbia was suffering from depopulation, rapidly rising crime rates, and serious fiscal difficulties. Meanwhile, on the other side of Arlington, […]

The Washington Post Features Rail Hack Job

By Ryan Avent | | 16 Comments
This is the big problem with Ed Glaeser’s New York Times posts purporting to analyze the costs and benefits of a high speed rail system. Despite Glaeser’s acknowledgment that his "back-of-the-envelope calculation" doesn’t "[represent] a complete evaluation of any actual proposed route," the posts are sure to be read and regurgitated by rail opponents uninterested […]

Glaeser Goes Out With a Whimper

By Ryan Avent | | 20 Comments
For those just tuning in, economist Ed Glaeser has been writing a four-part series on the potential costs and benefits of high-speed rail at the New York Times‘ Economix blog. He began three weeks ago with an introduction. The following week he addressed direct costs and benefits from a hypothetical line, and last week he […]

The Times’ Thickheaded Train Tag Team

By Ryan Avent | | 1 Comment
The New York Times has now turned loose writers at two of its economics blogs to make weak arguments against the construction of high-speed rail lines. Eric Morris of UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies (Photo: ericandrewmorris.com) I have been following Ed Glaeser’s attempt to do a back-of-the-envelope assessment of the costs and benefits of a […]

Ed Glaeser’s Rail Fail

By Ryan Avent | | 32 Comments
The story so far: Ed Glaeser recently began an effort to assess the costs and benefits of constructing high-speed rail lines at the New York Times’ Economix blog. Last week, he posted his first substantive take on the issue, an attempt to estimate direct costs and benefits from a hypothetical line between Houston and Dallas. […]

Glaeser Takes an Unserious Look at High-Speed Rail

By Ryan Avent | | 8 Comments
Ed Glaeser is a very good economist, and his papers are indispensable reading for those interested in the workings of urban areas. But he is also a strident conservative, whose popular writings frequently challenge conventional progressive wisdom (and my own views). Harvard University economist Ed Glaeser (Photo: NPR) I was interested, then, to read that […]

How to Judge “Cash for Clunkers”

By Ryan Avent | | 4 Comments
(Photo: NYT) At this point, it’s difficult to know exactly what the government’s "cash for clunkers" program is supposed to accomplish. Claims about its economic and environmental benefits are increasingly detached from reality, and the chief advantage of the program would seem to be that it "worked," in the sense that it was popular among […]
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