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Cake day: December 27th, 2025

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  • I took the Amtrak Empire Builder to Glacier National Park, which was supposed to arrive around six o’clock in the evening. The train was already late to Columbus, where I got on, which was not a good sign given the proximity to Chicago. Then, the train had to dramatically decrease speed across North Dakota (85MPH down to 60MPH, IIRC), because record-high temperatures in July were causing the rails to expand too much, making them uneven. I got to the station at the park 8 hours late.

    It was way too late to find accommodations. Luckily, I had my camping gear, so I just camped on a bench at the station until morning.









  • From the passenger’s perspective, a taxi and a self-driving car are functionally identical. But back when Uber, Lyft, and the rest were offering cheap rides subsidized by VC money, all that happened was that they made traffic congestion slightly, but measurably, worse. People didn’t give up private cars in large numbers, though.

    If we get self-driving cars, then people’s private cars can add to the problem by cruising around empty most of the time, and if they’re not in them, there’s nobody to be bothered by traffic delays. The only way to achieve the dream of eliminating gridlock would be to ban private cars. And if that were politically feasible, why not just do it now with transit?










  • If it makes you feel better to believe that, go ahead. For my part, I think it’s a pretty obvious truth that when the government makes an open-access highway for everybody to use, everybody is going to use it, even in ways you may not like. Especially when it makes driving the fastest and most convenient way to get around. (Making driving on the highway faster than public transit requires lots of infrastructure, and was a deliberate policy choice.)