Calm down people

"MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s" (mastermario) 01/09/2020 at 13:15 • Filed to: Public transit

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What is with all the FP commenters acting like investing in mass transit means the end of the car? It’s not just one guy either, there are multiple people arguing as if any investment for rail/buses/subway means their cars are going to confiscated and crushed.

Even if there was MASSIVE investment in mass transit it would take decades to build out and cars would still be a necessity for most of the US, since by land area most of the US is still rural.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:28

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We’re already in a crossover wasteland, it can’t get much worse. I ride mass transit to avoid the unconscionable traffic. Would rather enjoy the time I get behind the wheel than develop a hatred for driving.

Also, that livery is so unique that I knew it was UTA before even clicking into the article...

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 01/09/2020 at 13:29

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It is a nice livery

Ash78, voting early and often > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 01/09/2020 at 13:29

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For me, Zions Bank gave it away. Then the livery vaguely similar to UT plates.

/in banking

HammerheadFistpunch > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:29

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Oh h i Trax Green line.  I wish the heavy traffic red line got the new cars, but the new cars don’t seat half as many people.  Thats a few blocks me where I am right now.  

Sovande > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:30

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Ga s should be taxed at about $2 a gallon more than it currently is. That additional revenue should then be used to bolster the infrastructure, lay more rail lines, add more protected bike lanes and improve public transportation. More people would take mass transit and the roads would clear out. Which means more  room for me to drive.

fintail > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:30

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FP gonna FP.

If only we could have infrastructure investment like what existed when the “I got mine” demographic was cutting their teeth. Today, it would be called “socialism” and wouldn’t be possible with the modern addiction to trickle down lies.

E90M3 > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:33

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I lived at home two summers when I was going to Georgia Tech and commuted every day from Roswell. Drove to the North Springs station and took MARTA. It wasn’t my favorite thing ever but it sure beat sitting in ATL traffic every single day. 

Chariotoflove > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:34

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I haven’t see the FP, and I’m not going to look now.  But I think the extension of mass transit is the best thing that can happen to cars, where it’s feasible.  Anyone who has driven in congested city traffic should know that.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > HammerheadFistpunch 01/09/2020 at 13:36

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It’s only a few blocks give or take 1700 miles from me too.

ttyymmnn > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:36

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SLIPPERY SLOPE!1 !!!11!

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:43

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i think mass transit is fine....as a punishment for shitty drivers

caught playing with yer phone whilst driving.... 3 years of mass transit for you before we allow you to have your private travel ability back

drink driving?

also 3 years... but we’ll charge double and staple a sign that reads im a yoooge asshole to your forehead

mass transit is horrible and shouldnt be inflicted on innocent people...and i live somewhere where its apparently good....

well.... i guess it’d be ok if they werent so many other assholes using it at the same time

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:45

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That was the theory in Detroit. And why there is essentially zero mass transit around this city...

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Ash78, voting early and often 01/09/2020 at 13:46

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I couldn’t pick that out from a thumbnail, though it does look like downtown Salt Lake now that I think about it. Then again, a side from the sculpture, it could have been any small-mid size flyover city that has existed for at least 100 years in the western 2/3 of the US.

RPM esq. > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:47

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Y eah, those comments nearly made my head explode this morning. Like a car enthusiast publication should endorse bad transit policy for the sole benefit of car manufacturers who want to sell more boring commuter cars to people who would rather not buy them at all, or like being a car enthusiast means you should want there to be more cars in the world in terms of sheer numbers. Just astonishingly stupid.

PowderHound > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:56

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I’m super grateful for our free transit buses. People complain but I assume they are the same people that park at entrances with their flashers on because “it’s only going to take a second”

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 13:59

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It really is. It also makes them more visible because they’re mostly white. Beyond just being red/white/blue, the colors for the local rival universities are red/white and blue/white...

shop-teacher > Sovande 01/09/2020 at 14:00

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“More people would take mass transit”

What about the tens of millions of Americans who live where there isn’t and frankly never will be mass transit? Many of them can’t afford to take that kind of hit. This is a giant friggen country, and there simply is no way to get mass transit to all.

There’s merit to your argument, don’t get me wrong, but that would be VERY painful for a lot of people, with no relief in sight.  

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 14:10

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People are equating that more transit infrastructure = less room for cars, I think

Nibby > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 14:24

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your first issue was reading FP comments

Sovande > shop-teacher 01/09/2020 at 14:36

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It's certain nothing will change with that attitude.

Ash78, voting early and often > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 01/09/2020 at 14:43

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Could easily be a medium city in the East, as well. Those really ornate 20-30 story buildings were all the rage about 100 years ago, usually alongside the minimalist granite/glass modern buildings .

My X-type is too a real Jaguar > E90M3 01/09/2020 at 14:44

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MARTA going very few places you want to go to. Ok it’s great for Downtown and Midtown but that’s about it.  Then they built the Trolly that goes nowhere instead of oh I don’t know down North Avenue from CNN from GA Tech naahhh that plan will fail.

shop-teacher > Sovande 01/09/2020 at 14:50

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That’s an unfair characterization . I agree we need to get more people in public transit, and we need to invest heavily in it , I just don’t think a huge gas tax is the right way to fund it.  I don’t think it’s right to punish poor people who live in rural areas, in order to improve the lives of those who live in more heavily populated areas.

Jim Spanfeller > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 14:50

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Better public transportation just means you can spend your money on the car you want rather than the car you need. That way, if your fun car works, you can drive it for the sake of driving it and enjoy it. If it doesn’t run, then no biggie, just take the bus/train/whatever. Public transportation could save car enthusiasm. Plus, those who can’t put their phones down while driving could take the bus instead, making the roads safer. And non car enthusiasts could spend that money on whatever else they want. Everybody wins!

MrSnrub > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 14:55

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It kind of reminds me of the people who think any type of gun control means absolute and total gun confiscation. Probably many of those are the same people, in fact.

I’m all for more mass transit. I think the current balance of road/transit spending should probably be flipped. The suburban experiment and universal car dependency created  by it has been a disaster and we’re going to be paying for it for a long, long time.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > shop-teacher 01/09/2020 at 15:31

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The problem is that even in most decent sized cities public transportation is terrible and options for getting into the city from the suburbs are mostly non-existent or impractical.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > MrSnrub 01/09/2020 at 15:34

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It’s exactly the same thing. It’s taking a lot of imagination and slippery slope arguments to get from where we are to where they end up.

CobraJoe > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 15:46

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The problem is that even in most decent sized cities public transportation is terrible and options for getting into the city from the suburbs are mostly non-existent or impractical.

This is definitely a problem in my city.

I used to live 4 miles from work, it would have taken me 2 buses and an hour of transit time (up to 1 hour 20min now) , after walking or biking a mile to get to the closest stop.  Driving there took 10 mintues.

At my new house, it would be a 2 hour bus ride, after a 5 mile walk/ride/drive.  Driving the whole way is 30 minutes.  

shop-teacher > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/09/2020 at 15:47

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I totally agree, and that is a solvable problem that requires major investment .

I just don’t think it should be funded by a huge gas  tax, because that seriously harms poor people who live in rural areas.

RPM esq. > MrSnrub 01/09/2020 at 15:50

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If you read through the comments on the FP, some of them make it explicit that they are exactly the same people. Which is doubly insane because you’d think they’d recognize the obvious parallel: while very few people need a gun for their job or whatever , there’s still an enormous, diverse market for those who do and for those who want them.

RPM esq. > shop-teacher 01/09/2020 at 15:55

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Taxes can be different in different places, like they already are. The idea that we shouldn’t build any mass transit anywhere because it’s not practical to build all mass transit everywhere— is so stupid on its face I always have to assume it’s made disingenuously.

shop-teacher > RPM esq. 01/09/2020 at 15:59

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Gotcha.  That is not at all the argument I’m making.  I just think a different funding mechanism should be used.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > shop-teacher 01/09/2020 at 16:02

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A gas tax is unfortunately a regressive tax even if it has good outcomes (funding transit and discouraging the use of fossil fuels).

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > RPM esq. 01/09/2020 at 16:27

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That requires a certain level of critical thinking and introspection that they just don't have.

RPM esq. > shop-teacher 01/09/2020 at 16:31

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That’s fair enough.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Ash78, voting early and often 01/09/2020 at 16:49

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I’m just not familiar enough with the eastern cities. Most I’ve been to seem to have some obvious older buildings, the weather has a different effect on everything (more staining from water, things growing on trees, things growing in cracks, etc), and the most obvious thing is that the streets are much narrower. Western cities generally have much wider streets and SLC in particular has unusually wide streets even for the west due to the way the Mormon pioneers set up the city initially.

If you removed the trolley and the building sign, SLC would still be a top-three contender for me. Denver, SLC, and Boise, in that order, would be my guesses.

As you might imagine, I’m really good at G eoG uessr...

Ash78, voting early and often > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 01/09/2020 at 16:55

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Yeah, in the Northeast the narrow roads are definitely a giveaway. Shocking in some of the towns that the old houses are built with maybe 5' between your front door and 45mph traffic (today) . But in the old days, you wanted to stop your wagon and hop right off onto the porch. You don’t really see that anywhere else. The same goes for cities and narrow sidewalks and roads, like you mentioned.

A lot of it also seems to be whether it was a pre- or post-industrial revolution town.