# Omnibus Stupid MFers in the news thread (Part 2)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [January 5, 2024, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657 "2024-01-05T16:15:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 176

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3501 "2025-01-09T19:18:52Z")

</div>

Unless there’s further information you didn’t quote, the distance can’t be calculated, because we don’t know where on 61st and 79th they live. If he lives at 61st and 1st and his kids live at 79th and 11th, that’s easily going to be an hour’s walk.

The real solution is for him just to rent a parking space that won’t require him to cross 60th to go uptown. If he’s claiming that he lives on 61st and _doesn’t_ rent a parking space, because it’s always possible for him to find street parking, he’s just plain lying.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3502 "2025-01-09T19:19:14Z")

</div>

Or use the subway. Or a bus. Or a cab.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3503 "2025-01-09T19:22:08Z")

</div>

It’s _possible_ that the walk is thirty minutes. How can _anyone_ expect someone living in Manhattan to walk for that long?

Or he can just say nine bucks is too much money to spend to see his children.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3504 "2025-01-09T19:27:49Z")

</div>

Sure, he’s a whiny, privileged idiot and I have no sympathy for him, but the linked article is also wrong in claiming that it’s a “twenty minute walk”. That would only be true if they live close to due north of him.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3505 "2025-01-09T19:31:55Z")

</div>

Really? We’re going to nitpick over that?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3506 "2025-01-09T19:35:48Z")

</div>

Lazy journalism annoys me. If you don’t like it, you can not respond, and then “we” will no longer be nitpicking it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3507 "2025-01-09T19:41:27Z")

</div>

I’m bored. Using Google Maps, it appears that walking from very eastern E 61st Street to very western W 79th Street might take about an hour. Surely that’s too far to walk to see one’s children.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3508 "2025-01-09T19:47:02Z")

</div>

> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> it appears that walking from very eastern E 61st Street to very western W 79th Street

And cross the hellscape of Upper East Side Manhattan?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3509 "2025-01-09T19:48:59Z")

</div>

That’s assuming one is willing to walk from the East Side to the West Side. I didn’t think Manhattanites crossed that line.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3510 "2025-01-09T19:50:35Z")

</div>

Oh, just what I already estimated off the top of my head? Cool. It’s irrelevant whether it’s “too far to walk”, since there are multiple other transportation modalities he could use, or he could just pay the nine bucks and STFU. I agree that this guy is a jerk, not sure why me pointing out that the article is poorly written is so triggering for you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3511 "2025-01-09T19:51:07Z")

</div>

> [@Thing.Fish](#):
>
> Oh, just what I already estimated off the top of my head?

Bravo to you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3512 "2025-01-09T19:51:08Z")

</div>

I’ve heard the Central Park Wilderness is simply impassable.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3513 "2025-01-09T19:51:40Z")

</div>

Worse yet, much of that hour-long walk would be through Central Park! He might be inadvertently exposed to fresh air, natural beauty, or possibly even birdsong. Oh, the horror!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3514 "2025-01-09T19:56:57Z")

</div>

Impassable, I say!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3515 "2025-01-09T21:02:08Z")

</div>

Seems to me that if you can afford to own a car in Manhattan, nine bucks isn’t even the kind of expenditure you ought to notice.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3516 "2025-01-09T21:24:16Z")

</div>

He can also choose to park somewhere that isn’t pointed right at a toll reader.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3517 "2025-01-09T21:28:30Z")

</div>

It’s much like crossing the Darien Gap in Central America. Bandits, jaguars, and alligators, oh my!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3518 "2025-01-09T21:43:08Z")

</div>

Maybe things have changed, but as the child of a Manhattanite with many NYC friends, I have known no one with a car in the city. It wasn’t unusual for my family to walk more than 70 blocks at a time.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3519 "2025-01-10T02:08:13Z")

</div>

I think that guy has a point. Suppose his kids lived at 90th St., or 100th. Suppose he just wanted to drive somewhere north, but he happens to be on a one-way avenue that forces him into the congestion zone before he can turn around. Seems a little unfair to charge someone who doesn’t want to go into the zone, but is forced to by the circumstances, regardless of how far north they end up going.

It’s not the end of the world. I suspect that people who live between 60th and 61st will find places to park that don’t force them to go south if they don’t want to.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/3520 "2025-01-10T02:10:52Z")

</div>

Isn’t the _whole point_ of charging people to drive into a congestion zone to reduce the number of vehicles in the congestion zone?

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657.md?page=175)

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657.md?page=177)
