Alex Marshall

Recent Articles

• King of the Road
• Apr 1, 2008
• What's up with groups that argue for less government but see publicly built highways as an expression of the free market?

• Smoothing the Way
• Feb 1, 2008
• Road repair is a rough and tough job that cities need to tackle.

• The Streetcar Surge
• Dec 1, 2007
• Streetcars, popular again in a growing number of cities, have the potential to be a vital part of urban transportation systems.

• A La Mode
• Oct 1, 2007
• We need to look at economic and life-style questions when we decide on our next investments in infrastructure.

• Street Wise
• Aug 1, 2007
• A study compared how well old-city street layouts handled traffic versus modern approaches. The results set off a firestorm.

• Back Up On the Interstate
• Jul 1, 2007
• The national highway system is marking its Golden Anniversary, but that's not much cause for celebration.

• Slow Going
• Jun 1, 2007
• It takes far longer to build a major project today than it did a century ago. Why is that?

• Changing Places
• Apr 1, 2007
• Autos and airplanes have a lot in common with the Web and cell phones. Moving people and information around are both transformative.

• Running a Railroad
• Feb 1, 2007
• Its schedules are undependable, prices high and on-board service of middling quality. Yet demand for Amtrak's inter-city service grows.

• Private Assistance
• Dec 1, 2006
• Not since the expansion of railroads in the 19th century has such a horde of international capitalists been so eager to invest in our transportation.

• Soft on Sprawl
• Oct 1, 2006
• A popular planning book praises sprawl and ignores the mess left by misguided transportation policies.

• A Bridge Too Far
• Jun 1, 2006
• Whether it's widening an old road or upgrading an intersection, transportation changes the way an area develops and functions.

• A Case of Voter Overkill
• Apr 1, 2006
• The death of Seattle's monorail plan is a telling tale of the failure to capitalize on grassroots energy and gumption.

• Picking Partners
• Feb 1, 2006
• Should the building of vital infrastructure be left to big business or big government?

• The Gas Tax's Last Gasp
• Dec 1, 2005
• With the high price of gasoline, drivers are pouring so many dollars into their tanks that Exxon-Mobil reported record profits in October of $10 billion. And that was for one quarter. Paradoxically, drivers were pouring relatively fewer dollars into other entities that depend on gasoline spending: the various state and federal transportation trust funds.