The most recent edition of Access (the University of California Transportation Centre’s quarterly journal) ran two thought provoking pieces on parking policy. One was a piece on how to optimally allocate parking in urban neighbourhoods, written by economist turned parking guru Donald Shoup. For those familiar with his work, this piece holds up to his usual standard of excellence. The more controversial piece was written by Michael Manville, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University, and Jonathan Williams, a Transportation Planner in Seattle. They argue that cities should eliminate free parking for disabled people. While this one will no doubt spark outrage (hence, will never happen), it is an equally sensible proposal.
Year: 2013
Ed Schreyer Speaks, Best to Listen
On June 25th, former Governor General of Canada and former Premier of Manitoba Ed Schreyer spoke at a Frontier Centre luncheon. His topic was Manitoba Hydro's plans (supported by the provincial government), to spend tens of billions of dollars to construct...
Seismic Company Challenging Confiscation of Intellectual Property
Governments can sometimes regulate the use of private property to the extent of nearly expropriating it. Regulatory policies are acceptable under our legal system, even if surprisingly, there is no requirement to pay compensation for the use of the private property....
Precautionary Double Standards: Wind turbines kill birds and harm people. Why doesn’t the “precautionary principle” apply?
Jessica Marszelek, federal politics reporter for Australia’s News Limited Network, recently posted an article titled, “Australia: Wind power ‘terrorising’ rural communities.” Some 150 people turned up for a three-hour rally at Canberra’s Parliament House, she reported, to express their concern about the health effects of wind turbines.
Featured News
Energy Storage, Key to Making Renewable Energy and Green Infrastructure Viable, is Expensive
Big infrastructure spending plans in both Canada, the United States, and the European Union, all place a lot of emphasis on renewable energy displacing coal, gas and petroleum burning generating stations and motor vehicles. Yet little attention is given to the one...
Technology Giants: Prince John or Robin Hood?
The technology landscape consists of giant powerhouses like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook and AOL (to name a few) and a veritable plethora of smaller companies ranging in size from one-person start-ups to mid-sized corporations. The one thing that all of these...
Who Are the ‘Deniers’ Now?
Last year The Mail on Sunday reported a stunning fact: that global warming had ‘paused’ for 16 years. The Met Office’s own monthly figures showed there had been no statistically significant increase in the world’s temperature since 1997.
Media Release – Common Sense Education I: What’s Wrong With Our Schools?
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy, in conjunction with the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, today released the first video in a new series on education reform. The series, Common Sense Education, gives parents, teachers and students a direct window into the foolish fads that afflict our public education system.
Common Sense Education I: What’s Wrong With Our Schools?
Common Sense Education gives parents, teachers and students a direct window into the foolish fads that afflict our public education system. This first of ten episodes begins with a hard-hitting exposé of the anti-knowledge curriculum approach that dominates our public...
2012 Probably Not the Warmest Year in America: U.S. climate bureau’s credibility damaged by repeated mistakes and warmest bias
The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that 2012 was the warmest year on record. However, the NCDC is not to be trusted because of its poor methodology and damaged reputation.
Uncovering U.S. climate agency’s global warming propaganda – Part 2
Starting in their June 2009 SOTC report, NCDC moved the warning about the data being preliminary and so subject to significant change to the very bottom of the document where almost no one would see it.
Is the federal government sticking to its mandate? Follow a cabinet minister for a few months.
Yesterday I gave a speech on my recent study on how having multiple levels of government involved in the same program areas erodes accountability. Unfortunately, federal involvement in provincial and municipal areas has become so routine that no one bats an eyelash when a Mayor attends a ribbon cutting with a federal and provincial cabinet minister.
Biofuel Subsidies and the Law of Unintended Consequences
The environmental benefits of biofuel subsidies are dubious, and these subsidies have the disastrous unintended consequence of making it harder for the poorest people in the world to feed their families.
Omertà in Alberta
The Alberta inquiry into queue-jumping in the province’s health system appears to have run into a wall of memory loss.
Media Release – High Canadian Airfares are Hurting Airports and Our Economy: A New Policy is Required for Airport Transportation
Canadians are crossing the border into the United States to fly from their airports because departing from Canada is so much more expensive. The tax portion of the Canadian air ticket is ratcheted up with hefty federal fees and taxes. The US sees air transportation as essential to economic growth, while Canada sees it as a source of tax revenue.