Bad news on the face of it, but it could mean that we don't need to get as many people to vote in order to make a difference. http://billmoyers.com/2014/07/23/will-americans-set-a-new-record-for-political-apathy-in-2014/
Define serious effort.In fact, I'll put my money where my mouth is. I will donate $1000 to any AUer regular who registers to run in the midterm for Congress on a platform of improved urban and suburban mobility and mounts a serious effort.
Sounds like how I voteSometimes with all races in the November election some or most of the local issues and candidates get lost in the noise of the major races and people do nearly random picks, so having all races in November may improve the turnout but do nothing for intelligent voting on the issues. Also worth remembering that there can be issues regarded as more important than those rail related, so people will appear to be voting against their own interests due to other concerns.
Non-sensical routing: I could talk a long while on that one. Trying to make everybody happy causes this sort of idiocy, and usually ends up making nobody happy, and frequently hurting the ridership and overall usefulness of the system because the potential functionality tends to get lost while trying to make all the major and minor pressure groups and "squeaky wheels" happy, or at the least placate them.
I definitely agree with you. The candidates I tend to support are not necessarily big rail advocates, but IMO, there are bigger fish to fry. Don't get me wrong, I'll call them on it if they try to damage Amtrak, or mess with public transit spending, but on my list of political issues, I cannot honestly say that rail is that high on the list.Sometimes with all races in the November election some or most of the local issues and candidates get lost in the noise of the major races and people do nearly random picks, so having all races in November may improve the turnout but do nothing for intelligent voting on the issues. Also worth remembering that there can be issues regarded as more important than those rail related, so people will appear to be voting against their own interests due to other concerns.
Non-sensical routing: I could talk a long while on that one. Trying to make everybody happy causes this sort of idiocy, and usually ends up making nobody happy, and frequently hurting the ridership and overall usefulness of the system because the potential functionality tends to get lost while trying to make all the major and minor pressure groups and "squeaky wheels" happy, or at the least placate them.
Ditto to most of William's post.I definitely agree with you. The candidates I tend to support are not necessarily big rail advocates, but IMO, there are bigger fish to fry. Don't get me wrong, I'll call them on it if they try to damage Amtrak, or mess with public transit spending, but on my list of political issues, I cannot honestly say that rail is that high on the list.Sometimes with all races in the November election some or most of the local issues and candidates get lost in the noise of the major races and people do nearly random picks, so having all races in November may improve the turnout but do nothing for intelligent voting on the issues. Also worth remembering that there can be issues regarded as more important than those rail related, so people will appear to be voting against their own interests due to other concerns.
Non-sensical routing: I could talk a long while on that one. Trying to make everybody happy causes this sort of idiocy, and usually ends up making nobody happy, and frequently hurting the ridership and overall usefulness of the system because the potential functionality tends to get lost while trying to make all the major and minor pressure groups and "squeaky wheels" happy, or at the least placate them.
Ditto to this one, too. Passenger rail is just not a big issue where I live.Many candidates have no strong opinions about passenger rail. So I suggest that you approach candidates you agree with on other issues, and try to get them to commit to pro-rail positions. Since the issue is, admittedly, not high on many people's priority lists, if you and a few friends ask for such a commitment, they may well be willing to agree.
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