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Monday, August 08, 2005

Excessive Spending - The Cost of Inefficiency

Over the past decade or so, I have written numerous letters to various government officials and departments concerning one needless and wasteful problem: incorrect traffic signal progression.

For those of you not familiar with the term, the concept is reasonably simple: the traffic signals along a route should change in a sequence and timing that corresponds to a vehicle traveling at the posted speed. If the posted speed is 40 mph, then you should be able to travel at 40 mph and have the traffic signals remain green. Obviously, there are factors that affect the actual progression of traffic through the signals including too many vehicles on the road, vehicles traveling too fast or too slow causing unnecessary stopping or delays, and emergency situations.

In every case, when I have written to the officials with a specific problem, I have received either no response, a snooty response or one that says the problem is really, really, really difficult, but every available person is working on the problem. In truth, millions of dollars have been spent on the issue, but with strangely little improvement.

In the Detroit Metropolitan area, there are about 5 million people... maybe 6 million. If there are 1 million vehicles on the road each day and they travel, on average, 30 miles per day, that is 30 million miles traveled in just this area. Typically, stop and start travel consumes about 30% more gasoline than steady-speed travel. Let's assume for argument sake that of the 30 million miles traveled, 15 million miles are over roads controlled by traffic signals. Let's further assume that the average mileage for these vehicles is 15 mpg (we have small cars to large trucks).

That gives us 1 million gallons of fuel used for the roads with traffic signals.

Now let's presume that the traffic signals are poorly timed for half of those miles. That's 1/2 million gallons of fuel used. If the mileage were improved to 19.5 mpg by steady-speed driving over those roads, then instead of 500,000 gallons of fuel used, the consumption would be 385,000 gallons. That is a savings of 115,000 gallons @ $2.30 per gallon or $264,000 PER DAY.

That's almost $100,000,000 of waste per year or about 42,000,000 gallons of fuel used unnecessarily JUST IN THE DETROIT AREA. Even if these estimates are somewhat high, the message is obvious:

It would seem that somewhere we can find $1 or 2 million to address this problem just a little more.

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There is always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.
Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956)
“The Divine Afflatus,” A Mencken Chrestomathy, chapter 25, p. 443 (1949)
... and one could add "not all human problems really are."
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- O. Henry
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FEDERAL RESERVE & HOUSING

SEARCH BLOG: FEDERAL RESERVE for full versions... or use the Blog Archive pulldown menu.

February 3, 2006
Go back to 1999-2000 and see what the Fed did. They are following the same pattern for 2005-06. If it ain't broke, the Fed will fix it... and good!
August 29, 2006 The Federal Reserve always acts on old information... and is the only cause of U.S. recessions.
December 5, 2006 Last spring I wrote about what I saw to be a sharp downturn in the economy in the "rustbelt" states, particularly Michigan.
March 28, 2007
The Federal Reserve sees no need to cut interest rates in the light of adverse recent economic data, Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.
The Fed chairman said ”to date, the incoming data have supported the view that the current stance of policy is likely to foster sustainable economic growth and a gradual ebbing in core inflation”.

July 21, 2007 My guess is that if there is an interest rate change, a cut is more likely than an increase. The key variables to be watching at this point are real estate prices and the inventory of unsold homes.
August 11, 2007 I suspect that within 6 months the Federal Reserve will be forced to lower interest rates before housing becomes a black hole.
September 11, 2007 It only means that the overall process has flaws guaranteeing it will be slow in responding to changes in the economy... and tend to over-react as a result.
September 18, 2007 I think a 4% rate is really what is needed to turn the economy back on the right course. The rate may not get there, but more cuts will be needed with employment rates down and foreclosure rates up.
October 25, 2007 How long will it be before I will be able to write: "The Federal Reserve lowered its lending rate to 4% in response to the collapse of the U.S. housing market and massive numbers of foreclosures that threaten the banking and mortgage sectors."
November 28, 2007 FED VICE CHAIRMAN DONALD KOHN
"Should the elevated turbulence persist, it would increase the possibility of further tightening in financial conditions for households and businesses," he said.

"Uncertainties about the economic outlook are unusually high right now," he said. "These uncertainties require flexible and pragmatic policymaking -- nimble is the adjective I used a few weeks ago."
http://www.reuters.com/

December 11, 2007 Somehow the Fed misses the obvious.
fed_rate_moves_425_small.gif
[Image from: CNNMoney.com]
December 13, 2007 [from The Christian Science Monitor]
"The odds of a recession are now above 50 percent," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "We are right on the edge of a recession in part because of the Fed's reluctance to reduce interest rates more aggressively." [see my comments of September 11]
January 7, 2008 The real problem now is that consumers can't rescue the economy and manufacturing, which is already weakening, will continue to weaken. We've gutted the forces that could avoid a downturn. The question is not whether there will be a recession, but can it be dampened sufficiently so that it is very short.
January 11, 2008 This is death by a thousand cuts.
January 13, 2008 [N.Y. Times]
“The question is not whether we will have a recession, but how deep and prolonged it will be,” said David Rosenberg, the chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch. “Even if the Fed’s moves are going to work, it will not show up until the later part of 2008 or 2009.
January 17, 2008 A few days ago, Anna Schwartz, nonagenarian economist, implicated the Federal Reserve as the cause of the present lending crisis [from the Telegraph - UK]:
The high priestess of US monetarism - a revered figure at the Fed - says the central bank is itself the chief cause of the credit bubble, and now seems stunned as the consequences of its own actions engulf the financial system. "The new group at the Fed is not equal to the problem that faces it," she says, daring to utter a thought that fellow critics mostly utter sotto voce.
January 22, 2008 The cut has become infected and a limb is in danger. Ben Bernanke is panicking and the Fed has its emergency triage team cutting rates... this time by 3/4%. ...

What should the Federal Reserve do now? Step back... and don't be so anxious to raise rates at the first sign of economic improvement.
Individuals and businesses need stability in their financial cost structures so that they can plan effectively and keep their ships afloat. Wildly fluctuating rates... regardless of what the absolute levels are... create problems. Either too much spending or too much fear. It's just not that difficult to comprehend. Why has it been so difficult for the Fed?

About Me

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Michigan, United States
Air Force (SAC) captain 1968-72. Retired after 35 years of business and logistical planning, including running a small business. Two sons with advanced degrees; one with a business and pre-law degree. Beautiful wife who has put up with me for 4 decades. Education: B.A. (Sociology major; minors in philosopy, English literature, and German) M.S. Operations Management (like a mixture of an MBA with logistical planning)