Well my whole family is here for this wedding and they could just pick me up. (Actually we’re in Beaufort, about an hour from Charleston.) I would never, ever, ever rely on a southeast city’s public transport lol
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I think we all know this is only the case precisely because of long distance rail travel being on the margins.
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tbf that’s to get over the grapevine
tough to do hsr over a mountain I think
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They had a plan to bring it over the grape vine in 1999 but then changed it to appease some guy in Lancaster or something. I think after the fact that figured out how to justify it on other grounds though
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Well that was my understanding based on the recent nytimes article on it which was apparently bullshit. Here’s a different perspective
I’m sympathetic to the argument that smaller communities should also benefit from big infrastructure projects like this
But regardless of the particulars this is something people have been trying to do for decades and it keeps not happening. China’s entire hsr system was basically conceived and completed in the same time frame. I’m sure most of that had to do with Ehhhh less hurdles to land acquisition (lol)… But still…
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Don’t think so!
A lot of airport security theater came directly from terrorist events. Taking off shoes came from a shoe bombing attempt. I think the full body scans came from the underwear bomber. The liquid restriction came after that as well (iirc), based on speculation about making a bomb from mixing liquids. And the overall security obsession (not letting people meet you at the gate, etc.) came after 9/11. I think these stupid and arbitrary security measures spilled over into other countries from the US. On some flights I’ve been on, liquid restrictions have only been enforced, because the US required it.
All of this, but the TSA has never actually stopped a terrorist attack. Terrorist attacks have happened; they’ve just never prevented one.
So…yeah, there’s no real incentive for trains to copy this stuff. I mean, they don’t even have a TSA, and I doubt the owners of various train stations want to hire security staff and invest in body scanners.
People don’t associate trains with terrorism, so…why encourage them to?
You’d think California would have conjured their own Robert Moses by now.
Sometimes I think about what would happen if Elon Musk were actually a despotic train boy, instead of just a conman. Maybe instead of pretending to invent something, he’d just make an actual bullet train in California.
Don’t we all wish Elon Musk were a more literal incarnation of an Ayn Rand protagonist? A man can dream…
no i think that would be bad
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That’s exactly my point. Trains avoided all that mainly by being non extant in the US public consciousness.
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downtown charleston does have some excellent free buses and i think that’s kind of the extent of their public transit
(they have some express buses out to close suburbs, and a route to/from the airport, which is better than many cities i’ve been to)
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Musk has actively worked to kill rail projects in CA (and is against any infrastructure work in general that isn’t centered around everybody driving his cars), he’d do nothing of the sort.
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If Ayn Rand was alive today she would be sending her minions to destroy as many trains as possible in favor of the true economic freedom of cars
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They do. The TSA is involved in rail as well. It’s just much less invasive because there’s no need for security theater in such a marginalized transit system
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Did Critical Mass in LA tonight and it was a blast.
The route was 19 miles long and enormously wide ranging, going through a shit ton of different downtown and northwest-of-downtown neighborhoods and even east across the new bridge and into Boyle Heights. Extremely good vibes. Loads of cars were honking [good honk variety] at us and drunk people outside bars hollered at us too. No better way to feel at one with the city than to roll downhill at max speed while someone blasts every popular radio hit from 2006 and people scream.
Couple hundred folks showed up, including maybe 4?? trailers blasting the aforementioned Tunes (a mixture of mostly dance music, high school bangers, and middle school bangers). Several of the trailers were networked together and there was a guy operating them with a tablet setup in his cockpit.
A lot of the folks with the networked trailers/thier companions were riding bikes and ebikes with massive LED wands on them and wearing giant jean jackets with LIT RIDERZ patches on their backs. I looked them up and this is their website:
At first I thought, “oh this is just some group of cool party bikers! Nice.” But then I read thier site and I am delighted to report that they have a kind of bike urbanist lifestyle manifesto on it and I am now ready to elect all the Lit Riderz to local government:
WE BELIEVE
Bicycling brings people together.
When more people ride bikes:
Life is better for everyone;
Communities are safer, stronger and better connected;
Our nation is healthier, economically stronger, environmentally cleaner and
more energy independent.OUR VISION
We envision a nation where everyone, whether they bike or not, recognizes and enjoys the many benefits and opportunities of bicycling and where everyone can experience the joy of bicycling lit up at night.OUR MISSION
To create a bicycle-friendly America for Everyone, improving lives and strengthening communities through bicycling.
Delightful!!
Very glad I went. Biking through LA with three (??) hundred other people while Smack That plays has left me positively serene. Saw bits of the city I would otherwise consider it unsafe to bike through. Will definitely be doing the one in January too.
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If you live in the Los Angeles area… CicLAVia is happening on Sunday the 4th! This is another one of those events where they shut down huge streets and let people roll around on bikes and other human-powered vehicles. Sunday’s route is 7.25 miles and goes from USC to Watts. There’s a metro station at both ends of the route.
I’m taking a group of local game devs out starting around 10 AM. If you are curious about this event or want to come along, let me know.
In other news my husband and I have started talking about what it would be like to make a game about biking, or a horror game about biking specifically… there’s a lot of potent terror in being on a street next to a lifted pickup that has the power to turn you into jam, and we think there’s something there that we could explore. We did a search for “bike horror games” and found this one. We love the ability to ring the bike bell at any time, haha.
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Normally I don’t complain any of the ebikes that are on the trail, except there’s some asshole on a Sur-Ron who’s always just ripping through foot traffic. I hate that guy. Literally every other rider is fine. Sur Rons are like a mid-drive electric dirt bike, I can hear em coming because the chain drive makes a loud buzzing noise.
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I just missed our own version of CicLAVia for childcare reasons but it looked great so i’m excited to see how it goes for you @skelephone !
nika and I signed up for the gran fondo san diego in april which is pretty exciting - gran fondos are supposed to be “”“races”“” for people who don’t actually want to race and just want to participate in a big cycling event with all of the stuff including rest stops and things like that. we signed up for the 35 mile route which will be a nice little test for us and maybe it kickstarts our cycling habits as the new year begins
normally i’d be really into getting set up for it but i’m just getting over some weird flu-ish thing that knocked me out for the last three days 
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I also had this from like friday-sunday and then I thought I was getting better and I had a gross relapse yesterday, don’t usually get those
today it’s just my shoulder is fucked but I feel better otherwise
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same thing happened to me but it was over the course of those three days - thought I was getting better after symptoms started and then it got worse, but I’m basically good now
weird thing for me was my neck, almost like there was a weird sinus pressure or something? but I have no idea how or why
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yeah I have the same thing, I took a covid test because I got too annoyed to cancel plans over it and was negative, I think this used to be like normal-ish flu but it sure is irritating
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