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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

#651

Post by imgabe »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #647
joejerryronnie wrote: post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s why they should consider annexation by Maryland.

I hadn't heard the annexation argument before, I suppose the fairest way would be to have an election in DC and people would vote on whether they wanted to be an independent state or part of Maryland, and whichever was chosen would be the way to go. I personally would expect they would want to be their own state, but who knows? If on the other hand people feel the choose their own state is very likely and Maryland un…

They’ve had this vote several times. The people of DC overwhelmingly vote to be a state.

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

#652

Post by bryanrasmussen »

imgabe wrote: post #651
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hadn't heard the annexation argument before, I suppose the fairest way would be to have an election in DC and people would vote on whether they wanted to be an independent state or part of Maryland, and whichever was chosen would be the way to go. I personally would expect they would want to be their own state, but who knows? If on the other hand people feel the choose their own state is very likely and Maryland un…

They’ve had this vote several times. The people of DC overwhelmingly vote to be a state.

so then I guess that should shut down the Maryland suggestion. No idea why it would be brought up as a possible solution for democratic representation when it goes against the wishes of the people seeking representation.

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

#653

Post by modernpink »

rayiner wrote: post #447
kaesar14 wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, go to like, every other city in China, Japan, South Korea, or most of the cities of Western Europe. Take your pick.

All civilizations in decline because they can’t accommodate the basic human function of conveniently raising 2.1 new humans per couple. What’s the point of technology that doesn’t serve human needs? Go to Dallas and look at all the families with 3-4 kids. That’s what the future looks like. (Except the minivans and pickup trucks are probably electric.)

We're moving to a future where fewer humans are necessary to run economies. The trend of the future is smaller and more prosperous populations doing more meaningful activities, rather than a future of slum-ponzi-ism where an ever increasing amount of bodies are needed to fuel economic growth.

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

#654

Post by pmyteh »

mschuster91 wrote: post #642
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American I find it absolutely hilarious that you went off half cocked listing a bunch of issues that are of second and third rate importance to most Americans. Most Americans want the feds to make minor policy tweaks that will make their lives better, more healthcare, federally, minor financial tweaks, fund some things a little more, fund others a little less, minor procedural tweaks on certain government thing…

The average American won't get any of the policy tweaks you mention without fixing the most glaring issues of my list since almost everything federal requires at least a full congressional majority. Reagan and Bush Sr. had none of eight / four years, Clinton two of eight years, Bush Jr. four of eight, Obama two of eight, Trump two of four and Biden at least two of four. And even when the respective Presidents had a m…

The UK does in fact have such a system (unlike the US). We use first-past-the-post voting, like the US, but our Prime Minister is selected by the majority in Parliament (rather than directly). Consequently, we don't have 'cohabitation', where the PM and Parliament are of different parties (which can happen in France and other Presidential systems), and it's quite rare to have minority government, where the PM relies on the support of other parties to govern.

Having said that, our system is like the US in that our parties are strictly oppositional and have no real history of collaboration. So when there is a 'hung parliament' with no majority (like in the run up to 1979, and during the second May administration from 2017-2019) then you tend to get a disintegrating administration rather than the kind of stable coalitions that are the norm in other European countries.

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

#655

Post by lapalmian »

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…

The Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg spans two states in a federal country. It is managed by the two states, counties and cities. You have common tarificiation, so you can switch easily between different modes and counties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verkehrsverbund_Berlin-Branden...

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

#656

Post by _dain_ »

adventured wrote: post #83
azylman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No comments on emergency situations, but wanted to call out one thing: > You need additional highways (aka: additional offramps) to truly scale day-to-day traffic Additional highways are at-best a stop-gap for day-to-day traffic, never a solution, due to induced demand [1]. You really need large-scale investments in public transportation for this. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand#Effect_in_trans...

> never a solution, due to induced demand That's false. The mistake universally made by people repeating that claim is a failure to account for the fact that vehicles and population are finite. In the US there isn't much population growth, except for in a select few urban areas. It's baffling that it gets repeated so often as though it's always true, when it's not. You can swamp the amount of induced demand with addi…

>You can swamp the amount of induced demand with additional roads, it all depends on the number of vehicles you're dealing with

Do you realize just how extravagantly expensive that would be?

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

#658

Post by [deleted] »

MathCodeLove wrote: post #628
imgabe wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if you googled Dream City and came up with something else, but it's not a novel. It's a nonfiction history book written by two DC journalists.

TIL Novel only refers to fictional books. I've gone my whole life just believing it was determined by length and nothing else. Regardless, the same holds. 'Non-fiction' can still come with heavy biases, especially on politically sensitive topics.

[deleted]

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

#659

Post by MagnumOpus »

imgabe wrote: post #625
bobsil1 wrote: post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then we should rebrand away from the slaver-drafted constitution to the Free States of America, a fourth founding after the original, post-Civil War and Civil Rights Movement. That would match what we actually have, a multiethnic democracy welcoming global talent. Giving residents of Wyoming 70× the Senate voting power of any Californian is a joke.

Not a joke. It was the intent that populous states should not be able to steamroll less populous states in the Senate.

In other words, rigging the Senate towards people in empty states.

(Land ownership shouldn't matter in a democratic republic, people should.)

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

#660

Post by Miner49er »

akeck wrote: post #532

Not useful in this situation, but a friend of mine recently convinced me to buy an offline mapping app and all the maps for my country. Apparently, he was able to get out of trouble with plenty of battery to spare by turning off cell/wifi/bluetooth and just relying the app and the built-in GPS.

Or just get a paper map.
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