Guess we’re voting on construction contractors in the primary as well
Becoming pretty clear that either DC officialdom needs to give up the helicopters or DCA needs to close.
Politico@politico.com · 3h agoNTSB opens probe into Marine One incident near Reagan National airport
Understanding this and its full implications will give you a better understanding of Economy than 99% of the population.
Matt Darling@besttrousers.bsky.social · 5h agoBasically, recessions are caused by "everyone trying to save money at the same time". This is a problem because at an aggregate level, everyone's income is the same as everyone's spending.
Deflation means that "you money is worth more tomorrow than today", such that everyone says "Wow, I should save some money" and then the economy collapses.
the strait of hormel, also known as the spam filter
This is a great example from another industry, and I'm going to borrow it as an analogy! bsky.app/profile/rexb...
Andrew Hunter@rexbron.bsky.social · 7h agoIn the context of film, changing a movie is never less expensive than when you are writing the script.
One core fact of megaproject management (that equally applies to any largish endeavor) is that planning is comparatively cheap, but lack of planning leads to expensive missteps and redesign. One reason for exploding American transit costs is the lack of funding and state capacity for planning.
dereksagehorn.bsky.social@dereksagehorn.bsky.social · 11h agoPolicymakers need to be internalizing the costs of inaction/delay via escalation much earlier in the life cycle of infrastructure development, imo.
Montgomery, AL perfectly illustrates this. In 1955, when Rosa Parks mounted her Bus Boycott, the transit system was **owned by a GM-affiliate** and ran several lines every 10 mins. In the 90s, fixed route bus service was eliminated. And now, no line runs more frequently than every 30 mins.
Benjamin Schneider@benschneider.bsky.social · 2d agoJake is right. I also wrote about this in my book, more from the political angle. I argue that the streetcar conspiracy was actually a convenient scapegoat for those who wanted to minimize government's role in transit's failure, and the racism of whites who abandoned integrated systems.
"For the first time ever, more people are employed by remodeling companies than by single-family and multifamily developers combined." (h/t @josephpolitano.bsky.social) www.theargumentmag.com/p/americas-e...
There’s a huge difference between a data point of “look, we did this before and it didn’t work” and hiring a seven-figure consultant to spend two years on a traffic study to ultimately say “if you do this, it probably won’t work”
The latter is actually worse, because the consultant has seven-figures’-worth of reasons to tell the agency what they want to hear, which means now they can couch their conclusion as “data-driven”.
In other words (and to put a pin in this because I don’t think we’re far apart on this) there is a difference between lessons-learned data – what worked well, what didn’t, what other agencies are doing, etc. – and more granular data that can be spun however whoever’s in charge wants it to be anyway
Policymakers need to be internalizing the costs of inaction/delay via escalation much earlier in the life cycle of infrastructure development, imo.
No one said “don’t measure”, the argument is to rely less on data in the early stages when planning routes, then monitor to tweak operations accordingly once it’s running. Analysis paralysis means all too often we aren’t getting past the first step, sacrificing the good for a non-existent “optimum”.
yes and I also am not sure how this type of data gets generated at useful scale without just like. surveillance
Æthelred the UnPreddy@ready4preddy.bsky.social · 12h agoit would be so awesome to have good data on trip origins and destinations that weren't just work and weren't just driving
I don’t know who will win in Michigan but I promise I will use either result to get cheap political hits in on politicans I don’t like, that’s the regime promise
IMO, one of the reasons the WI Dem Gov primary has been so annoying is that it feels like the DSA left sees it as the most important election this year, while the rest of us see the November election as significantly more important. And that disconnect drives me insane
Proposition 1––which extends and expands Spokane Transit service for another 20 years––is a nail-biter. Yes: 31,153 (50.38%) No: 30,686 (49.62%) It needs 50% + 1 to pass.
This is actually an under discussed point in why are intercity bus companies like Greyhound/Flixbus having such huge problems. Right now bus fare from Philly to Chicago October 15-20 is $187 per person round trip on faster trips. Southwest is $240 round trip with about 5 hours total travel time.
Gift card redemption fraud is a massive problem for loyalty programs. Virtually impossible to recover the value once an account is compromised and the cards issued. Amtrak's answer is to simply restrict redemptions to vaguely reasonable levels. Also, typically a terrible way to use points.
Air travel is fine. There are just more opportunities to forego creature comforts in exchange for a lower fare, which is why most people don’t travel long distances by bus anymore.
Roys didnt start until recently, Crowley didnt start until recently...but he also had a pretty bad showing at the debate. I dont k ow why Dems vant campaign...seems like they are getting worse too.
honestly, the fact that we have made it through the atomic age *without* another use of nuclear weapons since 1945 is a miracle we don't fully appreciate
Rebecca R Helm@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · yesterdayToday is the day the story There Will Come Soft Rain is set. An amazing and heartbreaking work of fiction for our modern age. Read it here:
One year $150M contract to a small Texas firm that lacks immigration law experience
Politico@politico.com · yesterday26-employee Texas law firm gets $150M to represent 24,000 children in immigration court
The idea that there is a standard for accessibility that requires close stop spacing is one that was made up to oppose stop consolidation. Nobody ever analyzes transit based on this metric outside of this discussion. You would come to bizarre conclusions if you tried to quantify it, since transit…
One reason I am curious about how Michigan's primary turns out: I want to see how the UP votes, since they're Wisconsin's hat.