Autonomous Vehicles Are Coming, and California Isn’t Ready – Streetsblog California
"Reynolds, testifying to the committee, said that as currently worded the federal act would prohibit states and cities from adopting, maintaining, or enforcing “any rules or standards regulating the design, construction, or performance of AV systems with respect to safety, data recording, cybersecurity, human-machine interface, crash-worthiness, post-crash behavior, or automation function.” It would also prohibit states from promulgating any rules on any other issue regarding AVs, including requiring any of them to be electric or subjecting them to VMT fees. It would nullify S.B. 1298, which in 2012 called for the California Department of Motor Vehicles to create safety rules for testing AVs in the state, and it could potentially nullify the rules that resulted from that law as well as prevent the DMV from updating them—although they sorely need updating, and the DMV is in the process of doing so. The act, said Reynolds, “jeopardizes the state’s ability to regulate safety, congestion, and environmental benefits of AVs. Preemption is a feature, not a bug.”
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The rest of the developed world is enjoying high-speed rail, and we are dithering while trains go off the tracks, bridges teeter on the edge of collapse, and we have a multi-trillion dollar deficit in just fixing the infrastructure we already have. The rest of the developed word is planning cities around a (very near) future of electric, self-driving, shared vehicles, with homes powered by solar energy. We are under the boot of a federal government that is bought and paid for by big oil.
Thursday, February 22, 2018
What's Missing From the Housing Recovery? New Condos | realtor.com®
What's Missing From the Housing Recovery? New Condos | realtor.com®: "With the last financial crisis now firmly in the rearview mirror, builders are swinging their hammers again and putting up sorely needed new homes. But something’s missing amid all the scaffolding: condos.
Their absence is already being felt by first-time and cash-strapped buyers contending with record-high home prices thanks to the lack of properties on the market. Condos, which are often more affordable than traditional single-family houses with backyards, may seem like a solution. But builders are shying away from putting them up, even in urban areas, where they're often the most concentrated. Why?"
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To put it bluntly, the answer is because growing income inequality makes it more attractive to build luxury homes for rich people, and because building cheap condos leads to construction defect litigation.
Their absence is already being felt by first-time and cash-strapped buyers contending with record-high home prices thanks to the lack of properties on the market. Condos, which are often more affordable than traditional single-family houses with backyards, may seem like a solution. But builders are shying away from putting them up, even in urban areas, where they're often the most concentrated. Why?"
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To put it bluntly, the answer is because growing income inequality makes it more attractive to build luxury homes for rich people, and because building cheap condos leads to construction defect litigation.
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