[sustran] Re: M1 Expansion to cost 21 million pounds per mile; real life numbers

[mpotter]

Setty et al-

Perhaps someone is thinking of the French language, in which if I'm  
correct, the word  "milliard" means the English word "billion".   And  
perhaps also they are considering the case of widening the entire  
length of M1.   And perhaps they are thinking of  not a bus for  
everyone in the UK but a seat on a bus for everyone in the UK.  So if  
one thinks of a billion pounds/mile for the entire length of the  
highway versus a seat on a bus for everyone in the UK, we  might come  
closer to having the numbers match.

In any case, highway construction is highly coddled in almost every  
country on the planet.  Could  this be connected in someway with the  
enormous contributions that highway construction companies lavish on  
politicians?

A real life story with verifiable numbers  (go to  
http://obama.senate.gov/news/050804-wacker_rehab_part_ii_announced/ 
index.html to see the figures for street reconstruction) :

In one American city, Chicago, $200 million US was spent in 2001 and  
2002 to rebuild a 1/2 mile (.8 km) E-W stretch of one street, W. Wacker  
Drive. (Google Earth "W. Wacker Dr., Chicago" to see it).   Now another  
$280 million US has been earmarked to rebuild a similar short N-S  
stretch of  the same street, ( Google Earth, "S Wacker Dr., Chicago").

In contrast, note that  the federal subsidies for the entire Amtrak  
national passenger rail system in the US  in 2002 was $521 million US.  
(see http://www.publicpurpose.com/amtrak-subys.htm).

To put that in perspective, in a country which in 2002 had a population  
of almost 300 million, the national subsidies to the national passenger  
rail system was something like 40% more (adjusting for inflation  
between 2002 and 2007) than what it  has and is costing to rebuild  
about a mile of one street  in one medium sized  city.  (I think it's  
safe to say that Chicago's 3,000,000 population is medium sized by  
Asian, African  and Latin American  standards, though it's 9.8 million  
metro population probably push it into the big leagues).

Mark Potter
millennium3
Fukuoka, Japan



On May 7, 2007, at 1:04 AM, Pendakur wrote:

> Madhav, what am I missing here?
>
> 1 million pounds will give us 4 buses, 21 million gives us 84 buses.   
> This
> is not enough to provide the provide the entire population of UK with  
> a bus
> each!
>
> What am I missing?
>
> Cheers.
>
> Setty
> Dr. V. Setty Pendakur
> Professor Emeritus, University of BC
> Honorary Professor, China National Academy of Sciences;
> Director, ITDP (NY) & Secretary, ABE90-TRB
>
> President, Pacific Policy and Planning Associates
> 702- 1099 Marinaside Cresecent, Vancouver, BC
> Canada V6Z 2Z3
> 604-263-3576; Fax: 604-263-6493
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:  
> sustran-discuss-bounces+pendakur=interchange.ubc.ca at list.jca.apc.org
> [mailto:sustran-discuss- 
> bounces+pendakur=interchange.ubc.ca at list.jca.apc.org
> ] On Behalf Of Madhav Badami, Prof.
> Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2007 8:00 AM
> To: sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org
> Subject: [sustran] M1 Expansion to cost 21 million pounds per mile ...
>
> Hello all,
>
> I saw this report in the Guardian just now ... the M1 widening is  
> estimated
> to cost 21 million pounds per mile:
>
> http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2073611,00.html
>
> At that rate, you could buy, with what it would cost to widen just one  
> mile
> of the M1, every man, woman and child in the UK a bus of their own  
> (assuming
> a 40-foot low-floor bus costs about 250,000 pounds), and you would  
> have 6
> million pounds left over for whatever else you may care to do.
>
> Madhav Badami
>
> *********************************************************************** 
> *
>
> "As for the future, your task is not to foresee, but to enable it."
> Antoine de Saint-Exupery
>
> Madhav G. Badami, PhD
> School of Urban Planning and McGill School of Environment
> McGill University
> Macdonald-Harrington Building
> 815 Sherbrooke Street West
> Montreal, QC, H3A 2K6, Canada
>
> Phone: 514-398-3183 (Work); 514-486-2370 (Home)
> Fax: 514-398-8376; 514-398-1643
> URLs: www.mcgill.ca/urbanplanning
> www.mcgill.ca/mse
> e-mail: madhav.badami at mcgill.ca
>
>
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> equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing  
> countries (the 'Global South').
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