You could always ask for more, but honestly, unfucking car centric infrastructure is going to take two decades at least of consistent effort and deliberately diverting highway and road funding. I’m putting this square in the ‘W’ column while noting that there are many, many more 'W’s that we still need to claim.
Honestly, just the fact that Biden is explicitly talking about the problem would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, so at the very least it shows that a decent amount of the public is starting to get it. And that support is going to be needed to take measures that are going to be unpopular with a loud (and often well resourced) minority.
Absolutely. “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” Nothing’s going to change overnight. We can only hope to move in the right direction.
You, sir or madam, are an optimist. Certainly let’s do it, but there’s 70+ years worth of car-centric growth to undo, and 70 years with if declining transit to rebuild. It’s a lot.
In the city near me, the project to remove just one of these downtown highways dividing cities took 16 years
I really think that car-centric infra is so bad, that once people get a taste of good urbanism and small and medium businesses see how it benefits them, it’ll start picking up a lot of steam. Honest to goodness, the only reason it has such sticking power is that it’s really all we know in the US, and people find it hard so hard to imagine that our infra has been deliberately designed badly that they adopt excuses for why it must not work here. But once they see it working and like it, it’s going to be on like donkey Kong
High quality video of people cycling and walking in livable cities is helping with this I think. Even if you can’t afford to travel yourself, you can get a feel of someone going about their day in a way that is much more true to the actual experience than in the past.
Gotta hope we can do better than in the past. How much of big projects delayed just because of old bueracracies and not fully utilizing new technolgiea and ideas?
On problem is most of the money supposedly meant for public transit in the IRA went towards roads and car infrastructure. So I have a feeling somehow this is just gonna make more highways if anything actually materializes from this.
Source, so I can raise my blood pressure about it?
The largest grant is going to Portland for a freeway widening that has occasionally included a cap in the renders.
Austin’s grant is going to a similar project.
The freeway widenings apparently must continue, but now they’ll just come with caps in progressive cities.
I saw the headline and thought, “we ripping out the highways or doubling down on them with expensive bandaid ‘fixes’?”
Doubling down it is. Crap like this is why Biden will never be a “climate president”: we can’t address the systemic issues that are the primary drivers of climate change as long as we keep trying to work within the confines of said systems.
Some of the blame lies at the feet of state DOTs that are still drawing up these projects. In Austin’s case, I think the I-35 widening is basically being forced down the city’s throat by a revanchist state government.
For sure, state DOTs are completely complicit in the problem (some more than others), as they’re the ones deciding and designing the projects (highways are generally their jurisdiction). However the federal government has complete say in what projects they help fund, and could definitely set standards dictating the types of projects to move forward.
I think they tried to do that and Mitch McConnell told red states to ignore those rules and then the feds cowardly backed off.
@regul @fireweed That’s how US government works. Democrats propose to do something moderate that would help a little bit but they already compromised on important details before they started, Republicans throw a tantrum, Democrats capitulate, billions more dollars get poured down the toilet (or into highways) with very few dollars going to something useful but the net effect being overwhelmingly bad.
Was this back when his wife was transportation Secretary? Cuz she ain’t there no more
No, 2022:
Here’s McConnell saying to ignore it:
Here’s the feds being cowards:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/24/transportation-department-highways-states-00084332
Bummer
Biden is a far right president he just isn’t Trump. The only reason we must vote for him. This makes our two teir government bullshit. Because we will never get the changes needed under this current system.
It will always be voting for the lesser evil who is always moving futher right.
and we are so far up in this, biden is literally right wing.
yet the democrats love him despite continuing with trumps policies, for some reason.
Yep he didn’t even repeal Trump tax cuts for the rich.
also didnt stop building that wall, so offensive to us democrats of yesteryear.
except when he did
except he just pretended he did.
and acted very concerned, this seems to be important these days.
Nice
I live in easy biking distance of some great stores I’d like to visit more often. That is…assuming there was a bikeable road to that destination. Gigantic highways have basically formed a death wall for bikers and pedestrians keeping them out of fun destinations around my area. If you travel across to a particular crossing and wait half an hour, you might be graced with a cross-walk that sometimes works, while 80 cars honk at you to cross more quickly.
Really hope this turns out well. It’d pay for itself, since those highways are money black holes anyway.
What’s amazing about this is that he’s attempting to undo what would have been touted as total success when it happened and he was younger. He’s of the generation that these were actually built for. Seems even the Silent Generation is realizing that it was a horrible idea that should be undone. Next, please fix suburbs!
Next, please fix suburbs!
Not In My Backyard ™
That’s the sad part. The petit bourgeois tends to be very intransigent.
That’s an incredibly bold plan, but I do love the vague concept. Are we just going to redo all the city planning of the past, what is going to be our new set of standards?
Hopefully walkability. Fuck the car industry
Agreed, but “walkability” is not a set of standards. I’m talking about documents, numbers, widths and lengths, intersection types, grid sizing for repeatable patterns.
It looks like the EPA has published a document on measuring walkability within the USA HERE, and Harvard Researchers have also published a few, but I bet there are also European examples both good and bad we could take from.
Nice, more empty promises!
It’s actually happening in Detroit of all places. The planning already started and these funds will get the work going.
Syracuse NY is getting rid of their giant elevated freeway that cuts the city!
Hell yeah
thank god. she depserately needs it
Hey remember that time when Trump’s biggest campaign promise was that he’d build a wall and have Mexico pay for it?
Or how about the time Trump said he’d arrest all the homeless people?
Or hey what about the time he promised to build freedom cities where free from government regulations?
Or what about that time he said he would go after colleges he didn’t like?Biden mostly kept his promises, but also it’s sometimes better when they don’t.
Yeah dude, trump sucks. So does Biden, who we’re currently talking about. Record oil production, record homelessness, twice as many migrants detained at the border, supplying weapons to a country engaged in a genocide. Any thoughts?
Biden is a politician trying to get re-elected.
It’s kinda just that simple. He’s only kind of a leader. He’s more of a “What will the polls say in November” kinda guy. It’s why he got a lot of good things done and it’s why he’s far from perfect to many of us.
It’s also why he seems to be one of the rare people who can poll, as an individual, well enough against Trump.
The very last thing we needed was business as usual neoliberalism. We have passed some crazy climate tipping points and we need radical change 50 years ago. Donald trump is an imbecile, but he’s a symptom of your broken culture. From an outsider looking in, he personifies every American stereotype there is. The fact that he is taken seriously as a candidate is baffling. He should have been hanged for treason lol.
How does one reconcile the fact that Black and Hispanic voters are dropping off the Democratic party? Is it possibly because of failed policies? Is it possible Trump is getting more voters because of the representation of something people resonate with, versus the current status quo: measles outbreaks, welfare states, economic failures (inflation, everyone in the US is losing in this equation except the top 1%), the list goes on but the idea is still the same… an old failing man in office who needs to be removed.
@TangledHyphae @Nudding US voters have been very effectively conditioned to accept the two party system and to place outsized importance on the president and largely ignore the legislative and judicial branches of government. If you’re not happy, your only answer is to vote for the major party not occupying the White House, even if that party currently controls congress and offers even worse policies. Critical thinking is systematically squashed.
Some people are single issue voters that are missing the very big signs that Trump wants to be a dictator
Some people live in poverty, who are not being heard, while more poverty-stricken people are being moved into their neighborhoods. These topics impact literally everyone at every demographic level so it’s easier to understand why minorities are jumping ship.
I’m not defending Biden, so don’t treat this as me trying to convince you either way or like I actually like Biden which I don’t because he is a republican masquerading as a centrist, but Biden did indefinitely halt giving oil companies LNG export terminal contracts in the US. In other words, no more infrastructure dedicated to LNG export until the entire process is reviewed and even if it becomes allowed again it will likely be much more limited.
Now this didn’t immediately seem huge to me, but Bill Mckibben who is a climate writer seems to think this is one of the biggest environmental wins of the Biden administration. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/07/joe-biden-big-oil-lng-permits
All this being said, I don’t disagree with the spirit of what you are saying about Biden, he is an awful relic of the past with absolutely no vision or policy goals behind manage the status quo.
Also yeah obviously Fuck Trump
It’s the degree of sucking that matters. Dismissing him as just empty promises should be taken in context. Many promises kept. Opponent in election, many more empty promises. It’s not whataboutism when the criticism is addressed, then it’s just comparative.
Hey, remember that time during John Quincy Adams’ presidency when he advocated for the abolition of the slave trade?
Or how about the time he vetoed a bill to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States because he believed in limited government intervention in business affairs?
Or hey, what about that period when he strongly pushed for the independence of Spanish colonies in Latin America?
Or what about the time he proposed a “Monroe Doctrine” which essentially stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention?Adams mostly stuck to his principles, but also, it could be argued that there were times when his decisions weren’t entirely beneficial to everyone.
I remember that time Trump almost died of covid, but he receive a “miracle” treatment that he promised he’d make available for everyone. Lol
It’s already started in Philadelphia too.
That’s good news!
And tomorrow, Genocide Joe will be promising people unicorns and tooth fairies - as long as it means people forget what happened under his watch.
I still don’t get how all Israel’s decades of bullshit, funded and supported by Republican and Democrats, is all suddenly Biden’s fault. It sounds like an extremely complex foreign policy has been dumbed down to a simple phrase that can be regurgitated by simpletons. I realize it’s election season and Republican operators are out in droves, but I’m getting so tired of that stupid nickname that absolves everyone of complicity. It just shows how little people understand global policy.
Biden’s rabid support for israel didn’t start yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Nrv5izaTs
You know what I’m tired of? People dismissing genocide because it’s politically inconvenient and labeling anyone who cares about genocide a “republican operator”.
Your options are someone who supports Israel or someone who wants to actively start another genocide here. Your choice tbh
This is why democrats promote fascists: https://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strategy/
Then they have the gall to claim they’re fighting for democracy while limiting our options. I vote democrats every time, but I will not speak nicely of those rat bastards.
Yeah I agree it’s terrible. IDK how to fix it
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just like he promised to pardon student debts.
just lip service because he is campaigning.
Student debt forgiveness actually ended up working for the people who held their debts the longest out of all applicants. Ask your senator about extending the pell grant before saying something else of ill intent towards someone who tried to help.
you mean they pardoned a tiny minority of debtors so they could say they did something?
similar thing happened here and guess what, they aint trying to help, just conning gullible folk into thinking they are actually doing shit.
you know they have the power to actually solve this issue from the roots, right?
same with the prision camps at the us-mexico border, or the endless wars, or privatized healthcare. always starting this shit then pretending a tiny bandaid afterwards was a big win.
Biden didn’t forgive the loans. A program that existed before Biden took office cancelled the loans. Biden doesn’t deserve credit for that beyond selecting someone competent to head the department of education.
Calling it a forgiveness absolutly a misnomer. If your offer of forgiveness is contingent on work, that’s not forgiveness.
Sounds like a good plan. The question now is: will he actually deliver?
I have watched a documentary about how much about motorization USA’s roads have been built in the past, I witnessed people attending funerals or other ceremonies while still being sat into their cars… is that ordinary in USA?
I’ve never heard of drive through funerals. That shounds like a Covid distancing measure.
Very sad if true.
