American traffic engineering is fundamentally sociopathic and in need of root and branch reform.
11.03.2026 01:48
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American traffic engineering is fundamentally sociopathic and in need of root and branch reform.
This is extremely true and I continue to think that some part of it is deep, semi-conscious shame & embarrassment. If he's an absolute moron, what does it say about us that we let him get this far? They're stuck in the bluff with him.
Labor saving technology is good, actually. I’m glad I own a washing machine and a dryer so I don’t have to spend a full day each week doing laundry.
If only emergency services helped lobby for wide bicycle infrastructure in cities so cars couldn't keep them from saving lives.
📸 joncstone
"Want More Babies? Abolish Commutes." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/o...
lower cost, re-usable, allows for affordable maintenance and rehab work - plus the public realm doesn't look like sh*t
Every second of free time you have ever had in your life was subsidized by the existence of the combine harvester.
this is a perfect example of how “corporate greed” isn’t always a useful frame for every policy. same goes for housing with the whole “blackrock is the reason for the housing crisis” nonsense
automating backbreaking labor is good actually. plus added bonus here of reduced need for herbicides if they can automate weed removal
After one week of these interminable articles whining about garbage collection, I'm exhausted. The garbage collection itself is fine.
The data economy has made us dumber in ways that also make us vulnerable to authoritarian takover. We are have become both cynical and gullible in the sense we think we are too jaded be fooled and as a result are tricked more easily www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Who gave them the right to take that space away from us? Do you know how hard it is to make me mad about property rights? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!
What I've learned in 45 years of reporting on the military.
And why that makes the current reckless folly even worse than it looks.
(Most before paywall.)
fallows.substack.com/p/the-arroga...
I'd reduce or eliminate useless front yards too, but yeah
Almost certainly yes. We should've both started and finished that project decades ago.
Canadian govt officials dislike public access to info. Very simple.
Canada's toxic culture of secrecy strikes again.
There is a way you could justify cutting access to information staff (publish vastly more information publicly by default) but I don't think they're doing that 🤔
Kinda makes you wonder whether all the sweaty, performative talk about "self-reliance" and all the hatred directed at urbanites is about a deep subconscious awareness of their dependence. Maybe they recognize on some level that they can't hack it on their own.
One thing I feel ought to be discussed more is the fact that basically all rural and suburban places in the US are subsidized by cities. They resent cities. They insult cities. They elect politicians who abuse cities. But none of them could survive without cities.
This is one of the biggest peeves I have with urban sprawl. If developers and homeowners in the neighbourhoods outside the Henday were forced to pay (either in home price or taxes) fair value for what costs the city absorbs downtown living would be much more attractive financially.
I lack the words to capture it, but ... it's just endlessly remarkable to me that so many people in our society have chosen trans kis -- TRANS KIDS, the smallest, least significant, most vulnerable demographic slice you could possibly pick -- as a repository for all their fears & insecurities.
This is why journalists should not be friends with the people they cover. It‘s embarrassing for all concerned.
www.tvo.org/article/anal...
"People need consequences for dangerous driving. Automated cameras deliver fair, unbiased enforcement where officers can’t patrol constantly, holding reckless drivers accountable in high-risk areas like school zones while freeing up police for other duties." -Andy Boenau
She was on metro morning just now talking about how much the chief is doing, above & beyond, and how great a local cop near her is. She’s the fucking chair of the only real oversight board and she sounds like internal police comms.
This is an untenable situation.
There is no real civilian oversight or control of the police. Prove me wrong.
Sure, that bylaw sounds weird. But imagine if every bar-owner just decided for themself how many pinball machines to have. Utter chaos
These authors reviewed 73 previous studies examining car touchscreens.
Conclusion: They're awful
"Touchscreens tended to have negative effects on driving performance, visual attention, and secondary task performance compared with voice control and physical controls."
doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...
Text: Anything larger than a duplex is regulated under building codes as a commercial building rather than a residential one, even though apartments are, obviously, residences. That saddles multifamily homes with costly construction requirements that housing advocates argue are not evidence-based and can balloon the cost of building to crippling levels.
"A morass of construction codes, fire safety requirements, utility rules, and even tax policies, treat even small multifamily buildings fundamentally differently from the way they treat single-family homes." buff.ly/zWtTbMP
You tell me which one would be safer, the one with 2 total stairs that everyone uses or the one with many stairs that a few units use? Fire fighters are wrong
We need change, not a consensus. Firefighters are not building scientists. To get things changed some people will have to be left mad and the firefighters are one of those groups