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> Civil engineers don’t tell your mayor or your highway commission what to build, their only job is to figure out how it can be built.

I would disagree. The engineers absolutely steer the space of available solutions. Caltrans is a prime example, I have personally met Caltrans engineers who might as well have stepped out of a time machine from 1970. This absolutely influences the priorities of both the state and the cities that depends on the framework it sets up.

And yes city politics is separately a major problem.

by bsder4 hours ago|

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> I have personally met Caltrans engineers who might as well have stepped out of a time machine from 1970.

This is the problem with outsourcing everything in the name of "efficiency".

If you don't actually do things in house, you don't know how to do them.

Everybody wants the US to manufacturer and build more until they have to cut a check.

by scoofy5 hours ago|

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Not liking Chuck Marone is irrelevant. The question is whether or not the thesis is correct, and it seems correct.

Everyone hates Nassim Taleb and he can be an asshole, but his math is impeccable. When your concern is with someone's personality because you don't like their math, then you've lost the plot.

by Spooky232 hours ago|

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The engineers are a big part of the problem and drive regulations that featherbed themselves.

I got into a fight with my city over nonexistent crosswalks (the adhesive line strips wore off) near my home in an area where drivers have a hard time realizing where pedestrians cross due to a unique road setup.

You can’t just paint lines. The project ended up costing about $1.2M and required a traffic study, some stupid ADA assessment and accommodation that frankly any layperson could have figured out, and a complete streets assessment.

Basically, they sent out a few engineering technicians who make $20/hr, billed out 80 hours at $120 to count cars and people, and printed some boilerplate analysis (@$250/hr). The end result was they painted new crosswalks and added textured curb surfaces for ADA compliance, which allowed for the use of recovery act funds.

by GorbachevyChase1 hours ago|

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I love a good rant, but you just have no idea what you’re talking about. First, real engineers (the kind with, education and experience requirements and personal liability for their work) have labor markups that are maybe 2 to 3 times raw rate. I don’t know if 6X margins are normal for people who collect a check to “maintain” a finished product. Second, any civil engineer will tell you that complete streets compliance for federal funding is a waste of everyone’s time. Engineers didn’t come up with that, congressmen elected by people like you came up with that. Third, the only reason they did all of that study is because the people you voted for wanted to use money that was tax farmed from me instead of your city funds. They could have just sent out a road crew. You could also cut the check yourself. Finally marked crosswalks alter pedestrian behavior, but not driver behavior. Marking crosswalks where there is high traffic and no controls like a signal with a dedicated pedestrian phase are actually more dangerous than no markings at all. I don’t expect you to know that, but that’s why you should hire people like me and not try to do this yourself.

by xxpor5 hours ago|

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>I promise you the reasons have nothing to do with zoning.

I am willing to guess they probably did, even if it doesn't seem directly related.