Oregon

[Gambit]

Looks like another reason for Gryph and Stang to be glad they don't live a little farther south...

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Jan/gee20030102017979.htm

[Ghryphen]

lol I'll have to send it to my Dad.

The tax would first have to pay for the GPS implementation and servicing before the roads heh

[Spinning Hat]

They were trying this in MN a while back, before 9/11, and it failed miserably. But then again, we have Pretty High income taxes, and high Gas taxes, (Almost 45 cents a gallon) and we have a 6.5% sales tax to boot. But the mileage plan would have irradicated the gas tax. I personally, don't want or need my whereabouts broadcasted to the state. Ig they need to find me, they can do it the old fashioned way.

[Stang]

Exactly

I dont see how they could do this either. They are just looking for new ways to get money out of us.

[Walks on Clouds]

In Sweden we pay nearly $4.5 for a gallon of gas, of which I believe the major part to be tax. Eat that!

[Spinning Hat]

That's like buying a gallon of milk over here in some places....

[Ghryphen]

Damn $90 to fill the tank? Jeez I fill the tank every 3-4 days for $20, I'd go broke.

[Walks on Clouds]

Well, I think it's more like $50-60 for a full tank. At least in any car I've ever driven. Don't know if I've miscalculated something along the way. It's just about a dollar a litre, anyway. We use the metric system in Sweden, as you may or may not be aware of.

[Ghryphen]

1 gallon = 3.785 liters

US $ 1.75 for 1 gallon of gas.


http://www.convert-me.com is a good site, no its not a religious site :lol

[Walks on Clouds]

Then it 'd be more like USD 3.5 a gallon, right? We pay 9.5 SEK for a litre of gas and 9.8 SEK for 1 USD. Bah! Who cares anyway. It's damn expensive, that's my point...

[Spinning Hat]

And THAT is the reason you europeans have such good rail systems... Fewer roads means more room for all them people. :lol

[Walks on Clouds]

Yeah, but do you know what? The company that trafficks the railways, Statens Järnvägar, formerly a Government company, went at a loss last year in the billion SEK weight-class. So, now there's no knowing what 'll happen. They have started charging inhumane amounts of money for their tickets, as if that'd help them...

[Gambit]

I was thinking about starting in on the capitalist/socialist debates here, then decided I didn't feel like it... ;)

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

:lol

Sounds like the movie theaters here in the states.


We did have a pretty good public transportation system here in Washington State (well in the Puget Sound area anyways). But some idiot named Tim Eyman decided it would be nice to put forth some initiatives that took huge chunks out of the state budget. Now the state is in serious debt, and the damn road construction projects planned are all cancelled or seriously cut back. People around here want to whine and complain, but not fork over the money to fix the problem. It's like they want things done for them... lazy %$#@'s!


We really only have two major freeways around here, and both get insane amounts of traffic each morning and afternoon. Think of moving 2 million people in a couple of hours, and they all have to have their own cars and drive to the opposite end of the Sound. I really didn't mind the bus... except that it took longer and I had to wait on someone else to pick me up and be on time.

[STUWEY]

*token appearance*

[Ghryphen]

Originally posted by XMEN Ashaman DTM
Think of moving 2 million people in a couple of hours, and they all have to have their own cars and drive to the opposite end of the Sound.

Yeah, a drive to the office takes 20 minutes on the weekend, it takes a little over an hour during the week :disgust

It is the carpool lane that actually causes some of the traffic problems. The freeway will be fine until an on-ramp comes, or another highway merges in, then the dozen carpoolers make a mad dash across 5 lanes of traffic to get in the carpool lane as soon as they can, haulting the rest of the freeway. As soon as you get past the on-ramp, everything speeds back up......until you hit the next off-ramp where now all the carpoolers stay in the in the lane as long as they can and then shoot back across 5 lanes of traffic so they can get off the freeway, resulting in haulted traffic once again.

It would be interesting to see how the freeway would do with all lanes open to everyone, of course...when I do carpool I want it open to carpoolers only :evil They are talking about opening the carpool lane after hours and on weekends, I dont know what good that does, the rest of the freeway is fine then.

*Stuwey Lives*

[Gambit]

One way they prevent that in Texas is to have K-rails (those semi-portable concrete wall sections) limiting the access to the carpool lanes. That way you can only get in or out of them every X number of exits. That also makes it easier on the cops to crack down on carpool-lane violators, because they just have to sit and wait at one end or the other.

[Ghryphen]

I think they have something like that that goes across the lake on I-90, if you miss the carpool lane your out of luck.

I thought they could double stack the freeway too with limited exits on the upper level....the problem with wider freeways and other things to increase traffic flow is that then the cities can't funnel the traffic off the freeway and into the streets fast enough.

[Stang]

Where are those flying cars they promised us? :D

The last I heard they will open all carpool lanes except for I-5. But they are still working things out for opening the carpool lanes, things are always changing. Or have a fee for those that want to use the carpool lane and they will have a sensor in their car so they can tell if they are violating but lots of people didnt like that idea. Yeah pay to ride the freeways, NOT! They need to beef up on the violators.

It all comes down to stupid ass, idiot, impatient drivers.

Isnt Tim Eyman the same guy (from Snohomish) that got caught stealing money from the taxpayers/government? Yeah there is someone to trust :). I use to like his ideas but after finding out what he was doing he lost my vote.

[Spinning Hat]

:s0004:

This year is the first year in a long time that Minnesota has had a Budget deficit, and it's a whopper- Almost 5 Billion dollars. :O The last 5 or so years, we'd been having budget surpluses, of a billion dollars or more, and the legislature has been giving a lot of it back, and then they went and started cutting taxes, and now they cut themselves off at the knees. Personally, I'd have rather seen the state keep the surplus for a rainy day like this, as I knew I wasn't getting any money back anyway, so I didn't really care one way or the other.

Now projects like the Northstar corridor (MN's first ligt rail), and may other projects that need to be funded are on the verge of getting cut, and the schools are going to get a big hit again too, I think. Jesse Ventura fought and fought to hang on to that money, he really did, and there was just an overwhelming majority to give it back... He really wasn't a bad governor, just a little more eccentric than most people thought a state governor should be.

I kind of wish that Arne Carlson had run for governor this year, to retake the spot he lost from Jesse, but he didn't... He was governor for 12 years, or 16, I think, before Jesse, and he had his **** together, and he did a lot of great things for MN. Oh well... Maybe, if I continue living in MN, I'LL run for governor, and be as crazy as 'ol Jesse. ;)