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Alon Levy

What Alon Levy thinks about America

@alon-levy · 36 positions · 2 changes of mind · On ppll ↗

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.

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Only Alon Levy on America. See everyone on America

7 dated positions, 2023 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Alon Levy has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingBus grids cannot function as a city's primary transit backbone at the scale of a very large, low-density city like Los Angeles, no matter how much priority the buses get.

    Their wordsBut in fact, the scale of buses is rather short, and in a Los Angeles-size city they are hopeless, no matter how much priority they have.

    ↗The Failure of Bus Grids at the Scale of Los Angelespedestrianobservations.com 1st of 2 in this piece

  2. 4 weeks earlier

  3. Our readingA ridership-estimation model built for typical U.S. transit systems can give unreliable results in a complex system like New York's.

    Their wordsSTOPS is designed for quick-and-dirty calculations and is known to choke on New York.

    ↗Quick Note on Ridership Estimation and the STOPS Modelpedestrianobservations.com 2nd of 2 in this piece

  4. 19 months earlier

  5. Our readingA city's first rail line comes in at a reasonable cost and every line after it does not, because the follow-up outgrows the in-house team that oversaw the pilot.

    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

  7. Our readingThere is nothing to learn from any American transit project within living memory except what not to do.

    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

  8. 16 months earlier

  9. Our readingYou 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

  10. 7 months earlier

  11. Our readingAmerican transit agencies stay expensive out of incuriosity: the practices that would fix them are written in languages nobody in the room reads.

    curiosity

    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

  13. Our readingCountries that build cheaply defer to engineers, even the ones with far more political patronage than the United States has.

    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