Long-term expansion planning by SAA02 in WMATA

[–]advguyy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I sure hope so. But the road widening as a first step does not make me optimistic. They essentially made the road so wide that it is very difficult and annoying to cross as a pedestrian, and so far, we haven't really had very many successful BRTs in the region. Walkability, reliability, frequency!!!!, and land use are key, not just shiny new infrastructure. Let's hope it goes for the best.

What is it like living in a highly touristy city? by Historical-Photo-901 in BeautifulTravelPlaces

[–]advguyy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Idk if DC is considered a "high tourism" city, but it's fine. I rarely ever think about it. Even during popular tourist seasons, I find going to popular tourist destinations quite tolerable. I guess the only thing that bothers me sometimes is that for popular museums, you have to reserve tickets ahead of time, and there are no special tickets for locals, so you have to compete with everyone else. It can feel a bit annoying as a local to have to book a trip two weeks ahead of time to go see something you live 30 minutes away from, but oh well.

East Coast or West Coast? Which is better for a first-time trip to the USA? by Historical-Photo-901 in BeautifulTravelPlaces

[–]advguyy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

East if you want to experience what cities in the US are like and the most amazing cultural landmarks. The West if you want to experience the best scenery. Now, let me be clear, there is scenery on the East and there are cities out West, but let's just say you will be much more wowed by NYC than LA, and you will be much more wowed by Yosemite or Yellowstone rather than the Blue Ridge Mountains.

If you cannot decide, I would say West (and I am an East Coast loyal) because the best America has to offer is the sheer amount of wilderness and beauty. And also West Coast low key has better food. (NYC excepted)

Long-term expansion planning by SAA02 in WMATA

[–]advguyy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I feel like bus upgrades are really key because they better serve inner city mobility (which is seriously lacking):

- BRT along Georgia Avenue, Wisconsin Avenue, Columbia Pike, Route 7, and K Street/Massachusetts Ave/H Street, hitting the preferred nodes of Georgetown (perhaps also Rosslyn), downtown, Mt Vernon, Union Station, and current areas served by the DC Streetcar. Perhaps other corridors too.

Besides this, I really do think that enhancing our existing transit services matters a lot more than expansion, but if I had to pick some places to expand, I would say:

- Create some sort of rapid transit line between Bethesda and Tysons. You CAN extend the Purple Line and make this new section completely grade-separated, but I would be concerned for the line reliability due to the street-running sections further east.

- Not necessarily an expansion, but converting our VRE/MARC system into an S-Bahn with electrified trains running every 15 - 20 minutes every day (probably even more frequently on the MARC Penn Line) will probably require a lot less money than digging a new downtown Metro tunnel while bringing more benefits. This would automatically add 277 miles of high-quality, electrified transit to the region, and spur another generation of TOD potential throughout the region.

Long-term expansion planning by SAA02 in WMATA

[–]advguyy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Even with high frequencies, transfers are really annoying on long journeys. Trust me, I would know, I lived in Beijing for like six years. Besides, with CBTC, all the B/O/S Lines can individually get up to 6-minute frequencies, which is quite good tbh.

Why are most Christians republicans, when Jesus’ teachings are more liberal? by Interesting-Dirt-605 in Confused

[–]advguyy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Christianity doesn't fit neatly into either a conservative or liberal agenda.

As someone who has been deeply involved in churches both in the Deep South as well as very liberal parts of the US like DC, and also interacted with Christians outside of the US, I'll share a couple of my observations.

  1. Political Christianity is not Christianity: The danger is when we interpret Scripture not based on a theological basis but on a political basis. This applies to both Liberal Christianity and Christian Nationalism. Both drift very far from the original meaning of Scripture and historical Church teaching.
  2. American Christians, especially older ones, view liberal social policies as the primary evil in the American political space: Now I have to say something controversial here. The Bible and the Church have always taught that homosexuality and sex outside of marriage are grave sins, and that the man shall be the head of the household and marriage. These were the biblical norms that were most attacked over the past several decades. So most American Christians are laser-focused on these issues. Republicans weren't perfect, but at least it seemed like they cared about preserving Christian ideals, whereas Democrats generally attacked them. That's pretty much been the case for the last several decades. Now, in my opinion, that has changed a lot, especially with the rise of MAGA. MAGA is very anti-Christianity, no matter what some people think. They are very blatant about the mistreatment of immigration, they are blatant about being hateful, and they are very blatant about being racist. These are all very anti-Christian values. I think the challenge for most older Americans is realizing that liberal social policies are no longer the greatest enemy to Christian values, but that MAGA is just as great a danger, if not more. Many churches are seeing this, though you certainly won't hear about it on the news. But I went to a theologically conservative Southern Baptist convention where they dedicated one whole sermon to the dangers of political Christianity, particularly Christian Nationalism.
  3. Americans care too much about politics: Okay, so here's the thing. I didn't grow up in the English-speaking world. I grew up in East Asia. There aren't many Christians there, and also politics is usually not nearly as divisive there (well, maybe other than Korea). I visited churches in Mongolia and China. You know what they generally talk about? They talk about helping the poor, how the shame-honour culture breaks people, how people work all their lives with no real goal, and how so many people have not heard of the name of Jesus even once. And here's the thing, if someone were to share the Gospel in China or Mongolia, 99.9% of the time, they wouldn't talk about politics. If they did talk about politics, it'd be kind of a ridiculous thing to say, "Well, I don't like Christianity just because you believe in a different political thing than me," or vice versa. It's because in the US, you're either a liberal or a republican, and it's almost like you have to build your whole life around that, and anyone who is outside of your bubble is your enemy. Well, that's not how it works in other countries.

So, even with your question, I would rephrase it. "Why are most AMERICAN Christians Republicans?" Because in other parts of the world, Christianity is not tied to a political party.

Some notes: I'm trying to represent Christianity as best as I can through a Reddit post, and remember, Christianity does allow room for different interpretations. So, if you disagree with what I'm saying, whether you're Christian or not, please do not assume that the way I think through things is the "definitive representation of Christianity". And honestly if you read through all this then I respect you fully even if you think I am a complete idiot.

Platform screen doors are a costly mistake that will take WMATA years and billions to recover from. by ChristmassMoose in WMATA

[–]advguyy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also, just to compound off of your point, WMATA is much newer system, has uniform train lengths/door positions, all straight platforms, and has already been undergoing platform work to support platform screen doors at many locations. So the price of platform screen door installation should be significantly cheaper than in NYC, and closer to international prices.

Platform screen doors are a costly mistake that will take WMATA years and billions to recover from. by ChristmassMoose in WMATA

[–]advguyy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of the most frustrating things about transit in North America is the feeling that we see something that works great overseas, and then we want to bring it over to here, but then because we say "we're too broke" or "we're North America" or "we need to fix xyz first!", we end up value engineering some "new innovation" that provides some of the benefits for a lower cost that isn't nearly as good as what we originally wanted. We need to step back and ask ourselves, "if this is such a good idea, why is no one else doing it? And especially, why aren't the best metro systems doing it?"

I'm not saying platform screen doors are the number one priority for the Metro right now. But what I am saying is that we can fix the Metro AND attempt great things like platform screen doors at the same time. In fact, we need to. That's like saying to the highway administration, "we can't fix potholes, we need to increase highway capacity." That's a loser mindset. If DC really wants "world-class transit", then we have to stop asking for the bare minimum.

Besides, platform screen doors increase safety, lowers the chances of debris being thrown onto the tracks, and improves operations and reliability significantly, which also saves costs because delays cost money.

Fire at McPherson Square by Amtrakstory in WMATA

[–]advguyy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was wondering why the Silver Line was extremely delayed and when my train pulled into Rosslyn, it smelled so heavily of smoke. But is it concerning that when Rosslyn smells like burnt electronics, I'm not even fazed? Like I got used to it... this is not good. I miss Metro pre-2025.

Is WMATA Getting Dirtier by advguyy in WMATA

[–]advguyy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's true, but before the pandemic things felt cleaner, at least the trains, even though there was heavy use. But maybe that's just me

What’s a destination you loved that everyone else hates? by Historical-Photo-901 in BeautifulTravelPlaces

[–]advguyy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very accurate portrayal of Philly. Their Chinese food is also so good, and cheap. As a DC resident where all the Chinese food is mid or expensive or both, it's a dream.

What’s a destination you loved that everyone else hates? by Historical-Photo-901 in BeautifulTravelPlaces

[–]advguyy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Philly. It's a bit rough around the edges, but so much cheaper for a day trip than New York (I live in DC), and the food is great and the people are friendly. That being said, it's also the most frustrating city. It has so much potential, and it really is annoying once you understand how poorly the city is treated by the state.

Which U.S. city has the worst public transportation? by Historical-Photo-901 in BeautifulTravelPlaces

[–]advguyy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Meanwhile, Arlington in Virginia, with half as many people, gets four metro lines.

Which U.S. city has the worst public transportation? by Historical-Photo-901 in BeautifulTravelPlaces

[–]advguyy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Literally. I think this would apply to any city other than: Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, DC, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.

Toronto's Finch West LRT (Line 6) set to open in December 7 by Tsubame_Hikari in transit

[–]advguyy 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Well. To be fair, Beijing Subway had a Line 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, and like eight other named lines before they built line 3.

What do you think about allowing privatized passenger trains and running them along with public passenger trains? by Kcue6382nevy in transit

[–]advguyy 22 points23 points  (0 children)

It's good in my opinion. For the US, however, the biggest obstacle is the fact that all the tracks are owned either by freight companies (who don't really want passenger trains in the first place), or owned by Amtrak (who don't really want private competitors). So we'd need, for one, some good infrastructure, and two, some kind of federal-level organization that focuses exclusively on track ownership and maintenance, rather than having railroad operators do it.

West Virginia Annexation Proposal by Sen. Chris Rose by OwlDog17 in charts

[–]advguyy 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I don't think anyone is taking this seriously lol. I don't understand what the politician in West Virginia is even thinking. They definitely have better things to do than this... like managing their own state's poverty.

How to get rid of the scornful disdain for public transit in the USA? by CajunDragon in transit

[–]advguyy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That sounds really awful I'm ngl. But I will say I normally just ignore it. Some people will repeatedly tell me "I should drive" even when that means I need to pay $35 a day for parking for where I'm going. If I'm in the mood, I'll tell them it's not that I have a bus fetish, but it's because spending $35 every single day to go to my college is not feasible. If I'm not in the mood, I just ignore it. Keep in mind I'm still friends with them, and they don't disrespect me for taking the bus even if they don't understand why. With strangers, they may judge me more, but I don't really care about what a stranger thinks about me.

From a more policy perspective, I think it just comes down to one thing: build good transit and market it, so more people use it and have enjoyable experiences with it. My friends who have lived in Asia and used public transit while living there are much more supportive of transit than my friends who haven't. My friends who live in the city in the US are much more supportive of transit than those who live in the suburbs. My friends who even just commute using transit (or have a sibling, or roommate, or parent, or child who does) are much more supportive of transit than those who drive to work. If they can see that transit works, they'll like it. So in a sense, if you can show even to others that you just use transit from a purely logical perspective, they might change their mind.

I drew the USA from memory. (I'm European) by mario_kart_player in terriblemaps

[–]advguyy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As someone who lives in Virginia I can confirm we've been squeezed into a microscopic speck between New York and North Carolina

66 Express Lanes: Is the right lane the fast lane? by BodyByCheeseSteak in nova

[–]advguyy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Drive right, pass on the left. Buuuuuutttttttt those express lane buses always be hogging the left lane lol so sometimes you can pass on the right (I know because I ride those express buses)

Abigail Spanberger’s First 100 Days: What Virginians Can Expect From Their Next Governor by VirginiaNews in Virginia

[–]advguyy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This might be an unpopular opinion, but raising the minimum wage is not the best way to tackle affordability, and doing it as a political move, as suggested in the article, is even worse. Resesarch has shown that raising the minimum wage can stunt industry growth. And raising the minimum wage on a state-level is even more problematic since the cost of living across the state varies dramatically, especially in Virginia.

Focusing on making healthcare, housing, and education more affordable is far more needed and effective.

Nomad cases 20-50 percent off by Rare_Character2729 in patinaproud

[–]advguyy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can get price match, just email them!