This is the Quality Contributions Roundup. It showcases interesting and well-written comments and posts from the period covered. If you want to get an idea of what this community is about or how we want you to participate, look no further (except the rules maybe--those might be important too).
As a reminder, you can nominate Quality Contributions by hitting the report button and selecting the "Actually A Quality Contribution!" option. Additionally, links to all of the roundups can be found in the wiki of /r/theThread which can be found here. For a list of other great community content, see here.
These are mostly chronologically ordered, but I have in some cases tried to cluster comments by topic so if there is something you are looking for (or trying to avoid), this might be helpful.
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Notes -
The pro-car post was not that good and deserving of quality contributions IMO. Really shows the biases of this place. Insane pro car legislature was a thing here long before cities became the dismal wrecks that they are today. I think honestly people also just need to grow a bit of a spine. I live in Baltimore where we have a limited public transit system that I sometimes use (I prefer to bike). There's always an unsavory character using it at the same time as me, but absolutely nothing has ever happened. Maybe this would not be true if I were an attractive young woman, but I doubt there are many users here who fit that description either. People need to learn to be a bit more inconvenienced and uncomfortable. Biking is always a suitable alternative in major eastern urban areas (Boston, NYC, and DC all have good bike infrastructure) if you really don't want to deal with public transit. I get that cars are convenient and make people feel powerful and in control, but they impose such a big negative externality on the rest of us non-car users (pollution, taxes, use of public space, not to mention the very large amount of deaths caused by accidents, far higher than that caused by urban villainy on public transit) that I have a lot of sympathy for NYC trying to price car use correctly. I get that this is not feasible in Texas or in most parts of California, but posters here are so car-brained that they can't get on board with the government trying to address the problem in place where it is actually feasible to fix it. Guys, the subway is not very dangerous during work hours, and the problems with it (congestion, speed) can all be fixed with investment.
The framing here is spectacular. Policy shifting your way is described as "need to grow a bit of a spine" (note the undertone oppression narrative - good guys are always oppressed, doncha know? - and heroic revolutionary spirit), while the opponents are described - without any argument towards it, just so, as "Insane pro car legislature". How about considering this situation: most people actually like it that way, do not think it's insane at all, and actually elect legislature to enact their own priorities, and aren't oppressed by anything (insert "putting boot on one's own face" meme picture here) and don't need to raise up.
And when we're discussing wider policy, "users here" is obviously the only group that matters.
I personally know several people seriously hurt while bike commuting. No such data about car (or public transport) commuters. And that's not just my personal anecdata - data shows bike commuting is 8-15 times more dangerous for injury, and 4-5x for death, than car commute. I'm sorry that doesn't sound like a suitable alternative to me.
And if you stay late one day... well, you could sleep under your desk. You'd have to be back the next day anyway, don't you? Also, it may not be dangerous in some hours but it still smells 24/7.
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