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Not quite on topic, but hey:
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I hadn't heard about this yet, an absolutely insane motorway plan in Berlin:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/02/germany-love-fast-cars-runs-into-berlin-radical-ravers
I doubt the protesters will be able to prevent it, though. It seems a bit like the M11 Link Road. The best they can hope for is to increase the cost (but German government powers are pretty draconian when it comes to this type of project).
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Some good news:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/04/wales-scraps-gwent-levels-m4-relief-road-scheme
Cancelled road-building projects are as rare as hen's teeth.
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The usual depressing nonsense, rehashed:
More sprawl, more driving, more rubbish greenfield development, all couched in the language of positivity when it is absolutely not what should be caused.
These people are so desperately unimaginative and unjust when it comes to land use.
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One 'cheap' way of increasing motor traffic 'capacity' on existing motorways that they came up with was to turn hard shoulders into additional traffic lanes. Here's what happened:
Nothing is going to improve until we realise we have to reduce motor traffic capacity.
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Other than increasing capacity and monitoring, I haven't really seen that these motorways are all that smart. Even when the speed limits are below the national limit, people routinely ignore them, and cause congestion anyway. I don't see why it wasn't rolled out with more active speed enforcement.
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Well, the more motor traffic capacity you generate, the more congestion you create. I suspect the lack of enforcement, apart from cost, is related to ongoing plans to eventually bring in road user tracking, which would then be used for enforcement. People were much too optimistic about this technology ten years ago and thought it would be in the foreseeable future. However, the technology is not that simple, there are many options as to what exactly to go for, it raises significant surveillance/privacy issues, and now there is the pipedream of automated cars, anyway. Meanwhile, our dependence on far, far too much motorised transportation is still shit and is not being addressed except by the proverbial drops of water on a hot stone.
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The cheapest way to increase motorway capacity, reduce collisions and injuries, reduce fuel consumption, pollution form vehicle component wear and road surface degradation and congestion is to lower the speed limit.
And the best way to enforce it is with average speed cameras as in the road works.
If this had been taken up as an option when the smart motorway concerns were first raised we'd be there by now and have tons of spare road building money spend on segregated urban cycle facility construction. -
Yes, and as I said, we shouldn't increase motorway capacity, but reduce it. :)
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Here's a follow-up article on it:
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This baby was born in a car stopped in a 'live traffic lane':
I wonder if that was because there was no hard shoulder any more.
History (sort of) repeats:
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This absolute disaster of a 'budget' (throwing money at Tory-supporting road-builders) is being challenged in court:
One does hope that it's going to be scuppered in some way, anyway; I'm not too optimistic that the legal route will work for too much longer with this 'government', distracted though it may be at the moment. What are a few poxy international agreements compared to sovereign freedom?
Anyway, all power to the campaigners. Hope it succeeds.
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This happened a little while ago--another Italian bridge collapsed, but fortunately there was almost no traffic on it at the time and only two people were injured:
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That picture suggests the cables failed, maybe at the anchor points.
The individual bridge decks appear to be fairly intact,
suggesting the first 'armchair expert' verdict that Italian construction companies
'always have to cheat on the cement content of their concrete to pay the Mafia their cut'
isn't the case here. -
I'm afraid I doubt this is going to make anything 'safer':
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-53541440
Let's hope it's not often actually applied in practice.
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... and yet another attempt at greenwashing a failed idea:
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My hometown Rotterdam setting an example, they are closing off car traffic on two major intersections for 4 months. More pictures here, Google Translate should get you the gist: https://benderotterdam.nl/?portfolio=experiment-oude-westen-gemeente-rotterdam
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What's your objection to electrifying freight?
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The same as with all the electric car greenwashing stuff. People are just looking for ways of maintaining the folly of automobilism. I want freight to be carried by rail and water (but not carried around half the world on huge polluting container ships). Automobilism has caused the world to become utterly disorganised and there's a very high price to pay for all that superficial convenience that people reckon they have to enjoy.
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Posted by
@Oliver Schick
Yes. He accused the lead (British) diver of being a paedophile on Twitter.