The US did have those places up until the 20s and 30s when cars started being mass produced. Places were walkable and we had very good rail infrastructure. Unfortunately oil, rubber and steel companies got behind the car and bought politicians and gave us the mess we’re in now and it went into overdrive following the Second World War.
I love Not Just Bikes.
Be careful with these numbers. Back in 1970 there were far fewer fees and taxes on a ticket. Yes, the airline might be charging a similar amount and providing less obvious value, but the actual total cost today is higher than what the airline charges. And as for value, the dramatically safer airplanes and procedures of today are of considerable value. You do have a better chance of making the entire trip today compared to 1970. That costs $ but is worth something to most passengers.
There probably haven’t been any without cars since shortly after cars were invented. But there are places where people can walk to the supermarket , medical offices, the post office etc - and those places do tend to have fewer cars per capita than places where housing is completely separated from offices and stores and most people can’t buy a quart of milk without getting into a car. You don’t need to have a car for every adult when you get around by walking.
Almost everything except advances in medicine, knowledge of the biology of the planet, and advances in the equality of women and minorities of every description to white cis males such as they are. There’s a handful of other things I consider improvements but only a handful. Much of the rest can go, as far as I’m concerned. You name, I’ll curl my lip about it.
I also really like the suggestion about everyone wearing fedoras.
If everyone did it, how would we identify the hipsters?
Oh, they’d make themselves known.
I wear a nice Tilley hat. When it is called for. Mostly to keep the sun, snow, rain off of me. It’s a nice hat. Very durable.
I get such a kick out of watching people in dining cars in the Suchet Poiret series. Looks so civilized.
Fountain pens and penmanship. I switched to fountain pens 25 years ago, and have never looked back. Once you experience the sensuous pleasure of a nib moving over good paper, or the dark clarity of fresh ink, a normal ballpoint or rollerball feels so pedestrian.
My son works for AMTRAK and says they are giving this serious consideration. A previous president canceled dining cars because they weren’t showing a profit. The current management realizes that this has cost them passengers, especially among rail buffs. Unfortunately, this will probably take some time.
I still remember listening to that while traveling the length of Florida to Ohio. The same program carried across multiple radio stations. It really held your interest and kept the driver awake. I guess you could do the same thing with satellite radio or just recordings but there was something almost magical hearing it on broadcast radio.
Heck, we dressed up to go shopping at the “big store” in town when I was young.
If it were up to me the people wearing sandals on a plane would be stowed in the luggage compartment. And I would like to see all the crazy violent people on planes get a lifetime ban from ALL airlines.
[quote=“Sam_Stone, post:27, topic:978167, full:true”]
Gernal manners would be nice to see again. I’m old enough to remember when people drressed up to go shopping and young people called older people ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’.
[/quotel
Yes, manners. It takes little effort to treat others with very basic generic respect. ‘Please’, 'thank you ', and ‘excuse me’ are 90% of it.
Pedestrian?
*Laughs in Quill Pen User*
A simple request. If your service center (bank, post office, etc) has 4 counters, have 4 employees working them. Nothing I hate more than being at the post office during normal business hours and seeing 2 clerks, with 2 other empty counters a line out the door. It’s like they think a counter with a momentarily idle clerk is a war crime.
Likewise, I’d lime to see fast food restaurants go back to having fresh sandwiches ready in the warmer ready for immediate sale with the possibility that they may have made a few too many in advance and that they might have to actually toss some due to them aging out, I don’t like micromanaging bottom lines at the customer’s inconvenience. I worked in a McDonalds 1976-1977 and that’s how it was done. We made money hand over fist.
And thirdly, I’d love to see treating customers who come inside a business to take precedence over the drive thru. I’ve experienced instances where I noted a vehicle at the end of the drive thru line as I walked in, came inside to find it relatively empty, and seeing that car get their food ahead of me.
I disagree completely with your first two. If the bank/post office/supermarket ( I know you didn’t say supermarket, but I don’t see why they would be different) has to staff every line during business hours , it doesn’t mean there will be four employees sitting around the post office or bank at 10am on a Tuesday in July. It means that two of those stations will be removed and Fri at 6 pm or Saturday at 10am will also have only two employees. I suppose it might be less frustrating if you don’t see those two empty counters while you wait on Tuesday morning, but I’d prefer that to my errand taking twice as long on Saturday.
The “fresh” sandwiches in the warmer for immediate sale is a contradiction - when it’s busy, the warmer isn’t needed, they are being sold as fast as they can be made. But a burger sitting in the warmer for 10-15 minutes isn’t “fresh” - and when I last worked in fast food 40 years ago, the holding times were 15-30 minutes depending on the product. They didn’t stop because they threw a few out when they made too many - to the extent they stopped , it was because people coming in at say 3pm would order a burger with no ketchup to get a fresh one. Which probably doesn’t work now because I understand they precook the burgers and assemble them when you order so even the “no ketchup” burger may have come off the grill 15 minutes ago.
Um, I would say that stuffing passengers into luggage compartments just for the crime of wearing sandals is pretty high up there on the “crazy violence” meter. I trust you will be conscientiously revoking your own flying privileges.
well that was a rhetorical statement. But thanks for playing.