Greg Shill
Professor, University of Iowa College of Law • Student of firms, cities & transportation • Papers: ssrn.com/author=887547 • Newsletter: gregshill.substack.com • Co-host of Densely Speaking podcast • gregshill.com
- New post coming Thursday, going somewhat against type on two things I like (ADUs and transit frequency) gregshill.substack.com
- Plucked from a great thread on @yappelbaum.bsky.social’s “Stuck,” which I am also reading.
- "[D]espite what they say they want, many Americans don’t seem to buy [small, cheap] cars...Nearly every midsize family sedan starts at less than $30,000, including the [Accord, Camry & Sonata]. But many Americans have rejected those cars in favor of bigger vehicles." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/b...
- The most telling, generalizable piece here is that when pressed for evidence of outcomes, those involved produced evidence of inputs (munitions spent). A persistent challenge - and common response - in policy domains where outcomes are hard to measure.
- This new Times piece on the last month of American bombing of Yemen has some insane details. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/u...
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- I would argue the more important impacts are outside transportation. A successful electrical outlet isn’t that people love; it’s one that enables people to use it for some other purpose.
- “How does this highway / train help advance the ends of transportation policy?” “It cost $500M and provided employment for 1,000 people”
- (Slight different) paper idea: the impact of remote work on transit labor union bargaining power.
- If all NJ Transit services into NYC are suspended because of a strike, then the best option for commuters would clearly be to use one of the myriad commuter buses that run into the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The problem is, there is no map of what routes exist. www.nj.com/news/2025/05...
- Does something like this exist for any US cities (Chicago especially)?
- Using the City of Toronto’s Open Data Portal, we created a map of TO's floor area ratio, including a fun & visually compelling 3D version. FAR is an indicator of urban built density, measured as a building's total floor area relative to the size of its lot schoolofcities.githu...
- Excellent interview. Some key points were the importance of establishing clear priorities (including deciding, rather than assuming away, the resulting tradeoffs) and the utility for the US of Canadian rather than European/Asian comparisons. Two items I’d be interested to hear more on:
- Today on Volts: I talk with transit guru @humantransit.bsky.social about the state of public transit in the US -- which systems have recovered from Covid & which face a fiscal cliff; the best way to balance coverage & frequency; the tech bro fantasy of transit without strangers; bus myths; & more.
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- Do they unite (developable) land and infrastructure ownership, or is the PPP part limited to DBOM of the infra itself?
- I don’t think corporate law is boring. I do think the work that junior corporate lawyers do tends to be tedious, more than litigation (having done both), but it gets a lot more interesting—using many parts of the brain—if you stick with it. The exit options are also quite varied.
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- Well said! I do this on a retail basis, wholesale to an extent (in class), but it’s challenging to get the message out imo.
