(11-09-2023, 09:26 PM)neonjoe Wrote: I think in the case of the TTC it was Cst Power Trip protecting the rights of motorists from the scourge of public transit. Are trams even covered by the HTA?

(11-09-2023, 09:26 PM)neonjoe Wrote: I think in the case of the TTC it was Cst Power Trip protecting the rights of motorists from the scourge of public transit. Are trams even covered by the HTA?

(11-09-2023, 11:20 PM)bravado Wrote:

(11-09-2023, 09:26 PM)neonjoe Wrote: I think in the case of the TTC it was Cst Power Trip protecting the rights of motorists from the scourge of public transit. Are trams even covered by the HTA?

To steal a good one from twitter:

"Another banner day for the Occupying Army of Suburbia"

(11-09-2023, 07:31 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: This is way too cynical, and implicitly suggests that we could have a society with no police.

Spoiler alert: you cannot have a modern urban society without police. What you can have is a society with police that are more accountable and whose activities promote a better society for everybody.

For example, we’re always talking about how bad drivers are. Now obviously we could have better attitudes so that drivers in general are better, but there will always be somebody who thinks it’s A-OK to get somewhere faster by driving crazily through downtown. There needs to be a group of people whose job it is to deal with those people. Whatever you call that group of people, what they are is the police.

I have watched more videos than I should have of police interactions. They vary, and in some of them I definitely have criticisms of the police response, but in others, they show tremendous patience with extremely poor behaviour from those with whom they are interacting. In the videos I am thinking of, they are clearly putting in a lot of effort to behave in an appropriate manner. To paint all of the police as enemies is inaccurate, and perhaps more importantly, unhelpful. I find myself asking: what should the police do to regain trust? The way some people talk, I can’t imagine what they could do that would even begin to make those people happy. So what incentive do they have even to try?

(11-10-2023, 02:30 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: I never said all police are enemies, but policing as a whole is harmful in its current form. It harms our freedom, because police are poorly trained in law and often infringe on our rights. It harms individuals because some cops are poorly trained or poorly emotionally suited to de-escalating and thus often fail at 2. And it harms society in general because they use the excuse of the danger involved with 2 and to justify siphoning off most of the available tax dollars in society for their own use.

(11-10-2023, 03:11 AM)dtkvictim Wrote: This discussion probably aught to be moved to the WRPS thread.

(11-10-2023, 02:30 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: I never said all police are enemies, but policing as a whole is harmful in its current form. It harms our freedom, because police are poorly trained in law and often infringe on our rights. It harms individuals because some cops are poorly trained or poorly emotionally suited to de-escalating and thus often fail at 2. And it harms society in general because they use the excuse of the danger involved with 2 and to justify siphoning off most of the available tax dollars in society for their own use.

Ignoring the rest of the post, I think you may want to clarify here: When you say policing is harmful in its current form, do you mean to say you believe it's a net negative? As in, if the police vanished tomorrow society would be better off for it? That the manner and degree that they infringe on our freedoms is worse than the effect that bad actors have on our freedom? That the public financial burden of police is worse than the economic impact and personal financial burden of not having police?

Or do you believe that it's a net positive, but that the underlying pluses and minuses don't add up as ideally as you would like? Possibly trending towards net negative, but not there yet?

I think those are two very different positions to hold, and probably drastically changes how or if someone wants to respond.

(11-10-2023, 02:14 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: IIRC from my last read of the HTA, trams are mentioned in the HTA, but they explicitly do not qualify as a motor vehicle, so probably have some rules, but distinct rules.

Quote:145 (1) The council of a municipality may by by-law prohibit a driver or street car operator approaching, at an intersection, a traffic control signal showing a circular green or green arrow indication from entering the intersection unless traffic in front of him or her is moving in a manner that would reasonably lead him or her to believe he or she can clear the intersection before the signal indication changes to a circular red indication.  R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 145 (1).

(11-18-2023, 09:39 AM)nms Wrote: The Ion has now been in operation for over 1000 revenue days; it has been sidelined for parts of "at least" three days according to that CTV report. Overall, a pretty good operating track record.

(11-18-2023, 09:39 AM)nms Wrote: That being said, we know that the LRVs can be fitted with ice scrapers when bad weather is expected.  What I don't know is, in cases where the ice isn't present, does the scraper add any kind of wear to the catenary itself? How do tram lines in places like Finland manage?  Or is the case there that weather is generally drier (eg mainly snow and not freezing rain) and therefore a different operating condition?

(11-18-2023, 09:39 AM)nms Wrote: If freezing rain, as opposed to snow, is the problem, then someone may have to dig into the operating agreement to figure out who pays for increased operating costs due to climate change. My bet is that it would be the Region that pays.

(11-18-2023, 09:39 AM)nms Wrote: In October and November, many motorists put on snow tires for winter driving and leave them on until March.  If we only put them on ahead of each storm, it would slow us down too.  But, the winter tires would be in much better shape because they were only used for a handful of days.