Slashdot Mirror
Seattle Monorail & California High Speed Rail Move Forward
bscottid writes "Woo-hoo! The monorail passed in Seattle!. And, it was driven by an amazing grass-roots effort of people who saw a way to use technology to get us moving again here in The Emerald City. Everyone mark your calendars, because in 2007 you're invited up here to take a quick, scenic ride around the beautiful city of Seattle! (Begin Simpsons references now)" It's also worth pointing out that in the recent california election, a pair of bills were passed which put aside approximately $10b for the construction of California's high speed rail project.
25 comments and it's already 404ing on me. I hope the computers on the monorail are more robust than this.
i just gotta take the time and say _wow_. you used "its" correctly.
you know things are in a sad state of affairs when reading "its" used correctly is eye-catching. it's pretty unusual these days.
ah, yeah. mod me down. i have karma to burn. besides, you're the same mods who mod my funny posts that have little to do with furthering intelligent debate! c(0_o)D
actually, lemme add something that _is_ relevant. it's pretty amazing and heartening to read that the voters in seattle were able to effect such a program, considering the dollar amounts that are involved. the fact that the vote was so close (94k vs 93k) might suggest that it was an issue that a lot of people knew about.
in virginia, there's been this bitter struggle to get a crazy amount of dough approved for building more roads and causeways for the hampton roads area (near norfolk/virginia beach). it's crazy because part of the money was to go towards "looking into" mass transportation.
the traffic here is nowhere near as bad as it is around northern virginia/washington dc. but it's getting worse. the hampton roads area consists of a handful of populated areas connected by highways. it would seem obvious that some sort of mass transportation should be developed, but there's a LOT of resistance.
what's interesting is that the amount of money spent for the latest campaign to build up the roads and highways must've been astronomical. there were television commercials, print adverts, signs, freakin telemarketers calling from nebraska, etc., all to convince people to vote for a tax increase to build more roads.
but really, mass transportation is the way to go, especially for this area. people commute 20 miles from va beach to norfolk, from norfolk to va beach, from this county to that-- most commuters travel 10-20 miles here. the chokepoints are bridges and tunnels that are needed to traverse the many canals, rivers and other maritime causeways.
if we would frikking build some sort of mass transportation system, the whole area would prosper. people are just worried over the dollar amounts and have difficulty fathoming the length of time needed to actualize such an idea. which is why they'd rather wait just 10 years for more roads instead of 15+ for trains and monorails.
doesn't make much sense. sigh. if only everyone were as intelligent as i am. or herr thunk. i think i'd be happy enough if people used "its," "it's," "your," and "your's" correctly. bah.