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Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

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Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#631

Post by jyounker »

MathCodeLove wrote: post #549
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the US, it's safe to assume that anomalies concerning political power are due to maintaining the racial hierarchy. Just because it's ugly and interferes with the American myth of equality doesn't mean it's not true. "One reader wrote to the Washington Evening Star, saying: “If you get rid of the 90,000 negroes residing in this city I am in favor of suffrage. As long as they are here I am opposed to it,” accordin…

No, it's not safe to assume. It's ridiculous to assume that there's even some intrinsic "racial hierarchy" to begin with. Some demographics do better on average than others, much like how Asian-Americans have a higher average household income than White-Americans, but despite what twitter says that's largely not due to any deeply rooted systemic issue. I don't think a single readers letter to some local news organiza…

> It's ridiculous to assume that there's even some intrinsic "racial hierarchy" to begin with

Yea, it is ridiculous to assume that there is an intrinsic racial hierarchy. That doesn't mean that that US doesn't have one though. If you need evidence, just look at incarceration rates, police shooting rates, property ownership rates, intergenerational wealth, representation in government, hiring disparities, educational disparities, medical treatment disparities, etc. There are clear disparities that break down along racial lines, and from the numbers it looks like african americans and native americans are at the bottom.

> despite what twitter says that's largely not due to any deeply rooted systemic issue

Who needs to consult twitter to know about the US's history of racial oppression targeted at black people, and its lingering intergenerational effects?

* Redlining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining * GI Bill restrictions for black soldiers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Bill * Block busting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbusting * Racially based deed restrictions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenant_(law)#:~:text=In%20th....

And then you can get into things like urban renewal of the fifties, sixties, and seventies. Frequently the "renewed" areas were thriving black neighborhoods. And then the US, as a country, ignores that these things happened.

It's really comforting to imagine that today's problems aren't a result of things in the past that our ancestors (or even just parents) were complicit in, but that isn't the world we live in.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#632

Post by hguant »

GVIrish wrote: post #475
pirate787 wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arlington VA is a county, not a city, and has the land area and tax base of a county. Indeed Arlington is perhaps the most successful build out of mass transit in a community in the United States in the last 30 years. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/08/arlingt... Also the DC metro system is in fact organized across state lines and receives generous federal subsidies....DC Metro spends $4.7 billion a…

> The primary issue this week is that this section of Virginia rarely sees snowstorms of this magnitude and further most DC residents have no idea how to drive in it (or know when to stay home). That's not really it. We get snowstorms of this size once every 2 or 3 years, sometimes more. The problem is that somehow they didn't keep up with plowing and salting on that stretch of I-95, and that led to back-ups, and onc…

This is being pitched like it's a DC issue, but any one who lives in the area can tell you that the stretch of road they're talking about - Fredericksburg to Aquia, from what I can tell - is god awful, has been god awful, and from what I can see will continue to be God awful for the foreseeable future.

As for the plowing and salting - in general it's pretty bad, and this year has been no exception. Fairfax County was, as of the day before this storm, putting up flyers in 24 hour laundromats and outside of grocery stores looking for anyone who had a license to drive a plow truck. The problem is that, while we get hit with bad snow once every 2-3 years, that's not often enough for the local governments to need to do something about it. They don't want to spend the money, only to not need it until the next big storm, which might not come until someone else is in office.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#633

Post by 7952 »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #396

There are a lot of comments here about why public transit in the DC area doesn't work, but nobody that I've seen has put their finger on it. The biggest issue is that the area covers two states, at least ten counties depending on what you count as the “DC area”, plus the District of Columbia, which isn't a state, doesn't have control over its own budget, and has no representation in Congress. Oh, and in Virginia citi…

I am starting to wonder if administrative boundaries should be drawn to match transport catchments instead of historical artifacts.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#634

Post by tallanvor »

asiachick wrote: post #551
GlenTheMachine wrote: post #396

There are a lot of comments here about why public transit in the DC area doesn't work, but nobody that I've seen has put their finger on it. The biggest issue is that the area covers two states, at least ten counties depending on what you count as the “DC area”, plus the District of Columbia, which isn't a state, doesn't have control over its own budget, and has no representation in Congress. Oh, and in Virginia citi…

Japan, often considered to have some of the best public transportation in the world, privatized their "public" transportation in the 1970s. They seem to have setup the incentives so for the most part it works. Train companies own land/real-estate around each station. They open grocery stores, shopping centers, office buildings, hotels at many of their own stations. This seems to lead to a virtuous cycle. It's in thei…

Tokyo Metro is the second largest system in Tokyo by passenger count, and it's jointly owned by the national government and the Tokyo government. Toei is the 4th largest in Tokyo, and it's fully owned by the Tokyo government, and there are others outside of Tokyo that are also publicly owned. So I'd say that while private train companies has partially worked, they certainly haven't been able to rely on private companies completely.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#635

Post by motorist_hacker »

kaesar14 wrote: post #317
asdff wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visit NYC but try to take a train from somewhere in brooklyn to somewhere in the bronx without having to spend almost an hour with a transfer in midtown manhattan. Even in NYC the rail network is primarily oriented toward you having a 9-5 job in midtown or lower manhattan, and everyone else gets served nearly an hour commute transferring on busses or trains.

Sure, I wish we had more outer borough connection lines. This country sucks at building anything but 12 lane freeways.

No post body was provided.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#636

Post by motorist_hacker »

kaesar14 wrote: post #147
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But when the jobs are spread out all over the spokes, that model breaks down. So don't spread the jobs out all over the spokes? Is some urban planning really hard to do here? > Rail transit is an anachronism, best suited for the 1950s when life involved a woman staying home with the kids while dad took the train into the city for work. That isn't true at all in much of the world. Rail transit still works in many no…

Quoted post unavailable.

No post body was provided.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#637

Post by motorist_hacker »

weberer wrote: post #201
kaesar14 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Sometimes the majority of people just disagree with you. It doesn't always have to be some conspiracy.

I thought you’re not supposed to downvote based solely on disagreement?

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#638

Post by motorist_hacker »

rayiner wrote: post #352
kaesar14 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Nobody in northern Virginia wants to live in Hong Kong, and even if they did that ship sailed long ago. Also, the fertility rate in Hong Kong is less than half the replacement rate. They’re like the Asgard—an impressive civilization, full of marvels, but without a future.

No post body was provided.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#639

Post by motorist_hacker »

mardifoufs wrote: post #148
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But when the jobs are spread out all over the spokes, that model breaks down. So don't spread the jobs out all over the spokes? Is some urban planning really hard to do here? > Rail transit is an anachronism, best suited for the 1950s when life involved a woman staying home with the kids while dad took the train into the city for work. That isn't true at all in much of the world. Rail transit still works in many no…

Yes, it's hard to literally relocate hundreds of thousands of jobs according to some urban planners dreams. We aren't talking about intra city planning, but about state wide job markets. I guess Canada is dysfunctional too because there is absolutely no way to get rail service working beyond the big cities. Maybe it has something to do with north America not being Europe so trying to just force a European model here…

No post body was provided.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#640

Post by dwhit »

dnautics wrote: post #562
shkkmo wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how the two major regions of the US that clearly deserve statehood (DC and Puerto Rico) but have been denied that right for decades, seem to be areas with lots of poor non-whites. Racism is not the only factor in play here (political balance of power is a huge factor), but to deny that racism has played a significant role in creating this situation is ridiculous. I place that racism squarely in the laps of…

You might have an argument about DC, but Puerto Rico has not been "denied" the right. There have been many plebiscites on the issue and the status quo has been maintained each time.

They voted to become a state in 2020 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Puerto_Rican_status_ref...
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