PCRD

New PCRD Project

PCRD will soon launch a new project, funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration. This project will develop data and analytic tools to help economic development practitioners explore the role of rural communities in America’s knowledge-based innovation economy. The study will include:

• the development of a framework to measure and assess innovation capacity in rural regions,
• the creation of a framework to identify and map occupational and industry clusters, and
• a model for prioritizing public investments based on regional competitive advantages.

Seven Deadly Sins of Entrepreneurship

Posted by Susan Davis

This is an insightful article relating to the Seven Deadly Sins of Entrepreneurship. A must read for every potential entrepreneur! More about each in the article, but here they are:

1. I founded it – I should own it all.
2. It’s all about me – I invented it.
3. Why change? It worked before.
4. My investors just don’t get it.
5. Governance is for big companies.
6. Competition? What competition?
7. This is work. It can’t be fun.

Critical Issues in Transportation

Posted by Indraneel Kumar

Transportation Research Board (TRB) periodically identifies critical issues in transportation that will affect development, economy, and quality of life in communities and in the nation. Prepared in 2006, this report outlines critical issues such as congestion, emergencies, energy and environment, equity, finance, human and intellectual capital, infrastructure, institutions, and the safety. A few highlights are included.

According to Texas Transportation Institute’s urban mobility study, Americans lose $ 65 billion per year and waste 2.3 billion gallons of gasoline in highway congestion. Is our transportation system capable of handling natural and man-made emergencies? The importance and vulnerability of the transportation system were revealed during and after the Hurricane Katrina. Our consumption of energy for transportation is staggering and increasing. We are mainly dependent on energy-intensive transportation system such as highway travel and aviation.

Equity in transportation remains a big challenge. As a major group of population will age, much planning and initiative will be required to provide mobility to that group. Most of the transportation system including highways, waterways, and railroad are fiscally constrained and enough funds are not available for planning and new construction. New sources of finance will be a challenge in the coming years. The public funding for innovation, research, and development in transportation as a proportion of the Gross Domestic Product has decreased. The authors fear that transportation may not provide enough incentive for the best and the brightest to opt as a career.

We have an enormous aging transportation infrastructure. The maintenance of highways, bridges, and transit cost $ 91 billion annually. Maintenance and upgrading of the existing infrastructure will be a challenge in the coming years. The authors raise an apt question- are our institutions ready for the 21st century transportation system? The report discusses the importance of systems approach and new ways of thinking instead of the archaic way of transportation planning by modes.  U.S. has lost its leadership in safety and now Australia, Canada, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom are ahead in comparative fatality rates. Read the whole report here.