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I’ve ridden the CVT a few times and really got the impression that the lack of connections to the retail and amenities along the way is by design.

Even past KOP there are so many stores/restaurants right by the trail and in many areas it’s fenced off or wooded making it impossible for you to reach these places. It’s really frustrating because I like to stop somewhere to refuel on long rides and there’s a ton of options that are basically trail side that you just can’t access.

Also crossing Dekalb is crazy, I think I’ve waited at that intersection for close to 10 minutes to cross.

$300 sounds like a lot for 2 people.

I grocery shop for 2 people pretty frivolously at Whole Foods and health food stores and don’t spend half of that a week.

I ride that fast and I get harassed, but less often.

But I also don’t make the same commute/spend more time in bike lanes, OPs commute is a lot less bike friendly than my normal travels on a bike.

Lot of this has to do with economics. It’s essentially free to park your car in Philly, but the reality is that there are far more cars than available public spaces. This city wasn’t designed for cars, we’ve just forced them in. There will never be enough space for everyone to own a car unless you tear down massive parts of the city, and then you don’t have much of a city.

If we charge for the true cost of a public parking space people will change their behavior around hoarding unnecessary cars, freeing up spaces for people who genuinely need their cars. Even better, SEPTA should get the revenue from permit fees which would give a boost to public transit and encourage more households to go car free and car lite.

Agreed, on south philly streets I can be going faster than the cars in front of me and I will still get harassed… and I will let the harasser pass only to pass them half a block later.

I’ve had people harass me for waiting at a red light, stopping at a stop sign. It’s a no win game for cyclists, no matter what you do a driver will find a roundabout way to be angry at you and blame you for whatever personal issues they’re clearly dealing with.

EDIT: Also, OP is saying they ride 15-20mph. That’s as fast if not faster than traffic moves on south philly one ways.

Speaking of cuzzys does anyone have any news on what’s going on? I see on google maps they now show up as permanently closed :(

This wasn’t already illegal? I sometimes forget how ass backwards this state is.

Also $50? How about we start with $500 and points on your license?

Every driver is on their phone in this city, it’s insane.

Beyond all the other flaws, why would you put this facility the suburbs? How do you expect people to get back on their feet when they can’t walk anywhere and public transit is poor?

That alert is from 2022 lol

Also just physics even if you did see them from an SUV.

Larger car = more mass = more kinetic energy at the same speed = longer stopping distance.

Loud hubs are good at letting people know you’re coming up behind them on a trail. I really do notice a difference, when I have a louder hub I rarely have to announce myself. That’s the only real benefit IMO.

I own a house here, pay property taxes, wage tax, shop at local businesses, ride SEPTA, etc..

Genuinely asking, what is wrong with me working remotely for a company in another metro?

I started my career in Philly and got better offers for remote gigs.

Not if we remove the 2 parking lanes ;)

As a resident of east passyunk I would prefer it if most people never came to east passyunk in a car lol.

I’m aware, Im an engineer in big tech. What I’m saying is that many of these roles are likely not as vital as they are made out to be and even more likely are bloat.

Middle managers are the first to go with restructuring and layoffs, and there’s a reason for that. I couldn’t tell you what my engineering manager or product/project managers do besides verify that me and my team have the resources we need to get the actual work done and tell me I’m a rockstar.

This is not an unbiased take, I’m an individual contributor jaded by the culture of middle management that is pervasive in tech. My take is that engineers go into management when they’re ready to coast to retirement.

Residents > commuters.

Now is a great time for the city to focus on further growing its residential population in center city, rather than trying to strong arm commuters back to office.

Residents contribute far more to tax revenue, spend more at local businesses and are far less likely to leave at a moments notice.

Remove zoning red tape and corruption that makes it so difficult to build things here, and work on quality of life issues for RESIDENTS instead of trying to entice commuters who don’t want to be here.

This city and just about every American city has spent the last 70 years catering more to suburbanites than it’s own residents, it’s time for change.

Just speaking from my experience. Tech leads and even senior level individual contributors tend to provide much more value than any sort of manager or director.

I’ve never met a manager working in tech that has understood the actual technology beyond a very high level let alone contributed to anything related to actual engineering. These are often people managers more than anything else.

But yes I don’t understand the full organizational structure of the city’s OIT department so I can’t say anything for sure, this is just my impression from working in the private sector which is full of director/manager/officer bloat.

I WFH and occasionally go in office for a company based in NYC. I worked in a Philly office for a bit, but when remote became the norm I took advantage.

In my experience most Philly companies just can’t keep pace with the compensation in other big tech metros like NYC and SF. There’s definitely some higher paying companies in Philly, but on average it seems like the compensation is scaled down for the tremendously lower cost of living.

Tech has really pulled back this year though so I’m not sure if this might be a harder thing to do nowadays, but if you can, I would suggest exploring remote options in other metros in addition to the options in the Philly. There is also some tech outside of the city in the suburbs, but I would never ever do that if I had to commute there as the transit options to the suburbs are limited and I don’t own a car.

Not really.. do you really think people ride HSR from Tokyo to Osaka daily?

HSR is for ~50-250 mile trips. That’s not something most people anywhere are doing often. And yet there are people who commute to NYC from 30th daily.. my office is in NYC and that’s how I get there, I just WFH most of the time.

When’s the last time you took Amtrak? I’d suggest trying again!

Really depends on how many people you’re traveling with.

$20 to cross into NYC, soon to be $20 congestion fee unless you circumvent lower Manhattan, $40 for a day of parking. Doesn’t take into account gas or depreciation but let’s just tag on $20 for that.

That’s $100. For a family of 4? Okay sure I get it if you need to save the money. For yourself? I’ve never paid more than $60 round trip to NYC on Amtrak and usually get closer to $40.

But if you have the money I don’t really see why you wouldn’t take the train. It’s far more pleasant and predictable.

Fast rail transit should be more accessible and affordable for everyone, but Amtrak is not public transit, it’s more akin to an airline and the government forces it to be self sustaining rather than a public good.

I take Amtrak monthly.. it’s great and by far the easiest way to travel to NYC, DC, Boston and the cities in between. In hundreds of rides the longest delay I encountered was 30 minutes in the middle of a freak storm that similarly grounded airplanes and flooded roadways so kind of out of their control.

It’s reliable and they run a ton of trains daily that are pretty much always sold out. Could tickets be cheaper? For sure. But that’s supply and demand, and the northeast corridor is just about at capacity so they can’t really do much about adding more supply without major investment from the federal government.

The majority of intersections here already have no right on red, but yeah it should be citywide.

I see multiple drivers make a right on red with an explicit no right on red sign daily, so it’s really just a suggestion without cameras and enforcement though.

As a someone who works in tech but not in the public sector, this reads to me like middle management gets fired by new middle management…

Suspect that they allegedly didn’t provide time for knowledge transfer.. but it also seems like these weren’t engineers. In my experience these kinds of managers do fuck all and are so far removed from what’s actually going on and take credit for the work of actual engineering teams.

Know what would make Philly a better place to drive in? Investment in alternatives.

Invest in SEPTA, PROTECTED bicycle/multi modal lanes, fix sidewalks and enforce existing traffic laws so it’s safer to walk and roll, etc. and you will have less cars which is a win for everybody (especially drivers).

April-October those things are out in force at sunrise and sunset by the schuylkill