OT: Public transport

Last week I picked up a hitchhiker at the base of Sugar Bowl Road and drove him and his ski gear up to the lifts. He hitchhikes uphill and skis cross-country downhill when he goes skiing. I met him later on a run and offered him a ride back, but he preferred to ski back to the highway, which I didn't know was possible.

What radius do you use to define OUR?

The last time I looked there were 50 states in the US so it's hard do define a radius, particularly with outliers like Hawaii.

Sure is...

Wheat futures are down 20% from last year while 9% more land was planted last winter in the US. I doubt the US farmers would cry themselves to sleep if Russia and the Ukraine are too busy to harvest this year.

Something like that has been tried with bicycles although the bikes weren't personal property. It didn't work very well.

If I were a country and the US wanted to 'help' me, I'd run like hell. Its help is as toxic as the IMF's.

On May 4, 2023 at 7:06:56 AM MST, "rbowman" wrote snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>:

It is certainly a mixed blessing.

Examples?

Although I'm quite fond of U.S. farmers, they're not the only people in the world.

Yes, that's the basic idea. A means of transport that is open to the public, in some manner. A bus has (normally) a fixed route and time table, a taxi is open to the client. Both are owned by somebody else, and are subject to regulations.

I got mixed up and I defined the first part wrong. For them, it refers to systems owned by the government.

Because they were getting plenty of tourists from the USA and I'm sure when they said that public transport didn't run to certain places or at certain times, I'm sure half of the Americans didn't understand that taxis were still available. I wanted the local posters to be more clear, but they didn't get it.

Ah. I see.

Of course, to me, "Public" is not the Government. Ridiculous.

About 10 years ago they built a bunch of bikes from parts and distributed them around town. I don't know if they were inspired by the white bikes or not. They were sort of frankenbikes but they were operational and well tuned if not very pretty. The theory was you would take one, go wherever you were going, and leave it for the next person. Some were trashed and most disappeared.

Anybody can still go to freecycles, sort through the parts and build a bike for free if you volunteer for an hour and a half breaking down donations to usable parts and so forth. They have the tools and people to help if you don't know how to do things. That part has been successful since a person has sweat equity, no matter how minimal, in their bike.

That one appears to work. Maybe they are more civilized in Dublin. I interviewed a woman with a CS degree from U of Dublin who had worked on the project. It was better organized than most since the bikes were checked in and out of the stations. As it mentioned if you wanted to return one but there wasn't a free slot at that station, and app would show you the closest. Conversely if you wanted a bike the app could direct you to a station with available bikes. The tracking also meant they could transport bikes around if they got clustered.

Maybe something like that would work with cars but I can see too many problems, like the drunk who hired the car puking on the seats and staggering off.

Well, that's the basic question, isn't it? Do you really give a damn about the other people in the world? That doesn't mean to hate them, want to control them, or any other negative feeling, just a lack of caring.

There are hungry people in this county and I consider the food bank a worthy organization to contribute to. It's unfortunate there are starving people in Sudan but that's a problem they have to fix. And, no, I have no idea how they will fix it but I'm betting US troops aren't part of the solution.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

I don't see the clause about saving the world.

Not sure what you read, but that article says that ultimately bike share schemes have been a success the world over. I've used the ones in Lyon and they were great. Unfortunately, the ones in my city have failed but that was because they were set up during covid and the business went bust. Am buying my own ebike now.

Easily solved with a membership scheme like uber.

It's naive to think that we can apply 1787 solutions to 21st Century problems. This isn't the Age of Sail, and problems that seem far away can be on our doorstep in a matter of hours.

Nor about intervening everywhere to improve the USA gains. Like killing or otherwise replacing governments in other countries. Sometimes pushing them to war, so to sell them weapons and other advantages.

A self driving car would be cool to send it for a service. Fucking annoying having to get a lift.

Try understanding "public schools" and "private schools" in the UK.