|
https://twitter.com/nbcwashington/status/733751489110364161 1/3 of the firings were on the rail side of things, which is probably warranted.
|
#
?
May 20, 2016 23:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 04:03 |
|
|
Grey Fox posted:https://twitter.com/nbcwashington/status/733751489110364161 Granted, it always seem that the core issue boiled down to cash not mismanagement. I mean it is expected heads are going to roll but I don't think it is the core of the dysfunction.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2016 23:54
|
|
|
Ardennes posted:Granted, it always seem that the core issue boiled down to cash not mismanagement. I mean it is expected heads are going to roll but I don't think it is the core of the dysfunction. Cash might be the core of the initial cause but I'm not sure the dysfunction really has a core anymore. Roughly $5 billion's been spent exclusively on unfucking Metro over the past four years and it's still spontaneously combusting. The GM's apparent commitment to a genuinely multifaceted assault on that dysfunction continues to prove encouraging, at least.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 00:41
|
|
|
Combed Thunderclap posted:Cash might be the core of the initial cause but I'm not sure the dysfunction really has a core anymore. Roughly $5 billion's been spent exclusively on unfucking Metro over the past four years and it's still spontaneously combusting. The GM's apparent commitment to a genuinely multifaceted assault on that dysfunction continues to prove encouraging, at least.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 00:57
|
|
|
Politico's published a great overview of the recent history of transit in Denver, including all the political deals and business coalition-building that made FastTracks happen.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 07:57
|
|
|
Trip report: buses that announce all stops, and accurate real-time trackers, make taking buses much less awful. God knows why these things continue to baffle Calgary Transit so much... It's not like A Coruña is some huge metropolis with a giant economy.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 14:09
|
|
|
PT6A posted:Trip report: buses that announce all stops, and accurate real-time trackers, make taking buses much less awful. God knows why these things continue to baffle Calgary Transit so much... It's not like A Coruña is some huge metropolis with a giant economy. The only real-time tracking my rinky-dink local bus system uses is you calling the transit department and them in turn calling the bus driver's work cell. It was the only way I could find out whether the bus skipped my stop or it was just really, really late the last time it snowed. (It skipped my stop and I was late to classes that day  )
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 20:53
|
|
|
Combed Thunderclap posted:Politico's published a great overview of the recent history of transit in Denver, including all the political deals and business coalition-building that made FastTracks happen. This was a great read, thanks for this! I always get the warm and fuzzies when reading stuff like this about my city 
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 21:43
|
|
|
Curvature of Earth posted:The only real-time tracking my rinky-dink local bus system uses is you calling the transit department and them in turn calling the bus driver's work cell. It was the only way I could find out whether the bus skipped my stop or it was just really, really late the last time it snowed. (It skipped my stop and I was late to classes that day It's really sad. I was watching BBC and I saw a story about how they're installing tap cards on buses in Kigali, Rwanda, and yet we still can't get a working system in a first-world city of over 1,000,000 people after three expensive failed attempts. I mean, it boggles my loving mind how they managed to screw up this many times. We have a system on some buses that announces stops, too, but it doesn't announce every stop so it's literally worse than having nothing at all, because you can't rely on it. And our "real-time tracking system" has shown me buses that don't ever show up, not to mention the boards at train stations which seem to display the times of upcoming trains with no reference to reality at all. Were we just unlucky or did we hire incompetent people or what? How did this many things get hosed up when it seems like every other place can manage it?
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 22:08
|
|
|
Curvature of Earth posted:The only real-time tracking my rinky-dink local bus system uses is you calling the transit department and them in turn calling the bus driver's work cell. It was the only way I could find out whether the bus skipped my stop or it was just really, really late the last time it snowed. (It skipped my stop and I was late to classes that day Holy poo poo. How many bus lines are there where you live?
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 22:16
|
|
|
Badger of Basra posted:Holy poo poo. How many bus lines are there where you live? Two, and they combine into one during the early morning and evening. The town next door is only slightly bigger population-wise but has nine bus lines, and is generally better in every way to my hometown's (e.g. free to use, automatic announcements for every stop, real-time tracking). To be fair, they're a classic college town, while we're a bargain-priced blue-collar suburb.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 23:04
|
|
|
Curvature of Earth posted:Two, and they combine into one during the early morning and evening.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2016 02:40
|
|
|
Cicero posted:Albany and Corvallis? Yeah.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2016 03:39
|
|
|
The ULink extension in Seattle is kicking rear end, with the latest ridership figures at record highs and trips proving to be faster than expected. Meanwhile, transit blogger Anton Dubrau gives a serious critique to the Caisse's plan for light rail in Montréal, arguing that its capacity is way too small to be able to handle the amount of traffic it's going to get connecting to so many commuter rail lines. (I admit I had the same thought initially, the plan's trying to link up so many areas that it resembles the map for Boston's Green Line trolleys, which are so slow you can outrun them.)
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2016 19:17
|
|
|
PT6A posted:It's really sad. I was watching BBC and I saw a story about how they're installing tap cards on buses in Kigali, Rwanda, and yet we still can't get a working system in a first-world city of over 1,000,000 people after three expensive failed attempts. I mean, it boggles my loving mind how they managed to screw up this many times. We have a system on some buses that announces stops, too, but it doesn't announce every stop so it's literally worse than having nothing at all, because you can't rely on it. And our "real-time tracking system" has shown me buses that don't ever show up, not to mention the boards at train stations which seem to display the times of upcoming trains with no reference to reality at all. Were we just unlucky or did we hire incompetent people or what? How did this many things get hosed up when it seems like every other place can manage it? Typically any large scale IT project like this is farmed out to private companies, who get the contract written up as lax as possible while technically-not-bribing the other party into accepting it. So they can drag their asses on developing it for as long as possible so they get paid more, deliver a dogshit product, and then get to provide extortionately priced "support" for many more years. The local government feller who got their proposal accepted then gets a cushy position at the company when their term expires. It's the F-35 business model.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 05:35
|
|
|
HorseLord posted:Typically any large scale IT project like this is farmed out to private companies, who get the contract written up as lax as possible while technically-not-bribing the other party into accepting it. So they can drag their asses on developing it for as long as possible so they get paid more, deliver a dogshit product, and then get to provide extortionately priced "support" for many more years. The local government feller who got their proposal accepted then gets a cushy position at the company when their term expires. The F-35 has the advantage of the additional boondoggle level of "concurrence", where all parts are developed independently to "save" time and money. Oh, whoops, a bunch of stuff doesn't work when assembled together into a plane? How about that, I guess you'll need to pony up for us to work through these problems. Unless you're the reincarnation of a British Rail manager I think you'd struggle to come up with an equivalent terribl- yet-effective moneyspinner idea for public transport.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 14:57
|
|
|
British Rail was the good one, though. You want Universal Jobmatch for a true British competitor to the F-35
HorseLord fucked around with this message at 22:02 on May 23, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 22:00
|
|
|
HorseLord posted:Typically any large scale IT project like this is farmed out to private companies, who get the contract written up as lax as possible while technically-not-bribing the other party into accepting it. So they can drag their asses on developing it for as long as possible so they get paid more, deliver a dogshit product, and then get to provide extortionately priced "support" for many more years. The local government feller who got their proposal accepted then gets a cushy position at the company when their term expires. That still doesn't explain why other cities, which probably follow this same process, manage to emerge with a functioning system at the end of it. Three attempts over the last decade and we still don't have it.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2016 05:15
|
|
|
Mark Evans has created a tool that visualizes the data contained in the American Community Survey that pertains to someone's home and work locations and how they get there. The point: MAKE ME GIFS All of the different colors represent different counties where the commuter in question works: Los Angeles, commutes of 20-100 miles:  NYC, commutes of 100-300 miles:  Washtenaw, MI, commutes of 0-100 miles:  Washington, DC, commutes of 20-100 miles:  Fairfax County, VA, commutes of 20-100 miles: 
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2016 18:07
|
|
|
for sacramento county, it's interesting that apparently, more people commute there from san joaquin county than from yolo county
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2016 18:34
|
|
|
PT6A posted:That still doesn't explain why other cities, which probably follow this same process, manage to emerge with a functioning system at the end of it. Three attempts over the last decade and we still don't have it. All things vary. Other places will have had the contracts signed by people slightly less drunk.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2016 18:51
|
|
|
Jerry Manderbilt posted:for sacramento county, it's interesting that apparently, more people commute there from san joaquin county than from yolo county More jobs at UC davis than stockton. Edit: smart rear end comment aside, you need to reset the commute distance to less than 20mi as lots of davis is less than 20mi from downtown sac. Once you do that yolo has more. nm fucked around with this message at 19:03 on May 25, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 25, 2016 18:57
|
|
|
Combed Thunderclap posted:NYC, commutes of 100-300 miles: You're telling me that people commute to NYC all the way from Buffalo!?
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2016 20:43
|
|
|
Absurd Alhazred posted:You're telling me that people commute to NYC all the way from Buffalo!? Maybe New Yorkers know more about how plausible this is, but I'm sure those are people who just put down "I live in Buffalo" and "I work in NYC" and bam, they're in the dataset. It isn't impossible if you commute back home for the weekend or are a jetsetter, maybe? 
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2016 21:48
|
|
|
Combed Thunderclap posted:Maybe New Yorkers know more about how plausible this is, but I'm sure those are people who just put down "I live in Buffalo" and "I work in NYC" and bam, they're in the dataset. Yeah, when I was living in Boston I remember reading an article talking about people who commute to jobs in NYC from Portland, Maine. Basically they WFH 2-3 times a week, then fly in for a couple of days for in person meeting/management stuff while sleeping in an AirBnB or some poo poo. It's pretty much only an option for high level management or salespeople though, since all they do is answer emails & go to meetings while setting their own schedules.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2016 22:35
|
|
|
There is a dude at my (low level, railroad) job who commutes from DC, basically only goes home on weekends. Another guy comes from Philadelphia daily, and several people commute from the Poconos. I think it's crazy, but, whatever. e: My job is in NYC, since that wasn't clear.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2016 05:32
|
|
|
grah posted:There is a dude at my (low level, railroad) job who commutes from DC, basically only goes home on weekends. Another guy comes from Philadelphia daily, and several people commute from the Poconos. I think it's crazy, but, whatever. That falls under "commuting", rather than having two primary residences?
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2016 05:47
|
|
|
Absurd Alhazred posted:That falls under "commuting", rather than having two primary residences? I always wonder about this. Do they stay in an extended-stay motel? Because even cheap motels are way expensive per diem compared to an apartment. That must be one hell of a high-paying job, or an impressively low cost-of-living that far from work to be able to afford it. (My dad did this for a couple months when he first got his first well-paying, long-term job after retiring from the military, though with a cheap apartment rather than a motel. But we knew it was only temporary, and we soon moved to join him.)
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2016 07:59
|
|
|
For a few years my dad commuted every week to his managerial job at Motorola, in Schaumberg, Illinois. We live in the UK.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2016 14:46
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2016 15:35
|
|
|
It's amazing what companies will agree to fund if they need you badly enough.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2016 15:47
|
|
|
i know a guy who lived in western virginia but his team, and their office, were in denver. they'd fly him out and pay for his hotel whenever they needed him on site. dude was a wizard of coding tho so yeah if you're important enough you can demand these kind of perks
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2016 16:18
|
|
|
There's plenty of people who work for consultancies where their office is at home but they fly out to clients during the week. I know a guy who used to work for one where he lived in Atlanta but his client was in LA, so he would fly out there every Monday morning and red eye it back to Atlanta Thursday night. He did that for 6 months before the project finished and he got a client closer to him. In other chat, the NYTimes put out an article today on how absolutely broke public transit is. Something we all know, becoming grimmer every day. A lot of it seems to come down to lack of dedicated funding and systems basically having to beg for money year after year. Neon Belly fucked around with this message at 16:45 on May 26, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 26, 2016 16:42
|
|
|
Curvature of Earth posted:I always wonder about this. Do they stay in an extended-stay motel? Because even cheap motels are way expensive per diem compared to an apartment. That must be one hell of a high-paying job, or an impressively low cost-of-living that far from work to be able to afford it. Most of them just work as many 16 hour tours during the week as they can and sleep at their job location on the 8 hour periods when they're not working.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2016 18:47
|
|
|
The Kansas City Streetcar is thriving! Hopefully it'll be the start of the public transit bug that similarly bit non-coastal cities like Denver and Salt Lake City. quote:During the 27 days of operation since the streetcar made its debut on May 6, total ridership has reached 173,751 as of Wednesday. Friday will be the four-week anniversary of the streetcar. Meanwhile, out in the Swiss Alps, the Gotthard Base Tunnel has opened after 20 years of construction, shaving an hour off the Zürich-Milan route after it opens for passenger rail in December, and, most significantly, enormously increasing the area's freight rail capacity so it can take roughly a million trucks a year off roads. Next door, France has created a kind of grading system for cars where you can get certain benefits if your car doesn't pollute. The new markings will be mandatory for older cars in Paris, as the city will begin to ban all cars created before 1997 during the weekday. [link en français] [English link] It seems inevitable that these little stickers will eventually become mandatory and then you can impose more disincentives and incentives for different categories.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2016 22:57
|
|
|
Does that streetcar not have a dedicated lane?
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2016 00:14
|
|
|
Neon Belly posted:Does that streetcar not have a dedicated lane? most systems in the united states dont, the cost of distinct lane separation is prohibitive for brand new systems but it's pretty easy to dedicate the lane later at least. or share the lane with buses
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2016 00:17
|
|
|
Neon Belly posted:Does that streetcar not have a dedicated lane? Funny you mention it, a Twitter spat almost immediately broke out re: this story about how obviously dedicated lanes aren't necessary for a successful system  and then how they still are important!!  etc etc.I personally think it's obvious they aren't needed for a working system. An optimal system on the other hand...
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2016 01:56
|
|
|
Trip report from Denver: I'm car-free / car-light and live about 50 miles from the Airport. Last April our new airport train opened, so I took the scenic route when I had a flight and went an hour out of my way to ride it (its route is perfect for Denverites but I'm a bit to the side). Beautiful train, quick route, lots of riders even in its second week, and lots of TOD already springing up on its 4(?) new stops. Great stuff, enough said about that. A few days ago I had another flight so I took my usual airport bus. When we left my stop the PA announces the next stop as the airport, and I realize the new train has absorbed the three tedious stops on this particular bus line and we were going to take a straight shot to the airport. This cuts the time by 1/3 or more (no small thing if you know how distant our airport is), and it beats car trips now when parking is factored! What an unexpected and pleasant surprise to start a dreary trip with! I posted this to highlight that transit in the US isn't doomed, not even out here in the western sprawl, and that good things will happen once the city commits to funding transit.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2016 00:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 04:03 |
|
|
Yeah, RTD actually discontinued a fair number of airport busses and rerouted others to Union Station for transfer to the A Line. It's definitely proven to be a more efficient system in a lot of ways that aren't readily apparent.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2016 06:17
|
|