Media Duh of the Day
posted by on April 28 at 15:21 PM
Why stupid questions should not be dignified with serious answers:
Rick Downer wonders why vehicles carrying more than one person are allowed to use the regular lanes?“I don’t mind paying taxes to build High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes as long as the HOVs use them, but daily I see HOVs in the regular lanes when their lane is wide open,” he says.
He thinks people with more than one person in their vehicles should be required to use HOV lanes.
And the change should be called the Lane Fairness and Road Rage Reduction Act, he said.
Answer: Washington Department of Transportation spokesman Noel Brady says HOV lanes were created to give commuters an incentive to car pool or take the bus.
Vehicles with passengers could be forced to use HOV lanes when traffic is heavy enough. But it would be hard to decide what the threshold should be.At any rate, he said, Downer is most likely seeing drivers with passengers in regular lanes when there isn’t much traffic. When there is a lot of traffic, drivers who qualify for the car pool lanes usually head there, anyway.
Next week, in the Getting There: How come old people act like they have a right to sit anywhere on the bus, when the front seats are clearly marked “for handicapped and elderly”? And why can’t we force people with fewer than eight items to only use the express lines?
This is from the narcissist who complains about wheelchair lifts on the bus. But keep being snotty. It helps get more roads built.
I'd like to coin the term "Larry David Legislation" for this one.
ECB, give the guy a chance. He's married to Debbie Downer, for goodness sake.
Shit yeah, force everyone car pooling into 1/4 of the available lanes! Idiot. I can't think of a larger disincentive to carpooling.
I suspect that all of the "Getting There" letters are fakes today. Look at those names. Dick Downer, Holly Henson, Lorie Lucky? WTF?
Its only once in a great while that I get the chance to agree with you on a point.
And, as such, I should probably let you know that I do on this one.
This bastard is trying to rework my idea of the SUV lane: only SUV's can drive in it, but unless they're entering or exiting the freeway, they're required to drive in it.
My question is - why are 18-wheeler tractor trailers - which cause 98 percent of all road damage - allowed to travel for free on roads and highways?
Why aren't they charged a per mile travel Repair And Retrofit fee to repair and retrofit all existing roads, bridges, and highways for the damage they cause?
Well, Will, the 18-wheelers aren't allowed to use the roads for free: they pay the fuel tax like everyone else, and it's proportional to the miles they drive.
On the other hand, where are you getting this figure that they're responsible for !!98%!! of all road damage?
@9 - You expect Will in Seattle to provide a source for his statistics? It's a little known fact that 91% of his facts are made up. I'd cite a source for this, but I'm too lazy.
this guy clearly thinks he's being clever.
he is one of those people who believe HOV lane drivers are being subsidized by him. he views them as nanny-state actions, the state telling people how to commute; how to live.
he believes this argument will make others thinks about the issue, because it made him think about it (and because he agreed with it).
in short, he is an idiot.
@ 8 and @ 9,
Pulling 100% out of my ass, I would posit that 18 wheelers actually help provide much of the rationale behind building the country's automotive transportation infrastructure. Ever drive through Nebraska? Good luck getting interstate highways justified and built without interstate commerce.
Widespread ignorance reflected in this guy's whine defeats the purpose of the HOV lanes much of the time. You are supposed to go faster in the HOV lane or get out of it so others can go faster. You are not supposed to block the people behind you in the HOV lane. When you do bock them you have destroyed their incentive to car pool, which is to be able to go faster via the HOV lane.
So if a car with 2-4 people in it isn't going faster they are SUPPOSED to not be in the HOV lane.
Cranky defenders of lane-clinging: accuse those who you block and who get annoyed of excessive speed in 4....3...2...1..
It's fun when the disabled people start bickering over who's more disabled. Like, what do you do when you're planetary pregnant and a guy with crutches who proclaims to be certified disabled walks up and demands that you move, even though all the other seats are taken and he could have picked anybody else?
This is all very interesting, but it's a distraction from MY campaign to establish Drunk Driving Lanes.
Speaking of HOV lanes, or HOT lanes, Supposedly the WSDOT states there's only room for another 1000-1100 cars during rush hour. 9000 people signed up for transponders. Granted, not all of these people will pay the max toll or be using the lanes at rush hour, but what happens if they all do? Instant gridlock and the HOV Lane becomes just as slow as the other lanes thus removing the incentive to carpool in the first place. Idiots.
@15, already done!
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/dot_creates_new_lane_for_reckless
Erica!
As a petty anti-HRC-er, check out her joining forces with McCain to fight for a summer gas tax rebate. Woohooo! Driving! I feel like doing a lap around Bellevue in an SUV to celebrate our good fortune!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/us/politics/29campaign.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin
@15: The reckless drunks have already established their own lanes--the opposing traffic on I-5 seems to work well three or four times a week.
Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday criticized Barack Obama for opposing the concept of suspending the gas tax during the peak summer driving months, a plan both she and Republican John McCain have endorsed.
"My opponent, Senator Obama, opposes giving consumers a break," Clinton said, campaigning in North Carolina. "I understand the American people need some relief."
the problem is that too many in Washington act like this already is the law. when i moved here from LA i was used to the carpool lanes being used by HOVs that wanted to go faster than the rest of traffic. in WA its all cars who just happen to have extra folks in them taking their leisurely drives slower than the rest of traffic.
@9 & 10: Much as it pains me to say it, Will is correct that big trucks do the majority of the damage to roads. This is well understood in the field of pavement design:
From http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot/Modules/04_design_parameters/04-3_body.htm
or the HOV lanes could be put on the right-side of the freeway (like California state). makes it MUCH easier to merge (something people in Washington have problems doing) and for a short commute would be easier to get into line rather than sliding over the entire freeway for a short trip.
@9 - the damage caused is not proportional.
It's a multiple.
You'd have to charge tractor trailers $200 a gallon for fuel for it to be comparitive.
Instead, we give them CHEAPER fuel.
Check it out ... it's in our federal and state tax codes.
Want a source - go to the WSDOT site and look at impacts in any of the online source documents (those really long ones).
and thanks, Greg, @22.
You see, the prob is you can't tell when I'm being literally correct (and just too darned lazy to post links), making a joke (curse my dry Canadian British Columbian humour), or taking a viewpoint and exaggerating slightly (e.g. 40-100 story buildings - yes, taller than 4-6 story buildings exist in Greater Vancouver, but I'm trying to get you out of your Single Family Residential Zoning mindset so common to Seattle).
The points still stand - and any thought on them will reveal an inner truth that cuts through the cruft you put up with every day. That says: why are you calling anti-conservative GOPers who stand against every true conservative precept and deny Adam Smith's capitalist concepts ... why do you call them pro-capitalist and conservative when they're NEITHER.
Instead, you buy the sizzle and don't notice it's not steak, it's donkey meat.
p.s. 14 acres of prime downtown real estate won't be developed this year in Seattle due to one company.
That will have more impact on traffic here than any HOV lane ever will.
Think about it ...
#12 is right. Large trucks cause a lot a road wear, but the interstate system isn't just set up so you can take scenic drives over the pass or sit bumper-to-bumper during rush hour. It was created in part to function as an arm of our system of delivering goods and materials.
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).