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before they build a new station.... do they do environmental impact studies? was enough time given for the study to complete and people to challenge the result

before they build a new station.... do they do environmental impact studies? was enough time given for the study to complete and people to challenge the results? possibly with another study? are there community meetings to discuss the impact? does everyone in the area have a chance to voice their opposition at an open hearing? do all workers on the construction team have strict safety regulations? require certified training for specific tools? the company selected must pass random workplace safety visits? are they allowed to impact existing traffic flows during construction? we did this to ourselves

fanzhang 8y ago
That's probably also the answer to the time series question as well -- i.e. why construction is more costly today in the US than 100 years ago. Interestingly, I think those complexities are not imposed by any monolithic person or organization, but is a the bulk result of lots of little regulations. I'm not sure any one specific person is saying "on the whole, this system of complexity is worth it" but rather each one by itself has a specific good (e.g. environmental study) without explicit accounting of the costs. To be silly and meta, perhaps in addition to a mandatory environmental impact study of each large construction project, there should be a mandatory economic impact study on the environmental impact study.
atonse 8y ago
All this might explain maybe cutting the pace in half or 1/3. Instead, the pace in America is almost zero. ZERO.
mhjas 8y ago
I would guess they do that in Denmark and Copenhagen has a very modern subway system.
- LeonidasXIV 8y ago
  It is modern but the metro is just 1.5 lines and the new ring line takes forever to build. Some of the other extensions are only planned to open by 2024. So it is quite glacial.
CPLX 8y ago
Western Europe has no shortage of worker safety, environmentalism, or democracy, and they don’t have this problem.
- dash2 8y ago
  Are you sure? I live there and that isn’t the impression I get.
enraged_camel 8y ago
Yeah but how does any of this explain the 16-month delay in BART due to the installation of the wrong network equipment? Something is genuinely wrong when it comes to major projects in America.

fanzhang 8y ago

That's probably also the answer to the time series question as well -- i.e. why construction is more costly today in the US than 100 years ago. Interestingly, I think those complexities are not imposed by any monolithic person or organization, but is a the bulk result of lots of little regulations. I'm not sure any one specific person is saying "on the whole, this system of complexity is worth it" but rather each one by itself has a specific good (e.g. environmental study) without explicit accounting of the costs. To be silly and meta, perhaps in addition to a mandatory environmental impact study of each large construction project, there should be a mandatory economic impact study on the environmental impact study.

atonse 8y ago

All this might explain maybe cutting the pace in half or 1/3. Instead, the pace in America is almost zero. ZERO.

mhjas 8y ago

I would guess they do that in Denmark and Copenhagen has a very modern subway system.

LeonidasXIV 8y ago
It is modern but the metro is just 1.5 lines and the new ring line takes forever to build. Some of the other extensions are only planned to open by 2024. So it is quite glacial.

CPLX 8y ago

Western Europe has no shortage of worker safety, environmentalism, or democracy, and they don’t have this problem.

dash2 8y ago
Are you sure? I live there and that isn’t the impression I get.

enraged_camel 8y ago

Yeah but how does any of this explain the 16-month delay in BART due to the installation of the wrong network equipment? Something is genuinely wrong when it comes to major projects in America.