sultan_emerr Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 "Flagging school certifies candidates for a steadily growing job market." = Joseph Vattilana shows students proper equipment and techniques during flagger school. . Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MrBill Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 LOL and it isn't growing that much or helping much. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sultan_emerr Posted September 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 LOL and it isn't growing that much or helping much.Found on internet: "Last month when I was in Alaska, the road from Fairbanks to Chena had what seemed to be nearly a dozen construction crews spread out doing mostly nothing. There was a flagger at each one, who'd keep cars waiting for the unnecessary pilot car to guide us. Without the pilot car, we'd alll presumably smash into parked steamrollers or something. One of the flaggers, who appeared drunk, got it wrong both times we encountered him on our roundtrip. It's a sign with only two settings, "slow" and "stop" and he beat the 50-50 odds both times and got it wrong. He could have used training.More seriously, I got the sense that the whole scene was classic Alaskan porkonomics. Most of the workers we saw were doing nothing at all, save of course getting paid while slowing economically productive traffic and transportation. Somewhere in there, I can't help but think there's a metaphor for Obamanomics." Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bozodog Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 They found a fine scam here... This is for a whole 75 buses in a town of under 200k people.KALAMAZOO -- An infusion of $3.1 million in federal stimulus money will allow Kalamazoo Metro Transit to make a major investment in global-positioning-system technology, according to a local transit official.The GPS technology eventually could allow bus riders to use their cell phones for real-time tracking of Metro Transit buses, enabling them to know when their bus will arrive at their stop, said Metro Transit Assistant Director Carmine Lewis.Metro Transit's $3,155,510 portion of $55 million in federal stimulus money for Michigan public transportation was announced Friday.The largest portion of the funds allocated to Kalamazoo will be used to hire consultants to design the local GPS system and to acquire the necessary hardware and software. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JDoors Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 The largest portion of the funds allocated to Kalamazoo will be used to hire consultants to design the local GPS system and to acquire the necessary hardware and software. Consultants need work too. Regarding flaggers, why are they mainly women? Is it a way to count more women as part of the "construction" trade? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcl Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 Metro Transit's $3,155,510 portion of $55 million in federal stimulus money for Michigan public transportation was announced Friday.The largest portion of the funds allocated to Kalamazoo will be used to hire consultants to design the local GPS system and to acquire the necessary hardware and software.That doesn't seem too unreasonable. 75 GPS units, comms, computers, software, mapping, training, marketing, etc. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 Over the summer there were crews of 6 going around putting up signs. The signs said something about future construction and being paid for with stimulus dollars. When the construction would start the 6 person crew would return and change the signs to, this construction is paid for by stimulus dollars. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheTerrorist_75 Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 Many roads, streets and highways are being fixed here with the stimulus money. It was about time. Driving around here was causing damage to many vehicles. Our flaggers are pretty much on the ball. They need to be with some of the moron drivers running them over.Women flaggers always get my undivided attention. I don't mind obeying the stop sign if they're hot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bozodog Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Metro Transit's $3,155,510 portion of $55 million in federal stimulus money for Michigan public transportation was announced Friday.The largest portion of the funds allocated to Kalamazoo will be used to hire consultants to design the local GPS system and to acquire the necessary hardware and software.That doesn't seem too unreasonable. 75 GPS units, comms, computers, software, mapping, training, marketing, etc.Gawd, you guys don't get it. Our town is small enough to track a bus by smelling it's diesel fumes. We don't have nighttime or Sunday service. Some of the stops require one to stand on an ice mound in winter, the buses are never near full and there is seldom more than 2-3 people at any stop. The entire service costs the taxpayers dearly and I don't see this 3 mil "stimulating" anything. Who's gonna pay the ongoing costs of this program? It's sure not gonna increase revenue or ridership. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcl Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 The entire service costs the taxpayers dearly and I don't see this 3 mil "stimulating" anything.It's stimulating the contractors and the hardware and software suppliers.Who's gonna pay the ongoing costs of this program? It's sure not gonna increase revenue or ridership.If the city's site is accurate, ridership is increasing anyway. If the system is underutilized, increasing ridership shouldn't significantly increase costs. Yay, free money. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JDoors Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Gawd, you guys don't get it. Our town is small enough to track a bus by smelling it's diesel fumes. We don't have nighttime or Sunday service. Some of the stops require one to stand on an ice mound in winter, the buses are never near full and there is seldom more than 2-3 people at any stop. The entire service costs the taxpayers dearly and I don't see this 3 mil "stimulating" anything. Who's gonna pay the ongoing costs of this program? It's sure not gonna increase revenue or ridership. I got it, but there's nothing to be said. Government's need an excuse to tax to infinity, this is just one example out of many. Any idea what your town's total budget might be? Bet it's a bigger number than you'd guess at first. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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