Recent posts

#41

Mid-Atlantic / Re: West Virginia

Last post by SP Cook - May 11, 2024, 07:04:21 PM

There is big local opposition to road improvements in Morgan County (US 522).  The state is proceeding anyway.  They have another couple of miles up for bids after the bypass is finished.  The locals have seen Jefferson and Berkeley counties, which used to be rural farm type places, turn into DC suburbs and don't want the same to happen there.  This is, of course, like opposing the tide coming in, its going to happen like it or not. 

If you look at a map, it seems to me that US 522, the rural parts not the currently under construction bypass of Berkeley Springs, would make a great toll road, providing a short cut between I-81 and the PA Turnpike.  Only the WV part isn't 4 lane.

#42

Great Lakes and Ohio Valley / Re: Illinois notes

Last post by ilpt4u - May 11, 2024, 07:02:39 PM

From the bid announcement thread post by Revive 755:

Item 35:  "Class A pavement patching on FAI 57 beginning at MM 285.5, 2.5 miles north of US 24 (Gilman Interchange) and ending at MM 293.5, 0.64 mile north of IL 116 (Ashkum Interchange)"
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9615.525

So some patching near Gilman

#43

Great Lakes and Ohio Valley / Re: Illinois interesting bid a...

Last post by ilpt4u - May 11, 2024, 06:54:48 PM

• Item 193 widens around 6 miles of I-57 south of the southern I-64 interchange

When 57 is fully 6-laned between 24 and 64, I may start using it to head north again. This is another step in that direction!

Until then, IL 127, US 51, IL 13, US 45, and IL 1 are my friends

#44

Off-Topic / Re: Minor things that bother y...

Last post by SectorZ - May 11, 2024, 06:48:05 PM

Geofencing. There is a subchannel of PBS I enjoy but that the Twin Cities doesn't have, and a number of web streams of that channel I could find were blocked because I wasn't a resident of those TV markets. It's fucking PBS. Get over yourselves.

Geofencing was the bane of my existence when I was up in Canada last weekend.  Keeping up with things was a pain.  Specifically:

-I have no idea if I could have watched Star Trek: Discovery up there or not.  I didn't take any chances on whether Paramount+ would work normally because I got up earlier than I otherwise would have to watch it before I left (also wasn't taking chances on whether my hotel would have CTV SciFi available, which it turns out they didn't).
-Likewise, I wasn't taking chances with Young Sheldon or Ghosts, and made sure to watch them as they aired (thankfully, my hotel did get CBS, because CTV and Global air the two at the same time).  Could I have streamed them online via CTV's and Global's websites?  Probably, but I couldn't verify that.
-Had to wait on Last Week Tonight until I got home, because no Max up there.
-Couldn't watch This Week on Hulu for the same reason.  This one has a silver lining: I discovered an audio podcast version of the show and I'm now considering dropping Hulu as a result, since watching this when I'm on the road is the main reason I have that service (got used to being able to do so when I actually had other reasons for having Hulu).
-I had to track down where Canadians can stream The Ready Room, as the main YouTube link is US only.  I can understand why promotional material is geoblocked - publishers want people to view the one with the release details for their country - but it can be quite annoying when you follow a news source where the primary readers are from a different country.  Normally I can just click the embedded video in the preview images/clip article on TrekMovie.  Not this time.
-The surprise was that I couldn't watch Empire State Weekly until I got back home.  I can understand entertainment that has copyright implications and may have different distribution deals... but this is locally produced news.  Seriously, Nextar?  Thankfully the weather was dry enough the day of my return that I didn't feel any need to watch a local weather forecast from Albany before driving back.

#45

Road Trips / Re: 2024 Road Trip Plans

Last post by D-Dey65 - May 11, 2024, 06:27:13 PM

My Plant City-Polk County excursion is coming soon either this Thursday or Friday. I'm sort of hesitant to go on Friday, because it's supposed to be 100 degrees. But those are supposed to be the only non-rainy days that week.

I might even take a detour into Ocala National Forest via Florida State Road 19. I've been looking for a sign at a recreational area along that road, and I might even consider expanding a gallery for some buildings there.

#46

Mid-Atlantic / Re: Francis Scott Key Bridge (...

Last post by MASTERNC - May 11, 2024, 06:23:51 PM

Not sure it's enough but the MDTA is changing traffic patterns around the Harbor Tunnel tolls to improve merging into the tunnel.

https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/key-bridge-collapse-causes-traffic-headaches-theres-a-plan-to-alleviate-congestion-baltimore-mdta-toll-county-patapsco-river/

It also looks like Exit 44 on I-695 will reopen, along with the U-turn ramp, and it's going to be toll-free, since the bridge is no longer there but will be rebuilt in four years, if the timeline holds up.

The press release says it will be tolled starting 6/1

#47

General Highway Talk / Re: Google Maps just fucking S...

Last post by D-Dey65 - May 11, 2024, 06:21:24 PM

I just found my April 2024 Google Timeline in my Google Maps which covered my Big Bend Excursion. I went as far west as Lloyd, Florida, but it's not letting me add that to the route. I went to four rest areas along I-10. It's only showing the eastbound Madison County Rest Area, and they have a generic name for the eastbound Suwannee County Rest Area.


If there was supposed to be some update, I didn't notice it. And even if I had noticed it, this problem still isn't fixed.

#48

Great Lakes and Ohio Valley / Re: Michigan Notes

Last post by vdeane - May 11, 2024, 05:17:12 PM

Michigan's legislature could certainly opt to punt by raising the fuel tax, and even indexing it to inflation. I think it's inappropriate not to do so as part of a funding solution. At *some* point, however, electric and partially-electric vehicles are going to throw off that calculus.

We also have the issue of the fuel tax being regressive - it makes the largest demands on those least capable of paying for it. This is partially mitigated by it being a consumption tax, but there's limits on how you can raise fuel taxes without seriously screwing over poor people.

The challenge, as always, is to somehow match the relative fairness of the fuel tax in terms of road usage - the folks who drive the most tending to pay more fuel taxes. The dispersed nature of EV charging (you can do it anywhere you can find a 110V outlet) means paying "at the pump" is impractical. 

GPS is a non-starter, as it should be (though, let's face it - any modern vehicle can be tracked right now). I'm not opposed to a mileage-based payment scheme where monthly payments are made based on the vehicle's current mileage. The challenge there is making sure that information is accurate, and that payment can be collected. It also means some kind of revenue sharing scheme between states becomes important, since there's no mechanism to fund my road use out of state.

The Michigan Dems have to survive another sketchy-at-best election season to maintain executive and legislative control. They're not announcing anything that gives people a reason to vote Republican anytime soon. This announcement of funding for next fiscal year to look at the issue is an effort to keep that issue from bubbling up during election season.

Honestly, I'd like to see EVs addressed via an electricity tax that would be split between transportation and modernizing/improving the electric grid (for example, to weather solar storms like the one that's going on right now).  I don't like taxes that are "in your face" or have a burden on the person being taxed to do paperwork and pay it.  Right now, the gas tax is just built into the price; it's seamless and practically invisible.  Sales taxes are noticeable mainly if you look at your receipt or added up the base price of everything before you got to the cash register, but are otherwise not too hard to ignore.  Property taxes suck, but they're also invisible if you rent.  Even income tax, I make sure to always withhold enough that I always get a refund (I even go so far as to have extra money withheld from my paychecks, because otherwise there's a good chance I'd owe a small amount), I never owe.  Adding a mileage tax like that would basically require duplicating the apparatus and process that's currently used for income taxes, except now everyone would owe.  It would take a tax that is currently seamless and invisible and make it very much an in-your-face proposition.  Now, those who would like to discourage driving by placing a price tag on it probably consider that a feature and not a bug, but I don't like it.

Of course, who knows if EVs will even become king at this point.  It seemed inevitable just a year or two ago, but the non-Tesla charging network has had a LOT of growing pains (and it wasn't that good even before), and now Tesla laying off their entire Supercharger team placing the switch to NACS and competition opening up between the Supercharger network and Electrify America/ChargePoint in doubt, it's very much "wait and see" at this point.  Who knows, maybe we'll actually end up going for hydrogen after all, and that can be taxed just like gas.

#49

Off-Topic / Re: Random Thoughts

Last post by vdeane - May 11, 2024, 05:02:48 PM

Yeah.  Permanence is sort of the point though.  Buy a house in this subdivision and you can be sure no one will ever build a 10-story tower south of you putting your house and garden in permanent shade...

The flip side of that is that, because they're entrenched, you can get saddled with ones that don't make any sense because they were written for a time long past. The obvious example are covenants disallowing you from selling the house to people of certain races (though those are obviously illegal to enforce, they're still technically on the title to the house). The house I'm selling has a covenant on it that, if read literally when they talk about "business activity", would preclude work-from-home arrangements (which obviously weren't something the people who built the house in 1976 could contemplate).

On the other hand, a covenant sounds like some deal with demons or a magically binding contract written in blood or something a lot more exciting than a typical real estate transaction.

#50

Off-Topic / Re: Minor things that bother y...

Last post by vdeane - May 11, 2024, 05:00:03 PM

Geofencing. There is a subchannel of PBS I enjoy but that the Twin Cities doesn't have, and a number of web streams of that channel I could find were blocked because I wasn't a resident of those TV markets. It's fucking PBS. Get over yourselves.

Geofencing was the bane of my existence when I was up in Canada last weekend.  Keeping up with things was a pain.  Specifically:

-I have no idea if I could have watched Star Trek: Discovery up there or not.  I didn't take any chances on whether Paramount+ would work normally because I got up earlier than I otherwise would have to watch it before I left (also wasn't taking chances on whether my hotel would have CTV SciFi available, which it turns out they didn't).
-Likewise, I wasn't taking chances with Young Sheldon or Ghosts, and made sure to watch them as they aired (thankfully, my hotel did get CBS, because CTV and Global air the two at the same time).  Could I have streamed them online via CTV's and Global's websites?  Probably, but I couldn't verify that.
-Had to wait on Last Week Tonight until I got home, because no Max up there.
-Couldn't watch This Week on Hulu for the same reason.  This one has a silver lining: I discovered an audio podcast version of the show and I'm now considering dropping Hulu as a result, since watching this when I'm on the road is the main reason I have that service (got used to being able to do so when I actually had other reasons for having Hulu).
-I had to track down where Canadians can stream The Ready Room, as the main YouTube link is US only.  I can understand why promotional material is geoblocked - publishers want people to view the one with the release details for their country - but it can be quite annoying when you follow a news source where the primary readers are from a different country.  Normally I can just click the embedded video in the preview images/clip article on TrekMovie.  Not this time.
-The surprise was that I couldn't watch Empire State Weekly until I got back home.  I can understand entertainment that has copyright implications and may have different distribution deals... but this is locally produced news.  Seriously, Nextar?  Thankfully the weather was dry enough the day of my return that I didn't feel any need to watch a local weather forecast from Albany before driving back.