Alon Levy
Mathematician turned transport researcher, a fellow at NYU's Marron Institute and a lead of the Transit Costs Project, which compares what it costs to build rail in different countries. Writes Pedestrian Observations.
Alon Levy did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
-
Their wordsBeyond the scale of a neighborhood or maybe a college town, cars and mass transit are substitutes for each other.
↗Why Building Metros is Necessary for the Green Transition Away from Carspedestrianobservations.com 1st of 3 in this piece
-
Their wordsNor does polycentricity solve the problem. Indeed, ridership in polycentric regions is weaker than in monocentric ones.
↗Why Building Metros is Necessary for the Green Transition Away from Carspedestrianobservations.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
-
Their wordsThis, in turn, creates serious estimation problems for the diversion rate, which is why environmental benefit-cost analyses underrate the effect of urban rail construction.
↗Why Building Metros is Necessary for the Green Transition Away from Carspedestrianobservations.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 15 months earlier
-
Their wordsIn truth, the UK shares high costs with more decentralized countries, and Spain shares low ones with more centralized ones.
↗Low Spanish Costs are not About Decentralizationpedestrianobservations.com 1st of 4 in this piece
-
Their wordsSo Portland managed to build one very small line for fairly reasonable costs, but they were not cutting edge; this is a common pattern to Western US cities, in that the first line has reasonable costs and then things explode, even while staying self-funded and self-directed.
↗Low Spanish Costs are not About Decentralizationpedestrianobservations.com 2nd of 4 in this piece
-
Their wordsThe truth is that there’s nothing that can be learned from American projects within living memory except what not to do.
↗Low Spanish Costs are not About Decentralizationpedestrianobservations.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
-
Their wordsA single case study can lead to overlearning from the peculiarities of one place, where the right thing to do is look at a number of successes and look at what is common to all of them.
↗Low Spanish Costs are not About Decentralizationpedestrianobservations.com 4th of 4 in this piece
- 6 months earlier
-
Their wordsIn fact, even though growth in average infrastructure costs over time is documented, there is very little cross-national correlation between GDP per capita and per-km subway construction costs.
↗Meme Weeding: High Wages and Baumol's Cost Diseasepedestrianobservations.com 1st of 4 in this piece
-
Their wordsIt’s not that the Anglosphere is rich; it’s that it’s the Anglosphere and builds inefficiently.
↗Meme Weeding: High Wages and Baumol's Cost Diseasepedestrianobservations.com 2nd of 4 in this piece
-
Our reading
New York's subway cost premium is overstaffing, oversized stations and procurement, not high wages.
Their wordsWell, we’ve divided the New York cost premium into three tranches: labor (mostly overstaffing, not high wages), station and system design, and procurement and soft costs.
↗Meme Weeding: High Wages and Baumol's Cost Diseasepedestrianobservations.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
-
Our reading
Britain has a systemic problem building large infrastructure projects, including reservoirs
Their wordsIt’s turned entire countries, like the United Kingdom, incapable of building more than about one line per generation.
↗Meme Weeding: High Wages and Baumol's Cost Diseasepedestrianobservations.com 4th of 4 in this piece
- 11 months earlier
-
Our reading
You cannot make America build subways ten times cheaper while only ever talking to Americans.
Their wordsYou can’t change the United States from a country that builds subways for $2 billion/km in New York and $1 billion/km elsewhere to a country that does so for $200 million/km if all you ever do is talk to other Americans.
↗Pete Buttigieg, Bent Flyvbjerg, and My Pessimism About American Costspedestrianobservations.com
- 7 months earlier
-
Their wordsIn fact, the worst cost blowouts are for the politically most certain projects; Second Avenue Subway enjoyed unanimous support in New York politics.
↗High Costs are not About Precaritypedestrianobservations.com 1st of 5 in this piece
-
Their wordsOur best explanation is that the UK adopted what we call the globalized system of procurement, privatizing planning functions to consultants and privatizing risk to contractors, which creates more conflict; the UK also has an unusually high soft cost factor.
↗High Costs are not About Precaritypedestrianobservations.com 2nd of 5 in this piece
-
Their wordsThis is not about precarity, because this is not a precarious project; this is about total ignorance and incuriosity about best practices, which emanate from a place that doesn’t natively speak English and doesn’t trade in American political references.
↗High Costs are not About Precaritypedestrianobservations.com 3rd of 5 in this piece
-
Their wordsImportantly, low-cost countries with more clientelism and politicization of the state tend to be more deferential to the expertise of engineers.
↗High Costs are not About Precaritypedestrianobservations.com 4th of 5 in this piece
-
Their wordsJust giving more support to agencies in their current configuration is not going to help. To the contrary, it only confirms that profligacy gets rewarded.
↗High Costs are not About Precaritypedestrianobservations.com 5th of 5 in this piece