Reviews for Federal role in meeting infrastructure needs

The average rating for Federal role in meeting infrastructure needs based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-10-31 00:00:00 Peter Shih Before I start, I am completely in favor of an America moving towards an environment where one doesn't need a car to get everywhere. Unfortunately for me, the Midwestern city that I live in has grown to be extremely spread out. I decided to see how long it would take me to take the bus to my new job, but I was greatly discouraged to find out it required three transfers and two hours just to get there. The route actually looped into the city and then back out to my place of employment. With that, a 30 minute commute by car is still far preferable at this time. The information found in Jim Motavalli's book was hit and miss for me. There was a lot of fascinating information about the history and development of modern mass transportation in the US along with some of the pros and cons to certain methods of moving around the city. It was interesting to look at the differences between laying down rail versus the use of bus routes. Also, Motavalli discussed some of the advancements in the use of ferries along with the drawbacks preventing their growth in reducing traffic. Other parts of the book seemed to miss the mark completely when discussing how to make a less congested and greener transit network. In the book he discussed the benefits of electric cars when it comes to reducing pollution. While there may be no exhaust coming out of the tailpipe of an electric car idling in front of me, Motavalli never discussed how the electricity for these cars are produced. If all of the electric cars receive their power from a local coal power plant, is that really a net positive for the environment? In addition to that, I think when discussing electric cars, the industrial process of manufacturing the batteries needs to be mentioned so one can accurately assess the entire equation when determining the overall benefit these cars have on the environment. When it came to discussing air travel, I felt he took this topic far down a rabbit's hole. At first he talked about the struggles that major airports face when dealing with increase demand of flights, regulations, and trying to keep regional airports apart of the equation in the overall world of aviation. To me, these topics could've been discussed in much more details providing great insight into one of the biggest modes of transportation in the world. However, this section quickly moved onto the fantastical notions of private planes that people could both drive and fly. This topic was covered much, much more than it truly needed to be. I felt this tangent greatly detracted from the discussion of how to make world of aviation more efficient. I was definitely able to learn more about the problems and potential solutions to transportation in America. I look forward to learning more about ways America can become a less congested nation, but I hope to fine books that don't have some of the shortcomings of this book.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-03-27 00:00:00 Jeffrey Lather Excellent seminal text. Print font displayed as original text. Chapters remain relevant to contemporary society. Can be read as well as reference text.