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After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

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Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#41

Post by xemdetia »

dcole2929 wrote: post #9

Stuff like this is why I have exactly zero faith in the US ever building the type of high speed rail systems that other countries have and we clearly need. These projects are simply to expensive for private entities to undertake alone and federal and local governments can't stay aligned long enough to see anything that last longer than an election period through to it's finish. Unless someone invents teleportation, w…

In traveling throughout the US I don't really know how high speed rail is really going to improve anything outside of like the LA to San Fransisco and the existing Acela coverage area (which is essentially following the flow of I-95 anyway). Even maximizing the Acela flow would just being eminent domain to the existing private rail lines to allow expansion and enhancement beyond what they have already. Part of the reason in the Northeast and in general in the US that rail is so weird is because so much of it is privately owned while the interstates and roads are public services. You can't compel people to make efficient change for benefit of passenger rail, where as with the interstates they forced eminent domain suits through to make it happen well after initial infrastructure was established.

The other major consumer of rail in the US is freight and they don't generally need high speed rail, and so while I would enjoy having more high speed rail lines as an option I haven't been able to rationalize the use case. Private rail permits use by passenger rail but does not prioritize for it.

Here was a good slide deck that I had been using as reference for a while that has good data on how Amtrak exists at all: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/Planning/freight_planning/talking_f...

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#42

Post by 3ondfbv0 »

T-hawk wrote: post #24
swebs wrote: post #19

I really don't understand the problem. From NY to just outside Philadelphia, I-95 is part of the Jersey Turnpike. Then the Jersey turnpike is suddenly labeled I-295, and I-95 teleports to the highway running through Philadelphia. You can see it from this map [1]. They both then meet up again in Wilmington, where they both merge into 1-95 again. Why not just keep the designation of I-95 on the Jersey Turnpike througho…

Because the southern part of the NJ Turnpike (exits 6 through 1) is not constructed to Interstate standards at all points. Things like lane width, curve radius, visibility distance, shoulder space.

There are a lot of Interstates that don't meet Interstate standards, such as every one in NYC.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#43

Post by throwawayjava »

bovermyer wrote: post #30
Analemma_ wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was built when the top marginal tax rate in the United States was above 70 percent, a level which would make a lot of people go into fits of apoplectic rage if you were to suggest it now.

Wait, what?

Highest federal tax rate by year, 1918 - 2017: https://bradfordtaxinstitute.com/LibRepository/235f37bd-612d...

The bulk of the interstate highway system was built between 1960 and 1980.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#44

Post by geezerjay »

dcole2929 wrote: post #9

Stuff like this is why I have exactly zero faith in the US ever building the type of high speed rail systems that other countries have and we clearly need. These projects are simply to expensive for private entities to undertake alone and federal and local governments can't stay aligned long enough to see anything that last longer than an election period through to it's finish. Unless someone invents teleportation, w…

> These projects are simply to expensive for private entities to undertake

The problem is not how expensive high-speed railway projects are. The problem is that in general, with a couple of notable exceptiobs, high-speed railway services are massive money drains with absolutely no viable business model.

If their natural unprofitability is compounded with infrastructure costs then the problem is further compounded.

That's the main reason why private entities routinely invest more money in some profitable projects but they stay clear of even investing in conventional railway services.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#45

Post by Someguywhatever »

untog wrote: post #25
mikeash wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow this stuff got built before. There must be a way to get back into that state.

After witnessing 2008, I'm not sure that even another Great Depression would get America back to the New Deal mindset. Politicians would just blame welfare recipients, or something.

It was the government forcing banks to lend to people who would normally not qualify for mortgage loans that caused the crisis in the first place. The people who the banks accurately predicted couldn't pay and were normally denied loans were instead actually given loans, subsequently couldn't pay, aaaand everything collapsed.

I think that the securitization and sell off of these mortgage backed securities were the banks trying to pass the hot potato off onto somebody else. They knew it would blow up, only the financially illiterate, and busybody do-gooders in government with a regulatory gun to the banks heads didn't see it coming with predictable results.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#46

Post by geezerjay »

nostrademons wrote: post #35
mikeash wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow this stuff got built before. There must be a way to get back into that state.

Wartime. The interstate highway system got built because Eisenhower saw firsthand how effective having a national road network is for logistics in times of war, and so it became a national security concern. The transcontinental railroad was financed by the Department of War and greatly accelerated when the Southern states seceded - Congress had been denying funding for a decade before, but the first season after the…

> It'll likely be the same for high-speed rail, hyperloops, and under-city tunnels.

Please don't make the mistake of equating the hyperloop scheme with reputable and tried-and-true railway services. Hyperloop is at best a marketing gimmick based on naive and ill-informed notions of what it takes to run a vehicle in a track, while real railway services are mundane technologies which have been proven to work for at least half a century.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#47

Post by nightbrawler »

bovermyer wrote: post #30
Analemma_ wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was built when the top marginal tax rate in the United States was above 70 percent, a level which would make a lot of people go into fits of apoplectic rage if you were to suggest it now.

Wait, what?

Some interesting statistics of tax rates: https://bradfordtaxinstitute.com/Free_Resources/Federal-Inco...

- During WWI it peaked at 77% - During WWII it peaked at 94%!!

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#48

Post by refurb »

throwawayjava wrote: post #43
bovermyer wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, what?

Highest federal tax rate by year, 1918 - 2017: https://bradfordtaxinstitute.com/LibRepository/235f37bd-612d... The bulk of the interstate highway system was built between 1960 and 1980.

And tax deductions were much higher then than now. Nobody actually paid those rates.

The percentage of GDP collected as income taxes is about the same then as it is now. In fact, the top 1% paid less of the total taxes during the New Deal than now.[1]

[1]http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2017/08/07/the_history_o...

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#49

Post by chimeracoder »

Analemma_ wrote: post #28
mikeash wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow this stuff got built before. There must be a way to get back into that state.

It was built when the top marginal tax rate in the United States was above 70 percent, a level which would make a lot of people go into fits of apoplectic rage if you were to suggest it now.

> It was built when the top marginal tax rate in the United States was above 70 percent, a level which would make a lot of people go into fits of apoplectic rage if you were to suggest it now.

...a rate which almost nobody actually paid, given the copious methods for reducing tax liability available at the time (most of which have since been eliminated).

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#50

Post by mikeash »

fipple wrote: post #39
mikeash wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow this stuff got built before. There must be a way to get back into that state.

This is one of the costs of diversity. People don’t work together towards shared goals anymore since they characterize the other people benefiting as un-American/unpersons.

That sounds more like a cost of bigotry and intolerance.
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