Rep. Eric Gallager (no "h"!)The real Trolley Problem is that we don't have trolleys anymore
dang, I made over 100K tweets on the previous site and none of them ever went as viral as this one has... Mastodon has the juice, it seems!
(anyways I've muted this conversation now)
HowToPhil (Phillip R)@egallager There are people here
Blakey'know, on the surface removing something that is chronically introducing moral dilemma's seems reasonable
weird that no one thought to consider being curious about who is tying folks up on the tracks and address that instead though
enantiomerObama should have forced GM to rebuild them as a condition of the bailout.
Bread80@egallager The trolley problem was created by the motor industry to hide the death toll on the roads.
Ted Mielczarek@egallager I have never seen anyone frame the problem in this way before and this speaks volumes to the real-world applicability of philosophical wankery.
Glitchy Pixel@egallager if you really want one I can pull a few levers...
@glitchypixel hey! Be careful with those!
Peter Bindels@egallager Somebody make a problem with a bunch of people walking and lots of cars coming. We could make safe spaces for people by barring cars, but it would mean drivers need to exit their cars.
Norman Wilson@egallager One of the lesser but real reasons I love living in Toronto. Boston and San Francisco get credit too.
Jon Moore@oclsc @egallager And Philly!
@jonm @egallager Oh yes, forgot Philadelphia! Many do, but in my case it was unintentional.
And New Orleans!
Neil E. Hodges
James Lavin@egallager 25 years ago, I researched trolleys and concluded that automobile, oil, and rubber companies had colluded to kill off trolleys. I speculated they eagerly/wisely ripped up dedicated tracks and replaced them with buses because they feared trolleys would become popular again as traffic congestion inevitably worsened. When that eventually happened, the tracks and their dedicated rights of way were long gone
@egallager P.S. My paper pleaded with Chinese cities not to make the same mistake. Sadly, 25 years later, car congestion in China is now also horrible... so bad, actually, that in Beijing cars are allowed on the roads only on alternate days, so some wealthy people own two cars to avoid relying on public transport
ResunaAlso the backstory of Roger Rabbit in 1988
Log 🪵@egallager On the track, that is now defunct, but runs from the suburbs straight to downtown, no one at all is tied down. If you don't pull the lever, nothing happens. If you do pull the lever, someone pulls up the tracks and turns the old rail right-of-way into a walking trail that is useless for mass transit. An alliance of HOAs and auto industry lobbyists shove you out of the way and pull it. They pull it so hard the rusty lever breaks off. But the deed is done.
Rui SeabraNo, @jwildeboer had it right, it's because we don't go after the guys tying people to rail lines...
Kyle Brown 
@egallager I've been flipping this switch every which way for weeks and not a single trolley has shown up to run over anyone
The1goit 
@egallager the trolley problem should be renamed to the joyrider problem, where instead of a trolley, we have a joyrider with broken braking systems, and instead of a lever, we have a single traffic cone.
Allan Chow@egallager you're going down a street in your car where 5 people are tied on the ground in the street ahead and if you take the fork there's only 1 person tied on the street ahead but you don't notice because you're looking at your phone
Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️@egallager
San Francisco and Toronto smart enough to keep their street cars
San Francisco and Toronto smart enough to keep their street cars
Giflian
The Trolley Song - Meet Me In St. Louis - 1944 - Judy Garland
LeftyLabourTechToronto@egallager Speak for yourself, we've had them continuously since the 1890's. :)
How to ride a Streetcar in Toronto
There are five oil tycoons on one track and they are being joined by the league or automobile manufacturers and lobbyists. On the other track... it's already been torn up... so is the one they're on... You get hit by an SUV.