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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>>…I used to travel to New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey a lot for business. The biggest difference in those states is they all use mass transit a lot and their cities are very tightly packed… spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Dylan Distasio via extropy-chat<br><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] shops opening<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Spike-<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>A timely piece to your point:<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>The Subways Seeded the Massive Coronavirus Epidemic in New York City<br>Jeffrey E. Harris<br>NBER Working Paper No. 27021<br>Issued in April 2020<br>NBER Program(s):Health Economics<br>>…New York City’s multitentacled subway system was a major disseminator – if not the principal transmission vehicle – of coronavirus infection… Reciprocal seeding of infection appears to be the best explanation for the emergence of a single hotspot in Midtown West in Manhattan. Bus hubs may have served as secondary transmission routes out to the periphery of the city…<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w2702">https://www.nber.org/papers/w2702</a> <o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Oh Dylan, you don’t want to get me started on this topic.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Hmmm, retract, perhaps you do, or if not, I want to get me started enough for both of us.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I have recently been involved in a most distasteful experience with urban planners who keep plunking down high-density residential developments which are completely dependent on mass transit. I opposed the hell outta the notion, since always, because it looks to me like it is inherently vulnerable to transit worker strikes. I hadn’t even thought of the contagion angle, but that just adds fuel to my inferno.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I can see that dependency on mass transit does bad things to peoples’ minds: it causes them to become more dependent and less able to work out the problems associated with maintaining a system (your own car.) It pushes people into face to face with each other, which would make them inherently vulnerable in ways people in their own cars are not. Whether or not this is as dangerous as it feels, I don’t like the notion of being forced into contact with the other proles. It is already so difficult to keep away from the riff raff when one is riff raff oneself.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Mass transit is an answer to some urban problems, but I have long held it isn’t necessarily a good answer. Becoming completely dependent on mass transit is a bad answer. Better ones: find more ways people can travel less. Then they would be OK with smaller, lighter, slower cars, which cost less and do less, but are still adequate for promoting a sense of independence and serve as a mobile suit of armor.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Besides that… I like cars.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike <o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>