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Reuters blog archive
from The Great Debate UK:
Most scenic airport touch-downs picked in web contest
St Maarten Princess Juliana International Airport boasts the world’s most visually appealing landing, according to respondents of a survey.
Private jet bookers PrivateFly.com asked travellers and an expert judging panel for their bucket list of global descents.
Passengers touching down onto the Caribbean island of St Maarten can feel they are landing among the sun-loungers as the descent is just metres from the beach.
“The approach begins over an expanse of blue Caribbean, coming in so low and close to the beach you can almost read the sunbathers’ newspapers below. It literally takes your breath away, says Adam Twidell, CEO of PrivateFly.com.
from Felix Salmon:
How roads could beat rail
The best conference panels, like the best blog posts, are the ones which change your mind. And while I haven't done a U-turn on anything, after yesterday's panel on smart cars I'm now thinking very differently about the relative merits of various ways of improving how we move around where we live and travel. While I've generally been a fan of just about any alternative to the automobile, now I'm not so sure: I think that smart car technology is improving impressively, to the point at which it could be the most promising solution, especially in developed parts of the world like California.
One reason is simply fiscal. Projects like the self-driving car, and the Sartre platooning project in Europe, move the costs of new technology onto companies (Google) and individuals (people buying smart cars). As such, while the total amount of money spent might well be enormous, the money doesn't need to be spent up-front by any state or national government. That stands in stark contrast, of course, to rail projects, which cost billions of dollars up front; if they ever do pay for themselves, they do so only very slowly.
from Photographers Blog:
A Bavarian migration
By Michael Dalder
On October 3rd, a day where most of my colleagues were covering the festivities to celebrate German unification, I had the opportunity to be an eyewitness to a Bavarian traditional event. The event was the so-called “Almabtrieb” on the lake Koenigssee, in one of the most beautiful regions of Southern Germany.
At the end of the summer season, farmers move their herds down from the Alps to the valley into winter pastures. The mountain pastures are often in remote areas only accessible by foot – or like the Koenigssee trail – by boat.
from Breakingviews:
Chinese sightseers present challenge to the world
By Wei Gu
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
China’s Golden Week has started with two fatal accidents. In Hong Kong, 37 people died when a public ferry crashed into a boat taking revellers to watch a fireworks display. On the mainland, five German doctors were killed in a bus collision near Beijing. Half of China’s 1.4 billion inhabitants are expected to travel during the national holiday. Yet while the country’s new love of tourism is an economic blessing, it creates logistical challenges.
from Photographers Blog:
Set free in the Mongolian wild
By Petr Josek
Bulgan airport in the southwest part of Mongolia reminds me of a small train station from the spaghetti western film "Once Upon a Time in the West." It's slow, hot and once a week people wait for an airplane with no more then 20 passengers on board to arrive.
The day of July 17, 2012, was different.
The Czech Army plane Casa brought on board four Przewalski mares. They are endangered animals with a sandy brown coat and faintly striped legs, extinct in their homeland since the early 1970s.
from Photographers Blog:
Escaping Toronto: The hassles of traveling with gear
By Jim Urquhart
As I attempted to leave Toronto I found I had to go into deep Canadian mode to make it possible.
Last week I spent several days meeting editors and visiting a friend in the city. I had looked forward to the trip but I never expected it to be such a mind melting, dignity crushing, blood letting experience to simply go home when it was all said and done. Through my work I get to travel my fair share. Over the last several years I have developed several habits that help me ensure my travels go as planned.
from Photographers Blog:
On the road at Euro 2012
By Kai Pfaffenbach
As a news photographer working for Reuters in Germany it is quite normal to spend some time in your car. It is not unusual to drive between 3000-5000km per month. So I expected nothing different when coming to Poland for the Euro 2012 covering the soccer matches in Warsaw and Gdansk. During our tournament planning we agreed on traveling in a big van with our team of three photographers and one technician. That seemed a lot easier than spending more time getting all the equipment to an airport than actually flying.
Four times we had to hit the road towards Gdansk and back to Warsaw. About 360km one way shouldn’t last longer than 3 to 4 hours. “It’s about the ride from Frankfurt to Munich to cover some soccer at Allianz Arena. Entering the highway in Frankfurt and three hours later you take the exit in front of the stadium”, I thought to myself. As a matter of fact our trips were different and we experienced quite a few new things on our journey - everything in an absolutely positive way. Even though there’s not much of a highway to begin with, we had a lot to see. In retrospect we divided the trip in three parts.
Part 1: the strawberry and cherry alley – not one or two people were offering self-harvested fruits here, but dozens. They displayed the freshly picked fruits on the hood of their cars, sitting next to it under a sunshade waiting for customers. Of course we took the opportunity, made a good deal and used the strawberries for a refreshing milkshake after coming back. Some refreshment was needed as the drive on the country road is somewhat challenging as well. Some Polish drivers are very “creative” when using the space of only two lanes. It is nothing special if you face three cars driving towards you next to each other. Thank god that didn’t lead directly into the next part of our journey….
from Felix Salmon:
The case of the $400 million bike lane
Everybody's favorite transportation geek, Charles Komanoff, has a fascinating new paper out on the economics of New York's new Tappan Zee Bridge. The old bridge is decrepit, and needs to be replaced -- everybody agrees on that. And the replacement is now in the works, at a cost of $5.2 billion. But does it need to cost that much? Komanoff makes a strong case that it doesn't.
I won't try to summarize Komanoff's paper here. Instead, I'll just point to one fact which is buried there. The new bridge comes with a combined bike/pedestrian lane, 12 feet wide. And the cost of building that lane -- the amount that the cost of the bridge would decrease if you simply built it without that lane -- is an astonishing $400 million.
from Felix Salmon:
How the taxi-medallion bubble might burst
Remember the sharp rise in taxi medallion prices over the past few years? I thought that the price was pretty justifiable back then, in October, although I did have my concerns:
Any time you see a chart like the ones above, you have to worry that there’s a bubble. Plus, there’s political risk: the mayor can print new medallions, making the existing ones worth a little less (but not a lot less, given that the income from medallions is largely fixed).
from Expert Zone:
Tax issues for individuals travelling abroad
(The views expressed in this column are the author's own and do not represent those of Reuters)
Taxability in India is based on an individual's residential status. As per the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961, an individual may be an Ordinary Resident (OR), Non Resident (NR) or Not Ordinarily Resident (NOR) based on the number of days of physical presence in India.
