Tag Archives: traffic

Risk, Overreaction, and Control

Posted on May 8, 2013 by

How many people died because of the September 11 attacks? The answer depends on what you are trying to measure. The official estimate is around 3,000 deaths as a direct result of hijacked aircraft and at the World Trade Center, … Continue reading →

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Dollar Bills and US State Borders

Posted on April 29, 2013 by

A number of proposals (not all serious) have been floating around lately to redraw the borders of the US. According to this list nearly every US state has groups wanting to partition it somehow. One idea was fifty states with … Continue reading →

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Reducing the Hidden Costs of Urban Living

Posted on April 10, 2013 by

USC graduate student Jeremy Fuller put it eloquently when he said, “Traffic really just defines your possibilities at any given time.” When traveling from one side of a large metro area to another in the US, a single individual has very … Continue reading →

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The Roman Internet

Posted on February 6, 2013 by

  Terence Eden asks why the Romans didn’t invent the internet: What I find interesting is that there was nothing fundamentally to stop the Romans – or any other ancient civilization – from creating such a network. The Greeks experimented with … Continue reading →

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Micro-Institutions Everywhere: Food Truck Wars

Posted on September 7, 2012 by

“Following all the regulatory constraints that are currently enforced at this moment, there really is not any place for a food truck to park,” says David Weber. He’s the other owner of the Rickshaw Dumpling, and he just wrote the … Continue reading →

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Micro-Institutions Everywhere: Walking Paths

Posted on July 20, 2012 by

I was delighted to discover an example of micro-institutions at work this week right in my own backyard, er, campus. Several of my classes have been held in the Social Psychology building on Duke’s West Campus. Most traffic to this … Continue reading →

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Traffic and Property Rights

Posted on July 6, 2012 by

This blog has recently discussed jaywalking, and has covered traffic signals as both metaphor and fact numerous times (here and here, for example). But Matt Yglesias does not read this blog, so he writes: A political movement genuinely focused on … Continue reading →

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Micro-Institutions Everywhere: Jaywalking

Posted on July 2, 2012 by

“There was a lot of anger in the early years,” says Norton. “A lot of resentment against cars for endangering streets…. [Auto manufacturers] said, ‘If we’re going to have a future for cars in the city, we have to change … Continue reading →

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My Ten Favorite Posts from the Past Year

Posted on April 17, 2012 by

As promised yesterday, here are my top ten favorite posts from the first year of YSPR. They are arranged chronologically. Addiction in The English Opium Eater Thoughts on Public Enemies Iraq Casualties and Public Opinion, 2003 Lessons from Moneyball Casinos … Continue reading →

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Traffic Jam Solutions

Posted on February 10, 2012 by

I’ve argued before that calling roads public goods is a mistake, and that imposing costs on (actually, revealing costs of) road congestion can help to make traffic flow more efficiently. Here is a round-up of recently articles on actual and … Continue reading →

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