[cars] this thread is for having sex with cyclists & making actionable threats

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [cars] this thread is for having sex with cyclists & making actionable threats

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Pittsburgh Fentanyl Cloud: Apr 7, 2003; Can't post for 6 hours!

mystes posted:

I guess we've gone from "5mph over the limit is ok" to "20mph over the limit is ok"?

There's a freeway near me that is seriously dangerous due to massive curves and narrow walls and the speed limit is 50mph there. There is a serious (lol) movement saying that it's deadly there because of the speed limit being too low. Speed limit is 50mph. Super excited to watch it go to 70mph and see people do 90 every day there and cry that they're crashing because the speed limit is too low.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 03:41

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 05:30

Rauros: Aug 25, 2004; wanna go grub thumping?

tire dust killing salmon? the obvious solution is making roads more permeable!

https://www.newsweek.com/salmon-dying-chemical-pollution-solution-permeable-pavement-1864234

# ? Jan 28, 2024 06:29

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

I am skeptical that this permeable pavement will stand up to heavy use, and that it will not clog and become pointless.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 06:36

silicone thrills: Jan 9, 2008; I paint things

What happens to the tire dust that goes into the ground through the permeable pavement.

WHAT HAPPENS TO IT

# ? Jan 28, 2024 07:20

LonsomeSon: Nov 22, 2009; A fishperson in an intimidating hat!

permeates ur pavement until u are big and round

# ? Jan 28, 2024 07:32

Professor Beetus: Apr 12, 2007; They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

Anyone who says "duurrrrrr it's dangerous when the speed limit's too slow" is just saying that they're a huge loving rear end in a top hat who drives like a maniac

# ? Jan 28, 2024 08:47

Second Hand Meat Mouth: Sep 12, 2001

https://twitter.com/who_shot_jgr/status/1751424120284193130

# ? Jan 28, 2024 09:00

Precambrian Video Games: Aug 19, 2002

You can think of a highway as one very long and broad rail.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 09:02

Microplastics: Jul 6, 2007; It's what's for dinner.

That guy is wearing a tshirt :stare:

If he hit something the clean up crew would have to soak him up with a sponge

# ? Jan 28, 2024 09:08

Steen71: Apr 10, 2017; Fun Shoe

Truga posted:

i see people riding bikes like this and i'm just like "surely there's better ways to kill yourself dude???"

To be fair, deaf people are allowed to drive cars and ride bikes.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 09:16

AreWeDrunkYet: Jul 8, 2006

Microplastics posted:

That guy is wearing a tshirt

If he hit something the clean up crew would have to soak him up with a sponge

As long as they put up a bond for cleanup costs, just let motorcyclists do what they want.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 09:18

Precambrian Video Games: Aug 19, 2002

Microplastics posted:

That guy is wearing a tshirt

If he hit something the clean up crew would have to soak him up with a sponge

I don't think any amount of protective equipment would save someone crashing a bike at 150 mph, hell even half of that.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 09:23

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

wow that guy is literally "skill issue" embodied

# ? Jan 28, 2024 09:30

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

gradenko_2000 posted:

wow that guy is literally "skill issue" embodied

the one thing about bikes is no matter how good you are, no amount of skill will stop a driver in a GM Denali XXL 9/11 edition suv, coked up on a ton of percocets/vics simultaneously looking at the floor texting, who swerves hard across 5 lanes without looking because they're missing their exit

the biggest danger is not your skil but everyone else's lack of it

# ? Jan 28, 2024 09:39

fermun: Nov 4, 2009

even if that guy was just going from the edge of one metro area to the edge of the other, that's an average speed of about 160 mph and he hits 172 in the short clip there

# ? Jan 28, 2024 09:48

AreWeDrunkYet: Jul 8, 2006

The real issue is the slower traffic staying in the left lane.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 09:50

Jon Pod Van Damm: Apr 6, 2009; THE POSSESSION OF WEALTH IS IN AND OF ITSELF A SIGN OF POOR VIRTUE. AS SUCH:
1 NEVER TRUST ANY RICH PERSON.
2 NEVER HIRE ANY RICH PERSON.
BY RULE 1, IT IS APPROPRIATE TO PRESUME THAT ALL DEGREES AND CREDENTIALS HELD BY A WEALTHY PERSON ARE FRAUDULENT. THIS JUSTIFIES RULE 2--RULE 1 NEEDS NO JUSTIFIC

So what I'm hearing is that there should be multiple bike lanes on highways :hmmyes:

# ? Jan 28, 2024 11:33

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

They�re not entirely wrong.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 11:48

Mauser: Dec 16, 2003; How did I even get here, son?!

Xaris posted:

the one thing about bikes is no matter how good you are, no amount of skill will stop a driver in a GM Denali XXL 9/11 edition suv, coked up on a ton of percocets/vics simultaneously looking at the floor texting, who swerves hard across 5 lanes without looking because they're missing their exit

the biggest danger is not your skil but everyone else's lack of it

Or just someone changing lanes normally at the wrong time. I've had cars doing seemingly double the speed limit appear out of nowhere on the highway when I'm already halfway in a new lane and I had to swerve to avoid them

# ? Jan 28, 2024 12:33

my bony fealty: Oct 1, 2008

why are motorcycles capable of going 170mph

# ? Jan 28, 2024 12:52

cat botherer: Jan 6, 2022; I am interested in most phases of data processing.

Second Hand Meat Mouth posted:

lmfao

https://twitter.com/mayormcginn/status/1751074807418880229

moreover, free croup

The one good mayor Seattle ever had.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 14:41

Mister Speaker: May 8, 2007; WE WILL CONTROL
ALL THAT YOU SEE
AND HEAR

AreWeDrunkYet posted:

As long as they put up a bond for cleanup costs, just let motorcyclists do what they want.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 15:18

DR FRASIER KRANG: Feb 4, 2005; "Are you forgetting that just this afternoon I was punched in the face by a turtle now dead?

Steen71 posted:

To be fair, deaf people are allowed to drive cars and ride bikes.

making myself deaf on purpose in solidarity

# ? Jan 28, 2024 16:20

Maed: Aug 23, 2006

my bony fealty posted:

why are motorcycles capable of going 170mph

sometimes you gotta do extreme things to get your kids to private school on time

# ? Jan 28, 2024 16:22

Real hurthling!: Sep 11, 2001

my bony fealty posted:

why are motorcycles capable of going 170mph

its like half a sports car engine with 1/10th the weight load

# ? Jan 28, 2024 16:28

Precambrian Video Games: Aug 19, 2002

my bony fealty posted:

why are motorcycles capable of going 170mph

They still take pride in their work.

cat botherer posted:

The one good mayor Seattle ever had.

tbh when I read California Speed Governor I thought huh, maybe Keanu Reeves would actually make a decent governor.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 16:31

my bony fealty: Oct 1, 2008

Real hurthling! posted:

its like half a sports car engine with 1/10th the weight load

thats extremely stupid

# ? Jan 28, 2024 16:33

my bony fealty: Oct 1, 2008

there's this 40 mile bike/pedestrian trail here that was "started" in 2019 and is currently supposed to be finished in 2030

11 years to build an asphalt path

America loving sucks lmao

# ? Jan 28, 2024 16:49

mystes: May 31, 2006

Precambrian Video Games posted:

They still take pride in their work.

tbh when I read California Speed Governor I thought huh, maybe Keanu Reeves would actually make a decent governor.

Speed but rather than a bus that will explode if it goes below 50mph, all the cars will explode if they go above 50mph

# ? Jan 28, 2024 16:56

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Real hurthling! posted:

its like half a sports car engine with 1/10th the weight load

The weight doesn't really matter, it's the 1/10th the frontal cross section that helps with top speed.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 17:44

LonsomeSon: Nov 22, 2009; A fishperson in an intimidating hat!

Steen71 posted:

To be fair, deaf people are allowed to drive cars and ride bikes.

to be fair it seems like there�s a difference between someone who�s lived with hearing impairment their entire lives and someone who�s drowning out a bunch of information they�re used to needing to make decisions

# ? Jan 28, 2024 19:06

my bony fealty: Oct 1, 2008

love to don the noise canceling cans while behind the wheel and crank up a choice podcast loud. sometimes its Pod Save America, sometimes Mueller She Wrote or even just whatever is on NPR. I've even been known to blast Hamilton. I drive a Honda CRV

# ? Jan 28, 2024 19:09

HashtagGirlboss: Jan 4, 2005

my bony fealty posted:

love to don the noise canceling cans while behind the wheel and crank up a choice podcast loud. sometimes its Pod Save America, sometimes Mueller She Wrote or even just whatever is on NPR. I've even been known to blast Hamilton. I drive a Honda CRV

There�s something quintessentially pac northwest about pulling up to a trailhead parking lot and there�s a crv or a Subaru blasting the splendid table at max volume

# ? Jan 28, 2024 19:13

Mr. Sharps: Jul 30, 2006; The only true law is that which leads to freedom. There is no other.

corneas are worth 2k a pop to hopefully that guy wears a full face helmet

# ? Jan 28, 2024 19:52

mawarannahr: May 21, 2019

I saw it break down at a traffic light and a restaurant's staff went out to push it
I was joking about a free Uber service, but Bellevue�s gone and done it

www.seattletimes.com - Sat, 27 Jan 2024 posted:

They say behind every joke lies some truth. For me recently it turned out to be lying right across the lake in Bellevue.

In a recent column about riding the empty ghost trams of Seattle�s streetcar, I noted that the one in South Lake Union is costing taxpayers more than $20 per ride. I cracked: �It would have been cheaper for the city to pay for me to hire an Uber.�

One reader responded: �I�m fairly sure you were joking about the city hiring you an Uber � guess what, that�s exactly what they�re doing here in Bellevue! You should venture over to the smart side of the lake to check it out.�

It turns out it�s true. It�s not Uber specifically, but six months ago, Bellevue debuted its own downtown circulator transit service � sort of its own version of a streetcar. Only theirs is without the tracks, the trains or really any startup infrastructure expense at all.

A company called Circuit has been contracted to run a fleet of eight all-electric shuttles around the downtown portion of Bellevue. You can summon any of the shuttles with an app, and then ride anywhere within a 6-square-mile zone � for free.

The service is paid for by Bellevue�s hotel tax.

I took the reader�s advice and tried it out. From the Bellevue Hilton parking lot south of downtown, I pulled up the Circuit app and told it I wanted to go to Bellevue�s Downtown Park, 1.1 miles away. In six minutes, a spacious shuttle pulled up that looked like a Hot Wheels toy on steroids, with the wide windows of a sightseeing van.

A few minutes later, I was deposited in the park � no charge. I tried it again, taking a hop from the park, on the southwest side of Bellevue�s downtown, all the way across to the fancy new Spring District, 2.3 miles away. Same result: A silent shuttle showed up in four minutes. On the way we also stopped to pick up some Amazonians, who were leaving work from the company�s new Sonic skyscraper.

The driver said the hotels have gone all-in for the service, as it�s effectively �free� Uber rides for their guests. He guessed maybe a third of the passengers so far are visitors, a third are downtown workers and another third are residents connecting to other transit or running errands to the grocery store.

The bureau behind the pilot project, Visit Bellevue, says it�s getting about 8,000 riders a month after starting in August � so 270 per day on average. The cost is $70,000 a month for the shuttles, the drivers and insurance. That�s roughly $8.75 per ride so far � high by the standards of public mass transit, but still less than half what Seattle�s South Lake Union streetcar is costing, without any of the capital expense.

This is known as �microtransit� � on-demand shuttles that circulate within neighborhoods. Circuit currently runs them in 40 cities, including downtown San Diego, Miami, and Austin, Texas, with Bellevue the only city so far in Washington. There are similar services such as King County�s �Metro Flex,� a pay shuttle in South End cities such as Tukwila and out in Issaquah.

�People seem to really love that there are no fixed stops or routes � it goes where you want to go,� says Brad Jones, executive director of Visit Bellevue. �It changes the game of public transit. It doesn�t feel like public transit.�

This is what I was hinting at back when I wrote about how we might be entering an era of �untransit� � where the rise of remote work begins to fragment the old �hub and spoke� fixed-line transportation and commuting model.

The drawback to the new microtransit is there�s nothing mass about it. Each Bellevue shuttle only has six seats. So even with sophisticated computer algorithms governing its every move, it�s less efficient than express buses or rail trains that can move large numbers of people along fixed routes. San Diego�s electric shuttle system, called FRED (for �Free Rides Everywhere Downtown�), has only gotten up to about 1,000 riders per day, though as in Bellevue that�s across a small area. In 2022, FRED did achieve per-rider costs of $5.50.

You can see what a pickle Seattle is in. The South Lake Union streetcar, with its short fixed route that doesn�t go much of anywhere, gets 500 riders a day currently. But it costs four to five times more to operate than either San Diego�s FRED or Bellevue�s Bellhop shuttles, which go exactly where you ask it.

Now Seattle is considering $410 million more to build a 1.3-mile connecting line along First Avenue downtown, to join the South Lake Union line with one that travels up over First Hill and Capitol Hill. That figure is just the capital expense � it doesn�t include the cost of running the trains.

Could an on-demand shuttle � a municipal Uber � be a better bet?

�This is a service Seattle should explore instead of spending millions of taxpayer money on more streetcar track,� suggested another reader, who had just been to San Diego and used FRED. �San Diego�s service is great � in fact it could substitute for some of the bus services in small cities in our state, where you often see huge buses running without anyone in them.�

I don�t know the answer, not being a transit expert. But even if Seattle decides to build the central streetcar, they�re now saying it wouldn�t be finished until at least 2031. So why not try out a municipal Uber system for the time being? (Note to newcomers: In Seattle-speak, the phrase �for the time being� technically means the next decade, or indefinitely, whichever comes later.)

It�s worth exploring whether to mothball the South Lake Union streetcar, and use its $4.4 million yearly operating budget to instead run a free, on-demand app-based shuttle covering South Lake Union to Pike Place Market and the waterfront, through downtown to Pioneer Square and the stadiums. That�d be enough to pay for 30 circulating shuttles, with no upfront costs. To travel outside the zone, you�d catch light rail or a bus. The city could keep the First Hill streetcar line going, as a much healthier 3,000 to 4,000 riders per day are using that.

It�d be like a modern version of the abandoned �ride free� zone that we used to have for Metro buses downtown. Maybe it would help kick-start our struggling civic center. It couldn�t hurt to try something while the streetcar fiasco is being further flogged.

I know it�s not in Seattle�s identity to copy Bellevue, on anything. But kid brother might be on to something. Maybe the joke really is on us this time.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 20:36

Mr. Sharps: Jul 30, 2006; The only true law is that which leads to freedom. There is no other.

wow a bus

# ? Jan 28, 2024 20:55

mystes: May 31, 2006

quote:

Could an on-demand shuttle � a municipal Uber � be a better bet?

It has ended up costing much more with much worse service than normal buses everywhere that has actually tried it

# ? Jan 28, 2024 20:59

mawarannahr: May 21, 2019

I do hope Danny Westneat finds he prefers living in Bellevue.

# ? Jan 28, 2024 21:00

Fitzy Fitz: May 14, 2005

So, is Circuit propped up by mountains of VC money like all the other surprisingly affordable app-based transportation services?

# ? Jan 28, 2024 21:04

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 05:30

i say swears online: Mar 4, 2005

HashtagGirlboss posted:

There�s something quintessentially pac northwest about pulling up to a trailhead parking lot and there�s a crv or a Subaru blasting the splendid table at max volume

lmao i used to love splendid table

# ? Jan 28, 2024 21:17

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [cars] this thread is for having sex with cyclists & making actionable threats

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