BenRossTransit

BenRossTransit, 4 months ago to random

How do you publish an article about how to plan for inability to drive safely in old age, without any mention of moving to a place where you don't need a car?
https://wapo.st/4aX7a0C

BenRossTransit, 22 hours ago to random

Ostracizing "Zionist" students is anti-Semitism. Period. Whether or not the anti-Zionist opinion of the ostracizer is itself anti-Semitic.
Discrimination against Jews based on their Jewish opinions is anti-Semitism, even when it's not anti-Semitic to hold the contrary opinion.
Example: A Catholic priest who believes Jesus is the son of God is not thereby anti-Semitic. But burning Jews at the stake for disagreeing is.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/style/jewish-college-students-zionism-israel.html?unlocked_article_code=1.t00.M_tX.zYA2gy-TIZwm&smid=url-share

BenRossTransit, 24 days ago to random

@Alon Did you see this reply? https://mas.to/@failedLyndonLaRouchite/112349421074718756

BenRossTransit, 23 days ago to random

Thought-experiment relevant (although of course not perfectly identical) to current campus protests.
Imagine defenders of southern culture camped out on the college green, devoting the vast majority of their time to scholarly rebuttals of the history curriculum's denigration of Robert E. Lee and John C. Calhoun & loud chants of slogans that favorably remember them. Only occasionally do participants yell epithets, some overtly racist & some referring to DEI, at Black students walking by.

BenRossTransit, 4 months ago to random

Tom Friedman says Israel should offer to leave Gaza (but keep control of borders so arms can't be smuggled in) if Hamas will release hostages. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/opinion/israel-war-gaza.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IE0.EP0B.j1ZEJNu_OgMy&smid=url-share

BenRossTransit, 24 days ago to random

The 1968 protests at Columbia were aimed against the university's plan for a gym in Morningside Park as much as, or more than, the Vietnam War. This was part of a nation-wide SDS campaign against university expansion, from which today's left-nimbyism largely originated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Columbia_University_protests

BenRossTransit, 3 months ago to random

Don't wring your hands. Slowing adoption of electric cars won't increase CO2 emissions. Lower VMT is the only way to cut transport emissions now.
As long as marginal supply of electricity is fossil-fueled, electric cars are still fossil-fueled. And we're years & years away from having spare non-fossil electric generation capacity. Yes, you need to build the industrial base for electric cars, but it's a long-term investment that starts to pay off 10+ years from now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/climate/biden-epa-auto-emissions.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WE0.KHxR.HmFlMWSBUVKZ&smid=url-share

BenRossTransit, 1 year ago to random

Ukrainian refugee flees to Columbus OH with her 2-yr-old child. Moves back to Kyiv because the bus service is so bad. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/prime/a-short-week-in-kyiv

BenRossTransit, 5 months ago to random

"Hamas is not popular, but Israel's tactics ensure their survival." Very interesting analysis of the dilemma of the Israel-Gaza war.
Says Israel should have undertaken "a targeted, low-intensity, long-term operation that could sustainably reduce Hamas’ military capabilities and create conditions to introduce a new administration in Gaza."
Easier said than done, even were Bibi not in power, like every other idea I've read.
https://forward.com/opinion/571232/hamas-unpopular-in-gaza-before-2023-israel-war/

BenRossTransit, 4 months ago to random

Bhopal will eliminate its BRT. Will demolish barriers and open lanes to autos & motorcycles. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/cm-mohan-yadav-signals-end-of-the-road-for-bhopal-brts/articleshow/106305275.cms

BenRossTransit, 6 months ago to random

Susie Linfield on The Return of the Progressive Atrocity:
"Activists have the responsibility to know who and what they support, and to separate themselves—openly and decisively—from programs and regimes that are predicated on violence and repression."
https://quillette.com/2023/11/18/the-return-of-the-progressive-atrocity/

BenRossTransit, 8 months ago to random

One of the many paradoxes of public participation is that the original intellectual inspiration was the 1950s concern for sociological ills of modern urban society such as "anomie," loss of social cohesion, and breakdown of "organic communities." [DP Moynihan recounts this in the 1st chapter of Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding.]
If there's anything today's public participation doesn't promote, it's inclusiveness and social cohesion.

BenRossTransit, 6 months ago to random

Elon Musk retweets anti-Semites & then gets angry at people who tell his advertisers about it.
Then there are leftists who join anti-Israel rallies organized by people who welcomed the Oct 7 massacre & then say it's slander to call them pro-Hamas.
Musk has much more power, but the duplicity is the same.

BenRossTransit, 8 months ago to random

Turns out that Gabriel Metcalf, long-time head of Bay Area urbanist think-tank SPUR, is in charge of designing the city-built-from-scratch near San Francisco.
[gift link] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/business/california-solano-county-city.html?unlocked_article_code=y7Skhb8bnJfQs0UW9B-HsQkTZh89SP83WLt-z4zsmeMsFWXvXOO0cV9eWC048Nq3naKNOGeS0JGx5K1vKc67cc8y0NecSCCECcV88LAPxnMVhl9mmFe6mjmXo7PIKy-A95-T-8sTl31qWpEzULu1aXQlLUm5R64tuQI8M7XtEW39JeRV7m3GqlvPoBFpCwnjKSFzGggPFvUQujYEYzoLo13LD-dS9pwdJfzsJxbX8AKYbzG-MVh5akHu3Byl-Qgsz9jybyWK5i4gFB3LnjA3MOBVL7zWjQh0IgjsxTyCaHRL0jT1TgoUFxTee3vQA-9MOKczEYt9sNhlNLm54rdlmwMMzvGBBMWS&smid=url-share

BenRossTransit, 3 months ago to random

Fascinating article about how the 1961 NYC zoning code had commercial districts graded by social class.
It's astonishing how, during the first half-century of zoning, the "progressive" image of zoning blinded everyone to its deeply class-separationist content -- even in a city where the working class was uniquely influential both politically and intellectually.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/opinion/new-york-economy-zoning.html?unlocked_article_code=1.T00.4vxy.R2IzTUs-BOfH&smid=url-share

BenRossTransit, 3 months ago to random

Why were Adam & Eve kicked out of the Garden of Eden?

Because they wouldn't accept apple's terms & conditions.

BenRossTransit, 5 months ago to random

Trucking companies say the government isn't building them enough free parking spaces where drivers can sleep along rural interstates. How about offering to pay for it? This is one housing shortage that the magic of the free market could easily solve. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/us/politics/truck-parking.html?unlocked_article_code=1.H00.vHGP.DzQH-rKNSJiv&smid=url-share

BenRossTransit, 10 months ago to random

House Republicans want more people killed by traffic crashes. Appropriations bill would ban traffic cameras & no-right-on-red signs in Washington DC. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/07/13/house-republicans-riders-dc-abortion-marijuana-traffic-elections/

BenRossTransit, 5 months ago to random

Pressure grows on Tesla to sign union contract in Sweden as workers in Sweden's DMV stop issuing license plates to new Teslas https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-sues-swedish-agency-striking-124735097.html

BenRossTransit, 6 months ago to random

Self-driving taxis shift labor cost burden onto taxpayers as fire & emergency services staff up to deal with road blockages & crashes.
Article features first-I've-heard-of crash of self-driving car into building.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/technology/driverless-taxis-cars-cities.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AE0.wh4J.ayyrr-HhP9U3&smid=url-share

BenRossTransit, 2 months ago to random

Milwaukee County won't buy any more battery-electric buses. First buses ordered got pulled off the road within 3 months, and cost is double diesel buses. https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2024/02/28/transportation-transit-officials-done-with-battery-electric-buses/

BenRossTransit, 2 months ago to random

Putting a speed camera in a low-income neighborhood doesn't "target" the neighborhood - it protects it from speeders.
Baltimore study checks registration address of 268,000 ticketed vehicles. Only 10% were within one mile of camera location.
Also: 248 vehicles received 20 or more citations within 6 months.
https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/transportation/speed-cameras-red-light-ticket-equity-baltimore-O5WMBEKOLFAVPCRSNSQ7YMDHZI/?schk=YES&rchk=YES&mc_cid=a5a01b64db

BenRossTransit, 2 months ago to random

Do road diets really cost what DOTs say they do?
Because a Baltimore streetscape project was changed in midstream, we know the price of the road diet part. Converting the 4-lane road to 2 car lanes + 2 bike lanes cost $182,432 out of a total project cost of $61,200,000.
https://baltimorebrew.com/2024/03/06/after-8-years-of-construction-and-31-over-budget-the-central-avenue-streetscape-is-almost-done/?mc_cid=0fb958e257

BenRossTransit, 1 month ago to random

Tesla has canceled its project to make a less expensive electric car. Will focus on developing a fully self-driving taxi.
Watch out if you're walking!
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-tesla-scraps-low-cost-150726195.html

BenRossTransit, 1 month ago to random

Coal is the source of marginal electricity supply in the mid-Atlantic states. That means that electric cars driven there are coal-powered & emit more greenhouse gases than gasoline-powered cars. https://wapo.st/3JjUN2f