Speaking of fault line creep mitigation, I’ve always wondered about the engineering that goes into SF’s metro system (especially the Transbay Tube) with respect to seismabobs. In London, you see loads of these little gauges attached to tunnel walls to monitor movement, suggesting that gradual movement of a millimeter or two is a big concern in underwater tunnels. And I’m guessing the relative positions of San Francisco and Oakland sometimes move a lot more than that. Are the tunnels rubber?
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The Transbay Tube is rubber. Well, it’s concrete sections with large flexible gaskets, and it’s buried under a whole lot of mud. It will probably be destroyed by a really big quake and need a total overhall, but the odds of a catastrophic breach occurring immediately are pretty low.
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I’m glad to hear it is still holding up. The documentary made it look lovely.
The MBTA system was completely shut down for a day and a half last winter due to snow, and commuter rail operations in eastern Massachusetts didn’t really get back to normal for a month or three.
Now the amount of snow we got during that storm was pretty high … but it’s Massachusetts for Pete’s sake. Snow in winter, even heavy snow, isn’t exactly a rare occurrence.
Then this past December there was the driverless train carrying 50 or so passengers that went through four stations without stopping. It was supposed to have a driver on board.
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I manage to avoid things in the AM by leaving early enough. But afternoons, oh god. Even with the motorscooter taking the HOV lanes it can take over an hour to go just over 19 miles. I would so love to take transit but that is 1.5 hours ONE WAY and $3. I spend maybe $1 in gas with the prius or the bike so even with upkeep costs I am ahead. And moving closer to work, yeah right, nope anyone wanna double my salary so I can afford to move to the other side of the lake?
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I work from home in Oakland. I have to go to Facebook in Menlo Park next Wednesday all day though.
Which side are you on now?
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I used to because they didn’t have desk space for us and didn’t want to build any new offices which continued when I went to CSC doing the exact same job for a different name on the paycheck. Now I am on a directly billable contract that says I have to have a desk on site and Boeing decided to do away with virtual office which was quite dumb cause they were getting mucho tax breaks for it by taking all those cars off the road.
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I’ve thought for a long time that infrastructure should never be decided at the government level that only controls a portion of it. So counties should have no say in BART. The issue should be handled by the state. Not disenfranchising any citizen - they get a say through their state rep still.
Also, when I lived in the Bay a few years back, I was a regular BART rider, and would gladly have paid more in fares to get train cars with differentials in the axles.
Given that California has been heavily subsidising red-state USA for a long time now, the idea that a Federal contribution to maintaining SF’s essential infrastructure represents some sort of theft from the rest of the US is not particularly convincing.
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One of them is.
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Would this apply to water rights and infrastructure in the Central Valley so the state could decide where and how to build water infrastructure for the farmers there?
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If only there were some shovel-ready jobs to use as an economic stimulus! Oh well, better truck more piles of cash to the banks.
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I’m just trying to help address a wealth inequality issue here, friend. It makes more sense for rich states to subsidize poor states than vice versa, as I am sure most here would agree.
I would think that water rights and infrastructure for the West should be decided at the national level. I’m not sure that it makes sense to work on it any lower. But yes, farmers in the Central Valley should be part of the conversation and decisions.
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Why? Why should DC or some East Coasters have any say on California water issues? It is our lives, not those of folks thousands of miles away.
The only possible counter-argument is that because incomes are so high, so are expenses.
I had this exact opposite argument years ago with an old college roommate. More than 20 years ago, his girlfriend was making $10/hour to be a cashier at a big-box retailer, and they were both amazed at how cheap everything was in our humble little town. Yeah, I conceded, but look at income levels…
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Because water doesn’t care about borders.
In the Oz constitution, water management is specifically listed as a Federal responsibility, because history has shown that the upstream folks tend to take every possible opportunity to fuck over the people downstream.
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When I used to live in Alameda, I would fight the urge to reenact the chase scene whenever I’d drive though the tube.
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We were discussing infrastructure though.
Water itself should be the states in the watershed. Feds have no real stake here.
