31–40 of 252 posts
They haven't even settled on a contractor yet? Maybe the problem here is that they're trying to write one check to fix all their problems at once instead of taking an incremental approach.
Well... I feel slightly better about Boston constantly pushing back being able to use our phones as tickets after seeing the timeline for the transition and how just that they are still doing this. What is it about public transit in the US that it is so... bad? Inadequate funding seems to be the easy one, but the MBTA (Boston) doesn't even handle the funds it has well. Yeah it needs more funding but there is also jus…
Now Governor Pritzer has authorized a new high speed rail commission to try and get this project going again.
In a nutshell .. Rail project between Iowa City and Chicago was fully funded as of 2016… all that actually happened is some rail road crossing were improved.. lines were inspected and no actual new lines constructed. Instead 1 out of the 2 billion was spend on “engineering” costs and compliance paperwork … which now has expired and need to be redone if the project is to be completed.
The amount of money spent on compliance paperwork and “engineering” is staggering. Many six figure salaries depend on slightly altering existing engineered projects to meet compliance requirements for projects that are never built. From waste treatment upgrades, water treatment, road improvement, traffic studies, on and on. The amount of money spent on services that are not finished or lead to an actual project is absolutely staggering … entire industries depend on this inefficiency and lobby effectively to keep things “obtuse”.
Japan is doing away with 3 1/2 floppies . https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/floppy-disk-requirem...
Well... I feel slightly better about Boston constantly pushing back being able to use our phones as tickets after seeing the timeline for the transition and how just that they are still doing this. What is it about public transit in the US that it is so... bad? Inadequate funding seems to be the easy one, but the MBTA (Boston) doesn't even handle the funds it has well. Yeah it needs more funding but there is also jus…
I am an elected official (12 years and elected six times in Illinois) unfortunately seeing this process work over 12 years is discouraging. For example President Obama allocated 8 billion dollars for high sped passenger rail service improvements. By 2017 almost 2 billion of this money had been spent on railroad improvements / railroad crossings and line inspections. Fast forward to 2024 no high speed rails have actua…
Well... I feel slightly better about Boston constantly pushing back being able to use our phones as tickets after seeing the timeline for the transition and how just that they are still doing this. What is it about public transit in the US that it is so... bad? Inadequate funding seems to be the easy one, but the MBTA (Boston) doesn't even handle the funds it has well. Yeah it needs more funding but there is also jus…
I am an elected official (12 years and elected six times in Illinois) unfortunately seeing this process work over 12 years is discouraging. For example President Obama allocated 8 billion dollars for high sped passenger rail service improvements. By 2017 almost 2 billion of this money had been spent on railroad improvements / railroad crossings and line inspections. Fast forward to 2024 no high speed rails have actua…
It just feels like the money is going to the wrong places like you said.
I would probably argue that we still need more funding even if we fixed how we used the money, but we need to fix how we use it first.
This is the problem, not that they're using a floppy. This isn't web dev where you get to rewrite everything every 6 mos. Systems have to have decades long life cycles BUT THEY EVENTUALLY NEED TO BE REPLACED and that's not happening quickly enough here.
Edit: It was last updated in 1998, so it's due now not a decade from now.
Well... I feel slightly better about Boston constantly pushing back being able to use our phones as tickets after seeing the timeline for the transition and how just that they are still doing this. What is it about public transit in the US that it is so... bad? Inadequate funding seems to be the easy one, but the MBTA (Boston) doesn't even handle the funds it has well. Yeah it needs more funding but there is also jus…
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Govt inefficiency/corruption squanders this money. E.g.,
https://www.ktvu.com/news/california-hasnt-been-tracking-hom...
The technology works, there is a replacement outlined, there is no shortage of floppy disks - even 5 1/4 ones.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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We spend more than any nation on public services and goods. We also give the most in foreign aid. Govt inefficiency/corruption squanders this money. E.g., https://www.ktvu.com/news/california-hasnt-been-tracking-hom...