tandempower

Actually, it's never really gotten started. These posts of yours you cite don't really discuss any potential solutions to congestion in any meaningful way. Basically, your thinking amounts to aversion from facing the problem because doing so would constitute less that total worship of the status quo.

Because it needs to get done? Also, I think you exaggerate the horror of menial work. Some people detest it because they never learned to get used to it. I know people who can't wash dishes by hand because they are too impatient. Same for hanging up laundry. Same for sweeping a floor. We've all been there. Growing up is a gradual, lifelong process.

Most lower-income people I talk with would do it for the pay raise. There are very few people who put personal happiness over the will to more money.

This is just one possible solution among others to help reduce traffic congestion.


LCF takes cars off the road, period. If you ride a bike, you're not driving. Same thing if you take a bus or a train. It's that simple.

The problem is that buses get stuck behind all the drivers who are clogging up the roads to avoid "a fate worse than death."

Machka 

Or maybe ... this is a forum where we chat for fun and entertainment, and not in any really deep meaningful way.

Machka 

Oh look ... we just solved the world's problems.

We've just agreed to keep everything the way it is!!

Wonderful ... I can go to bed now and sleep peacefully.

Roody

If we all just got on with our own lives, we wouldn't really have much of a forum, would we?

Roody

By working 12 hour shifts instead of 8 hour shifts, I reduce my commuting trips by 40 percent. That's pretty big--and most of the hourly employees where I work--several thousand of us--are on 12 hour shifts.

tandempower

You imply that forum content could be fun and entertaining without being deep and meaningful. I actually find the opposite, that the most superficial and meaningless posts are the least fun and entertaining to read and engage.

Careful, Rudy. Machka might not like you posting meaningful content about work scheduling oriented solutions to traffic congestion on a forum meant for entertainment purposes only. . .

but it's a good point.

Roody

Why can't it be both? I for one am entertained by the "deeper" threads as well as the Foo-type threads. I notice that you also post on both types of threads. Sometimes you get flummoxed, irritated, and negative at a certain point. Me too sometimes! When I start feeling that way, I try to just bow out of the thread rather than stick around complaining about it (Notice I said "try". I'm well aware that I don't always succeed!)

Ekdog

Speak for yourself.

Walter S

She did that. She also took a crack at speaking for you!

Machka 

No... most of the time I'm giggling and laughing to myself at what you all post.

Most entertaining!

gregf83 

Not by me it doesn't! Some people don't mind simpler tasks and can do what I consider mind-numbing work for hours on end. I can't.
I'm 55 and haven't grown up yet I guess. Don't expect much to change between now and when I leave. I'd rather work at something I enjoy and pay someone else to cut my grass and clean my pool. Life's too short to do things you don't enjoy.

kickstart

I think BF is big enough to still provide plenty of content without the truly inane fantasy novellas.

Roody

Sorry, but your thought that ideas you disagree with are inane fantasies doesn't cut it. I disagree with some of what you say, but I have no belief that your opinions are inane. Wrong maybe, but not stupid. But I do lose some respect when you go on and on about this one idea that you disagree with, especially with the name calling. You've made your point, and you're not adding anything new to it by now.

Machka 

Now they're training the raccoons to ride.

Video: Raccoon Rides a Bike | Bicycling

Bandera

In D.C. And China, Two Approaches To A Streetcar Unconstrained By Wires : NPR


China's transportation planners have not been clueless, helpless or idle for the last few decades and have no need of Western backwards looking simplistic sympathy to get on with the job in their real world.

-Bandera

tandempower

Behold authoritarian culture. In democracy, we respect others' opinions even when we disagree and attempt to seek common ground on which to build constructive discourse. With authoritarians, the game is to denigrate and otherwise discredit those who threaten to undermine the 'dominant' culture. This may involve labeling them as stupid, crazy, unrealistic, oppositional, etc. Then, instead of reasoning with respect to those people's ideas and thoughts, they focus on their personal qualities in an ad hom manner. This pushes people to either conform to others or be pushed out of discussion. I.e. "my way or the highway." Many people simply don't want democracy. They prefer cultural domination of individuals because they have found success in life subjugating themselves to some dominant culture (and the culture of dominance/domination that comes with it).

cooker

Their planning didn't occur in isolation. Streetcars and subways are basically British and American inventions. America got diverted away from them for a while by mass car use in the 20th century, but they are resurging now, and China is basically following the same path of getting carried away with car use and then rediscovering public transit, on a much foreshortened course in the 21st century.

kickstart

Yet those who post ad nauseum on the absurd concept, and their equally labeling presumptions assigned to those who dismiss it get a pass.

tandempower

I don't have any problem respectfully disagreeing with anyone's opinions or ideas about CONTENT, if they post them respectfully. When they shift the discussion toward ad hom criticism and negatively labeling others' ideas instead of keeping the discussion content-based, they should be called out for doing so.

Like what you did in this post was to react against me instead of just agreeing with me that discussions should remain respectful and content-oriented. Now you and I are in an ad hom debate instead of sticking to the topic and reasoning in a non-authoritarian way. Instead of continuing with bickering, why don't we just stop and discuss the thread topic constructively and respectfully. If you did that after I said it, would it feel like I was dominating you and you were obeying my command or would it just feel like doing the right thing for the sake of keeping the forum civil and constructive?

Bandera

China High Speed Train (Bullet Train)

High speed trains, which are also called bullet or CRH trains, here refer to G, D and C trains in China. Currently, there are over 1,500 pairs of them running daily, weaving a dense net on China’s territory and bringing great convenience for its people and visitors.

China Bullet Train Tickets Booking, High Speed Rail

China's transportation planners have not been clueless, helpless or idle for the last few decades and have no need of Western backwards looking simplistic sympathy to get on with the job in their real world.

-Bandera

kickstart

Because the topic is simply DOA, and not worth discussing as there isn't the slightest possibility of it happening.

Bandera

Oddly enough on the last International supply chain project that I was involved with we decided to just use container ships and rail networks rather than wait for the fleet of massive dirigibles to come online. Not very innovative of us and totally derivative.

-Bandera

RPK79

Basic Keynesian economics.

Walter S

That's a very innovative use of technology that was invented by Standard Oil in 1971. Thank goodness for those smart western scientists that made it possible for the Chinese to improve their infrastructure. It is a very cool use of supercapacitors.

Thanks to SOHIO!

Edit: the USA has continually improved the supercapacitors since they were invented. The Chinese buy them from Maxwell Technologies in California. They try to stick with simpler tasks like assembly and leave the tough science to those backwards westerners.

cooker

I'm not getting your point.