hailthefish posted:

yeah abolishing ridiculously excessive parking minimums is definitely a key step in even trying to unfuck any of this, there's no loving reason housing should be built around the default assumption that every unit will need 2 or 3 or 4 parking spaces, that 'ideal cottage court' up there has one off-street parking spot for each unit in back

Megamissen posted:

my apparment building has 1 per unit and it already takes up almost as much space as the building itself

BalloonFish posted:

A subcompact that, as of two days ago, Ford doesn't even make any more.

Because, despite in being one of the best-selling cars in the UK for decades (and in many other markets) it has lower profit margins per car sold than Ford's Puma SUV, which has been promoted and prioritised in its place. Ford decided that a next-gen EV or hybrid Fiesta wasn't profitable enough.

Megamissen posted:

my apparment building has 1 per unit and it already takes up almost as much space as the building itself

Hubbert posted:

but if you remove parking minimums, where will I park?

Hubbert posted:

if you take away easy and plentiful access to parking, then you are deliberately discriminating against those who need it most: families with young children, the elderly, small business owners, and the disabled

Ensign Expendable posted:

I saw quite a lot of those tiny FIAT 500s in the UK, so I wanted to look up how much they would cost in Canada.

FIAT doesn't even sell them here. You can pick between an SUV or a sports SUV on their website.

Hubbert posted:

ALL CARS MUST BE DESTROYED!

🚗 💣💥

Blockade posted:

Mr. Sharps posted:

Hubbert posted:

my right to have my car stored anywhere in this world to the detriment of literally everything else the most important thing and any reduction to this entitlement is akin to tyranny

nomad2020 posted:

You can store it in your condo, like those Singaporean billionaires do. If they can get a lambo up to the 99th floor, you can get a Camry up to the 3rd.

DaysBefore posted:

Awesome map and I assume none of it exists now but also loling at number 39: ghetto. Is there something more to that because it's very funny to put the White Sox stadium up there with the place with all the poor people as a neat idea for a trip around the city

Rochallor posted:

We'll never knew because guess where they built the fuckin interstate through

DaysBefore posted:

Awesome map and I assume none of it exists now but also loling at number 39: ghetto. Is there something more to that because it's very funny to put the White Sox stadium up there with the place with all the poor people as a neat idea for a trip around the city

quote:

In the early twentieth century, the predominantly Eastern European Jewish Maxwell Street area on the Near West Side, through the research of sociologist Louis Wirth, earned the appellation of “the ghetto.” Unlike European ghettos, this community of indigenously controlled cultural institutions and businesses was in no explicitly physical or legal fashion segregated from the remainder of Chicago.

BalloonFish posted:

It seems that the only Fiat you can buy in Canada is the 500X, which is the bloated 'subcompact crossover' (a segment that surely shouldn't exist?) spin-off of the 500.

quote:

Around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, four people gathered at Duboce Park on the Wiggle, each on a bicycle and, most notably, several bright orange traffic cones in their front baskets.

This was the fourth night in a week of shenanigans for members of Safe Street Rebel, a San Francisco “anti-car dominance” and pro cycling, walking and transit group, that has reacted to the spread of driverless cars in San Francisco with a simple fix: Putting traffic cones on their front hoods to stop them cold in their tracks.

“They’re here! It’s coming up,” a member suddenly called out near 10 p.m. Several days of practice have given them eagle-eye skill in sensing the approach of driverless cars from 60 feet away, or through the camouflage of a tree’s leaves on a slope.

They waited in place, traffic cones ready, but this driverless car was too far away. Waymo and Cruise vehicles view the ubiquitous cones as sure signs of emergencies: Put a cone on the hood of a car and it stops. The cones used tonight had PG&E written on them and had been “migrated” from the Sunset District.

But within 45 minutes, the group had a victory: They coned both a Waymo and a Cruise, stopping the crs in the middle of Steiner Street.

“Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go,” they said, as a mood of enthusiasm grew. Based on their experience, teams from the companies can show up at the scene within a short 10 minutes to rescue the cars, but throughout the night every minute seemed to be its own reward. At times, snapping pictures of the capped cars, they resembled pirates hoarding loot, and they certainly showed the mettle of seasoned raiders.

Safe Street Rebel is hosting its week of action to bring attention to a July 13 vote on Thursday, when the California Public Utilities Commission will decide whether Cruise and Waymo can expand their robotaxi services to all of San Francisco and begin charging fares.

“This isn’t like the Board of Supervisors, it’s a state-wide committee that has a say over whether these can be on our streets,” a participant of the cone action said as he watched for vehicles entering Steiner Street.

Four days after officially announcing their work on Twitter, the group has gone viral. One of the tweets has received some 4.6 million views, and the group has been swamped with requests from some 35 media outlets that its members have to take turns for interviews. (They said “No” to Fox News, twice.)

In the group’s own words, their “enemies are cars, not people in cars.” They try not to interfere with cars carrying passengers. Sometimes, however, their eyes fail them — the windows are too dark. “gently caress you! I’m in here,” said a female passenger inside a Waymo they attempted to cap with a cone.

This incident was a notable failure, and afterwards the squad agreed with each other to say “clear” when they were sure the vehicle was unattended with passengers.

Other rules Safe Street Rebels have created: Avoid bus stops, and cars in the middle of an intersection, to make their efforts “provocative” instead of disruptive.

Over the course of the night, group members were upset to see some eight self-driving cars in 45 minutes on the Wiggle, a flat stretch of zig-zagging streets taking cyclists across the Haight from Market Street to the Panhandle — without the need to climb hills. “It’s supposed to be the city’s premier bike route. Why aren’t they taking any of the other roads?” a participant asked.

One night, the group recalled, they saw five Cruises in a row, seemingly all following the same route, which, they believe, could be disruptive to the city’s traffic if applied on a larger scale.

While public opinion on the group remains polarized, few appeared surprised to see them. “Good job!” a biker cheered as he rode by. A couple snuggled nearby also said they had seen the group on social media.

The group skillfully rode through areas where they knew driverless vehicles were more likely to appear. As they rode through the deserted streets, they sometimes opened their arms to enjoy the wind.

They picked up unused, abandoned traffic cones to use for obstructing the autonomous vehicles. “No department of the city has their own cones anymore. They all, like, steal each other’s cones,” one of them claimed.

“Cones migrate!” another member answered. “It’s a seasonal thing with the Santa Ana winds, they start going north. They’re like umbrellas. No one actually owns an umbrella, they get moved around. But the cones are moved strategically.”

“We make sure not to take cones from things that are actually marking hazards,” they added

At 10:40 p.m., the group ran into their third and final target, a Cruise vehicle at Fell and Baker streets. They put a cone on it, stopping it dead. “It’s wonderful!” said an older pedestrian as he watched. “I want a guy driving, not a robot. Keep up the good work.”

“One of the things that’s really made this go so viral is even if you support these vehicles, it’s really funny. It’s such a ridiculous sight. It’s a tech company and we made it a unicorn…Everyone likes unicorns,” they said, trying to explain the popularity of their stunts.

A Waymo spokesperson was having none of it. “Not only is this understanding of how AVs operate incorrect, but this is vandalism and encourages unsafe and disrespectful behavior on our roadways. We will notify law enforcement of any unwanted or unsafe interference of our vehicles on public roadways.”

A Cruise spokesperson said, “Intentionally obstructing vehicles gets in the way of those efforts and risks creating traffic congestion for local residents.”

The San Francisco Police Department has not yet responded as to whether the act constitutes a crime.

“The SFMTA does not endorse ANY actions that may increase the number of disabled AVs [autonomous vehicles] on San Francisco streets,” the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said in a tweet. “We continue to express our concerns about disabled AVs on San Francisco streets that interfere with emergency response, with transit service, and with the ability of all travelers to get to their destinations in San Francisco.”

Safe Street Rebel first got attention in 2021 when the city wanted to open the Great Highway to cars. In 2022, they launched the “Just A Minute” project on Valencia Street, when they blocked vehicles parked in the bike lanes with signs reading “So sorry, just a minute,” the kind of note that some drivers leave on their windshields.

The group has also created some two dozen signs showing the routes, hours and a Muni logo to help people find bus stops too inconspicuous to be noticed, though many of these signs were later taken down by the transit agency without prior notice.

“We have a love-hate relationship with the SFMTA,” they said.

Even for a group with a history of creative protest tactics, the cones action is “more edgy” in a legal sense, they acknowledged.

The operation, they said, is like the “original notion of hacking.” Mirroring the demographics of San Francisco, the group has no small number of tech workers. “A lot of the people that work with the code are more skeptical of computers,” one participant said.

“Rather than just blindly cheerleading ‘All of tech is good. Every single new technology is perfect,’” another said. We can “choose what technology we want in our society.”

On the most bountiful night this week, they stopped some 10 vehicles; sometimes they noticed they had stopped the same Cruise vehicle — they all have a unique name — more than once.

At 11 p.m., the group called it quits and left the last unused traffic cone around a dumpster, surrounded by its kind. “We’re bringing more diversity to its population,” one joked.

fermun posted:

https://missionlocal.org/2023/07/driverless-cars-unicorns-a-night-with-the-group-coning-cruise-amp-waymo/

Clark Nova posted:

found this: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/514.html

guessing its one of those terms that was more acceptable to use before the holocaust

DaysBefore posted:

I didn't realise robot cars were out and about already, figured they were still in testing. Not that I trust human drivers either but man gently caress that

DaysBefore posted:

I didn't realise robot cars were out and about already, figured they were still in testing. Not that I trust human drivers either but man gently caress that

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/AlexaDelbosc/status/1678227871200837632

Jokerpilled Drudge posted:

gave up trying to see this after literally 20 mins of catchpha

loving RIP twitter

Jokerpilled Drudge posted:

gave up trying to see this after literally 20 mins of catchpha

loving RIP twitter

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/AlexaDelbosc/status/1678227871200837632

eXXon posted:

Is there any practical reason why truuuuk and SUV hoods are so tall and flat instead of sloping down like vans? Do they actually need all of that volume or is it just for the aesthetics of the child-mincing grille? Isn't it worse for aerodynamics (lol who cares)?

eXXon posted:

Is there any practical reason why truuuuk and SUV hoods are so tall and flat instead of sloping down like vans? Do they actually need all of that volume or is it just for the aesthetics of the child-mincing grille? Isn't it worse for aerodynamics (lol who cares)?

It all started when I heard a Purple Heart recipient had been given two tickets in pretty short time. Those tickets were quickly waived, but it started a larger conversation about how we could ensure that didn’t happen again. I join the Salem Veterans Council in expressing that any measure of gratitude is always welcome for those that have served in defense of this great country of ours. I do not know of any other community that has this sort of blanket free parking rule for veterans

duomo posted:

a travesty took place in Salem, MA and the city jumped in immediately to remedy it. a veteran was given TWO parking tickets so now all veteran plates can park for free.

[url=https://www.salemma.gov/home/news/veterans-park-free-salem]