"Free" AKA paid for with your taxes.
Please don't post unsubstantive comments here, and especially not ideological boilerplate!
Utah expands public transportation with rapid bus transit, free until 2021
71–80 of 188 posts
Re: Utah expands public transportation with rapid bus transit, free until 2021
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except they are an outright cult.
A cult is nothing more than an unpopular religion. Christianity itself was just a Jewish cult until Constantine found it useful.
Best definition of cult I've heard of: a religion the majority of whose members weren't born into the religion.
Re: Utah expands public transportation with rapid bus transit, free until 2021
#73As usual, this looks like a half-baked implementation of BRT. They get many things right, including articulated buses, off-vehicle ticket purchase, and raised platforms. However, like most BRT systems in the US, it fails on the most important metric: dedicated lanes. Only half of the route is in exclusive lanes, which means the half the time buses will be fighting traffic. Instead, we should be aiming to build more B…
Pittsburgh has this, too. A dedicated transitway from downtown to the airport. It was a pretty efficient ride when I used it about ten years ago. But at the same time it seemed kind of wasteful.
It may feel wasteful if you're used to seeing packed roads, but if you compare to the common alternative (a train track) it no longer seems so bad.
Re: Utah expands public transportation with rapid bus transit, free until 2021
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
A good functioning bus lane will feel very wasteful only if it's working as intended and the buses are free-flowing. The entire point is that the buses flow quickly past traffic; you could open up the lane to HOV or cars, but then traffic times would just degrade. https://la.streetsblog.org/2014/07/08/balancing-cars-cash-an... > In May 2014, Streetsblog L.A. began to receive tips that Silver Line BRT service along th…
The tolls should be raised until a lower amount of cars are around
Which is an efficient economic solution that basically ignores that we have a terrible public transit system and pervasive inequality which would result in the tolls being primarily on the backs of the poorest among us who travel the furthest to work in City centers to be paid the least.
Re: Utah expands public transportation with rapid bus transit, free until 2021
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are a number of other features generally included in the definition of cults. Isolation, absolute authority, leader-worship, shunning of defectors, and other elements among them. https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Cult#Warning_signs_of_a_potent...
I agree with you that it's uncharitable to call Christianity a cult when there are more obviously perverse religious/New Age groups that better align with the definition (at least for the sake of debate). However, I'm sure if you asked an LGBTQ person of their experiences with Christianity, especially with the uniquely conservative U.S. evangelical variety, they would say that some of those qualities clearly fit the…
I'm not going to argue here over what religions or groups specifically are or aren't cults.
But GP's definition lacked significant nuance.
Re: Utah expands public transportation with rapid bus transit, free until 2021
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Plenty of cities have traffic light preemption for buses. Portland does it for the MAX (not a bus, I know), and Chicago tried it when I lived there, etc. (The problem then becomes, what happens when an emergency vehicle AND a bus both preempt the traffic light? In Portland anyway, MAX wins. That doesn't always mean the emergency vehicle stops, though, with predictable results.) I rode the bus route daily when they tr…
NYC's implementation is terrible because no other place with proof of payment stops the entire vehicle to check fares. The issue with free is that free transit tends to create a negative spiral where some walkers and bikers will switch to transit because it's free, so services have to be improved to deal with the crowding, which makes transit more appealing to bikers and walkers, which increases overcrowding, and so…
Indeed, in Europe I've never seen a vehicle stopped for fare checks. Some places don't allow ticket purchases from the driver either, while others do but it's frowned upon for slowing down everyone else.
Re: Utah expands public transportation with rapid bus transit, free until 2021
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing with LDS is that it's more of an organization with a strong (aka oppressive? or too powerful) leadership at top. Every adult has to go on a 'mission' for a full year? On the flip side, there is no such distinct leadership/requirements in most other Christian organizations. Pretty much anyone call self a Christian. Maybe Catholics are similar to LDS but I'm not too familiar with them.
Catholics are pretty different. The Catholic Church asks for less than the LDS (and most churches) at the local level, and it's quite a bit more hands-off. The higher levels of Catholic hierarchy looks like a medieval institution because it is a medieval institution. There is definitely set dogma, and the Church does not waver on it, but Catholics are generally quite comfortable being buffet Christians (choosing whic…
> The higher levels of Catholic hierarchy looks like a medieval institution because it is a medieval institution.
Well, it's got pre-medieval, medieval, and post-medieval elements.
> There is definitely set dogma
Depending on who you believe (yes, there are actually doctrinal disputes over which doctrinal pronouncements are in fact dogmatic, though there are a handful of cases which are dogmatic and not in dispute as to that) there is between very little and extremely little definitively set dogma, though.
Re: Utah expands public transportation with rapid bus transit, free until 2021
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Catholics are pretty different. The Catholic Church asks for less than the LDS (and most churches) at the local level, and it's quite a bit more hands-off. The higher levels of Catholic hierarchy looks like a medieval institution because it is a medieval institution. There is definitely set dogma, and the Church does not waver on it, but Catholics are generally quite comfortable being buffet Christians (choosing whic…
As far as I can tell, all Mormons are buffet Mormons. The ones that think they're not just usually aren't thinking about the rest of what's being served besides what they usually eat. (Your point about relative comfort at this fact may remain true independent of this observation.)
I'm curious what beliefs you have in mind that you notice are typically not thought about. (Not that I think they don't exist, I'm just curious what specifically you have in mind).
The LDS church has an interesting tiered conception of doctrine, wherein some things that have been taught by LDS prophets are not in fact official doctrine. People tend to ignore the "space doctrine" most of the time too.
Re: Utah expands public transportation with rapid bus transit, free until 2021
#79I don't understand why road taxes aren't used to pay for free public transport. The more people on public transport the more room for cars.
Because outside of hyper dense cities roads are "public transit." Making them free to use (if you've already paid the costs associated with a car) has benefits to all that are large enough that increasing cost beyond what it takes to upkeep them at some subsistence level is not in our best interest (except in a few dense cities).
But the upkeep is expensive. One example: Jewel Avenue and Van Wyk Expressway intersection
> New York State Department of Transportation Acting Commissioner Cathy Calhoun said the bridge is set to get $13 million in repairs to enhance safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists.
This is just one intersection and definitely not at the heart of the city. Jewel Avenue Q64 bus is probably symbolic of New York politics. It is frustrating to see no bus for half an hour and then see three buses come together at the same time. However, we can't have a train here even if we somehow we're able to create/take over the land we need.
Re: Utah expands public transportation with rapid bus transit, free until 2021
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Catholics are pretty different. The Catholic Church asks for less than the LDS (and most churches) at the local level, and it's quite a bit more hands-off. The higher levels of Catholic hierarchy looks like a medieval institution because it is a medieval institution. There is definitely set dogma, and the Church does not waver on it, but Catholics are generally quite comfortable being buffet Christians (choosing whic…
As far as I can tell, all Mormons are buffet Mormons. The ones that think they're not just usually aren't thinking about the rest of what's being served besides what they usually eat. (Your point about relative comfort at this fact may remain true independent of this observation.)
I've been an active member my whole life (38) and I've never even heard of "space doctrine". I looked it up and as far as I can tell, there are some theories by members of the Church but nothing from any current or former members of the Quorum of the Twelve or First Presidency, which is required for something to really be considered canon.
Just because some member of the Church believes or says something doesn't make it doctrine.