Does the mayor own a car dealership? For us, it is the county judge and so we have no public transit. Why would people buy from his Lexus dealership if the bus could get them where they needed to go? It’s insanity.
A quick search says while the mayor is wealthy, I couldn’t find any information on business assets. I think this comes more from a culture clash or crisis of identity that makes the train look dangerous.
Frankly if you don’t get that a train is going to come down the rails and hit you if you park there then you deserve to get eliminated from the gene pool.
100%! The arguments I heard against building the station were asinine. The logic just doesn’t follow. For example, the train is dangerous to children? Well how about the actual highway that runs next to the track? Clearly that’s not a threat or dangerous to residents in any way. As we all know, cars are perfectly safe. One little girl gets hit by the train and we ignore all the deaths of the children from auto accidents. The rail is overwhelmingly safer.
I’ve lived in this town for quite a long time and it’s a common occurrence to see cars stopped on the train tracks. While we have plenty of idiots, I can hardly blame the train if a car gets hit. It should always be the fault of the vehicle.
It infuriates me to my bones how Americans specifically think about driving vs. other modes of transportation.
$34B to repair a quarter-mile long stretch of highway? What the hey, it's not our money (Narrator: it was, at least partially).
$10M to add bike lanes to a busy road with one of the highest crash fatality statistics in my city that's basically a highway? REEEE NOT IN MY BACKYARD!
My stupid town hasn’t even succeeded in preventing the train from passing through. They just don’t want a station here so no one can benefit from the train. What a stupid stupid policy.
If people could take it, they might realize that cars are actually one of the worst modes of transportation ever invented by humanity. That would be unacceptable to the auto industry.
My city had Amtrak back in the 70s or something and it came back a few years ago. The common thread I see around here is "I caught an hour delay one time so never again!"
Never mind that they get held up for hours every other time they travel on the highway, that's just part of it, I guess? Enjoy sitting there burning gas I'll just take a nap 🤷
Even worse, those same people come home from their commute and immediately pour themselves a drink or kvetch to their partners about how bad the commute was. I mean... you cannot convince me that ANYONE likes sitting in traffic, it's just anathema to the human mind.
Also the fact that the vast majority of our remaining rails are owned by private freight companies that get to make up silly rules like passenger trains having to pull over for ridiculously long and slow freight trains to pass them.
Yeah, passenger trains pretty much have no choice if there is a 2 mile freight train, a single track, and a short siding. The passenger train has to pull off and wait. There really need to be something like financial penalties for the rail carrier every time that happens. Something to make extremely long trains uneconomical.
One thing they've been working on in my neck of the woods on the Amtrak Cascades line is passenger train only track that runs in the same right-of-way. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I assume that passenger trains run on it by default and switch to the freight rail or sidings when there is a passenger train going the other way. The Seattle-Portland leg is already congested between freight and passenger traffic. Additional track should aid on time performance for the eventual target of 13 round trips per day. They also got the line rerouted off a single track route that was a serious bottleneck.
Sure, and all of that should be tended to, but it doesn't make massive delays an absolute or change that driving can be just as unreliable but gets this mental loophole even though people bitch about it constantly.
Absolutely. I was hearing that Switzerland has excellent on time performance, to the point where 5 minutes is considered late (and that happens infrequently). For comparison, Amtrak uses a 15 minute threshold for lateness. This accuracy, the "integrated timetable" strategy that syncs trains with other trains and transportation modes, and frequent service allow for tight transfer times.
Because those aren’t the actual arguments they respond to, just the face of the arguments. The real argument is that the car is an extension of the self. They should be able to drive anywhere, park anywhere, drive anything, without fear (Traffic deaths are unavoidable and unremarkable), judgment (I drive a Tesla, I’m saving the earth!), or undue cost (gas and maintenance. Sometimes tolls.) except for that which they’ve already internalized.
Public transport is by definition collective. The train is not an extension of you. It is a thing we all collectively benefit from. It isn’t tailored to your specific tastes. It doesn’t go 0-60 faster than Joe Nextdoor’s train. Everyone pays the same, you can’t show off how fancy your ticket is.
Some kid killed on the tracks is the fault of the train, because the driver could have been any of us. We are relatable people. The train is an unrelatable, unaccountable “us” that Americans will never, ever choose over their ideal “me.”
I appreciate the thoughtful response. I think I understand that the vehicle is connected deeply with identity, but no one’s threatening to take away their vehicles. I’m surprised that public transportation is taken so personally.
If you don’t like the train, you don’t have to take the train. But, that’s not enough. They don’t want the train to be available to me either. It’s weird. It’s taken one step further into a fuck you I’ve got mine attitude.
The train is an unrelatable, unaccountable “us” that Americans will never, ever choose over their ideal “me.”
I think, with this breakdown, you've skewered the dark, dessicated heart of why I cannot fucking STAND Amerikans anymore; because I'm learning from bitter, hateful experience just how little they give a fuck for people who are medically barred from the kinds of lifestyles they want. Do you know how badly I wish I could get back behind a wheel and NOT fear for taking lives because I started dissociating on the highway?
In places with good transit, you actually can show off a fancy ticket. Some rail offers first class flight type of accommodations which can include more leg/seat room, comfier seating, a meal, and other amenities.
What my mother did was start a campaign to get people to practice common sense and safety around trains. Our family doesn't blame the train at all - We instead got better crossing safety put in place and helped get more awareness that train tracks are stabilized in cities to minimize noise and that horns are directed outwards, so a train is quieter head on than you think, ie look both ways before you cross
Like, if my own family can get that, then why can't these anti train fucks?
It isn't about logic, it is about preventing the station which prevents the denser developments that come with it and prevents people from living in those developments. These protesters mostly want to preserve (read increase) their property values while preserving the "character of the neighbourhood" (read if you don't already live here, you don't belong).
We need those denser deployments: we have a growing population, a homeless problem, and a lack of affordable housing. This is even ignoring the traffic issues on the nearby highways. It's bad, but the message to me is clearly that we don't want to solve any of these problems.
If a pedestrian is on a cross walk, the bigger mass should be required to stop to let the pedestrian cross safely.
It is the responsibility of the driver to ensure an intersection is clear before crossing it. A crosswalk is an intersection and a pedestrian is foot traffic.
A reminder that this is just discretionary spending going to the highways, but the bulk of the infrastructure bill is even more highway funding. But the climate effects are offset with even more SUV sales. Let me know if yall figure out any new ways to make things even worse.
I live in a reasonably good jurisdiction for cyclists. We have cycle paths, on road bike lanes (protected by a painted line), minimum spacing distances that drivers must follow
But still. There's a sweeping ramp down from a major 80km/h road down to minor roads. The cycle lane takes that exit as it's the main path to the city centre.
There's one wide lane for cars and one three metre wide bike lane, the way the ramp curves puts the bike lane on the inside of the curve. An uncontrolled car, or one skidding out would go away from the cycle lane.
A driver managed to hit and kill a cyclist there, fled the scene and called emergency services hours later, giving the cyclist no chance of being rescued. He was fined. He was a pretty high income person so the fine was insignificant.
If a driver cannot keep control of their car in that situation, and is so irresponsible as to leave the scene and delay help for the victim they should not be allowed to drive.
Fuck Cars
Hot
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.