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Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

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Re: Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

#81

Post by pointster »

innguest wrote: post #38
AcerbicZero wrote: post #28

A bit old, but still relevant - http://archive.gao.gov/f0302/109884.pdf I'm no expert on the topic, but it seems to me that if heavily loaded trucks are causing a disproportionate amount of damage they should be taxed at a rate which allows for proper maintenance of those roads.

Yes, and women should pay more for health insurance since they go to the doctor more often. However neither of those things will happen because common sense and communism are polar opposites despite their shared etymological roots. EDIT: sophists can downvote but what they can't do is cope, or they would engage my arguments. EDIT 2: for the slow, the argument is that it is natural to want those who use a resource the…

But women are tubes, not trucks.

Re: Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

#82

Post by [deleted] »

kps wrote: post #77
superuser2 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The social good supported by entitlement spending is sick people not dying and poor people not starving or being homeless. The social "good" supported by highways is geographical separation between the middle class and the poor (which largely means the white and everyone else.)

> which largely means the white and everyone else. Ah, that explains why highways only exist in the United States.

[deleted]

Re: Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

#83

Post by s73v3r »

innguest wrote: post #38
AcerbicZero wrote: post #28

A bit old, but still relevant - http://archive.gao.gov/f0302/109884.pdf I'm no expert on the topic, but it seems to me that if heavily loaded trucks are causing a disproportionate amount of damage they should be taxed at a rate which allows for proper maintenance of those roads.

Yes, and women should pay more for health insurance since they go to the doctor more often. However neither of those things will happen because common sense and communism are polar opposites despite their shared etymological roots. EDIT: sophists can downvote but what they can't do is cope, or they would engage my arguments. EDIT 2: for the slow, the argument is that it is natural to want those who use a resource the…

You lost any credibility when you mentioned communism.

Re: Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

#84

Post by bduerst »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #74
bduerst wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent some time doing work in rural NW Iowa, and I remember the sheer number of gravel roads that are run between the fields. (They are great for running on too) How does the maintenance per mile between gravel roads and paved roads compare? Does this article apply to both?

http://www.maine.gov/mdot/csd/mlrc/documents/pdf/Richmond199...

So for comparison of 50-yr maintenance costs (in Maine):

- Low-use gravel roads are ~50% of paved road maintenance cost.

- Moderate-use gravel roads are ~350% of paved road maintenance cost.

Yikes.

Re: Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

#85

Post by Aloha »

rpcope1 wrote: post #21
Yhippa wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by that?

For starters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp... A lot of the removal of rail capacity has been short-sighted, and often for the gain of automobile manufacturers.

Don't conflate streetcars and interurban's with all passenger rail.

Re: Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

#86

Post by superuser2 »

kps wrote: post #77
superuser2 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The social good supported by entitlement spending is sick people not dying and poor people not starving or being homeless. The social "good" supported by highways is geographical separation between the middle class and the poor (which largely means the white and everyone else.)

> which largely means the white and everyone else. Ah, that explains why highways only exist in the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight#Roads

Re: Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

#87

Post by Aloha »

angersock wrote: post #17
Yhippa wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by that?

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amtrak#Pre-Amtrak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport_in_t... Basically, an ongoing waterfall of corruption, regulation, NIMBYism, unfair (arguably) competition from other sectors, and a lot else. It's not quite accurate to just say "Well, passenger rail is dead" as though it was some natural progression of things--especially when you look at it working in other…

Show me another nation /of our geographical size/ with active well used long distance passenger rail outside of a few highly dense corridors - a hint, it doesn't exist - people will nearly always choose speed. There are very few passenger rail systems with higher than 90% farebox recovery - and none in a country of our geographical size.

That said, I'm in favor of keeping amtrak for strategic reasons (a trained pool of operating talent for national emergencies).

Re: Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

#88

Post by innguest »

s73v3r wrote: post #83
innguest wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and women should pay more for health insurance since they go to the doctor more often. However neither of those things will happen because common sense and communism are polar opposites despite their shared etymological roots. EDIT: sophists can downvote but what they can't do is cope, or they would engage my arguments. EDIT 2: for the slow, the argument is that it is natural to want those who use a resource the…

You lost any credibility when you mentioned communism.

"Hi, my name is s73v3r and I'd like to interrupt this discussion to say that I, s73v3r, have been brainwashed through Pavlovian Conditioning to react with repulse to the word "communism" whenever that word is found in an argument I cannot counter".

FTFY.

Re: Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

#89

Post by CamTin »

Aloha wrote: post #87
angersock wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amtrak#Pre-Amtrak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport_in_t... Basically, an ongoing waterfall of corruption, regulation, NIMBYism, unfair (arguably) competition from other sectors, and a lot else. It's not quite accurate to just say "Well, passenger rail is dead" as though it was some natural progression of things--especially when you look at it working in other…

Show me another nation /of our geographical size/ with active well used long distance passenger rail outside of a few highly dense corridors - a hint, it doesn't exist - people will nearly always choose speed. There are very few passenger rail systems with higher than 90% farebox recovery - and none in a country of our geographical size. That said, I'm in favor of keeping amtrak for strategic reasons (a trained pool…

What kind of emergencies? Ones where we suddenly have to run a lot of passenger trains?

Re: Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

#90

Post by redcalx »

usaphp wrote: post #79
mholt wrote: post #3

I'm from Iowa. There are a handful of population centers, and a sprinkling of homes and small communities between miles and miles and miles of farmland. The thing is, most people don't travel between the small communities - most driving takes people to or from town. If they're not going to town, they're going to visit neighbors or their fields, in which case gravel roads work great. Gravel roads work better than dete…

The problem with gravel roads is that after a heavy rain a lot of potholes appear and some of them can be pretty big, it's relatively ok during the day travel, but driving at night will most certainly cause a lot of car damage and accidents in a long run.

Yeh gravel shifts significantly once you get pools of water forming. Gravel roads need annual levelling work even for low traffic routes.
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