Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas • Hacker News Board

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#301

Post by rainsford » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 12:51 AM UTC

testing22321 wrote: post #259

Veserv wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2023-03, they did passenger 1,000,000 [1]. In 2024-05, they did passenger 2,000,000 [2]. So 1,000,000 passengers in 14 months or ~420 days. That is a average throughput of ~2,400 passengers per day. In comparison, the Tokyo Marunouchi line averages ~1,100,000 passengers per day [3]. That is ~420x the rate. Every single day, they do what the Las Vegas Loop does in a year. The peak capacity that they claim without e…

You are 100% correct. It’s small fry right now. You might be shocked to learn the first airplane couldn’t take passengers. Things improve, or at least attempt to. Even if it fails, I’d rather live in a world where new ideas are being tried and tested and not always talking about how good my horse and cart is.

But it's not really a new idea. Vehicles transporting people through tunnels is something we already know how to do and we have many examples going back decades that are more efficient and higher volume.

This isn't some new early stage innovation that can grow into a great new thing, it's a shittier version of something we already have.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#302

Post by thrance » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 12:59 AM UTC

ETH_start wrote: post #69

I think the big picture here is much more important. If tunneling technology is radically improved, we're going to see massive improvements in urban living, including: • Cleaner air at street level because vehicle exhaust stays underground and can be filtered, which would have massive health and environmental benefits • Quieter cities with most traffic noise eliminated • Cooler temperatures since asphalt and vehicle…

Look at Paris or London, we don't need to improve tunnel boring. We just need to get rid of cars and build subways. The technology has been there for more than a century at this point. The Vegas Loop is a laughable solution to a problem that does not exist.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#303

Post by thunderfork » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 1:23 AM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #45

skopje wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> >Many regulations are terrible and serve as a huge hindrance to innovation What is an example of a regulation that was a "huge" hinderance to innovation? Looking at the past 40 years of the US technological progress and the only thing I seen hindering innovation are the tech companies themselves through monopoly, monopsony, patents, and regulatory capture. (Unless the last one is what you meant, but that's a regul…

Speaking from personal experience running a non-profit seeking to disrupt the entrenched prison communications industry, there have been several. FCC data reporting requirements that took an FTE 200 hours to complete, accessibility requirements that have to be in place before you can (legally) even launch a pilot or MVP, endless legalese documents to parse through, compliance requirements that have to be checked even…

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Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#304

Post by ETH_start » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 3:16 AM UTC

willk wrote: post #105

ETH_start wrote: post #69

I think the big picture here is much more important. If tunneling technology is radically improved, we're going to see massive improvements in urban living, including: • Cleaner air at street level because vehicle exhaust stays underground and can be filtered, which would have massive health and environmental benefits • Quieter cities with most traffic noise eliminated • Cooler temperatures since asphalt and vehicle…

> Workers have complained of chemical burns from the waste material generated by the tunneling process, and firefighters must decontaminate their equipment after conducting rescues from the project sites. The company was fined more than $112,000 by Nevada’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration in late 2023 after workers complained of “ankle-deep” water in the tunnels, muck spills and burns. I think we can do…

Name me any massive infrastructure development projects that didn't include some environmental damage and worker injuries. Every major infrastructure project has come at the cost of human life. Activity is inherently risky, but inactivity is also risky. We can't live without action.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#305

Post by testing22321 » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 3:32 AM UTC

serf wrote: post #291

testing22321 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t intend it to be a flex. I was stating what I saw when I rode it.

>Tens of thousands of riders You saw tens of thousands of riders? That anecdote just doesn't jibe with the throughput numbers -- that's why it seems like a flex, it's grossly inflated. Now before we go into pedantry and you talk about how 'riders' meant 'all willing participants who are sitting in line' , fine -- i've been to SEMA and I understand those crowds , but those aren't riders. It's a misreporting of the sit…

I did.

I was in and around multiple stations for a week, from early till late, and never saw a single one anything other than packed. Lineups up the turned off escalators topside were extremely common. Many tens of thousands of people were riding.

FWIW I was at the event that caused the worlds biggest event centre (the Vegas convention centre) to expand, because it wasn’t big enough to host the event.

Millions and millions of people in and around the convention centre, all serviced by the loop.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#306

Post by freejazz » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 3:46 AM UTC

jackphilson wrote: post #244

freejazz wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I want us to use cost-benefit analysis to judge infrastructure projects rather than the heavy moral framing we get a lot. By framing a regulation as some ploy? You're just as ridiculous

Regulations can often be bad for progress so a CBA is probably best. Doesn't matter about the framing.

What do you mean framing doesn't matter? You just called the other post 'acidic' The idea that a CBA is somehow useful outside of any moral context is facially ridiculous anyway. You're just spewing word-mumbo-jumbo. The entire point of the law is to uphold the basic moral values of society in its function.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#307

Post by scienceman » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 4:47 AM UTC

paulddraper wrote: post #271

Veserv wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2023-03, they did passenger 1,000,000 [1]. In 2024-05, they did passenger 2,000,000 [2]. So 1,000,000 passengers in 14 months or ~420 days. That is a average throughput of ~2,400 passengers per day. In comparison, the Tokyo Marunouchi line averages ~1,100,000 passengers per day [3]. That is ~420x the rate. Every single day, they do what the Las Vegas Loop does in a year. The peak capacity that they claim without e…

> Every single day, they do what the Las Vegas Loop does in a year. Tokyo Marunouchi is a multi-branch line totaling 17 miles; the Las Vegas Loop is a (not yet complete) single tunnel just one-tenth that distance. This is a strange comparison.

Yamanote line is a single line and does around 5 million every day.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#308

Post by LargoLasskhyfv » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 4:49 AM UTC

dzhiurgis wrote: post #243

enaaem wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed! I think the Vegas loop has immense potential. There are many ways we can iterate on this concept. Perhaps we can use bigger cars, in a bus like shape to transport more people at once. Or we could remove the batteries to save cost and weight and supply the cars with an external power source. There is immense potential here and I believe this will revolutionise transport.

[flagged]

Tram lines can have battery powered rolling stock, too. With supercharging at the endpoints, and/or topping up at some stations in between.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#309

Post by hashstring » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 7:46 AM UTC

> Leffel questioned whether a $250,000 penalty would be significant enough to change operations at The Boring Co., which was valued at $7 billion in 2023. Studies show that fines that don’t put a significant dent in a company’s profit don’t deter companies from future violations, Leffel said.

A 250k penalty? Get real. Leffel said it like it is. What a sham.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#310

Post by inemesitaffia » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 8:33 AM UTC

hashstring wrote: post #309

> Leffel questioned whether a $250,000 penalty would be significant enough to change operations at The Boring Co., which was valued at $7 billion in 2023. Studies show that fines that don’t put a significant dent in a company’s profit don’t deter companies from future violations, Leffel said. A 250k penalty? Get real. Leffel said it like it is. What a sham.

Valuation isn't money.