[Alon]

Originally Posted by cabasse

that stupid nyt editorial was soundly rebutted with data logged during his test. every other article i've read on the car has shown that it actually exceeds the stated range.

The data was about things like "he drove at 68 mph instead of 54 mph." That's pre-Interstate divided highway speed. For greenness the cars still lag behind the better-used public transit systems, for performance they're not that great if you want to make it to the supercharger, what's the point?

i'd love to read more about the building of madrid's metro - have any links? (sorry, OT!)

http://tunnelbuilder.com/metrosur/edition2pdf/page2.pdf

Note, by the way, that nowhere on the list of what Madrid did right is any of the usual US superstar tropes. It's all about procurement issues, conservative construction standards, avoidance of consultants, and contractor incentives that keep costs down.

Originally Posted by Trantor

he is not "any" entrepreneur.

PayPal is as far as I know leader in internet monetary transactions. (at least for small volumes at a time)

Okay, so he's a successful entrepreneur at things that have nothing to do with the construction of infrastructure. That's "any" entrepreneur, sorry.

Infrastructure does not work like the Internet. The increasing returns effect is a lot smaller, which means that the first mover does not get to dominate the market. The amount of capital required is astounding, which is why none of this ever gets done by the private sector, except for the Chuo Shinkansen, which is built by a company that has windfall profits from the Tokaido Shinkansen. And Chuo comes after decades of experiments with the technology and has had a working test track for years. The workers are usually unionized, and a good business culture is crucial. A political culture that makes it easier to build things cheaply is also crucial - and no, China doesn't build things cheaply at all; try Spain, Italy, and South Korea. The technology is old, so innovation happens gradually, after extensive testing, and often the innovations are not about technology but about better organization and political cooperation (for example, through-service between different private companies).

Meanwhile, people with real-world experience in transportation infrastructure have built high-speed lines at a cost per unit length that would give LA-SF for about $13 billion. But they are not Great Entrepreneurs who sound like they could be Randian heroes, so you never hear about that in the media.