Monorail?

Hawaii is trying to add a light rail to provide fast transit service across the island. Like all major transit projects, it is a complicated process. The proposed corridor is about 20 miles long, far too long for streetcar or a single bus route. Light rail has been chosen as the mode. But beach-front property in Hawaii is not exactly cheap. Development is pretty dense.



In similar situations, subway is typically built. The Hawaiian islands are volcanic outcroppings; adding so much as a sewer line requires blasting with dynamite. I imagine it would be possible to bore 20 miles of tunnel using special machinery, but the NYC Second Avenue subway ran over $2 billion/mile, so it is an unaffordable option.

The next best option is re-using existing Right of Way (ROW). But a two-track wide light rail corridor would be 25' wide, either forcing the LRT to share ROW with automobiles, or eliminating automobiles from the road. The former would destroy any hope of speed or reliability for the LRT; might as well use a bus. I doubt the latter is politically feasible.

Thus, the current initiative is to elevate the light rail. As you would guess, there has been some considerable outcry against this--it would be similar in appearance to a freeway overpass. Needless to say, there was some outcry, notably from the AIA, (American Institute of Architects), on the aesthetics of an elevated railway.

Wikipedia offers a potential alternative:



Wuppertaler is the strange example of a successful mono-rail. It is a suspended mono-rail, using a single overhead rail. This also allows it to minimize the visual impact of overhead wires. Rather than the gargantuan concrete pillars that so blight Seattle, it has much nicer looking iron trusses for support. I imagine it must also be lower cost to maintain--the UTA Trax tramway requires regular sweeping of debris and trash to remain safe. The worst an overhead rail would need to worry about would be pigeons.

A suspended monorail is a viable option for the Honolulu corridor. One of the main problems with a monorail is the astonishing difficulty in changing tracks--it is so time consuming as to be impossible. This makes extending the monorail very difficult, especially if one of the original ends is a dead-end. Honolulu is a single linear corridor with minimal potential for perpendicular routes.

Monorail is typically cheaper than light rail. One of the substantial costs for street-running light rail is the need to move substantial utilities, an extra- expensive prospect for Honolulu. While the support trusses would require some earthwork, they are more numerous than concrete support pillars, allowing the weight to be distributed more evenly, reducing the cost of the associated earthwork.

Access Control and Urbanism

For pedestrians and cyclists closing access points is undeniably a benefit. It reduces the number of potential conflict points where a vehicle can cross the sidewalk or bike lane. For the cyclist, this permits higher speeds and better safety. For the pedestrian, it permits greater attention to be devoted to the surrounding environment.

For pedestrian oriented retail, this is essential--no one can (safely) window shop and dodge cars at the same time. Ergo, to create a more pedestrian oriented environment, ensure the absolute minimum frequency of curb-cuts possible. The Gateway in SLC does this very well. In the entire complex, there are four access points--all leading to the parking garages, none of which are adjacent to shopping areas.

Access Control, Walking and Biking

For pedestrians and cyclists closing access points is undeniably a benefit. It reduces the number of potential conflict points where a vehicle can cross the sidewalk or bike lane. For the cyclist, this permits higher speeds and better safety. For the pedestrian, it permits greater attention to be devoted to the surrounding environment, which makes for a much more pleasant walk. More window-shopping, less dodging cars.

But what goes along with access control is frequently higher speeds along the road. Less of a matter if you are on the sidewalk, and protected by the curb, but for a bike trying to stick to the shoulder... very nervous business.

Lean Manufacturing

Interesting article on 'lean factories',

Factories are no longer doing shifts of 'batch work', with large numbers of workers doing the same thing. They are running lower inventories. While this is more efficient, it is also less robust. According to the article, this makes it very difficult to cut workers or cut costs. This suggests manufacturing will no longer follow the pattern of lay-offs to slim down the company to a more productive level, and will instead follow a pattern similar to dot-com startups--they run onto the last instant, hoping conditions improve, and then declare bankruptcy. Needless to say, this increases counter-party risk, as suppliers expecting payment and customers expecting products are left in a lurch.

In an economy with a robust pool of alternative suppliers, this may not be an issue. But in an environment dominated by a small number of large firms, it could be catastrophic, as the larger companies become 'essential industries', for whom no alternative exists.

The danger is not failure, but sudden failure. Reducing the information asymmetry that permits such surprises would be worthwhile, perhaps through increased mandatory disclosure. Quarterly reports may have been meaningful half a century ago, but the speed of finance has increased by several orders of magnitude.

How to institute a reporting regime that is useful without creating an undue regulatory burden? Sarbanes-Oxely may be the Glass-Steagal of our era, due for repeal decades later.

Given mandatory metrics, accounts will devise ingenious ways of meeting them, demanding increased standards on how those metrics are met, until another arcane body of law and regulation emerges. Mandatory 'transparency', rather than 'reporting' may be solution--a federal agency capable of subpoena-ing raw data on demand, to assess financial stability.