Democracy and Transportation in America
In 1952, Charles E. Wilson resigned as President of GM to become Secretary of Defense. At the confirmation he was asked if he could make a decision in the interest of the nation if it were adverse to GM. "Yes sir, I could," Wilson said. "I cannot conceive of one, because for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa. The difference does not exist."1 Yet his GM is accused of undermining the American transportation infrastructure and destroying a viable, superior streetcar network in order to sell more cars. Regardless of the validity of this conspiracy theory, the fact remains that America destroyed vast mass transit networks to make way for private and public automotive transportation. The question of whether the transfer from iron to asphalt was advisable also asks what makes a good transportation network. Both transportation systems are valid, but unique features of American cities and culture made automobiles the better choice. Conspiracies of the powerful in the USA pale compared to the tyranny of the majority. Regardless of economic or social considerations, public demand made the key decisions in building the American transportation network.
A transportation network must be judged for its cost-effectiveness. The American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) in 1952 made its tenet, "that a profit should be returned on an investment applies as well to highway projects as to general business ventures."2 Cost-effectiveness includes safety, ease of use, and flexibility in the eyes of both the local government and individual users. Unfortunately, "little or no supporting evidence"3 exists and few studies compared the systems. Since no monetary value can be placed on human life, comparisons of safety are even fewer and less thorough. A simple account of accident records, however, is a good judge of safety. Studies of system costs, ont the other hand, are purely monetary and more frequent. From the operator's standpoint, costs break down to overhead and construction, maintenance of cars and lines, operation costs, and profits. From the users' standpoint the only cost is the fare.
Some considerations are particular to the town. Users must determine, first of all, whether it is even possible to go from one point to another. This is especially important for those who are not able to walk long distances. Riders must also decide whether the restrictions of a certain mode - say, timetables for trains, or driving laws - are acceptable.
4 Lynch, T (2004). Florida High Speed Ground Transportation Economic Benefit and Cost Impact Study. Retrieved on April 16, 2005, from http://www.floridabullettrain.com/content/economics.pdf
During the reconstruction of America after the Civil War, the government allocated land grants and premiums to encourage work on the railroads, which proved effective. However, such incentives led to a questionable quality of work. Land donations and loans offered to both companies would eventually become profitable with the addition of railroad tracks running through, and the la...
Since my freshmen year of high school, I have met peers who rely on public transportation to get to school every day since the school bus system did not serve their neighborhood. They were students who were eager to come to school everyday, relying on MTS to transport them to school on time every day. Similarly, my mother relies on MTS to get her to work on time every morning and home every afternoon. Both students and adults alike have had little to no problems with the transportation system; when there were problems, MTS was able to adjust their schedules or routes to serve the community. A friend who just recently began to rely on public transportation to transport her to school has told me the interesting experiences she has encountered during the time she has used the public transportat...
Many organizations such as: the National Cooperative Highway Research Program and Minnesota Department of Transportation study the downsides
During late adulthood, which begins around 65, many changes will take place. Death, sickness, and aging are some of the things you go through. Everyone is affected at some point. Individuals deal with these changes differently. Gerontology is the science that deals with the aging process. Vision can show impairment as people age. One of the changes in vision is the loss of accommodation of the lens. Most people 65 and older have hardened eye lens and have lost elasticity if the lens. Cataracts can form and vision becomes cloudy and is significantly impaired. Glaucoma is a serious condition that causes pressure to increase within the eye and it can result in blindness. Often hearing decreases with age. The hair cells in the Corti (inner ear) can cause a decrease in hearing frequencies. The ossicles and eardrum have a decrease in the transmittance of mechanical sound waves. Due to aging many elderly people have hearing impairment. Loss of appetite from connective tissue cells replacing taste buds. Skin can become thin, dry, and inelastic as it ages and the skin can fold and wrinkle from sagging.
Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is a form of cancer that occurs when the lymphoid stem cell is affected thereby causing abnormal white blood cells to build up in the bone marrow. This cancer rapidly produces and replaces healthy cells with immature lymphoblast. The leukemia cells moves into the bloodstream to other organs and tissues where further growth and division occurs. The proliferation of cancer cells to other area produces a variety of symptoms. ALL typically occurs in children under the age of 15, however it can happen at any age. ALL is
In addition to the burn itself, a burn can lead to several other medical issues, such as infections, disfigurement,
The Love Canal goes back to the late nineteenth century, when entrepreneur William T. Love received government consent to build a canal using the Niagara River in hopes to fuel the industrial city with an abundant amount of inexpensive hydropower. However, several factors prevented Mr. Love’s hydropower dream from succeeding. The most significant factor being, The Panic of 1893: a financial depression in the mid-1890s, much like the Great Depression in the 1930s (Vassar).
This dream began in the 1890s as the vision of entrepreneur William T. Love. Love had an idea to take advantage of the Niagara Falls water by building a canal between the upper and lower Niagara Rivers, in an effort to generate power to fuel the industry and homes of his would-be model city.1 Love was only successful in initiating his dream project but due to the timing of multiple economic factors, including the Great Depression and Nikola Tesla's discovery of cost effective transfer of electricity, the dream had to be abandoned, leaving behind a partially dug ditch.1 The events that occurred after this have created what has now become known as one of the most controversial environmental tragedies in the U.
On February 2011 Nokia, Inc., and Microsoft Corp. have announced plans for a “broad strategic partnership” under which Nokia will use Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform as a new operation system in it’s new smartphones. “Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great experience,” Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO, said at a joint news conference in London. “Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It’s now a three-horse race.”
Apple and Samsung are the two most important technological companies in the mobile phone market. Both companies have achieved outstanding sales in the past years and have made some competitors such as Nokia or Blackberry almost inexistent. This does, therefore, raise the question: Apple or Samsung? Which one will win the technological battle? Both enterprises have been challenging each other in the past few years in order to win this smartphone war. Research and analysis of the company’s sales, show that both companies focus over 50 per cent of their production on the global smartphone market. Samsung is a perfect example. The company has managed to produce low cost high quality smartphone products attracting new customers and, therefore, expanding the company’s market shares. Its net profit also rose to 8.24 trillion between the months July and September of 2012 (Jones 1). The success and peculiarity of its new low cost high quality products as well as its emphasis on innovation has allowed Samsung to find a way to win this technological battle.
Over the last decade, Nokia had emerged as the clear market leader in the mobile device market
In 1996, Britain privatized its railways, contracting private companies to operate trains and maintain the rail lines. The argument for privatizing public transportation is that private companies pursue cost-minimizing strategies, which means that public transportation can benefit from the more efficient outcomes. This has proven to be the case in London, where the central government’s spending on the railway is mainly payments to franchised train-operating companies and Network Rail, which is a semi-public body. Overall, costs for the railways have been lowered in London “reducing operating costs by about 10 per cent” (White, 2009).
Burns are the most common injuries. The term “burn” means more than the burning sensation associated with the injury (getfitnowweb.com). Burns are characterized by severe skin damage that causes the affected skin cells to die (getfitnowweb.com). A burn victim can usually recover from a burn, depending on its severity. There are three common types of burns: First, Second, and third degree. Each degree is based on the severity of damage to the skin, with first-degree being the most minor and third-degree being the most severe (getfitnowweb.com). There is also fourth degree burns, which extend beyond the skin into the tendons and bone. The causes of burns vary. Causes include scalding from hot boiling liquids, chemical and electrical burns, burns from fire, and sunburns. The type of burn is not based on the cause of the burn (getfitnowweb.com). Scalding, for example, can cause all three burns, depending on how hot the liquid is and how long it stays in contact with the skin (getfitnowweb.com).
It is also a fact that Nokia was the first to develop a whole range of new smart phones in the world. However, they were too big and inefficient; thence Nokia was subsequently replaced by other companies. Afterwards they tried to reverse the decline in the smart phones market share and finally it loses nearly the whole smart phones market share in 2014. Many considered Nokia as the largest corporation and a pioneer of mobile phones maker. The company had funds and human resources to make continuously grow. However, as mentioned above, this company became too huge to be inefficient, thus they were not able to change their strategies and policies, even their corporate structure and culture immediately. Therefore, Bureaucracy is one reason why they were surpassed by other corporations and finally have no any chances to turn over the market share of smart phones. Based on O’Brien (2010), in Nokia, Bureaucracy suffocated innovation and development. Actually, Nokia prepared the prototype of touch-screen and internet functionality a couple of years before iPhone was introduced by Apple. According to The New York Times (2010), Hakkarainen (former manager at Nokia) indicated that Nokia did not pursue the innovation, but was paying more attention on research and development cost. Furthermore, he also noticed that the organizational structure of Nokia is extremely sophisticated and enormous. Hence, these factors resulted in dilemmas about communication and cooperation with different departments. For example, when he was a manager in department of Marketing, if some staff offers one idea or proposal to him, if this proposal involved interdepartmental decision, he had no any power to make a decision and could not collaborate with another department manager immediately. The bureaucratic structure necessitated the submission of this proposal to the general manager, and a wait