Whilst the new rail line is a world first too, its actually not as interesting (to me anyway) as Dubai metro selling naming rights to the stations on their new line. In total they’ve offered the naming rights to 23 stations under 10 year contracts at around $US35 million per station.
The programme is targetted to generate $200 million a year for the metro operators with the first station naming rights being sold to Emirates.
We tend to think memory is where our account of an event becomes unreliable. But the process begins earlier. Attention is selective, perception is incomplete, and two people can experience the same event while noticing very different things.
The data is good. The model is sound. And the decision still doesn’t hold the way it should. The problem isn’t the analysis. It’s what the analysis assumes about the stability of the world it’s describing.
The frustration with institutions isn’t wrong. But the explanation usually is. The problem isn’t political will or institutional timidity. It’s a design built for a world that no longer exists.