Planning Pool

So, it turns out that hydrogen is a great idea for some things, but not for others.  In fact, knee-jerk hydrogen car skeptics worry that fuel-cell vehicles might be like bombs on wheels (a concern having no scientific basis).  Good to know that New Jersey’s Hindenburg disaster of some 82 years ago still reverberates through public consciousness.  Though hydrogen won’t lead to the unwarranted automotive explosions of so many 80’s action films, it is a legitimately bad way to float zeppelins.  Unfortunately, after the Hindenburg, the baby got tossed with the bathwater (save for the Goodyear Blimp).

Now anyone who’s bought a plane ticket in the past 20 years knows the increasingly prohibitive cost of flying.  For those of us with an eye toward the polar icecaps, there is also increasing awareness of the detriment that jets are to … Continue Reading

I’m addicted to planning porn.

If you’re still reading, allow me to elaborate…

One of the most accessible, exciting and sometimes frightening elements of planning is the effort to imagine future incarnations of society through the lens of new-fangled, far-reaching technologies.  Of these, there is no shortage.  Imagine flying cars, living buildings and cities built on pontoons.  Such ideas artfully stretch the bounds of our imaginations, but most of us have no expectation that any of it will ever come to fruition.  Nothing is new about planning porn.

Take, for example, my parents’ generation, the Baby-Boomers.  On one hand, their most outlandish expectations for the far-off future were probably a blend of George Jetson and Mr. Spock.  On the other, few foresaw the rapid rise of personal computing and widespread mobile communications, despite … Continue Reading