A 7,000-Pound Car Smashed Through a Guardrail. That’s Bad News for All of Us.
@LovesTha @CableMonster @DriftinGrifter Okay, let's break this one down a little bit:
- The typical size and weight of pickup trucks has increased massively since the '90s:
"Since 1990, U.S. pickup trucks have added almost 1,300 pounds on average. Some of the biggest vehicles on the market now weigh almost 7,000 pounds — or about three Honda Civics."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-11/the-dangerous-rise-of-the-supersized-pickup-truck
"Moreover, pickups’ weight increased by 32% between 1990 and 2021 ... In the 1980s, about half of pickup trucks were categorized as small or midsize. But by the 2010s, small pickups had nearly vanished as Americans increasingly bought into the big truck lifestyle."
https://www.axios.com/2023/01/23/pickup-trucks-f150-size-weight-safety
- Pick-ups are also larger than their '90s counterparts:
"A [Consumer Reports] analysis of industry data shows that the hood height of passenger trucks has increased by an average of at least 11 percent since 2000 and that new pickups grew 24 percent heavier on average from 2000 to 2018. On some heavy-duty trucks, such as the Ford F-250, the front edge of the hood is now 55 inches or more off the ground—as tall as the roof of some sedans."
https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/the-hidden-dangers-of-big-trucks/
- Paradoxically, pick up trucks made before the '90s had more capacity for transporting construction supplies and equipment than their new counterparts:
"As pickups transitioned from workhorses to lifestyle vehicles, their design shifted accordingly: Cabs expanded to accommodate more passengers, while beds shrank.
"The first generation of F-150s was 36% cab and 64% bed by length. By 2021, the ratio flipped, with 63% cab and 37% bed."
https://www.axios.com/2023/01/23/pickup-trucks-f150-size-weight-safety
- Each time you double the weight of a vehicle, you cause roughly 16 times as much pavement damage:
"The generalized fourth-power law explains why road damage is disproportionately inflicted by the heftiest vehicles. Developed after extensive federal roadway testing during the 1950s, the law is a rule of thumb showing that roadway stress caused by two vehicles is a function of their relative weight per axle scaled to the fourth power. As a result, a single 80,000-pound auto hauler with five axles can cause around 4,000 times the destruction of a two-ton car."
https://slate.com/business/2023/06/electric-vehicles-auto-haulers-weight-capacity-roads.html
- In Australia, main roads are generally funded by federal and state governments through a mix of fuel excise and consolidated revenue. Local streets, which account for most of the road network, are funded by local councils through rates.
- Despite the added cost, receive several tax breaks under Australia's tax code.
"Temporary Full Expensing allowed for vehicles to be claimed as an immediate, one-off tax deductible expense, and while that deduction was capped at $60,000 for passenger vehicles, there was no limit for vehicles that can carry at least a tonne.
"And the Loss Carry Back tax offset allows a business to claim the purchase of a new vehicle against the previous year's profits if that vehicle creates a net loss for the business."
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@ohlaph @maegul@lemmy.ml I watched it, so you don't have to.
Okay, so he's mostly talking here about older, 1980s or 1990s suburban office park buildings, rather than CBD office towers.
Think large floor plates, large open air car parks, one set of toilets and kitchens per floor.
They were basically designed for one purpose, as @maegul@hachyderm.io pointed out, and that's to cram in as many desks as possible. People were, of course, expected to drive to work.
From a property investor's standpoint, it would cost more to buy these buildings and then retrofit them then you would get back by selling or leasing them as apartments.
And even if you did spend the money to renovate (including completely redoing the plumbing and HVAC systems), you'd still be left with crummy apartments with windows that don't open and bedrooms with no windows.
He argues the best option is to tear it down and start over.
To be fair, he does raise some good points. I can see how a large floorplate would be difficult to subdivide into apartments where every living room and bedroom has a window.
And I don't think anyone would argue that suburban office parks aren't hideous places.
My thoughts as follows:
- If it doesn't make commercial sense to retrofit buildings to apartments, perhaps governments need to step in and do it?
I mean, I can't imagine too many commercial property owners and banks would complain too much right now about a government stepping in and buying up older office buildings.
And even if it doesn't make commercial sense to retrofit them, it might make social and public policy sense to convert them into public housing, while at the same time avoiding having disused or abandoned office blocks laying around.
- Going forward, we have to make sure the buildings we design are reusable, and can support a range of different uses.
That means, in many cases, having buildings that support different uses on different floors (so shops or restaurants on the ground floor, offices or community spaces on the lower floors, apartments above).
More importantly, we need buildings that are designed from the outset to be able to be used for different purposes over time.
@thepixelfox @Zagorath @pineapplelover @dgriffith Playing devil's advocate for a moment, the flipside to all this is that high school kids can be incredibly judgemental when it comes to fashion. Teenaged girls especially, but boys too.
Especially in mixed-income or aspirational middle class areas, you will have parents who will pay up to buy designer labels and Nike/Adidas footwear for their little precious.
Then you have the kids whose parents have more limited means, and who wear hand-me-downs or stuff they get from Kmart or Target.
Immediately, that brings class into the classroom. It says to the working class kids that you are less than.
Having a uniform — ideally one that can be purchased from a discount department store — levels that playing field.
And yes, uniforms are authoritarian. Had you asked me 20 years ago, I'd have wholeheartedly agreed they need to be banished.
What changed my mind was talking to a former neighbour, around 10 years ago, who had been a working class kid raised by a single mum.
She'd originally went to high school at a selective entry school that didn't have a uniform. And she constantly felt left out, and the better off kids whose parents could afford to buy them nicer clothes regularly picked on her.
She eventually changed schools to one that had a set uniform.
So school uniforms can be egalitarian — as long as they're affordable.
@dan @thehatfox I moved schools during high school.
At the first, they had a special senior student uniform for year 11 and 12.
The second allowed casual clothes for year 11 and 12, but it had restrictions on what you couldn't wear (so no spaghetti straps — shoulders had to be covered, no bare midriffs, no jewellery aside from earring studs, etc.).
@eatham @unionagainstdhmo Perhaps the date of proclamation could work as a national holiday?
"The Proclamation Declaring the Establishment of the Commonwealth was a royal proclamation made by Queen Victoria on 17 September 1900 federating the six separate British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia."
Another option would be 3 March, when the Australia Act passed, which effectively ended British rule over Australia:
"The Australia Act ended all power of the UK Parliament to legislate with effect in Australia – that is, "as part of the law of" the Commonwealth, a state or a territory (s 1). Conversely, no future law of a state would be void for inconsistency with (being "repugnant to") any UK law applying with "paramount force" in Australia; a state (like the Commonwealth) would have power to repeal or amend such an existing UK law so far as it applied to the state (s 3). State laws would no longer be subject to disallowance and reservation by the monarch (s 8) – a power that, anomalously, remains for Commonwealth legislation (Constitution ss 59 and 60).[n 6]
...
"The Acts came into effect simultaneously, on 3 March 1986."
@Marsupial @jagungal That escalated quickly 😳
@pixxelkick @ardi60 Well, if anyone wants to buy it for that purpose, then I just hope they remember to screen out the more NSFW parts of Reddit.
Otherwise, their bots are going to start giving some rather unfortunate responses to customer questions...
@Marsupial @Zagorath
Sounds to me like you just haven't had a good one?
If not, I'd strongly recommend trying the highest-rated parmas here: https://parma.com.au/
Because the truth is that there's a world of difference between a great Parma and a mediocre one.
A good quality schnitzel should need no topping. If it's dry, that's half the problem right there. And yes, such schnitzels do exist — just ask the Germans and the Austrians.
Ideally, the pub or restaurant menu should offer a pasta with Napoli sauce or margherita pizza. Why? Because the sauce should be flavourful enough to stand on its own.
Now, take that schnitty that stands on its own, add a quality Napoli that carries a dish on its own, with a premium ham and cheese, and you end up with something that's greater than the sum of its parts.
@JamesAshburnerCBR @urbanism And, as anyone in the property game will tell you, what Sydneysiders want is a waterfront property with great views.
Well, thanks to Anthony, you can experience those water views without even leaving your living room or bedroom.
After all, your property can't get any closer to the water than being underneath it...
@JamesAshburnerCBR @urbanism Anthony managed to get himself featured on Four Corners over planning reforms that basically made it easier for developers to build new housing estates in flood plains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHRH8j3qufg
He also appeared before ICAC:
"ENERGY minister Anthony Roberts’ “euphoria” about a Whitsundays holiday on board a developer’s luxury yacht led him to request it be an annual event, according to documents tendered to ICAC.
"Mr Roberts joined former energy minister Chris Hartcher and former MP Andrew Humpherson on a yacht owned by the Gazal family in 2007."
He's also a man who allegedly appreciates a good shiraz:
"Disgraced former Liberal MP Daryl Maguire said "having a glass of red" was code for an off the record meeting with a property developer and the former chief of staff to then-planning minister Anthony Roberts.
...
"Mr Maguire appeared as a witness in the public inquiry by the Independent Commission Against Corruption for the first time on Wednesday, where he admitted he used his position in Parliament to make money.
"His second day of testimony on Thursday could decide the leadership of Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who faced a third day of pressure in Parliament on Wednesday about her five-year relationship with the former MP."
@JamesAshburnerCBR @urbanism A previous NSW Planning Minister, Rob Stokes, wanted to ban dark coloured roofs.
He was rolled in a Cabinet reshuffle in favour of one of Perrottet's factional allies, Anthony Roberts, who dumped the policy.
(What job did Anthony Roberts hold before entering politics? He was the PR guy for a property developer: https://www.9news.com.au/national/news-nsw-planning-minister-anthony-roberts-conflict-of-interest/27d93a02-e1cc-45f6-8058-9054032250d4 You can't make this stuff up!)
@bluGill @technology @jordanlund @pixxelkick @7u5k3n @Zaktor I guess the difference between your experiences and Zaktor's is the difference between an actual Agile standup, compared with faux-Agile.
@DeltaTangoLima @WaterWaiver Internode was quality when @NewtonMark was running the network...
@airwhale @technology The issue is that often the core principles of agile fly in the face of how many big companies and organisations work.
Big orgs are often built around hierarchical command-and-control. They're built on monofunctional teams, processes, and procedures. They're built on KPIs and reports. They're built around getting stakeholder approvals ahead of waterfall projects.
So the bits of agile that tend to get picked up and implemented are the kanban boards and daily "scrum" meetings.
And the bits that tend to get left on the cutting room floor are the bits about products being the most important output, the autonomy, the cross-functional teams, the ongoing customer input, etc.
@BarneyDellar @technology You're right, it should, in truly autonomous cross-functional teams that have a high degree of delegated decision-making.
But that's not what tends to happen in many larger, hierarchical organisations.
In those organisations, what can tend to happen is the daily scrum becomes where managers get to micromanage details and staff are expected to report back their progress.
(I'm thinking about one past job in particular, where it was explained to me that: "The scrum is important because it allows our manager to keep track of our progress and set priorities.")
@No1 @Zagorath Especially in inner-city areas, many of those deliveries are done by bike.
And because most suburbs lack proper Dutch-style protected bike lanes, those riders either have to try to avoid getting hit by cars if they cycle on the road, or dodge pedestrians on the footpath.
Fewer parking spots and more protected bike lanes would help, rather than hinder, many food deliveries.
@Zagorath @tess This is a very interesting discussion, so thanks for all the ramblings in the mentions 😊
Here's a couple of my ramblings. (And I'll preface them by acknowledging my own privilege.)
First, too often discussions about discrimination are framed in terms of individual moral virtue. An act of discrimination is framed as simply a personal vice of the racist or the misogynist. If only the bad people stopped choosing to behave badly, it would all be solved.
Enough Twitter pile-ons against enough bad people, and we solve it for good.
But we are not just individuals. We are citizens. We are part of a society. And discrimination is a problem with our society.
It's not just individual actions. It's the inequitable distribution of power and resources. The discrimination is embedded in the structures of social, political, economic, cultural, and institutional power.
For every individual bigot, there's whole social structures standing behind them.
Second, when it comes to privilege and discrimination, most of us are sitting somewhere in the middle.
Sure, there are some intergenerationally wealthy neurotypical cishet white men who are born with basically a guaranteed life in the top 1%, who have never experienced any discrimination of any form. Someone like Lachlan Murdoch is a great example.
At the other end, there are elderly working-class neurodiverse queer Black women with multiple chronic health conditions and disabilities, who society screws over at every turn.
The rest of us are, to varying degrees, somewhere in-between. Privileged in some ways, discriminated against in others.
(And yes, even if you're a neurotypical cishet white guy, if you're not in the 1%, you are still in that middle ground.)
So there's a simple choice for us to make: what kind of society we want to live in.
We can choose to align ourselves with the powerful, uphold the system as it stands, at the cost of continuing to experience the forms of discrimination we currently face.
We can choose to uphold the system, while only working to change the forms of discrimination we experience personally.
Or we can be empathetic, and seek to make our society equitable — including ending the forms of discrimination we don't personally experience.
Ultimately, it's our choice what kind of society we want to live in.
@WaxedWookie It was also deliberately opened at the end of the year because there's less traffic demand:
"But the government and motorway operator Transurban – who have a contract to run WestConnex until 2060 – say the traffic peak won’t come until February."
So the real test won't be how it performs on a Friday or weekend. It's how it will do once everyone's back at work in February.
Again, the underlying issue seems to be extra traffic that wouldn't be there if the M4/M5/M8 motorway extensions hadn't opened.
There's a lot of traffic being funnelled on to a bridge that was already at capacity.
"Since the project opened on 19 November, morning drivers have headed into the city and found three lanes on two of the main arterial roads abruptly merging into one. Feeder streets from nearby suburbs were jammed, with movement slowing to barely one block an hour at the worst of the crunch times."
The Inner West Council is claiming that department officials were concerned behind closed doors in the months before the interchange opened:
"Darcy Byrne, the mayor of Inner West Council, oversees a region that has endured a decade of dusty and noisy construction. He says Transport for New South Wales officials 'were very concerned' in briefings three months ago about how WestConnex was going to perform.
"'We have warned for a very long time [that] when you tried to funnel such a greatly expanded amount of traffic into the same number of lanes at the Anzac Bridge at Victoria Road, it was going to be a tsunami of traffic chaos,' he said."
@LovesTha @CableMonster @DriftinGrifter So pick-up trucks are now typically larger, heavier, and cause more road damage than their '90s counterparts.
All while having smaller cabs, making them less effective tools for transporting construction supplies and equipment.
"Currently, automakers must hit a fleet-wide target for cars of 181 grams of CO2 emitted per mile, but 261 for light trucks, a 36 percent difference. By 2026, cars must average out to 132 grams of CO2 per mile compared with 187 for light trucks, a 34 percent difference."
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3abk7b/bidens-new-fuel-economy-standards-still-allow-cars-to-pollute-more-if-theyre-not-called-cars
"Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned economic pressure from natural disasters will continue through 2023 after modelling showed severe flooding across the country last year cost the economy $5 billion."
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/floods-cost-economy-5-billion-last-year-20230112-p5cc1t.html
"More than 7,500 pedestrians were killed by drivers last year — the highest number since 1981. The final tally may be even greater given that Oklahoma was unable to provide data due to a technical issue."
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/26/1184034017/us-pedestrian-deaths-high-traffic-car
"The chances of a pedestrian dying in a single-vehicle crash were 68 percent higher when that vehicle was a light truck relative to a car, all else being equal.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/01/higher-vehicle-hoods-significantly-increase-pedestrian-deaths-study-finds/
"Tailpipe pollution contributes to the premature death of 11,105 Australians every year, according to new research.
"The modelling from the University of Melbourne claims vehicle emissions in Australia are also to blame for more than 12,000 hospitalisations annually due to cardiovascular issues, along with almost 7000 respiratory hospitalisations per year."
https://www.drive.com.au/news/emissions-kill-10x-more-australians-than-road-toll/
So that's 10 good reasons right there.
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