DISQUS

billso.com: Stop the spam from StopRailNow and ZeroShibai

  • Daniel Peters · 1 year ago
    If going to college has taught me anything, it's to be skeptical of facts that are stated without any citation.

    After my trip back in time to the early 90's to check out honolulutraffic[dot]com, i had a glance at the stoprailnow[dot]com site and was particularly intrigued by the fact that their "Why not rail?" page had many strong facts with nary a statistic or footnote to back it up.
    The site claims that rail is noisy; I invite them to try to watch a movie at my apartment on punchbowl where Harley Davidsons and fat-mufflered civics are abound and then tell me that rail is louder than traffic.

    Another fun tidbit from stoprailnow claims that rail will be tall and unsightly, complete with a little picture of a none-too suave looking train of some sort. Their "Better Options" page then suggests that an elevated expressway is better. The picture shows a staggeringly tall road. Contradictory?

    The way I see it, there is only so much more room to make roads. Building more roads will make things smoother for a certain period of time and it will only get people to buy more cars. Gas prices rising will not curtail this as much as it will simply change the type of cars that people buy. http://www.autoblog.com/2008/06/03/by-the-numbe...

    In the end, I just want to know where stoprailnow is getting its facts. "Most Oahu residents oppose this project." It's stated on the front page. I see no source. No source, no weight. That's the way I see it.
  • billso · 1 year ago
    I do press students to cite their sources, and I'm also glad you are reading with a critical eye! Kudos to you.
  • gregory · 1 year ago
    white guys in hawaii, have been causing trouble for more than a hundred years
  • billso · 1 year ago
    [insert witty response here]