the works

With the weather still very cool and rainy, work was slow the other day. So slow that I spent most of my time reading a book called The Works: Anatomy of a City, which has been sitting on a table in the exhibit for visitors to pick up and peruse. It is a fascinating book! It is interesting to consider everyday processes, like that of trash and recycling, cargo routes by air, land, and water, and mass transit systems. The average person only participates in a few aspects of the inner workings of their urban living environment and this book explains it all, with plenty of illustrations, and it uses New York City (of course!) as its example.  I wonder how many people in the Bronx are aware that a Waste Management train transports 35 containers of their garbage to Waverly, VA each day-- that's 400 miles away.

Since I recently visited New York City, I was particularly interested in the bridge and tunnel systems. When I drove to the city, I wasn't expecting to pay a $7.50 toll each way to cross a single bridge into and out of the city. And today I found out why that's the case. The Washington Bridge has 159 radar detectors that measure volume and speed of traffic. It has 39 cameras to capture road conditions, pavement sensors for temperature, ice and freeze point, and additional sensors for wind speed, air temperature, and visibility. Add in call boxes, message signs to tell you how long you'll be stuck in traffic, and finally 107 toll collectors that take in $1 million in tolls each day! Amazing.