Proglodytes have a new scheme for getting free money: traffic jams

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

egbertowillies (801 posts)

Politics Done Right on KPFT - Time for employers to pay for time lost in traffic jams

Today I will discuss traffic jams. You might be asking, what do traffic jams have to do with Politics Done Right? Well traffic jams are caused by politics done very wrong. After seeing traffic jams in Panamá City, Panamá this week I really started thinking about its real causes. Very few will discuss it in the terms we are discussing. It is a quality of life issue. It is a wage theft issue.
http://politicsdoneright.com/2015/12/its-time-for-businesses-to-pay-employees-for-time-lost-in-systemic-traffic-jams/
-----
http://facebook.com/PoliticsDoneRight
http://PoliticsDoneRight.com

oldandhappy (4,416 posts)

1. Maybe if traffic jams are the issue, we should fix the traffic jams.

Maybe we need more lanes of traffic or more public transport or urban trains or trolleys or ?? I agree that traffic jams are wage theft. But the employers do not cause the traffic jams. Traffic jams are caused by bad urban planning and weather and drivers under the influence and distractions which cause accidents.

Bad urban planning?

But that's the government's job! You can't blame the government for anything!

freeper troll

DarthDem (2,399 posts)

2. You're Right . . .
 
. . . but I think the idea is that if corporate employers have to pay for them, they might actually divert some resources toward addressing the underlying problems that cause them.

Merry Christmas, DU!

Yes, because when employers are done paying for your wages plus your education, healthcare, vacation, maternity leave and birth control they'll have plenty of money left over to pay you to sit in traffic while they completely re-engineer the traffic system of every major metropolitan city.

Live and Learn (7,751 posts)

4. Actually, a lot of traffic jams could be alleviated by employers using alternate work schedules and
 
telecommuting.

Except for those jobs where you actually have to be present.

Sorry you aren't going to be allowed to putter around your living room in your bathrobe smoking a joint while on the company dime.

msongs (38,116 posts)

3. time for politicians to pay for sleep time since we get tired from working nt

Live and Learn (7,751 posts)

5. That makes absolutely no sense at all. nt

GGJohn (8,462 posts)

7. I think that was the point. eom.

Turbineguy (20,946 posts)

6. And then pass the bill on to

the GOP.

At least he's more truthful than the others.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027474026

[thundley4]

It only takes one driver to cause a traffic jam, and that person may never know they caused it.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071219103102.htm

Mathematicians from the University of Exeter have solved the mystery of traffic jams by developing a model to show how major delays occur on our roads, with no apparent cause. Many traffic jams leave drivers baffled as they finally reach the end of a tail-back to find no visible cause for their delay. Now, a team of mathematicians from the Universities of Exeter, Bristol and Budapest, have found the answer and published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.

The team developed a mathematical model to show the impact of unexpected events such as a lorry (tractor trailer) pulling out of its lane on a dual carriageway (divided highway with median between traffic going in opposite directions). Their model revealed that slowing down below a critical speed when reacting to such an event, a driver would force the car behind to slow down further and the next car back to reduce its speed further still. The result of this is that several miles back, cars would finally grind to a halt, with drivers oblivious to the reason for their delay.

The model predicts that this is a very typical scenario on a busy highway (above 15 vehicles per km). The jam moves backwards through the traffic creating a so-called 'backward travelling wave', which drivers may encounter many miles upstream, several minutes after it was triggered.

Dr Gábor Orosz of the University of Exeter said: "As many of us prepare to travel long distances to see family and friends over Christmas, we're likely to experience the frustration of getting stuck in a traffic jam that seems to have no cause. Our model shows that overreaction of a single driver can have enormous impact on the rest of the traffic, leading to massive delays."

Until every driver on the road is perfect, traffic jams will be with us.

[USA4ME]

It only takes one driver to cause a traffic jam, and that person may never know they caused it.

Until every driver on the road is perfect, traffic jams will be with us.

More often than not, the backups I've have the pleasure of sitting in were a result of drivers rubbernecking an accident as they drive by. I've seen backups for miles on the other side of the freeway from people slowing down to see an accident that wasn't even on their side. Crazy.

.

[txradioguy]

Traffic Jams = wage theft?

What. The. ****.

This is what happens when you let a bunch of hourly wage types try to solve the problems for people who get paid a certain monetary amount whether they are at work 8 or 18 hours a day.

If traffic is soooo freaking horrendous where you are at that you feel it's costing you wages...move.

[thundley4]

I leave for work at @5am. I sometimes see one or two other cars during the 3 block drive to work. 

[freedumb2003b]

I leave for work at @5am. I sometimes see one or two other cars during the 3 block drive to work. 

Which points us at what would happen if Corporate America were to be forced to pay for commute time: fire everyone who does not live within a few miles of their office or place of work.  This implies people who want to keep their jobs would have to move, probably to somewhere much more expensive OR get an apartment or hotel (which prices will shoot up like rockets in dense business centers).

I know people who moved quite a ways away from work to get a nicer/larger home for their families.  No more of THAT freedom now that DUmmies are in charge!

[SVPete]

In CA, Jerry Brown (in his first, 1970s, regime), Caltrans, and local governments shut down freeway and high building and maintenance and funneled gas tax and car registration $$ into "mass transit" boondoggles LA's, Orange County's, the SF Bay Area's, and other traffic nightmares are the product of government theft! Not of companies who pay wages to the suckers whose taxes got diverted to government boondoggles!

[BattleHymn]

DarthDem (2,399 posts)

2. You're Right . . .
 
. . . but I think the idea is that if corporate employers have to pay for them, they might actually divert some resources toward addressing the underlying problems that cause them.

Merry Christmas, DU!

Wait a second.

I learned from DU that corporate involvement in anything the government does is EVIL.  Oh, wait, you just want the money to influence urban planning?  You mean start a traffic lobby?

Do you even know what the hell you are talking about?

This is just another bogeyman for you dipshits to beat like a pinata for funds:  Big Traffic! 

[Carl]

Primitives that have chosen to live in urban wastelands presumably because they provide better resources such as jobs and entertainment still expect others to pay for the consequences of that decision.

How not surprising.

[98ZJUSMC]

Traffic Jams = wage theft?

What. The. ****.

I know, I know............   

Wait a second.

I learned from DU that corporate involvement in anything the government does is EVIL.  Oh, wait, you just want the money to influence urban planning?  You mean start a traffic lobby?

Do you even know what the hell you are talking about?

This is just another bogeyman for you dipshits to beat like a pinata for funds:  Big Traffic!

Yes, the infants who demand that Corporations are the root cause of the evils of Capitalism are now going to be the saviors of the Welfare State by funding Traffic Jam Justice.

[I_B_Perky]

Dummies on drugs again.  Every time they get on drugs they end up more inane than usual.

[DumbAss Tanker]

That's some weapons-grade stupid, right there.  Some inequities I don't mind seeing redressed, like the abuse of 'Salaried' but modestly-paid employee work hours.  This one, though, is nuts.  The employer has no control over the employee's choice of living arrangements, location, or transportation, and enjoys no uncompensated benefit from one employee having a longer commuting time than another.

[thundley4]

That's some weapons-grade stupid, right there.  Some inequities I don't mind seeing redressed, like the abuse of 'Salaried' but modestly-paid employee work hours.  This one, though, is nuts.  The employer has no control over the employee's choice of living arrangements, location, or transportation, and enjoys no uncompensated benefit from one employee having a longer commuting time than another.

In fact, it puts other employees at a disadvantage when it comes to getting called in to work overtime.  We have a couple of guys that refuse OT unless it will be at least 4-5 hours of work.

[jb2u11]

I suppose next they will want their employer to pay them while they are taking a shower to get ready for work...............oh wait......

[hillneck]

Dummies on drugs again.  Every time they get on drugs they end up more inane than usual.

I think they are snorting the Ajax again.  End of the month they are running short on the EBT funds.

[njpines]

Be a federal gov't employee on this project I'm working. Not only do they get every other (paid) Friday off, they also get paid for their commute time back up to North Jersey. So, for example, on Thursdays when they would leave, if they lived in Newark and it took them 2 hours to get there from here, they'd leave at 3pm and be paid for the 2 hours it took to drive back up to Newark (well, OK, I'd have to be paid to live there too, for sure!). Your tax dollars at work, people 

[obumazombie]

The lib DUmmies are on their 2nd revision of traffic jams.
They tried their best to politically destroy Christie with one.