Bill James

Why a Revamped Housing Plan Should Be Government's First Priority

Housing can recover with by changing transportation infrastructure policy from Planned to Performance Standards. The typical working family (income $20-50,000) spend $10,300 a year on transportation. That can be cut in half by allowing non-oil based transportation systems access to rights of way. Allow access to any one and any technology that can exceed 126 passenger-miles per gallon (energy equivalent).

Increasing disposable income by $5,000 a year per family is enough to stabilize foreclosures and the housing market.

Building the infrastructure will create about 1.8 million new sustainable job.

Personal Rapid Transit is a technology that can exceed the Performance Standard:
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Bad News for Housing

The only way we can resolve the housing crisis is to increase disposable income so people can service their mortgages.

There is a great set of statistics from the Center for Housing Policy that shows for every 10% increase in public transportation, working families cut their transportation expenses by $1,000 a year. Cities with less than 5% public transportation costs are $10,300. Cities averaging 12% public transportation, costs are $9,300, etc....

A practical way to increase transportation as a service is Personal Rapid Transit (PRT or PodCars). These networks increase urban transport efficiency to approach long-haul rail (423 ton-miles per gallon). They are efficient enough to be privately financed. Currently San Jose and Santa Cruz have requests on the market to build networks in those cities.

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