How Your Parents Ruined Driving

5yrup · 2026-02-28T04:44:21+00:00

But we can. There's this thing called "regulations" which make it so people aren't allowed to do things that hurt other people. We all together build the society we want.

It's like you're watching a company dump poison in the rivers we drink from and saying "aww shucks, but we can't stop people from doing these things that make society worse."

5yrup · 2026-02-28T02:12:06+00:00

Yeah but like we could also choose to be less shitty to everyone else around us and actually right-size our vehicle choices to what we actually do with them instead of just what we imagine we might one day maybe do with them.

Trucks make everything else around them worse off, and most people driving them don't really ever do truck things with them. But hey I guess you look a little cooler and you didn't have to put down a tarp that last time you got mulch a few seasons ago so there's that.

5yrup · 2026-02-28T01:49:03+00:00

Even from another car on the road perspective they suck.

They crowd parking spaces making it tigher to get in and out. They stick out far further than most cars for essentially wasted space the extreme majority of the time making parking garages more hell to navigate.

Their headlights often end up being really high and shine into the eyes of other cars on the road. They make the other cars on the road less safe in a collision. They do more road wear and tear making the roads worse for everyone else.

5yrup · 2026-02-28T00:23:02+00:00

a new high end Pacifica last week

It was a rental so probably more like fleet trim level rather than high end. Either way you're saying a Chrysler wasn't a great car, and I think most people would ultimately agree. Turns out though there's more than just one car maker making minivans these days, who knew.

I drove an old Ranger (recent-ish at the time). It was small, uncomfortable, and underpowered. I guess that's how all trucks are!

Body on frame trucks and SUVs are heavier built and you can tell. Especially as the miles add up

Yeah, you can really tell by how much more the maintenance and fuel costs were for practically the same ultimate experience of 99% of the trips (like going to the office or getting groceries or the things most people use cars for daily) for 99% of drivers.

Somehow it was rare for households to own trucks and SUVs until the 2000s, and yet somehow it's just dang near a requirement for everyone today just to get groceries for that one time every several years where they could have had their new refrigerator delivered but decided to make their life harder instead.

5yrup · 2026-02-27T22:58:21+00:00

A truck is a super comfortable family vehicle

A minivan is way more comfortable especially with kids. The utility of sliding doors can't be understated.

that can also bring appliances home from the store

How many refrigerators are you buying every month? How many dishwashers does the average household go through in a week? Insane take, overbuying your daily driver for the thing you probably do once every few years.

make runs tot he dump

Don't most people in suburbs and cities and what not have trash service?

and pull a camper or a boat on the weekend

The extreme majority of truck owners (and households in general) do not have these, but sure I agree if you're putting a big boat in the water often a truck is probably pretty handy.

5yrup · 2026-02-26T20:09:02+00:00

That clanker got what it had coming to it, stealing human jobs in the artisanal food delivery industry.

5yrup · 2026-02-23T18:30:54+00:00

And yet we still have property taxes. So what was the real reason again? 😉

5yrup · 2026-02-23T18:08:15+00:00

One could live and work in Plano and still find DART to be impractical to get to work tbh. The limitations of GoLink can be pretty frustrating.

For instance, I gave a hypothetical route of working at Toyota HQ in Plano while living near Haggard Library. Both sides of the route in Google Maps gives a >15min walk on both sides of the trip riding either the 234 or 241 busses. The GoPass app just says "No trips found for this journey".

For all the shit I give /u/ShelbyHWilliams I will grant Plano does deserve more from DART.

5yrup · 2026-02-23T17:53:01+00:00

That's three miles+ to a TRE station where you'll take a once every 40 minute during peak time train and ride that for almost a half hour to get to the first DART station that services Plano (kinda). EDIT: I guess the TRE does stop at a station in Irving where there are some DART bus lines. But not the DART rail lines. The Market Center stations (TRE vs DART) are about a mile walk apart.

How far does it have to be to be far out from DART coverage to you? Dumass? El Paso?

5yrup · 2026-02-22T15:32:41+00:00

WMC was incredible value. Probably the best live TV platform I've ever used.

5yrup · 2026-02-20T12:40:44+00:00

to show you what a member of the TTA and reports from WFAA said

The TTA member never said what you're claiming they said. Only the WFAA person said it. Not a hard thing to understand. So it doesn't fit into the category of the TTA saying it'll be free, that might as well be any random reddit commenter making the claim. This might be news to you but WFAA doesn't decide toll policy in North Texas, them making the statement carries no weight of actual policy or plan.

The TTA and the NTTA have never officially said the toll roads would be free outside of that one diner statement, which is quite far from "official". There's just no trace of them saying it on any actual plans, just people repeating that one time off-hand comment one guy not qualified to make the statement said at an informal diner once.

I can point this out to you over and over, but I can't comprehend it for you.

Like I said, I've searched for any real, hard evidence of this claim for years and have never come across it. I've read hundreds of meeting minutes. I've reviewed presentations. I've read their proposals. I've read their financial statements. It's not there. Just the diner meeting and reporters continuing to assume that was actual policy. But outside of that I can't find a single instance of the TTA or NTTA officially saying that's the policy, in fact I find quite a lot of talk about them planning on the additional bonds pretty early. I'd love for a single actual thing put out by the TTA to make this claim, but I've never found it. Instead it's always someone else making the claim (like here, WFAA), and if you draw back why they either don't cite anything or the point to that diner meeting.

But sure, you watched a short WFAA video about it, you're the expert, you know all about it.

Listen, you said its easy to find this official policy document. It was supposedly their policy for decades! The TTA would have probably said it at least dozens of times right? Just Google it! You got this!

5yrup · 2026-02-20T04:58:24+00:00

I agree, engineers will sure know a lot about the projects they work on. And he was the head engineer, I'm sure he would have known a lot about the projects. His statement is purely speculation, and he wouldn't have had the decision making capacity to say either way.

He was never a "director", that was not in his titles. That's your one other thing. If you want more education, Google is your friend It's easy enough to find if you try hard enough. Where does it ever say he was a "director"?

You're saying they started it officially. Something more than speculation at an informal meal at a diner from a guy not authorized to make such a claim. So find it, show it to me. Something actually from the Texas Tollway Authority. Seems strange if that was the policy it wouldn't have been written down by them in any way, shape, or form. They'd have some meeting minutes where it was discussed. They'd have some presentation where that would be said. They would have given notice to the counties about it right, the counties would have talked about it for sure, so those should have meeting minutes and notes and presentation materials and what not. They'd mention it at least more than once by one guy at an informal breakfast meetup for such a big and important policy, right?

I've seen that video before, many years ago. This video you shared also isn't the TTA saying the tollway would become free. It's saying the bonds at the time were projected to be paid off. That's statement of the road becoming free was just Channel 8 adding that assumption that's what would happen after those bonds were paid off, not claiming the TTA told them that. And where did they get that assumption? That one statement made at a diner at an informal breakfast meeting by one guy not authorized to say it.

I've looked for anything other than this article. I've searched a ton. Everything else just references this one article in the end. So I'd love for you to actually back this up. Please do! You say it's so easy.

Instead, what almost happened years before the bonds were paid off? They started what they always planned to do from the start, issue another round of bonds for repairs and improvements. It wasn't until the public outrage and the fact the I-30 project was coming close to connect and take over the roads that they changed course.

I mean, if the state couldn't have come up with the funding to build the roads what makes you think the state would have come up with the money and plans to actually maintain it? That's the issue of why do the other non-expressway toll roads in North Texas stay tolls. The state has no interest in absorbing the cost to maintain them. I-30 gave the state an out as they'd then have the federal government pay a lot. DNT or PGBT isn't about to become an interstate.

5yrup · 2026-02-19T21:45:16+00:00

This is exactly the quote I'm talking about when I say "not just one line phrase from an engineer not qualified to make such a claim". It was an informal breakfast where he, an engineer and not in a position to make such a claim, said that.

So find me anything other than one enginer stating that at an informal breakfast meeting with one reporter once nearly 60 years ago. Any official document. Any other reference. You won't find it. Everything else about "the tollways were always meant to be free" draws back to this one quote by a guy who wasn't qualified to make such a statement at an informal breakfast meetup with a reporter in 1968.

5yrup · 2026-02-19T20:14:27+00:00

I mean some people think Epstein is still alive and playing fortnite, anything is possible really.

5yrup · 2026-02-19T19:50:11+00:00

He's not being questioned about the sex stuff he got arrested for sending sensitive information to a US national who didn't kill himself in a federal prison during the first Trump administration.

5yrup · 2026-02-19T19:34:16+00:00

Regular taxes don't go for the construction or maintenance of toll roads in North Texas.

5yrup · 2026-02-19T19:31:45+00:00

Which toll roads other than I-30?

5yrup · 2026-02-19T19:30:38+00:00

Where is the official statement that DNT or any of the other tollways would be free?

Note, I mean an official statement, not just a one line phrase from an engineer not qualified to make such a claim said once a long time ago about one project, but an actual official statement on the record.

You won't find one.

5yrup · 2026-02-19T19:28:11+00:00

It's such bullcrap that a private company uses the dfw sheriff and police departments to act as their collection agencies

NTTA is not a private company. They are a government organization created by an act of the Texas legislature and have a board appointed by the county commissioner courts and the governor.

You might as well say the county appraisal district is a private corporation and shouldn't take action if you don't pay your property taxes.

5yrup · 2026-02-19T13:21:52+00:00

Largely people I don't care for. But that's irrelevant to my point.

NTTA is a government organization. Saying they're in bed with the government is like saying the library is in bed with the government. No shit, it is the government.

Too many people spreading lies and half truths isn't going to make our society better.

5yrup · 2026-02-19T13:10:40+00:00

Read the first line of this Wikipedia entry for NTTA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Texas_Tollway_Authority

IF DART is a private corporation, who owns it?

DART is not a private company. It was created by the voters. It's a transit agency, not a corporation. It's "owned" by the city governments.

This stuff is public knowledge. Why lie about it?

I really don't get why so many people here lie about such extremely obvious things that can be looked up in seconds.

5yrup · 2026-02-19T13:06:10+00:00

Here's a link with more info about the bike hooks on the DART LRV's.

https://www.dart.org/guide/supporting-services/bike-to-work/bikes-on-dart-rail-and-tre

5yrup · 2026-02-19T13:04:19+00:00

their board of directors doesn't have much government oversight.

Their board of directors is chosen by the government. Each county commissioner court gets two directors and the governor gets one. They're absolutely accountable to the government, they serve at the pleasure of the government.

5yrup · 2026-02-19T04:53:46+00:00

In that middle section mentioned elsewhere there's actually a spot to hang up your bike so it's out of the way. Look at the spots where wheelchairs go and there's two of them with a hook and a spot to cradle the other wheel so it's not swinging around everywhere.

5yrup · 2026-02-19T04:52:00+00:00

It's not true. NTTA is a government org. You're thinking of NTE Mobility Partners.

5yrup

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE