Drew Dowdell

The problem is paying for such improvements. We're in a situation here in Pittsburgh that demonstrates how an unwillingness to raise taxes ends up hurting everyone. PennDOT is gearing up to enlarge the Squirrel Hill Tunnel on I376. It is a major pinch point for traffic coming from and going to the east of the city. My house is another 3 miles to the east. When I first bought my house, the traffic getting into town in the morning and out of town in the evening was dense, but tolerable. However, over the past 8 years, the Port Authority has needed to continuously cut bus service county wide, with two major cuts in the past 12 months (30% service cut last June and an additional 30% cut this April) Today, the areas on both sides of the tunnel are at a near jam during all daylight hours. The Port Authority was short $45 million for this year and that covers the entire metro area. The budget for the 3 year project to enlarge the just the Squirrel Hill Tunnel is a laughably low $60 million and will cause three years of 3 lane to 1 lane traffic. I'm a staunch supporter of public transit and I hate HATE driving to work in the morning. The Port Authority can get me from my house to my office in 30 minutes as opposed to 1+ hours driving.* However, the Port Authority's service cuts have reduced service so to such a low frequency, that it is no longer a reliable way to get to and from work. The situation is the same for most others who live in the east and work downtown..... and that is reflected in the traffic jams that are now an all day every day thing.\ That's not to say the tunnel doesn't need to be enlarged, it most certainly does. The project was brought forward as a way to mitigate traffic density increases. The best way to mitigate that increase is to reduce the number of people traveling through the tunnel in the first place. *The bus uses a special highway that it has exclusive use to and completely avoids the tunnels. It is a former rail line that has been paved for exclusive bus use.

and allied bombing campaigns.... don't forget that there are many cities in Europe that were 80% - 90% destroyed in the last century. In many regards, Cologne is a newer city than Philadelphia despite being founded in 38 B.C.

Thanks for the Japanese lesson. I feel like I'm playing one of those "What's different in these two pictures?" games.

If I ever win the lottery, I'm going to kidnap you and drag you to see what a city can be like. While I know it would never suit you personally, you'd probably end up conceding that the city life I'd show you would be desirable to a great many people in this country. I'll hold you to that offer! I don't dispute the urban life is desireable to many, but it isn't the panacea some make it out to be. A population moving to urban centers presents a host of ills. Cities are most defininitely not the models of sustainability they have been made out to be. I just feel that the way we do urban living is quite poor. Cologne has 1,000 more people per square mile than Pittsburgh, yet it is infinitely easier to get around and get to the places one needs to go, the food is better and fresher, the city is very clean, and I never feel unsafe. I've been all over Cologne multiple times and I have yet to see an area that anyone would classify as a ghetto. Even the slightly sketchy areas of Cologne would be considered luxury living compared to the rough areas of Pittsburgh.... yet they have triple the population we do. My one and only complaint about Cologne: The god damn church bells that wake me up at 6 am and go on for what seems like hours. Give it a rest father! I'm on vacation!

If I ever win the lottery, I'm going to kidnap you and drag you to see what a city can be like. While I know it would never suit you personally, you'd probably end up conceding that the city life I'd show you would be desirable to a great many people in this country.

And that population has a tendency to impose their views on everyone else while living in places that amplify all of the negatives in our society. It is probably why my dislike of my fellow Americans is growing. Many see cities and urban living as some sort of solution to our problems. I see it as a backward mentality, clinging to a tribal past. The herd mentality of it all runs counter to my most basic metrics of what is good. I've always felt that humanity benefits most from a healthy distance between people, and that density breeds violence and a diminished standard of living. So, why not think of all of this in another way? With so much of the work people do today, why isn't a move toward tele-commuting at the top of the agenda? Having the freedom to make a living no matter your location seems incredibly attractive to me. There is a move to tele-commuting. It may not be a national agenda, but "the invisible hand of the market" is already pushing that one hard. Cisco is the big winner there by owning both Webex and Tandberg Telepresence. Cities don't inherently breed violence. The way we do cities breeds violence. I have to disagree on that last point. Due to your experience in cities worldwide.... or what? Have you ever left the country?

And that population has a tendency to impose their views on everyone else while living in places that amplify all of the negatives in our society. It is probably why my dislike of my fellow Americans is growing. Many see cities and urban living as some sort of solution to our problems. I see it as a backward mentality, clinging to a tribal past. The herd mentality of it all runs counter to my most basic metrics of what is good. I've always felt that humanity benefits most from a healthy distance between people, and that density breeds violence and a diminished standard of living. So, why not think of all of this in another way? With so much of the work people do today, why isn't a move toward tele-commuting at the top of the agenda? Having the freedom to make a living no matter your location seems incredibly attractive to me. There is a move to tele-commuting. It may not be a national agenda, but "the invisible hand of the market" is already pushing that one hard. Cisco is the big winner there by owning both Webex and Tandberg Telepresence. Cities don't inherently breed violence. The way we do cities breeds violence.

It's a chicken and egg problem. If the cities weren't so wretched to live in, people wouldn't be trying to sprawl out to live with the Amish..... which gets back to my point - that dense urban living need not be awful. With a little bit of urban planning, urban living can not only be nice, but actually be desirable. However, one of the things it requires is a very strong public transit system.

Actually, those are perfect examples. I see those more than I do 3ers. They came standard with AWD where as the 3er is an extra charge for it.... in your area, I'm sure that makes a difference.

Most of the interstates are paid for with federal money. Roads are not the most subsidized form of transit... because road taxes are lifted for other transit methods. Yeah, but that 0.001% of linear mileage is responsible for a big chunk of traffic... vehicular miles. Not only that, they spill traffic that are not able to pay the toll onto other, usually overburdened, routes. Sometimes, keeping people off those roads is a form of subsidy. If keeping an extra 5,000 cars a day off of a bridge extends the life of that bridge by 5 - 7 years, that is a huge potential savings. However, even if you put back all the road taxes taken from gas tax to use for transit, the amount of money spent on highway subsidy greatly eclipses all other transportation subsidies. Please don't bring up the per-passenger-mile metric. It is a flawed metric. Explained:

Most of the country doesn't live in rural areas.

European/Japanese cities have been notoriously car unfriendly since the beginning. With one notable exception (Avignon France, surrounded by a city wall) all of the cities in Europe that I've visited are just as drivable as any city in the U.S..... yet at the same time they are easier to drive in because there are less cars on the road in the first place.

Except there is clearly still an issue with the EPA test for a vehicle like the Volt. Highway travel for me in extended range mode yielded over 60mpg and I wasn't being gentle on it.

x4

I think it's just a weird shadow/drip in the first picture where the muffler is visible.

looks like you have an exhaust leak too?

rise

I think that might void the warranty.

Remember, I grew up in the immediate Philly area. While I don't visit Philly much since 2007 or so, there have been points in my life where driving to Phila was a daily event. I think your Pittsburgh bias is showing. ;-) So we'll have to agree to disagree. Remember, I grew up there too. ;-) Pittsburgh has it's pockets of bad that need to be bulldozed, but no where near as much as Philly. However, my point to this is.... if cities actually started bulldozing this stuff and either A) encouraged rebuilding or B) ripped it out and put in a park, it would greatly improve the city. But there needs to be a sustainable plan in place for urban density, walkability, and public transit that doesn't rely on dirty diesel buses. And that city is... a European city? Or are you thinking of someplace in the US? it is many European cities.

They are out there... not too hard to find... most will only add 3/4 to an inch or so. Chevy to BOP is probably more common due to all the BOP people adding non-dual Chevy-only adaptor 700R4s. But I suppose they will work in either direction, reversed, depending on which side you need the starter on, if the starter was too even interfere. A stock LT1 is probably as crazy as you could get on that tranny... beyond that I'd imagine torque steer, traction and reliability would be an issue. Of course, I'd look into TH-425 fitment... and a big Olds 455 mill... but thats getting pricy... and likely would still be a serious traction problem. I guess I would look into converting to RWD if I really was going to go nuts with one of these. I can't imagine its so impossible. Going RWD is sacrilege on these, and there is no torque steer due to the way the half shafts are set up being nearly identical in length on either side. A Roadmaster could be a good engine to start with. It would lead to 0-60 times in the 6.75 - 7.5 range. The Roadmaster sedan was capable of a flat 8.0

much of Philly, outside of the central core, is desolate. It needs a fleet of bulldozers... or an Allied bombing campaign. My trouble is that I've seen what a walkable city with great housing and efficient public transit can be like... and how people can live in such a place and be car free not because they have to, but because they see no point in owning a car. and how vibrant, diverse, and most of all free that city is.

Ah, yeah... which is what I was thinking... then the trouble is digging up a Northstar to BOP adaptor... I never paid attention to the Northstar/Shortstar pattern. I thought they were thinking of swapping a whole drivetrain. BOP to Chevy adaptors are pretty easy to do. Shame the TH-325/TH-425 don't have the dual patterns the 200-4Rs have. I imagine I'll need to figure out a Chevy to BOP adapter some day. I've always wanted one the these Sevilles and to put an LT-1 in it. It doesn't need to be the fastest thing on the block, but I do want it to accelerate with a Cadillac like authorati! Its been eons since I looked over an E-bod... but as I remember it the axles were fairly far forward compared to the modern FWDs... like between the 1/2 and 3/4 cylinders. Of course, I suppose you could move the radiator forward... but then I'm sure the original E-bod drivetrain is better weighted behind the front axle. Your recollection of the axle location is exactly right.

I'm just not paying that much attention to a proposal that 1.) The republicans would never in any way allow and 2.) The Whitehouse said wasn't even included in the debate. It doesn't get much deader than that. I was just being cryptic, Drew. It was the "regressive" debate that I was referring to in that post. For that, I direct you towards the Politics forum. It's down the hall on your... uhm.... left. All fine and dandy... but they aren't going to ever plant all that rail in a place like Jersey without pissing off everybody (NIMBY)... It takes NYC 40 years to get a new subway line put in... and its buried 20-50+ feet below the street. In South Jersey there are two kinds of people... normal driving ones and unfortunate ones that spend 1/4 of their day waiting for bus transfers to travel the 20 minutes the normal people drive. it's really a testament to the desolate places Detroit, Philly, and many other industrial cities have become.

I think he was proposing turning the transverse Aurora by 90 degrees, SA. You couldn't mount anything but an I4 in one of these transversely because they still have a bit of RWD proportions to them. The engine would end up sitting too far forward and would be into the radiator (which sits a good foot behind the bumper). My 81 is a 3-speed, they went 4-speed overdrive across the lineup in '82.

I'm just not paying that much attention to a proposal that 1.) The republicans would never in any way allow and 2.) The Whitehouse said wasn't even included in the debate. It doesn't get much deader than that.