191–200 of 214 posts
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Less urgent deliveries could presumably be batched together, resulting in fewer trucks on the road.
...how does that decrease the volume of shipments?
> “What percent of your deliveries are truly urgent — 5 percent or 2 percent?” said Mr. Holguín-Veras, the Rensselaer professor. “We as customers are driving the process and to some extent creating these complications.” As a NYC resident, it's not really a matter of urgency. Identical products are generally much cheaper online (and generally with free shipping). And it's much more convenient since the products get sh…
I suspect the internet has made this worse. People used to go visit several stores to find less common items, so they sold eventually. Now they give up and go online.
So basically the Russians can order staples to a few hundred carefully chosen locations and brings Cities to a standstill. No ICBMs necessary. Good to know.
Something like that has been done before, although it wasn't the Russians. It was a guy winning a bet [1]. > On 27 November, at five o'clock in the morning, a sweep arrived to sweep the chimneys of Mrs Tottenham's house. The maid who answered the door informed him that no sweep had been requested, and that his services were not required. A few moments later another sweep presented himself, then another, and another;…
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...how does that decrease the volume of shipments?
It doesn't decrease the volume of shipments, but most delivery trucks aren't 100% full. So they could make fewer trips if customers were willing to tolerate delivery delays.
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You haven't given any actual reasons why someone needs a car so badly that the government ought to subsidize their ownership of one. Having small kids is not enough--and yes, I am well acquainted with the logistics of traveling with infants and toddlers. Even needing to drive for your job isn't enough: if a car is a requisite part of the job, it's the employer's responsibility to provide materials or sufficient compe…
Why do we need bike lanes? Why should the government subsidize them? Use public transit. Bike lanes are absolutely not subsidized by the bike riding tax base. It’s a hand out. It’s the exact same thing. People with cars need to park them. Many people can’t afford a garage. You don’t own the street spot and have to move it daily. Many street parkers have to walk many blocks to their cars. Regardless of why people have…
At the end of the day, your arguments are not persuasive, because all you're really complaining about is that the transportation priority doesn't resolve around you. You're couching it as sympathy for the poor, but it's not the poor you're trying to help, it's the middle class who don't want to face the trade-offs of how to allocate space with far more demand than supply. The poor can't afford the car in the first place.
[1] Fuel taxes are far from sufficient for paying for the cost of roads. Note that, at the federal level, they haven't budged since the 90s, despite inflation and massive improvements in fuel economy. The Highway Trust Fund has been dependent on general fund transfers for well over a decade.
Last month I was moving out of an apartment in midtown. My entire block, avenue to avenue, is a no standing zone for some reason. The doorman said it was just changed a couple years ago. I rented a moving truck, parked it in a garage for $60 while I finished packing up, moved the truck to the building entrance where UPS/Fedex trucks are constantly parking, put the hazards on and loaded up the truck with my stuff as f…
Carry your stuff to the parking garage. It’s slower, but depending on how much you value your time cheaper than a ticket. IMO, the larger issue is your apartment not having a loading dock, they are basically taking public space for private use.
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On paper, it's a perfect system. In reality, failing businesses who want the extra income sign up to be package pickup spots, and then provide deplorable service. Some don't respect the opening hours that were published. Some literally climb over mountains of packages. Some have no organisation. Delivery companies realised that they no longer have to attempt deliveries so automatically dump their packages in the pick…
The better system is what DHL is doing with their Packstationen in Germany: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packstation Basically it's like a vending machine for packages. You address your parcel to one of these and the package deliverer will deposit them into a locker there. I then get a code by e-mail which I can use to open the locker whenever I get around to the Packstation. It's really nice for people who work dur…
Amazon has lockers, too.
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Those of us who live in the city and don't own cars are paying those exact same taxes, except we don't get free parking in return for them. It's absolutely being given away. You pay those taxes regardless of whether or not you have a car. And it's not unreasonable to expect that if people want to have a car they should pay the actual cost of doing so. Why should the rest of us subsidize those people?
That’s what collective governance is. I live in NYC. I’m sure the bulk of my taxes subsidize some form of “those people” of whom I am not a part. It’s called a community. I don’t bike and yet I support I infrastructure for bikers. As for cars, I sympathize with many people I know who have cars and need them to reverse commute or to take care of elderly parents in the burbs etc... The rich have garages. On street park…
Also, if we want make things equitable, shouldn’t we give cars and bikes the same per-person square footage or per-person-mph square footage? Why does the fact that cars are bigger give their owners the right to more free space?
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Carry your stuff to the parking garage. It’s slower, but depending on how much you value your time cheaper than a ticket. IMO, the larger issue is your apartment not having a loading dock, they are basically taking public space for private use.
I’ve never seen a residential building with a loading dock. Best you’re gonna do is an elevator down to the garage but that’s incredibly rare
My last building had a full loading dock with flat concrete floors straight to the freight elevator. My current apartment has a shelf at the right height, but the freight elevator is up a ramp, though still fine with a trolley.
The problem isn't trucks -- obviously, it's hugely more efficient for a single truck+driver to deliver 100's of packages in a single day than for 100's of individual people to spend an hour each going to/from a store, and even worse for congestion if even more than a few are taking individual vehicles. The problem is parking. And the solution is obvious: multiple truck-length parking spaces along each and every block…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Post_Office_Railway
Just have several store with more storage space where people can go pickup their items. Delivering box to individual homes cannot be efficient.