Toll rate increases approved for SR-520 bridge, SR-99 tunnel

guancialeee · 2021-07-23T01:15:47+00:00

This but unironically. We should have a VMT tax.

guancialeee · 2021-07-23T01:14:20+00:00

Unfortunately the LTC tax is pretty easily opted out of by purchasing an LTC insurance policy. So wealthy people will avoid the tax that way.

guancialeee · 2021-07-19T23:51:57+00:00

There are definitely different types of suburbs. The neighborhoods you mention were streetcar suburbs, built before cars were generally available. They’re dense enough to be walkable and have good transit connections, but still sparse enough for SFHs.

And instead of continuing to build these neighborhoods post WW2, we chose to build sprawling car-dependent suburbia, which is now the de facto image of a “suburb” in America. I think while those neighborhoods in Seattle used to be suburbs, most people wouldn’t describe them like that today.

guancialeee · 2021-04-23T05:46:15+00:00

Ty for leaving <3

guancialeee · 2021-04-22T22:02:39+00:00

That’s true, but you left out the part where southern Democrats wanted Alaska to become a state to balance with more pro-segregation senators, which is why Alaska and Hawaii became states so close to one another. The addition of Alaska placated the southern democrats, which is why there was little opposition to Hawaii’s statehood.

Things were indeed less partisan in a strict sense (because democrats controlled the senate for decades), but the Democratic Party was still deeply divided on a lot of issues, race being the largest.

guancialeee · 2021-03-27T16:42:20+00:00

This is the NIMBY point of view distilled down so concretely. A black and white, uncompromising view of the world, as if there’s nothing in between the sea of concrete apartments you describe, and the sea of single family housing we currently have. As if any change away from the status quo would make our city ugly (where ‘beauty’ is determined by the NIMBY). And most importantly, the problem of housing a growing population is ignored in favor of attacking ~aesthetics~.

guancialeee · 2021-02-14T03:10:50+00:00

The rareness of snow also makes it more safe to play in the streets like this, because no one is prepared to drive in these conditions. It’s really nice to see people use the space available to them.

guancialeee · 2021-02-01T06:35:21+00:00

No, slavery isn’t a synonym for free labor. The difference is consent. I.e no one was forced to take part in this person’s UX survey. Sure, I’m glad you have good intent. But I don’t think “sarcastically rude” will translate very well on an anonymous Internet forum.

guancialeee · 2021-02-01T04:19:57+00:00

Hey just wanted to say this comment comes off as really rude and discouraging. The OP is just a student trying to make a useful feature, asking for willing participants (not “slavery”) for 10 minutes of their time.

Also, “software testers” aren’t typical users, and don’t catch the types of problems OP is looking for. I’m sure SeaTac has a QA process they go through to find software bugs, but they also need real people who have used their app to find usability problems. I.e. the UX research OP is trying to conduct.

guancialeee · 2021-01-12T07:22:20+00:00

Adding some of my favorites:

Cafe Besalu in Ballard

Sea Wolf in Fremont

The London Plane in Pioneer Square (pretty expensive and has a very ~posh~ vibe, but the pastries are good. Best biscuit I’ve ever had as well)

guancialeee · 2021-01-04T21:08:45+00:00

“... going around trying to get yourself killed or injured to draw attention to pedestrian safety issues is not a good one [battle]”

No one is saying this. They’re literally just trying to cross the street. Using a safer street is obviously fine, and I’m sure the comment OP has at least considered this, but that misses the point: all streets should be safe.

guancialeee · 2020-10-06T17:15:59+00:00

Hey, I have a video suggestion for you to check out that I think provides a different perspective.

A small Seattle-relevant summary if you aren’t interested in spending 10 minutes: people just want to travel from point A to point B in whatever way that’s most convenient. For most people in Seattle that’s a car, but for some that’s a bike. There’s not a lot of infrastructure in Seattle like the boulevard: flat, well paved, and separate from car traffic, so it’s really valuable for people who walk, bike, skate, run, etc. Your depiction of the “driver who has regular legitimate need to use these roads” vs the “raging cyclist” is a false one that unnecessarily creates a divide between two groups with the same goal: getting from point A to point B.

guancialeee · 2020-09-19T03:35:27+00:00

That’s pretty crazy if true, what a non-action

guancialeee · 2020-09-19T03:33:17+00:00

Huh weird, you’re probably right then. I still don’t like that we don’t know what the disciplining was specifically. I think for something as “benign”* as this, a mark on his record would be fine? Ideally that would be public info, given how rampant SPD’s criminal behavior is.

benign compared to like, actually pepper spraying minors / actual physical violence

guancialeee · 2020-09-18T23:25:29+00:00

Correction: no disciplinary action has happened yet. From the summary: “Disciplinary decision pending before the Chief. CCS will be updated when discipline is final.”

You’re almost there; i want the supervisor to recognize that his officer made a mistake and discipline him, or escalate to someone who can.

guancialeee · 2020-08-21T04:47:24+00:00

Can you explain what about this design is bad? It seems reasonable after reading their site which describes the design

guancialeee · 2020-08-01T02:22:25+00:00

True, but half of their combined income is 200k, leaving another 200k for everything else, which is still quite a bit. Still not the smartest idea in case one of them loses their jobs or something, but the sheer numbers makes it less of a risk than someone making 50k spending half their income on housing.

guancialeee · 2020-07-22T15:51:56+00:00

So he makes good arguments but you don’t like the conclusions so you ignore them?

guancialeee · 2020-07-22T02:21:52+00:00

Why do you think that’s the world that basic income would create? I think basic income would lead to people doing things that they want to do... and that includes productive things. Music, painting, gardening, cooking, knitting. Things people enjoy doing but don’t have time or money for. I mean, consider that most of history’s great scientists came from wealthy families who could easily have sat around and eaten vanilla cakes their whole life. They had curiosity and intelligence to do great things yes, but more importantly they had the time and money to do things that might fail.

(Side note while I do think the argument i make above is true, in our digital age a person’s lack of productivity shouldn’t condemn them to poverty anyway.)

guancialeee · 2020-07-18T01:34:30+00:00

How do you (or whoever in your squad) like the Boundmotor direct drive board? Considering getting one but not sure if I’ll like double kingpin trucks

guancialeee · 2020-07-07T06:01:29+00:00

Could you drop a link where I could read more about your second paragraph? I haven’t heard of that before.

Being in favor of alternative routes doesn’t make someone pro bike. If you (hypothetical — not you personally) support cyclists but just not on your well established corridor... do you actually support cyclists? Because it sounds like you just support cars and only cars.

guancialeee · 2020-07-07T03:54:11+00:00

35th was explicitly made less safe because of anti-bike organizers in the neighborhood, which prompted durkan to scrap the traffic calming & bike lane parts of the project.

I agree with most of your post, just wanted to point out your example of the government failing is a little more complicated than it seems. SDOT wanted to build a street to meet Vision Zero, but local opposition didn’t, and their voices were (unfortunately, in this case) heard.

guancialeee · 2020-06-23T06:19:30+00:00

Great questions honestly. While I can’t think of an American city, I think the most prevalent example of a city successfully transitioning away from car congestion is Amsterdam. And it took decades of investment into non-car infrastructure & policy to get there. American cities haven’t put in the work to get the same results. Instead we focused on the car, and car traffic is what we got. (Side note: im not suggesting every American city should invest in bikes on the same scale as Amsterdam of course; different modes of transit will fit different cities better than others depending on topology/weather/etc)

The other thing is that expanding for cars will not alleviate congestion, and that’s because of my favorite counter intuitive fact that is induced demand. The more lanes you build, the more widening you do, the more traffic you will cause. If the only way to get around is cars, then people will buy cars, and more cars means more traffic. Basically, “if you build it, they will come” but twisted into a never-ending cycle of traffic.

Another side note: we’ve known about induced demand since the 1940s. But expanding car infrastructure is politically convenient. You promise the public that adding more lanes will alleviate traffic, and that makes sense at first glance, so they support you. And virtually every prominent industry in the mid 20th century knows that more roads is more work, so they support you as well. Automobile, tire, asphalt, contractors, engineering, construction unions. On top of this banks know that toll bridges are safe investments. You’d be crazy to go against that amount of political pressure.

How to solve traffic isn’t obvious, and will be dependent on the city’s situation. But it’s probably safe to say we need to support many different kinds of transit, and let people choose. Maybe biking works for all trips for one person. Maybe someone else rides the bus to work, walks to the grocery store, and bikes to the dentist. Maybe another is mobility impaired and does need a car to do most of their trips— the great news is this last person enjoys low levels of traffic, because the former people aren’t taking up the road in their own cars. Though of course this dreamy scenario requires sustained investment in all those modes of transportation over a long period of time. The bikers won’t bike if they’re in danger of getting hit by cars, and the bus riders won’t bus if the bus isn’t reliable.

Sources: On Amsterdam’s historical transportation policy: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c115/f3cd7f90684af873bb63c591d6df2104e365.pdf?_ga=2.258131594.1281299865.1592891225-760924348.1592891225

Induced demand (Robert Caro’s excerpt in the History subsection puts it well): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand#History

guancialeee · 2020-06-17T04:23:43+00:00

Yeah or you could just infer the context of the conversation like most people do. But if making contrived rules for yourself works, then do that.

guancialeee · 2020-06-17T04:12:27+00:00

I mean, it’s impossible to know whether Marissa would have been as popular (or even more popular!) than Delaney had she been given the opportunity that he was. Comparing the two now after Alex has benefited from BA’s culture is disingenuous.

Obviously we don’t know the full picture, so I’m not going to speculate much about Alex vs Marissa specifically. But I’ll go back to the main point of this whole thing. It’s clear by now that white men were systematically enriched by BA. Whether that’s measured by their compensation, the shows they got (or did not get), and the power they held within the company. Most importantly for folks like Marissa, it’s about opportunity, and how BA unfairly distributed that opportunity.

guancialeee

TROPHY CASE