It's not often that I agree with Superheater's views on government, but in this case, he's spot on. Having dealt with the Commonwealth's transportation bureaucracy and funding streams as a consumer from 1984-2001 and reporting on it since then, it seems from where I sit that every time a change in administration (or administrator) takes place, a whole new plan is required. In spite of itself, I think the current 12-year planning cycle, which is updated every couple of years, works fairly well. But going out 25 years is just not realistic.

Heck, there are counties in this state that have lost population steadily for 50 years or more, and at the rate they're going, by 2035 won't have any residents! And why is there a need for high speed rail between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg? At least two studies of which I am aware indicate that a second "Pennsylvanian" running 12 hours opposite the current schedule will more than adequately serve the population in between. That area needs high-speed rail like I need an appendix.

The business of doing "studies" is the new channel for politicians to help their friends and for those friends to return the favor and help the politicians. In my area (not Pennsylvania) we have a project that has reportedly consumed $117 million for a half dozen studies without a single shovel of dirt having been moved yet. The original projected cost of the entire project? $138 million back in 1994! The current estimated cost of the project? Now over $2 Billion. How does the cost of exactly the same job get multiplied about 15x in just 15 years? Everybody wants to get their hands on their "share" of that unlimited supply of "taxpayer" provided money, and they always think somebody else is going to have to pay for it.

PC

It's not often that I agree with Superheater's views on government..

Having recently been told "I have no idea what part of the political spectrum to put you on, by somebody who knows me far better than you can by reading my screeds on the internet; don't be so sure you agree or disagree with my "views on government". My views are subject to change; I think everybody involved in preservation should read "The Black Swan". It made me (more)suspicious of claims of knowledge, especially the kind expressed in the most soothing tones of confident certitude by guys in $1,000 dollar suits.

What I want people to understand about government; as one of the faceless cogs that makes it function (in multiple agencies, one of which wanted me to lie to another at my peril on an official form-until I fought back and won in an official proceeding) is that politicians are the maitre'd's telling you how wonderful the menu is, I'm the guy in the back who wishes you knew or cared that the guy up front won't pay for an exterminator and roaches make the kitchen look like the old "Joe's apartment" commercials/movie.

You know-the guys telling you if they pass just one more financial law, they'll protect the "integrity of capital markets", but that's what they've been saying since 1933 and we know all the laws in the world don't work if the kids at the SEC missed the guys screaming about Madoff, because they were busy evading the agency's internet porn filters.

Peter Drucker once said something to the effect- there's nothing so useless as doing something efficiently that shouldn't be done at all. It applies here.