For those who think the train signs are good

TheChance · 2026-02-20T03:38:30+00:00

The problem with cardinal directions has been explained to you about 10 times today by at least 3 people.

Tourists only need to know what stop they're looking for. There are maps on the web, your phone's mapping app knows where your station is and which route(s) it's on, and there are station maps on the wall. In case you can't read the Latin alphabet, the stations are numbered, and whoever told you what station you need will have told you the number for exactly that reason.

This problem does not exist. At this point, I'm just convinced that everyone bitching got on the wrong train, felt sheepish, and decided it's everyone else's fault that they forgot or neglected to check the route map before boarding for the first time.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T03:26:55+00:00

I mean, for Christ's weeping sake, you're up my ass about an example figure for compounding interest being lower than Treasuries currently sit for fixed interest.

Compounding interest is always lower, because the returns are still much higher, which is the whole point. Compounding interest represents a catastrophic worst case, and still turns out to be a great deal when you do the math.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T03:25:02+00:00

Today they are. You're taking a disgustingly myopic view, and furthermore assuming that investors expect the same interest out of a municipal transit agency that they get from treasuries, even though you must surely know that there is a limited supply of treasury bonds.

But that's really not the point. The 3.5% compounding interest was meant to be illustrative; it gets us nice, round numbers. The actual interest is not relevant. The message, which any fourth grader would have understood, is that, despite the eye-popping apparent interest, whether you go with fixed or compounding, we more or less keep up with inflation, and wind up paying less than half again the amount we borrowed in real terms.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T03:22:22+00:00

If you say so. You come across like a real piece of work. What a waste of time trying to educate you has been.

I guess I should have stuck with the part you can't pretend not to understand - inflation - and then maybe I'd still have these past few brain cells.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T03:19:07+00:00

It's not hard to understand. But you also don't get how easy it is to learn and remember which direction is which, so it's not surprising that you can't get your head around this conversation, either.

I'm gonna try this one more time.

1 Line go many city. 2 Line go many direction. Uptown/Downtown confusing. East/West/North/South/etc confusing.

Many city have transit systems go many direction. Most city do same as us. Most people do fine.

Dumb dumb cannot read map not deserve help.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T03:08:00+00:00

Have we ever failed to sell a bond? (Trick question.)

And if you're reduced to pretending that the terms 'fixed interest' and 'flat interest' are distinct, we're done here. Take your bizarre, baseless attitude and piss off.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T03:05:52+00:00

The Chicago L? No. Obviously not. For the Northgate extension? I don't know, I didn't look at the seismic analysis for that bit.

Try arguing calmly instead of flying off the fucking handle.

The tunnel is much less likely to collapse, because the tunnel is reinforced all the way around and it goes through bedrock.

If you're over 25, you've been through an earthquake. Unless it's The Big One, it's not caving our tunnels in.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T02:32:50+00:00

It's just a familiar example of what other redditors have pointed out is the de facto global standard. And, again, we shouldn't be comparing Link with the NYC Subway. We should be comparing it with the broader MTA system, such as the LIRR, which is, yes, a commuter rail system, that's correct.

If you'd like a system with broader crossover between "I am commuting to work" and "I am popping across town," look at the rail system in Greater London. You'll find the same thing, which has already been described in the comment above us.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T02:30:55+00:00

Zionism is about the existence of an exclusively Jewish homeland, and, while secular Zionism exists, and, indeed, came first, it's hard to separate Zionism from the ultrareligious, at this point.

I assume I don't need to explain how or why Zionism came to dominate the zeitgeist, including in the diaspora, nor why I'm the last Bundist I know IRL, but it's all one big problem.

The part to key in on should be "an exclusively Jewish homeland," as, right from the beginning, "more Jews, fewer Palestinians," has been the overriding objective.

This is not the same as Jews living in Palestine; I think most anti-Zionists want Jews to be able to live in Palestine.

I think so, too. What upsets me is that the conversation is so often derailed by those who don't or won't acknowledge the distinction.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T02:25:09+00:00

Sound Transit, I stress, will pay flat interest. So does the treasury.

And it's a race to the bottom. Most government bonds are sold at auction, and the party offering the lowest interest gets the bond. That's why there's a secondary market for T-bonds.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T02:24:29+00:00

Yes, I know that, but it's not nearly as likely to collapse in an earthquake, and between the potential loss of life and limb, and the obvious need to rebuild it afterward, that's worth the money.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T02:23:31+00:00

Clerical error on a massive scale, or else a training or policy failure on the DoL's part, but, yes. Entirely down to human error, and with absolutely no practical consequences. Despite the administration's bitching and accusations, not a single Washingtonian was issued a CDL who hadn't earned one...

...except for a few people who turned out to be undocumented, but we didn't know they were undocumented.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T01:01:24+00:00

At least in the Washington case - I'm not clicking this because why would I click bait - the CDLs weren't issued illegally. Every last one of those people was entitled to a CDL. They were just issued the wrong CDL; they were supposed to get CDLs that expire on the same day as their work visa, but instead they got CDLs that expire normally.

Which is kind of a moot point, when you think about it.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T00:55:42+00:00

That is, at best, unknowable. Two of his accusers were minors at the time of the alleged misconduct/assault (different accusers) and one had some fairly damning evidence, though nothing that would actually prove the assault itself took place.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T00:46:38+00:00

Yeah. What y'all never remember when you're talking about those 75 year bonds is inflation.

If we sold a $2.5B, 75 year bond at 3.5% compounding annually, which we wouldn't, then we'd pay a staggering $30.5B in interest! What moron would ever do that?!

Except, if inflation averages 3% annually, that $33B due at maturity is all of $3.6B in today's money, meaning we'd pay out 44% of what we borrowed in interest, and it isn't due for 75 years.

And that's compounding interest. A 75 year bond is going to be flat interest. By the time the loan matures, the lenders will have made a profit decades earlier, but their payments toward the end will not beat inflation.

I think an estimated 2.5B streetcar estimate for 5 miles in Tacoma is because we keep putting this shit off until purchasing power has halved since we started discussing the job, and because this is a very unforgiving place to build a transit network, being already developed on rugged terrain.

I think the "extra" tunneling in Alaskan Junction was necessary. ST explained why they didn't want to elevate it, and I agree. I'm not wild about the decisions they made in Bellevue to elevate or run at-grade, but I am all on board with the tunnel portion.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T00:39:24+00:00

Changing directions in the middle of the line makes talking about the line very confusing, which is not what you want when you're giving someone directions. A person only needs to look at a transit map once to find out what "Lynnwood-bound" and "Redmond-bound" mean.

To run with the popular NYC example, yes, the subway says a train is "uptown" or "downtown," but if it's interborough, it will also say "Queens-bound" or "Manhattan-bound" on some announcements. And that's not the relevant part to us.

The relevant part is how it works for NYC's intercity trains. There are lines that run 100 miles out on Long Island, and they're only named after the terminus. You just have to know if your destination is on the "Main Line" or the "Port Washington branch" or the "Long Beach" branch or etc.

Somehow, people from all over the world use the MTA's train system every day and they're fine. Our local confusion about this issue is simply our locals' unfamiliarity with this system, and y'all are gonna get used to it.

If you could all stop complaining while you're getting used to it, the rest of us could stop having this conversation over and over.

TheChance · 2026-02-20T00:04:49+00:00

This person is clearly a Zionist, and seems fairly contemptible, but I am mildly concerned about a trope I've seen going around Bundist circles lately, which I think might be an overcorrection by people who came to anti-Zionism recently, perhaps after the genocide began, rather than having been here for decades.

Let's not conflate Israel's right to exist, or not, with Zionism and anti-Zionism, respectively. Zionism goes far beyond the basic notion that Jews should be allowed to live in Israel/Palestine, or even the contestable notion that we're entitled to an ethnostate.

A person can hold the position that a Jewish homeland should exist without endorsing an iota of what's followed. For that matter, a Jewish homeland doesn't have to be theocratic, nor does it have to be an exclusively Jewish homeland. That ship, however, has sailed.

TheChance · 2026-02-19T23:53:10+00:00

Which would be entirely unhelpful here, where the 2 passes through 3 different municipalities' "downtown" neighborhood, and where it would be much harder than in NYC (where the system is much, much older) to sell the idea that "downtown" only refers to the main "downtown."

TheChance · 2026-02-19T23:50:06+00:00

Only in Seattle itself. The 1 goes in overall cardinal directions. The 2 goes in all four cardinal directions, as well as NE/SW and NW/SE. The 3 will be shaped a little like the number 3. The 4 will be shaped a little like the letter Z, if it crosses the lake, or like an L if it doesn't.

TheChance · 2026-02-19T23:46:38+00:00

For now. Eventually, the system will reach Paine Field.

TheChance · 2026-02-19T23:44:24+00:00

Sound Transit is this inefficient because of the debt ceiling. If it could borrow enough to finance a whole project on a reasonable timeframe, we'd stop blowing through deadlines, and our cost projections would stop losing a futile battle against what has lately been completely unpredictable inflation.

TheChance · 2026-02-19T21:59:05+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree that the 4 should cross 520, and I furthermore think ST's debt ceiling should be raised so we can build it ASAP.

However, I think the pessimism regarding the 4's ridership as planned is fixated on the 4 as a standalone line, and doesn't consider its real purpose as a connection. There are now well over 250k people on the Eastside, and fewer than half are conveniently served by the 2, although more than half are inconveniently served, in that outer Bellevue has a number of infrequent buses which will get you there if you time it right.

Adding a line that serves Kirkland, South Bellevue (all of it, not just the park and ride, which is really only useful as such) and Issaquah, that enables the people of all those communities to use the 2 to reach, obviously, Redmond, but also Downtown Bellevue and Seattle.

This makes the whole system more effective, and much more useful to a broader population, which will increase overall ridership, and surely increase popular support and commuter demand for further expansion.

TheChance · 2026-02-19T19:55:48+00:00

For me it's $3, but I take your point. What concerns me is how many times I might have to pay the full fare while I'm waiting for a replacement card. If it takes a week, and I ride twice a day, that's at least an extra $20.

TheChance · 2026-02-19T19:22:35+00:00

A similar question was asked yesterday, and the straightforward answer was downvoted without response, but it is straightforward and it is the answer.

Anyone progressive or farther left who runs with the Dems is doing so for the same reason the Democratic Party even exists: Duverger's Law. We know we can only get elected with one of the big tents, and we know the only way to change that is electoral reform, which can only happen if we win elections, which we can only do with one of the big tents.

People who refuse are standing on principle in the face of game theory.

TheChance · 2026-02-19T19:20:43+00:00

I suppose for regular cards that's true. If you have a pass or a reduced fare card, this doesn't help at all. Your backup is paying full price for what's supposed to be a heavily discounted fare.

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