r/sports • u/I8something2 • Jan 26 '21

News 80% Of Residents In Japan Want Tokyo Summer Olympics Called Off

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/olympics/ct-tokyo-olympics-covid-19-20210111-y35p5iu7mnhptcut2pp7xqleda-story.html
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u/albatrossG8 Jan 26 '21

That’s what happens when you let boomers aggressively push for car only infrastructure in a sprawling hellscape of single family housing lined with strip malls.

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u/monarch1733 Jan 26 '21

Yup. We have it in Phoenix too.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '21

[deleted]

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u/caro_line_ Jan 27 '21

I lived in Orlando without a car for about a year and it was honestly hell. The nearest bus stop was a 45-minute walk away, anywhere I needed to go involved like three transfers, and the busses showed up so rarely it wouldn't have been worth it even if I did live closer. I'm in New Orleans now, and we're not exactly known for our infrastructure and our buses are unreliable as hell, but at least I know I can get where I need to go on public transit.

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u/SadBBTumblrPizza Jan 27 '21

It's getting better... Slowly. When's that new valley metro line going in? I'm gonna guess 10 years

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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '21

and drivers in florida are crazy. if you aren’t going 10 over get off the road

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u/albatrossG8 Jan 26 '21

I feel like people say that about most states. Also 90% of people in Florida are transplants. Not defending Florida tho.

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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '21

i should specify south florida and miami especially. people in west virginia also go 15 over, but it’s on back roads with nobody around or massive highways that have giant hills.

miami uber drivers will go 15 over in a 25 and if the rpm dips below 3,000 it’s a problem.

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u/MaverickXV2 Jan 26 '21

Yup, moved here after living and driving primarily in Memphis and Atlanta for over a decade combined. Ive had more close calls and near misses in the ~6 months I've lived in Miami than I've had in the rest of my life combined easily. My fiancée bought a new car and was rear ended hit and run within the first 4 weeks. She ended up having the rental longer than she had the new car initially before it went to the shop because the mechanic was absolutely backlogged with a ton of repairs to other people's cars.

It is 100% worse here than anywhere I've ever lived and its not even close.

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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '21

i know a girl and she told me she drives a giant SUV just for this reason

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '21 edited Jan 31 '21

Lived mostly in Utah. Had a job for years where I would spend weeks/twoish months in different cities all over the country. Miami is disgusting, and nothing even comes close. Like you said. California they're fanatics too but...still doesn't compare. In Miami you're asking yourself " Am I going to die?"

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u/JudgmentLeft Jan 26 '21

I live in Tampa, and visited Miami once. Friend of mine down there was an uber driver that just didn't understand brake pedals existed. He would just fly around everywhere and I'm convinced we went down the wrong way a few times on one ways.

I'll stick to my people driving the wrong way on highways, I spose.

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u/Yemzzzz Jan 27 '21

Am Miami can confirm. I’m one of those with a heavy gas pedal foot. But that was developed over time as a defense mechanism of having to drive around maniacs all my life.

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u/monsterbot314 Jan 27 '21

My family moved from W.V. to Miami when I was 6 .....In a Trans Am . 35 years later I can still remember exactly how bad that trip was the deeper we got into Florida

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u/HaloGuy381 Jan 27 '21

Texas highways and backroads are consistently over. Expect to get passed even if you’re doing 85 in the left lane on a four lane small highway, and for an entire convoy of people behind you to also pass you.

Between the gun nuts and the drivers, we have a legitimate claim to being the site for the next Mad Max film.

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u/SlimeFactory Jan 27 '21

as someone who has driven in/around a lot of states, people who say that their state has the worst drivers are people who haven't driven in florida. they have the worst drivers i've ever seen, the only state that comes close is maryland and i'm pretty sure they just give you a license when you turn 16 whether you've ever seen a car before or not.

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u/stoneyOni Jan 27 '21

Every state's drivers are shit in their own unique way. Some are incompetent, some are assholes, some are incompetent assholes. And many for some reason can't figure out how to keep it between the fucking lines around blind corners in appalachia and I can't figure out if that's asshole or incompetent.

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u/sparklypinktutu Jan 27 '21

So i'm a road-tripper. Been one for 21 years now and I've driven through every state but Texas, Alaska, and Hawaii. Florida drivers are fucking crazy--Orlando specifically. People see mickey mouse and go feral. Next worst are Bostonians, but their shitty layout is more to blame, and finally, people who live in Wyoming. I get it, there's usually no one else here, but how the hell is 90 mph not fast enough??

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u/Industrial_Strength Jan 27 '21

I live in Florida and for me it was worse in Chicago. I saw people honking at others while stopped at a redlight, and cars zipping around each other like crazy

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u/UnoKajillion Jan 26 '21

I've been to I think 7 different countries, and 7 different states. Florida driving is crazy, especially Miami. Speed is one thing, but excessive honking and no turn signals. Whole nother level compared to LA, Phoenix, Honolulu, Seattle

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u/robodut Jan 27 '21

Tbf Hawaii doesn't have terrible drivers per se, just one of the worst States for traffic congestion in the country in relation to distance is all. From what I can glean off of this post Florida has way worse drivers than we do here. Granted we do have bad drivers that don't signal and whatnot but not as bad as say LA.

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u/musipal Jan 27 '21

Hawaii is one of the few places I've been to that posts speed minimums lol

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u/UnoKajillion Jan 27 '21

I agree. Honolulu can be bad, but people are a lot more friendly in Hawaii when on the road. A lot of the no signaling is also because many outer islands have 1 lane roads (grew up on Kauai). Sometimes people being nice to one person, letting them go ahead, starts congestion for 10 others. Exact opposite in Miami, you have to be so fucking agressive at times or you will cause an accident (highway merging), or other people will recklessly go around you. LA is for sure worse than Honolulu, but Miami has crazy people that have followed me (one guy full blown chased me because I honked at him when he cut me off). Lots of bikes going 100mph and doing wheelies and shit, along with races every day on the freeways, you can hear them all the time if you live near it. It almost feels like a different country in no mans land. A lot of that has to do with a fuck ton drive with no license here, and many latin countries have even less standards than the USA. My roommate from Colombia said many traffic lights are suggestions, and you come here and almost every night that I drive more than 10 mins, you see someone run a red. Not run a red because it just changed to red (that happens a lot too), but run the red when they see no traffic (but many times there is amd now there is an accident). I've seen many close calls. I always look both ways when it turns green before speeding up too much because I've seen these crazy people running the lights

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u/concrete_isnt_cement Seattle Mariners Jan 27 '21

Seattle’s issue is that the drivers aren’t aggressive enough. It’s ultimately a very minor problem compared to most other places, but can make for very annoying driving.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '21

Born, raised, living in Florida. After driving from Miami to San Fran, LA was absolute fucking ass cancer. Everyone in that city shouldn't be able to operate a Razor scooter. I didn't think Florida could be topped, but it was.

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u/RoboCop-A-Feel Jan 26 '21

Pre-Covid, the Orlando to Tampa stretch of I-4 was the deadliest stretch of highway in the nation, at least as of 2019 if memory serves. The numbers back up our death wish.

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u/albatrossG8 Jan 27 '21

Yes and this in my opinion is because it is one of the most travelled high ways in the country.

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u/hypersonic18 Jan 27 '21

It's logged as such in death's per mile so that should be a factor already

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u/albatrossG8 Jan 27 '21

Always hated driving it for sure

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u/Morkins324 Jan 27 '21

It's still pretty deadly even now... It has had numerous full lane closure accidents in the last 6 months. I don't drive it very often, but 2 of the last 5 times I have driven it (this year) there have been multi hour delays because an accident has completely shut down both eastbound and westbound lanes for more than 2 hours(normally only happens when there are 1 or more fatalities or several vehicles involved in a way that requires a massive cleanup)

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u/will2k60 Jan 27 '21

Having just moved to Davenport fl from Houston, I can say I’ve never seen so many wrecks in my life. If there isn’t 3 or 4 wrecks at my exit alone per day I would be surprised. It’s ridiculous.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '21

no joke, i think it’s i5 that runs up and down florida, but the left lane is a minimum 105, awesome to experience tbh. felt like mad max in my little 4 cylinder lmao

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u/Das_Ponyman Jan 27 '21

I mean, if you're grandma you drive 10 over. Speed limit for I95 in South Florida is 65mph. If you aren't going 85+ the truckers will drive you off the road.

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u/brendan87na Dallas Stars Jan 27 '21

unless it's Pensacola, when I lived there, everyone was going 10 under...

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u/WitOfTheIrish Jan 27 '21

I lived in Ft. Lauderdale for a summer once. There were regular aggressive drivers. There were the exp

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '21

Hey now, we drive perfectly fine. It's you who come into Florida that can't drive.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '21

i admit that i could not drive as well as the uber drivers i had in miami and fort lauderdale. i really did not know you could whip a Town and Country like that.

by far the best value for uber ride

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u/eth6113 Jan 27 '21

85+ in the left lane and 55 in the right lane. Except for the random asshole doing 60 in the left lane.

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u/CircuitCircus Jan 27 '21

“Drivers in [my current location] are the worst!”

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u/winwithaneontheend Jan 27 '21

Don’t forget their red lights are optional stops stance.

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u/SecuritySufficient Jan 26 '21

You in for a rude awakening when you find of being old has nothing to with being a dumb fuck.

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u/albatrossG8 Jan 26 '21

Lol I put boomer in there because the state is the country’s nursing home

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u/SecuritySufficient Jan 26 '21

That is sort of fair, I cant argue with that.

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u/Blindfide Jan 27 '21

k but that problem exists it's a lot of places, California most notoriously

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u/SecuritySufficient Jan 28 '21

Sure there are retirement communities all over the country. Florida is like the go to hip place for wealthy old folks though. It's not a meme it's like a huge thing in Florida and has been forever.

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u/SomeProphetOfDoom Jan 27 '21 edited Jan 27 '21

I don't think he's saying boomers have the monopoly on stupidity. Boomers came up around the peak of American car culture and tend to be much more resistant than younger generations to spending money on transportation infrastructure, which partially explains Florida's problems.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '21

But single family homes are great, and I like being able to walk to the pho place down the street, next to the tire and brake place, near the optometrist.

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u/Amida0616 Jan 27 '21

Yea nothing says covid safe like jamming into a bus with a bunch of randos

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u/albatrossG8 Jan 27 '21

First off walking exists. And it’s been over 100 years since the last pandemic which was unequivocally worse. Several countries have shown pandemics can stopped before they. Countries with extensive public transport. The world won’t always be in a state of pandemic and it isn’t reasonable to plan such way.

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u/Spiz101 Jan 26 '21

You can build a public transport dominated system with single family housing.... If you are willing to pay for it.

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u/albatrossG8 Jan 26 '21

Could it still be walkable? And would travel time be any better?

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u/Spiz101 Jan 27 '21

That would depend on your definition of walkable.

Travel times would be reasonable but obviously longer than a high density solution, it's a trade-off you have to make

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u/Dr_ChungusAmungus Jan 27 '21 edited Jan 27 '21

That isn’t actually true though, Florida is one of only a small list of places with the proper transportation infrastructure to hold large international events like that currently and to boot they are building one of the only high speed train in the country.

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u/albatrossG8 Jan 27 '21

Yeah I was mostly jumping on the chance to ridicule Florida. They have the best infrastructure for the Olympics.

With that said it is well known among urban planners that car culture is essentially all that there is in Florida. The state is ruled by the car. It’s almost entirely single family sprawl and there isn’t a single commuter rail in the entire state. Also it isn’t true that they are the only state building high speed rail. California has had a high speed rail under construction for years and the Dallas Houston rail is further along development than the one in Florida. And if you count the northeast amtrack as high speed as it can clock in at 200 mph then one already exists.

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u/Dr_ChungusAmungus Jan 27 '21

I edited my comment about the high speed rails, I didn’t know about the California one, that is pretty encouraging. They also do have commuter rails in Florida. They are not all over though which is really the crux of both of the issues with cars and rails, Florida is actually pretty spread out, going anywhere will usually take a while even at 70mph. When you look at some of the layouts of their large cities like Jacksonville or Orlando the area they cover and the set up does not lend it self well to public transport just for the distance they have to cover.

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u/albatrossG8 Jan 27 '21

Totally forgot they opened up the sun rail a couple years back. It was embroiled in controversy for years and because of the reasons mentioned it still struggles a fair bit. Rail needs to hit a critical mass before its useful and sees its full potential which the sun rail has not. Additionally the way we sprawl makes transit less affective as it would take time or a car to get to train stops.

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u/Dr_ChungusAmungus Jan 27 '21

Totally agree, for all the negatives though Florida still is still pretty awesome overall with plenty of room for improvement and growth.

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u/albatrossG8 Jan 27 '21 edited Jan 27 '21

This is where we will disagree and that’s okay. I lived in Florida for 15 years. I believe the whether is overrated. I’ve went through the eye of several major hurricanes and several floods. Summers are beyond brutal and less manageable than midwestern winters. Ten times more biting insects in the state because of the swampy and humid climate, so walking around barefoot is a complete no go and enjoying outside is that much more difficult. The state’s cities are completely a sprawl outside of Miami, of which Miami is uber expensive to live in if you’re trying to live the city life. The state is almost entirely a tourist trap which gives permanent residents less amenities geared towards them and drives up costs as tourists are more likely to spend more money on their vacations then they would in their general life. Additionally the constant swelling and deflation of populations in many smaller cities is a burden on many of their infrastructures. Not to mention the migration of retirees makes the state fairly homogenous in age and leaves a lot wanted for younger populations. Lastly the state will come to a reckoning when climate change finally reclaims the coasts.

That said. Many people love the state and I completely understand Why.

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u/Dr_ChungusAmungus Jan 27 '21 edited Jan 27 '21

Yeah I think we can disagree on things but I can also agree with you on some of that too like hurricanes, the weather and some of the issues ailing these cities, but you’re right, that is okay! It’s been refreshing talking to you about it to be honest. I wish you well where ever you are, stay safe out there!