This is a direct comment to JBaylo's blog titled, "Will Rain Water Save the Day?" Baylo basically talks about the drought problem that Texas has along with a simple solution that could possibly help stabilize it. This solution has to do with storing rain water into large containers. Rain water is 100% safe drinking water and if stored, can be used to help in numerous ways, such as in the case of a terrific drought. In encouragement, the people who collects rain water can actually get paid through means of rebate. For ever one gallon of non-pressurized storage you get 50 cents while a gallon of pressurized water gets you a dollar for a maximum of 5,000 dollars, not a bad paycheck if i had to say.
I agree with this move, in terms of encouraging people to collect water. The more water they collect, the less they will have to rely on regular tap water and the more chances that a drought would not affect them as drastically as some did before. What I wouldn't necessarily agree on is the fact that you would need to buy these storage devices and it turns into a type of investment which most would find "not worthy of their time." The idea is very nice with the perfect approach to this situation, but the fact that their might not be any rain could really hurt the investment plan, even if your goal was to help the drought situation.
In conclusion, I agree with the approach to the drought situation but would encourage a better method to store water with a little more cash return to actually be worth the investment of time.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
Toll Lanes. Yay or Nay?
As we all know, there has been one thing on the road that we all tend to sway away from. Aside from cops, the answer is toll roads. Toll roads has been this infamous infrastructure that we all tend to hate, especially when it is between your home and work/school. But why is that? Do we even know their purpose?
According to an article on the Texas Tribune titled "Tolling Texans: More Cities Planning Toll Lanes," more and more cities in Texas are starting to implement toll roads in addition to highways or alongside free roads. The author Aman Batheja believes that this is all part of a trend of public officials finding themselves with little tax revenue to spend on new roads. According to Batheja, "the addition of toll lanes can bridge the gap in financing for major highway projects and many more." She also states that the addition to toll roads, "highways will become less congestive and will save gas...gas that you would be using just mindlessly sitting in traffic." In head of Houston's toll roads, many big Texas cities like Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and El Paso have all considered adding toll lanes to many highway projects, according to transportation officials in those cities.
The real question would be if this is worth it or not? If you think of it economically, then the answer would be yes. Toll roads will give congestion relief to highways and will pay off over time; implying that the toll range be anywhere from 75 cents to 5 dollars. People will take these roads to avoid the rush hour and will stay their permanently which will pay off the debt eventually. But if you think of it ethnically, not quite. Its almost like creating a brand new highway (which costs a lot of money) to make a system that helps create more money (which is what they're looking for). Kind of a tug and pull type of management with no quick benefits, especially when most of the day the roads will be free of congestion. Another study shows that this will benefit by lowering carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere by processes of allowing transit buses, registered van pools, emergency vehicles, etc to move in and out of toll roads for free (quicker than taking the high way) which enforces car pooling. But that raises the last question that is if this is worth it or not? Government funding is used to fund this project and the outcome may or may not be good news according to those who agrees and/or disagrees.
According to an article on the Texas Tribune titled "Tolling Texans: More Cities Planning Toll Lanes," more and more cities in Texas are starting to implement toll roads in addition to highways or alongside free roads. The author Aman Batheja believes that this is all part of a trend of public officials finding themselves with little tax revenue to spend on new roads. According to Batheja, "the addition of toll lanes can bridge the gap in financing for major highway projects and many more." She also states that the addition to toll roads, "highways will become less congestive and will save gas...gas that you would be using just mindlessly sitting in traffic." In head of Houston's toll roads, many big Texas cities like Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and El Paso have all considered adding toll lanes to many highway projects, according to transportation officials in those cities.
The real question would be if this is worth it or not? If you think of it economically, then the answer would be yes. Toll roads will give congestion relief to highways and will pay off over time; implying that the toll range be anywhere from 75 cents to 5 dollars. People will take these roads to avoid the rush hour and will stay their permanently which will pay off the debt eventually. But if you think of it ethnically, not quite. Its almost like creating a brand new highway (which costs a lot of money) to make a system that helps create more money (which is what they're looking for). Kind of a tug and pull type of management with no quick benefits, especially when most of the day the roads will be free of congestion. Another study shows that this will benefit by lowering carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere by processes of allowing transit buses, registered van pools, emergency vehicles, etc to move in and out of toll roads for free (quicker than taking the high way) which enforces car pooling. But that raises the last question that is if this is worth it or not? Government funding is used to fund this project and the outcome may or may not be good news according to those who agrees and/or disagrees.
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