Skier speed trap hell

benski · Apr 27, 2018

BenedictGomez said:
The fault for the reason education now costs so much, as well as the reason home prices are artificially high, is the same = Government.

Education was a lot cheeper when the government spent more money on it 30 years ago. Public and private education have the same problem with costs. But yeah, zoning rules seam do be designed to make homes artificially high, but it does not help that suburban lifestyles also increase the demand for land a lot.

gregnye · Apr 27, 2018

Hawk said:
I think that Millennials are basically too lazy to drive or move to the suburbs. They would rather use their sense of entitlement and have someone else drive for them. That way they can text and play video games. Driving requires some skill and it also requires an attention span that they do not have. Us Gen-Xers are the generation that will make sure things get done while you guys are busy liking your friends sushi post. LOL

Don't know whether this post is supposed to sarcasm or not. As a Millennial myself it's more just the fact that we hate devoting time to traveling. Think about how long it takes to live in NH and commute to Boston. That's at least 2 hours one way. Thats 4 hours per day.

If you commute 90 mins per day, you spend around 31.3 days commuting (timewise) per year! That's time I could use to buy avocado toast! :razz:

Finally, this combined with the fact that the younger generation is no longer scared of city life and people from different backgrounds who live in the city (aka no more white flight to suburbs) create this situation where millennials live close to work and don't need a car.

source: https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/make-money/side-gigs/commuting-for-years/

gregnye · Apr 27, 2018

This whole thread is just amplifying the stereotype that skiing is a rich man's sport. One of my life dreams (that I know I will never achieve) is to make skiing more affordable to all. I wish everyone could experience the pleasure of skiing fresh powder. Sadly here in the U.S. that costs a $100 lift ticket, rentals, ski clothes, a personal car to the mountain and much more. Or it costs an expensive alpine touring setup, Avalanche Safety Knowledge and a desire to hike.

We've gotten off topic though. I think regardless of opinions on the state of transportation in the U.S. we all can agree that speed traps in "school zones" without actual schools are dumb.

BenedictGomez · Apr 27, 2018

benski said:
Education was a lot cheeper when the government spent more money on it 30 years ago. Public and private education have the same problem with costs.

The only reason education has rise as dramatically as it has is due to the absurd student loan expenditures by the federal government (a good overview below). The government is handing out student loans like candy, which in turn is gamed by the colleges who then increase professor salaries, tuition fees, and not to mention silly spending on things like 85" HDTVs in gyms, etc... Bonus points for kids spending $200,000 on a college "education" (term used loosely) with a major in 16th Century Greek Philosophy or Women's Studies, who will never be able to crawl out of debt due to their useless degree.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/presto...will-cost-taxpayers-170-billion/#59f1a6b762a9

BenedictGomez · Apr 27, 2018

gregnye said:
Finally, this combined with the fact that the younger generation is no longer scared of city life and people from different backgrounds who live in the city (aka no more white flight to suburbs) create this situation where millennials live close to work and don't need a car.

lULZ. Spoken like someone clearly not old enough to remember when the city was actually the city.

HINT: There didn't used to be a SBUX on every corner and a Disney Store in every C.B.D., and SHOCKINGLY...... no, really, SHOCKINGLY I tell you, that actually wasn't people's biggest concern at the time!

Jully · Apr 27, 2018

BenedictGomez said:
The only reason education has rise as dramatically as it has is due to the absurd student loan expenditures by the federal government (a good overview below). The government is handing out student loans like candy, which in turn is gamed by the colleges who then increase professor salaries, tuition fees, and not to mention silly spending on things like 85" HDTVs in gyms, etc... Bonus points for kids spending $200,000 on a college "education" (term used loosely) with a major in 16th Century Greek Philosophy or Women's Studies, who will never be able to crawl out of debt due to their useless degree.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/presto...will-cost-taxpayers-170-billion/#59f1a6b762a9

Admin costs at colleges and universities these days are ridiculous. Obviously all the speed traps in ski country these days are only exacerbating this malignancy!

Jully · Apr 27, 2018

BenedictGomez said:
lULZ. Spoken like someone clearly not old enough to remember when the city was actually the city.

HINT: There didn't used to be a SBUX on every corner and a Disney Store in every C.B.D., and SHOCKINGLY...... no, really, SHOCKINGLY I tell you, that actually wasn't people's biggest concern at the time!

Spot on. The most recent generation's open minded ideals wouldn't hold up in the Bronx at 9pm in 1980.

Jully · Apr 27, 2018

BenedictGomez said:
The US highway system (Eisenhower) is the envy of the world.

The only people you typically find "bitching about it" are either a small minority of eco-extremists or the people who wish America was Europe, and often those two small groups of "people" are actually the same people.

Eh, the interstates are the envy of the world, the Boston road network, MBTA subway lines, and Maine state roads on the way to SR and SL are FAR from it.

Lots of good and lots of bad.

cdskier · Apr 27, 2018

Glenn said:
The college I went to allowed Freshman to have cars. The place emptied out on the weekends. Didn't stop us from having a good time. I never figured out why people wanted to rush home on the weekends. Plus, they were urinating away some of their housing budget since they weren't living in their room two days a week.

A few people went home weekends at my college, but not that many even though freshmen could have cars. Although I'd say many students also would have had a sizable drive home so that probably helped deter that.

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deadheadskier · Apr 27, 2018

BenedictGomez said:
Normally I'd read a sentence like this & assume you're wrong, but given its' Boston I'm not even going to bother fact-checking it & just assume you're correct.

It actually had a price tag of $3 Billion before being put back out to bid. So a bit under $750 million per mile for 30k new riders a day

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_Extension

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Smellytele · Apr 27, 2018

BenedictGomez said:
The only reason education has rise as dramatically as it has is due to the absurd student loan expenditures by the federal government (a good overview below). The government is handing out student loans like candy, which in turn is gamed by the colleges who then increase professor salaries, tuition fees, and not to mention silly spending on things like 85" HDTVs in gyms, etc... Bonus points for kids spending $200,000 on a college "education" (term used loosely) with a major in 16th Century Greek Philosophy or Women's Studies, who will never be able to crawl out of debt due to their useless degree.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/presto...will-cost-taxpayers-170-billion/#59f1a6b762a9

This

Smellytele · Apr 27, 2018

gregnye said:
Finally, this combined with the fact that the younger generation is no longer scared of city life and people from different backgrounds who live in the city (aka no more white flight to suburbs) create this situation where millennials live close to work and don't need a car.

source: https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/make-money/side-gigs/commuting-for-years/

No but they do need comfort dogs and safe zones

ss20 · Apr 27, 2018

There's one ski train in the Northeast. The Metro-North ski train to Thunder Ridge. It's 99% first-generation, first-time skiers who's ethnicity is...lets say...not from around here. They come and have little intention of coming back, and just see it as an activity to do for the day...just like if the ski mountain were a casino, baseball park, theme park, ect- it's just a daytrip...not something they except to become a lifelong activity.

So would a ski train be great? Maybe...but it seems that the majority of the skiing demographic (middle-upper class) isn't interested.

And if it were a ski train that ran from...say...Boston-Sunday River... or any other destination resort, I doubt that the results would be much different. Because if you can afford to ski, you can afford to have a car. If you can't afford a car, you probably can't afford to ski...so how does a train benefit either party?

benski · Apr 28, 2018

BenedictGomez said:
The only reason education has rise as dramatically as it has is due to the absurd student loan expenditures by the federal government (a good overview below). The government is handing out student loans like candy, which in turn is gamed by the colleges who then increase professor salaries, tuition fees, and not to mention silly spending on things like 85" HDTVs in gyms, etc... Bonus points for kids spending $200,000 on a college "education" (term used loosely) with a major in 16th Century Greek Philosophy or Women's Studies, who will never be able to crawl out of debt due to their useless degree.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/presto...will-cost-taxpayers-170-billion/#59f1a6b762a9

You are not wrong, but just look at how colleges are ranked, few ranking actually reward colleges for a good ROI, especially US news, which gives financial resources 10% of there formulas weight, just behind selectivity. This really suggests to me the goals colleges have when trying to improve there reputation are all wrong.

sull1102 · Apr 28, 2018

ss20 said:
There's one ski train in the Northeast. The Metro-North ski train to Thunder Ridge. It's 99% first-generation, first-time skiers who's ethnicity is...lets say...not from around here. They come and have little intention of coming back, and just see it as an activity to do for the day...just like if the ski mountain were a casino, baseball park, theme park, ect- it's just a daytrip...not something they except to become a lifelong activity.

So would a ski train be great? Maybe...but it seems that the majority of the skiing demographic (middle-upper class) isn't interested.

And if it were a ski train that ran from...say...Boston-Sunday River... or any other destination resort, I doubt that the results would be much different. Because if you can afford to ski, you can afford to have a car. If you can't afford a car, you probably can't afford to ski...so how does a train benefit either party?

Wrong, MBTA and Wachusett have had one running for at least 7 years now.

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Smellytele · Apr 28, 2018

benski said:
You are not wrong, but just look at how colleges are ranked, few ranking actually reward colleges for a good ROI, especially US news, which gives financial resources 10% of there formulas weight, just behind selectivity. This really suggests to me the goals colleges have when trying to improve there reputation are all wrong.

Bachelor Degrees are like high school diplomas were 30 years ago. Maybe even worth less than that. I remember taking some classes with some real stupid people and thought to myself - if that person gets a degree, mine is worthless.

SkiingInABlueDream · Apr 28, 2018

Smellytele said:
Bachelor Degrees are like high school diplomas were 30 years ago. Maybe even worth less than that. I remember taking some classes with some real stupid people and thought to myself - if that person gets a degree, mine is worthless.

No way. A bachelor's degree today in a field like engineering is far more valuable than a HS diploma from any era. Bachelors degree in basket weaving, maybe a different story. But in general I disagree with your statement.

abc · Apr 28, 2018

x10003q said:
Unless you live right next to the train station, just getting to the train station is a giant pain in the ass. At the time I considered the train, we were living in NYC around 14th st and 3rd ave. We (wife, 9 year old, me) all own equipment. Trying to maneuver heavy ski equipment around NYC at rush hour is difficult at best. The train left around 5:45pm. We needed to leave our apt at 4:45pm and we planned on using the subway (cabs are hard to find at rush hour, plus the traffic can be insane). That meant humping the ski equipment one long block, going down 4 flights of stairs, getting on a crowded subway train, getting off a crowded subway train, walking up 4-6 flights of stairs, walking 1 long block and then walking a good distance in Penn Station. Then we had to go down 2 flights of stairs and load the equipment on the train.
This was just to get to the train.

....
Maybe it works for a single person with a seasonal place to stay. It is pretty difficult and expensive for a family.

The few times I went to Switzerland (to ski), on my way to the mountains by train, I saw quite many people taking the train to the mountains for a day trip. I wonder how they got to the train with their ski equipment?

(Actually, I asked. They simply hump it from their home to the train. Some drove to the train station, some walked, it all depends on where they live)

Most are solo skiers. It's quite an interesting scene

The obvious difference, is almost ALL of Swiss ski resorts are on the train line. Or put another way, the Swiss train line reaches almost all the villages people live, even deep in the mountain. There're lift ticket machine right at the station. Lockers to stow away your street shoes and backpack. The ski lifts are visible from the train. Now I call that INFRASTRUCTURE!

boston_e · Apr 28, 2018

ss20 said:
There's one ski train in the Northeast. The Metro-North ski train to Thunder Ridge. It's 99% first-generation, first-time skiers who's ethnicity is...lets say...not from around here. They come and have little intention of coming back, and just see it as an activity to do for the day...just like if the ski mountain were a casino, baseball park, theme park, ect- it's just a daytrip...not something they except to become a lifelong activity.

So would a ski train be great? Maybe...but it seems that the majority of the skiing demographic (middle-upper class) isn't interested.

And if it were a ski train that ran from...say...Boston-Sunday River... or any other destination resort, I doubt that the results would be much different. Because if you can afford to ski, you can afford to have a car. If you can't afford a car, you probably can't afford to ski...so how does a train benefit either party?

Wachusett Mountain is connected by commuter train to Boston. I don’t know how much it is used though.

BenedictGomez · Apr 28, 2018

Smellytele said:
Bachelor Degrees are like high school diplomas were 30 years ago. Maybe even worth less than that. I remember taking some classes with some real stupid people and thought to myself - if that person gets a degree, mine is worthless.

I am legitimately HORRIFIED at the devaluation of a college degree during my lifetime.

I think I'm generally of around the age when college was last a serious thing most everywhere. Now it's an entitled daycare for delayed adulthood, where the $$$$ is the most important thing, not education. College acceptance rates have skyrocketed compared to the past ($$$$), and grade inflation ($$$) is rampant even at the Ivy League schools. The most common grade given in college today is an 'A'; seriously.

Worse? Rampant grade inflation has now trickled down to the high-school level.

Nearly half of America’s Class of 2016 are A students. Meanwhile, their average SAT score fell from 1,026 to 1,002 on a 1,600-point scale — suggesting that those A's on report cards might be fool's gold.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...y-half-hs-seniors-graduate-average/485787001/

Skier speed trap hell

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