The origins of and potential solutions to California’s housing crisis, explained.

Source: In California, Momentum Builds for Radical Action on Housing – CityLab

American cities’ preoccupation with helmets might undermine more effective ways to protect cyclists.

Source: The Unhelpful Ways Cities Talk About Bike Helmets – CityLab

“If the government did it, the same thing would have cost probably 40 or 50 times.”

Source: Trump on Falcon Heavy: “I’m so used to hearing different numbers with NASA” | Ars Technica

Source: Muni readies two-car N-Judah trains, three-car next | SFBay :: San Francisco Bay Area News and Sports

United airlines is launching a long haul premium economy cabin later this year to finally compete with American and Delta.

Source: United Airlines To Launch Premium Economy Cabins In 2018

Washington’s governor, Jay Inslee, is making climate a central plank in his political platform, perhaps ahead of a 2020 presidential run.

Source: Washington State Is Set to Vote on a Carbon Tax. For the Governor, It’s a Gamble. – The New York Times

a simple rule of thumb is that a signal using optical fiber for communication will travel at around 200,000 kilometers per second.

Source: Optical fiber – Wikipedia

I didn’t know fiber was that much slower than vacuum. Apparently this is significant to HFT where they increasingly favor microwave links.

Edit: moar wikipedia: fiber is faster than cat 5e or 10base2 “thin” coax but slower than cat 7 or 10base5 “thick” coax.

Let private space entrepreneurs work on cutting costs: Our view

Source: Get NASA out of the rocket business

What’s noteworthy about this is it made it to the USA Today op-ed page, not some wonk blog.

Source: VW’s first electric bus begins service in mid-March

Caltrain’s troubled positive train control solution, known as CBOSS, has now been completely abandoned, to be replaced by the de-facto standard freight PTC technology known as I-ETMS. That’s mostly good news, since Caltrain will no longer be stranded with a globally unique PTC system. I-ETMS is being deployed by numerous other commuter rail operators in the U.S., allowing some economies of scale and standardization.

Source: Caltrain HSR Compatibility Blog: The End of CBOSS