Archive for the ‘News’ tag
MARTA – Atlanta Transit – My God!
My experience with MARTA – Metropolitan Rapid Transport Authority has been as difficult as trying to remember what its acronym stands for.
For the past few days, I have been taking Marta for my transit. I have to say, this system has not been built with an intention of luring car drivers to use public transportation. Following are some of the many problems that plague this system in Atlanta:
1. The network is poor. It does not cover many Atlanta areas in the best possible manner, or at all. To reach my place of internship I need to change my transport 3 (I repeat, 3) times. Total distance covered – 12 miles.
2. The scheduling is pathetic. Congestion in Atlanta is not news to these folks. Nor is the number of commuters during peak hours. Then why do buses still run late. Then why do buses are always full. Then why are people made to suffer the heat and slow movement.
3. The frequency is minimal. As said earlier, some buses are teeming with people (wouldn’t additional buses help) and some buses are half empty (and even then there are two buses waiting back to back at the stop to pick up passengers). With so many wonderful tools for optimization in use today, I wonder what political barrier is motivating such ignorance and stubbornness towards their usage.
4. The price is prohibitive. If public transportation usage has to be advocated, the price per trip should, at the minimum, be less than the cost of gas used in a car per trip. I pay $1.75 for one way. Gas purchased at this cost will give me at least 20 miles (normal usage, I am not taking into consideration a Hybrid). As said earlier, my trip is just 12 miles and so how can I justify the ticket price. You may quote insurance, maintenance, et all but note that I will still pay a chunk of these anyways.
The size of Atlanta is 131.8 sq. miles and that of Singapore is 274.2 sq. miles. But Singapore’s transit systems (SMRT, MRT, and etc.) is fantastic and it enables people to use it instead of buying cars. The effect is cyclical – Less cars, Less traffic, Faster commute on public transit, Less cars. Atlanta – LEARN SOMETHING!!! Have pity on those who have to wait for your buses in 95 degree F, for 45 minutes, waiting to reach home and meet their kids.
Weekly roundup
A sad week for the entertainment industry this week:
Ed McMahon, the well known sidekick to Johnny Carson died at a ripe age of 86
Michael Jackson, a star of stars, died untimely at 50, thanks to his addiction to medication
Farah Fawcett, one of the original Charlie’s Angels, succumbed to cancer at 62
Billy Mays, the boisterous sales person on TV, died mysteriously in his sleep, at just 50
Tensions in Teheran seemingly increases with govt. cracking down on protestors that leaves scores injured and many dead. Things are silent as of now. The protests are dampening and it seems Neda’s sacrifice will have to wait to see its fruit.
US pulled a stunner in the Federation Cup semis to beat world no. 1 Spain in soccer. The world leaders lost 0-2. US goes on to show great promise in the finals against Brazil losing 2-3.
Honduran President, Manuel Zelaya, falls to a military coup. Has dictatorship been prevented?
Craig Barrett, former chairman of Intel, discusses with Thomas Friedman some ‘out of the box’ ways to tackle economic crisis.
Flyclear shuts down
I had really appreciated the idea of not having to spend my time during the security check at the airport. I travelled often when I was a consultant with Manhattan Associates and was often frustrated by the long lines on Monday mornings.
Flyclear provided regular passengers with a one time security check and a pass to move through the security lines without waiting in line and without any further checks.
When appointed to my company’s professional services advisory board I often heard other consultants request for reimbursement for applying for this facility ($200). But now it is to no avail.
Apparently the firms’ investors such as Lockheed Martin and Spark Capital decided not to further pursue the venture after investing close to $54 million on the company. Valued at about $90 million it seemed apparent that the venture will not bring in the requisite subscribers (250,000 to date).
It seems the closure of this company signals another victim of this wretched economy.
Weekly roundup
- Everyone is aware of the political issue in Iran. As I write this blog, the protests are continuing and the toll mounting. It is difficult to say what stance the government is going to take. The opposition parties remain relentless in spite of the fact no leader has come the demonstration themselves. I am curious and hopeful that things will turn for the the better and the voice of the population (yes, democracy!!!) will be heard.
- In my opinion, Barack Obama is doing the right thing by not taking an aggressive stance on this situation. The action has to be timely and in no way provoke the incumbent government to take a drastic action while exercising their ego. He did release a statement today.
- Rafael Nadal has opted to skip Wimbledon this year because of a nagging injury (tendinitis). His aggressive movements across the courts takes a toll on his body that needs to recuperate. Here is an interesting article on him. His omission is a blessing for Roger Federer. He stands to win his record 15th title thus overcoming Pete Sampras’s earlier record. Roger also stands to gain the no. 1 rank if he wins the tournament. I will be watching.
- Apple’s Steve Jobs has been reported to have a liver transplant done. He is expected to be back at the helm soon. I hope this puts to rest all the stories going round about his health to come to a stop.
- We studied in our school that the benefits from a merger are often attributed to synergy between two companies. We were also told that these synergies are always overrated and over valuation leads to non-successful mergers. Then when we did our problems and exercises, we went back to using the same synergies to do our valuations. We learnt, unlearnt, and then learnt it again. Michelle Leder’s footnoted.org has this evaluation of a recent announcement.
Apple Releases new IPhone – 3GS
Apple unveiled its newest and fastest iPhone yet, the 3GS. I am quite excited about the product as it a much superior product, by leaps and bounds, to other similar products in the market. The app store, iPhone’s greatest strength keeps is ahead of its rivals.
The pricing for the new iPhones are going to be:
- iPhone 3G S will cost $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB) for new and qualifying customers.
- iPhone 3G will cost $99 (8GB) for new and qualifying customers.
- The 16GB iPhone 3G will be available for $149 while supplies last.
While new customers will definitely be happy with the offering, the old customers will have a tough decision when its comes to their upgrading. AT&T, the quintessential monopolistic provider, has decided to squeeze the previous owners of their money.
Investors are expecting that the reduction in the price of the iphone (by $100) will result in a 100% increase in sales, as it did the last time around. How the stock market (stock ticker: AAPL) responded to the news is shown below:
The market did respond favorably taking the stock to a respectable USD143.8. Volume traded shot up during the last hours of trading. But today the market did not respond well initially bringing the stock down to less than $141 but picked up back again. Let us see what effect the news from AT&T have on the stock in the days to come.
