Transportation

April 3, 2018 10:14 pm Update

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I bet they could open the Adirondack Northway to bicyclists from Lake George to Peru for only a few million in signage and it could bring in tens in millions in tourism dollars.

I guess there is a few substandard bridges that would have to replaced, but I bet that section from Lincoln Pond to Elizabethtown on the Northway would be a blast to ride on a mountain bike or road bike.

I am betting bicycles on the Northway will be in the state budget eventually. Television stations and newspapers will mock the idea of riding bicycles on the Northway, and talk about how dangerous it must be. The state’s experts will disagree noting the inherent safety of expressways, and the cyclists organizations will celebrate the new highway they can ride. The DOT will put up the signs, it will become a trendy tourist thing for like 5 years and except for a few sections like Underwood to Elizabethtown, few sections of the Northway will get much bicycle riding.

The Devastating Loophole That Sticks Car Buyers With Interest Rates That Would Be Otherwise Illegal

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The Devastating Loophole That Sticks Car Buyers With Interest Rates That Would Be Otherwise Illegal

"Typically, when a car buyer finances a purchase through a dealer, they sign what’s called a retail installment sales contract, or RIC, a transaction in which the consumer agrees to make a fixed number of payments over time, plus interest, for the car. Think of it as a deferred payment plan. In the industry, this is based on the “time-price doctrine,” a principle that says dealers can have consumers pay an increased credit charge in exchange for receiving monthly installments over time, rather than the entire cash price up front. If that sounds like a loan to you, you’re on the right track. It’s unquestionably similar, but New York law has a different set of provisions that govern what’s permissible for RICs. Importantly, usury laws—and thus limits on interest rates—don’t apply. And that’s the catch: New York state law allows auto dealers to set whatever finance charge they want for a RIC, so long as it’s “agreed to by the retail seller and the buyer.” In many cases, buyers don’t even know what they are getting into."

The downside of CDTA’s Navigator card

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Looking Up: The downside of CDTA’s Navigator card

"For most of us the card will be far more convenient than cash anyway. It was easy for me to overlook the hardship these changes will impose because I have a credit card that I can link up to my Navigator with autobuy and not think about it. I will always have enough. But for people with limited access to credit, or even those who are entirely unbanked, it will make life significantly more difficult. If they want the benefit of the day-pass rate they will need to show up in person to a few locations (primarily libraries, Price Choppers, the CDTA office) to load their card ahead of time. They will either need to do this very frequently, keeping careful tabs on how much is on there and when they will be nearby a place they can load it, so as to not get stranded, or tie up a significant amount of money at a time in their card that they can’t then spend on other things if needed. If they want to use cash they’ll need exact change, often requiring an extra expenditure or at least another stop to get. This is a classic example of the extra cost of being poor. Having an inconsistent cash flow is a sign of our times, as employers dole out shifts inconsistently, and more people rely on the gig economy. It might seem like not a big deal, and most people will figure it out most of the time, but all of those extra stops, those extra hoops to jump through, add up, especially for people who are already transit dependent. What else falls by the wayside to make this new juggling act work?"