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[tony-vespucchi]

This is honestly a classic problem with transit. It basically boils down to "Well, we can't build xyz because the ridership is going to be too low" or "It's so impractical for our town right now", but therein lies the problem. You're never going to get ANYTHING done if you expect trends to continue the way they do right now. All of this is also ignoring the many people who don't drive and also the many ways one can utilize intercity rail without needing to use a car (yes, even in car-dependent cities) but that's a little besides the point. The point is, there are many cases where a transit project is going to look like putting the cart before the horse, and I totally get that! It's just how can we expect people to start living car-light or car-free by choice if we don't even have the infrastructure in place for them to do that? No one's going to see the appeal behind transit when transit isn't being invested in! So would a high speed rail line look a little underutilized at the start? of course it would. But it's a piece of the puzzle here, and no one is pretending (or at least, I hope they aren't) that this one piece will solve transit forever. We have to start somewhere, though! And inter-city rail is honestly a great way to do that! It'll encourage people to travel without their cars, which means cities will have an incentive to make transit within the city that works well for those who didn't bring cars!

In conclusion: Please don't let the current state of your city/cities dissuade you from supporting projects that are a massive overall win! We always have to start somewhere, be it big projects like this one, or small ones. All that matters is that we start and we keep that momentum going.

A friend of mine was complaining that the federal government had once offered to build a high speed train line between Madison and Milwaukee at no cost to the state of Wisconsin, but the governor of Wisconsin had rejected this offer, to 'save taxpayer money'.

Now, I think that reality is probably slightly more complicated than my friend's telling of it, but let's say that this was all correct.

First off, I am going to note a few things:

~90% of households in both metropolitan areas (like most metropolitan areas in America) have at least one car

these two metropolitan areas are 1.5 hours apart, by car

neither metropolitan area has a public transit system that's as good as Europe's -- buses come every 15 to 60 minutes, and don't thoroughly serve large parts of either metropolitan area. Like most American cities, the public transit network is bad enough that almost no one who has a choice -- i.e., a job and the basic level of ability needed to get a driver's license -- chooses to ride public transit. The only practical way to traverse either metropolitan area is by car.

Airports in America deal with points (1) and (3) by having multiple car rental companies available at each airport. The price is $30 to $100 per day, the wait time can be an hour or more for walk-ins, and they're well known for fucking over customers to ridiculous degrees.

So, let's say that the federal government did build a high-speed train line between them. Let's say that the trains come every half hour. Let's say that they ran 1000 miles an hour. Let's say they cost nothing to ride.

Given all this, what the door-to-door journey for a train trip from Madison to Milwaukee looks like is:

you drive to the train station, park there, and pray that no one breaks into your car while you are gone

you take the train

you, what... rent a new car, when you get there? Expensive. Or you take the bus, and then walk the rest of the way? Can potentially triple or quintuple travel times, and is dirty.

Keep either driving around the rented car or taking the bus until you take the train home

Get into your car (if it wasn't stolen) and go home

Where-as, right now, it looks like:

Drive directly from one part of one city to the other part of the other city. You don't pay any money other than for gas, because you already own a car. Everything other than hour-and-a-half journey between the two (which lets you cut out wait times, bus waiting times, bus travel times, and so on) is as fast as possible.

Even in this ridiculously optimistic idea of a free super-train, all the OTHER parts of the trip make it much longer and/or much more expensive than just using the car that you already own to do the journey.

A free high speed train line, to be useful for the cities of Madison and Milwaukee, would need better-than-New-York level public transit systems to be installed in BOTH cities, which would be a multi-decade construction project at massive taxpayer expense all for... what clear benefit, exactly, to the average voting citizen in either city?

And yeah, the state would still realistically have to be the ones to provide for policing and maintenance of the train line between cities.

That all this gets ignored by urbanism nerds and Europeans leads me to conclude two things:

the urbanism nerds seem like they love trains almost to a sexual degree, and whatever explanation they give for them is just a disguise for a fundamentally irrational pro-train impulse... trains are not a means to them, they are an end

American urbanism nerds have a deep envy for Europe, to a degree that I have to wonder about the ideological roots of

Europeans who want America to copy European solutions out of European context have an essentially colonial attitude, which is funny, because it's so divorced from the material reality of things

[tony-vespucchi]

Amtrak always out here with the good takes! Screw the defeatism and lost cause mentality, America can and WILL be better. We just have to fight for it!

Urbanism is a philosophy based around the hope to improve things, it's centered on change and improvement, the whole point is try and to improve our environments and make them better. We want to make our cities go from someplace that has been destroyed to a place we can love. If you think that because someplace has bad Urban design it is unsaveable you are wrong and need to rethink your priorities. Yes, changing things is hard and takes organizing and effort, but things are always changing and capable of going in a good direction. Isn't the point of all this to make the world not only better for us, but for the future as well.

[tony-vespucchi]

31 August, 2022

[tony-vespucchi]

The Tesla Incident

I know we live in an interesting day and age, but I'm genuinely surprised at the lack of attention on how scummy Tesla is after this new announcement.

If you want additional details you can read this Reuter's article for a full explanation (https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-introduces-new-model-s-x-cars-us-2023-08-15/) But I'll try to condense the story for people who don't wanna read through that.

Tesla announced this week that they're going to be releasing so called "standard range" versions of two of their cars at a $10k discount as compared to their extended range counterparts. Sounds pretty standard, right? Well here's the kicker: There aren't going to be any physical differences between the extended range and standard range variations, even right down to the physical size of the batteries themselves. They intend on limiting the range and performance via software alone.

So let's extrapolate that. Tesla is going to be selling the exact same cars they were before for $10k cheaper, but only if you take the artificially deflated range with it... Does this not like, sound completely insane to anyone else?

And before anyone says it, I totally understand that, logistically speaking, this is probably cheaper for Tesla to do than to actually make a new skew of the cars but with smaller batteries. In spite of that though, I still hate this move. If you think about it for even two seconds, this is blatantly anti-consumer. If they can afford to cut $10k off the price of the same hardware (AKA where all the real expense of a car comes from) but ONLY if they get to spite you over the range, there's literally no reason to believe they can't just take $10k off the price of the extended range cars.

There is nothing physically stopping them from cutting the price of the extended range cars. But instead of doing the obvious pro-consumer choice of just introducing a price cut, they just decided to make a "peasant class" version of it instead??? There is genuinely no other reason to commit to this kind of pricing structure other than to artificially continue to line their own pockets from people who will inevitably choose to buy the extended range versions out of range anxiety.

I feel like, were this any other company or industry, people would be up in arms. Instead, you just have people here happy to see a cheaper version of these already luxury vehicles. If anyone asks why I think Tesla's a scummy company, this is Exhibit A now. Why pass off savings to the consumer when you can screw them over instead? And the worst part is, I'm sure other companies are going to start taking note of this too (if they haven't already. There's probably another company whose done the same things and I just haven't heard about it) and when they do, I just hope we tell them what for. If we don't, I'm afraid this kind of move is going to become all the more prevalent.

[tony-vespucchi]

I've heard this sentiment unironically SO MANY TIMES. I may love CGP Grey, but MAN has he created some unimaginable brainrot with that "solution to traffic" video.

Genius.

[tony-vespucchi]

Home state of the widest freeway baybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[tony-vespucchi]

Was out doing some recording for the next video and got this footage of some adorable bees! Hopefully this video demonstrates how much better my new phone is gonna be for recording!!! Also, sorry that the video got compressed beyond BELIEF. Videos will look much better on Youtube than here-

[tony-vespucchi]

Video #1 is out! Here's how the making of "Will the Private Sector Save Us?" Went!

Here's a quick link if you, somehow, came to my Tumblr page before seeing my first video: https://youtu.be/exavzS1Og0Y

Now, to get into the meat of it all. How did all this happen?

Well, I've been interested in urbanist topics for a fair while now, and eventually that interest turned into obsession over the current state of my city: Frisco, Texas.

Frisco is... Let's just say a little lacking in the urbanism department. No public transit whatsoever (short of school busses, but like, duh) and not a whole lot of biking or walking infrastructure. Yes, we have some bike trails, but they aren't intended to be used as a point A to point B kinda deal, they're mostly trails for the sake of it.

Back on topic: video! So, before the current iteration you see now, I was actually planning a fairly different video! I wanted to make the video focused on a potential DART commuter line into Frisco, but later decided that I may want to save that topic for another time. I was also going to film said video "on location" and actually APPEAR on camera, but t'was not to be given that I have no tri-pod and no camerapeople.

The evolution from discussion of a particular project to the more "debunking" style video that it is now is a kind of interesting one. I can't give a specific reason as to why, but I just felt like my first video needed to be something a little less... Boring? Maybe that's the wrong way to put it. I guess I just wanted something that could more easily translate into discussing urbanist topics (as I do towards the end of the video)? It's hard to pinpoint exactly why I felt this would more naturally work as my first video, but I'm mostly glad with how it evolved.

I'm not totally sure if future videos are going to keep the same "B-roll only" video vibe to them? I want to maybe start bringing some drawings and sketches into the equation, but I'm not 100% on if I'll do that or not yet.

If this video seems rushed, that's because it kinda is! I know that this video is probably going to age very poorly, but that's kinda the point. I wanted to get my first video out reasonably quick so that I could gather feedback and make the following videos so much better! Besides, we're always going to cringe when looking back at our first piece, but that's just a sign you're doing something right! :)

There's not too awful much to say about this video, it was pretty straightforward.

I am sorry about the camera quality, though! It was recorded on my budget smartphone that has a kinda crummy camera, but I'm not going to spend the money on a more expensive phone until I really need a replacement. I'm hoping that maybe some of the video quality can be fixed by using a gimble, but only time can tell on that front!

Also, I know the thumbnail is kinda crummy too, so that's one of the areas I hope to REALLY improve in for next time-

Thank you so much for reading and/or watching! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Until next time!

[tony-vespucchi]

Universal Studios Frisco is pushing forward

I'm reading a Dallas Observer article on some planning changes that are being made to accommodate the new park and I've noticed a few things that stand out. (Article here: https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/we-have-more-details-about-friscos-universal-studios-theme-park-16096216)

Image from the Dallas Observer article: https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/we-have-more-details-about-friscos-universal-studios-theme-park-16096216

The one that sticks out to me the most is that they intend on widening Panther Creek to a 6 lane stroad which is definitely a choice. I get the motivations behind why, at least from a car-centric perspective, but it does suck to see that this is something that's been in the works for a while. It's definitely no coincidence that the bond proposal for roadwork was so large given not only this expansion, but also the extension they're appearing to plan out here for Frisco Street/Panther Creek.

It's also seemingly confirmed that the Dallas North Tollway is not going to be the only entrance into the park area, which I doubt will do much to curb the inevitable traffic nightmares, but that's all to be seen I suppose.

Sadly, no mentions of potential public transit links to the park have been made yet, but I can still hope (against my better judgement) that someone on the council or planning division will understand just how impossible it's going to be to get people into this park with no trains or busses.

Sadder still is the continually ignored (at least by those in charge) outcry of the people who are going to find themselves neighbors to the theme park. I do get some of their concerns, especially regarding noise, traffic, and the like. However, the article cites crime as a common issue they bring up, which I'm not totally sure what's meant by that...? Do they think this kiddie park is going to bring about some gangs of ravenous toddlers to litter the once pristine stroads of Frisco?

All of this to say, the city has made a very interesting investment. I won't officially declare it good or bad just yet, especially as we still know so little about the project, but it does seem to be siding towards the bad... With any luck though, planners and the council will wise up to the fact that this little preparation is a nightmare waiting to happen.

Thanks for reading, and I'll be keeping an eye on stuff like this in the future!

[tony-vespucchi]

One of my favorite pictures I've ever taken! Photographed in Caen, France.

I've visited Caen more times than I can count, and every visit is always a treat! All too often, especially when we're talking about walkability and transit standards, we only talk about the larger cities... Small ones can punch far above their weight, though!

Caen is home to 3 tram lines, more bus lines than I can remember, and, of course, these gorgeous and pedestrian friendly streets! It also, like most French cities, does a good job of keeping necessities within relative walking and biking distance as well! I'll have to do a video on Caen eventually because I think it serves as a fairly good example of what a mid-size city can look like while still being densely comfortable!

If you're ever in the area, the Friday open markets are always a treat to visit and feature some of the finest foods straight from the many artisans and farmers of Normandy! La Colline aux Oiseaux is an excellent place to visit as well, a gorgeous public park built upon a former landfill!

Thank you for reading! Hope you like the picture!

[tony-vespucchi]

Bonjour

The reason this blog even exists is because I was shared a link to some other Tumblr blog and thought that the customization you can do with it is really neat! Not sure how much use I'll get out of this, but it definitely beats Twitter. Questions page is open and I might check it eventually. Thanks for reading!