Why We Can’t Figure Out Why Infrastructure Is So Expensive
A hard-to-capture cost factor is keeping highly used services operational or replaced while doing work on it. A super-fancy new subway with lots of stations in Shenzhen where people weren&#x27;t already taking trains and expecting to use stations for their daily commute will be much cheaper than disrupting a line service to open a new station in London or New York City. Replacement bus bridge services, network-wide service advisories, staff and enforcement training, are all costs that are not easy to quantify or justify because it doesn&#x27;t directly manifest in the construction of the infrastructure.<p>Of course there are other factors that vary a lot across cultures:<p>* China&#x27;s heavy-handed governmental decision-making leaves no room for inefficiencies via neighborhood antagonism towards the constructions or zoning;<p>* Car culture differences create different magnitudes of popular roadblocks to investment in non-automobile infrastructure, which can result in large expenditures on lobbying and campaigning;<p>* Significantly more arbitrary middlemen making their way into the process because of &quot;let the market figure it out&quot; <i>does</i>, in fact, create some process inefficiencies in supply chains and contract pipelines. Few countries are as aggressively market-based for things meant for public good as the US.