Transportation | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity

Each Arai helmet is hand-crafted. And the professional racers get to wear the same products as the consumers.

Transportation consultant Huber Horan wrote my favorite article about Uber:

An examination of Uber’s economics suggests that it has no hope of ever earning sustainable urban car service profits in competitive markets. Its costs are simply much higher than the market is willing to pay, as its nine years of massive losses indicate. Uber not only lacks powerful competitive advantages, but it is actually less efficient than the competitors it has been driving out of business.

Horan then compares Uber’s business model to that of the taxi industry and concludes that “Uber has not increased taxi productivity or solved long-standing industry problems” but instead subsidizes fares so that it can offer prices consumers are willing to pay.

Go read the whole article. It’s fascinating.

Horan has a PDF version (and more articles about Uber) on his website.

Matt Mayers, creator of the great Metro map ExploreShanghai (review at CNReviews) is going to do the Tube Challenge next Monday. He’ll attempt to visit all stations of the Shanghai Metro that day. More information in his blog.

German news site Spiegel Online cites Tongji professor Xie Weida, deputy director of the Railway Institute who says it’s “unlikely” that China will buy the Maglev technology.

An English article can be found at The Earth Times.

I think the construction of a new metro line would look different in Germany.