They are UNIX systems, they don’t need an entire team to be managed once installed and running.

I’m only half joking. It’s not UNIX but I’ve been working with “legacy” systems like IBM i mainframes, and those things don’t need much to run. Sure, you have to update the system and the software once every few months, manage backups, role switches, etc., but it can mostly be done by a few people. But yeah, systems like this were (are) insanely expensive so most of his budget probably went there.

You look down on people driving a car they can’t repair themselves.

I look down on people driving a vehicle they can’t power themselves.

We are not the same.

…is your taxonomic nomenclature.

The practice must vary depending on the region and the tolerance level of the local police and parking enforcement. Around Montreal, when there’s no parking near a work site, some construction workers just abandon their pickup trucks anywhere there’s any amount of space, often in crosswalks because that’s where there’s “space” left, and jam a high-vis vest in their window to show “who they are”, hoping they won’t get a ticket. And apparently it works or they wouldn’t be doing it that much.

I find it dangerous for pedestrians as they are now emerging from both sides of a pickup truck higher than they are, making it difficult to see them from the vehicles passing that crosswalk, but it’s unfortunately a frequent thing here.

Less annoying than construction guys leaving their pickup trucks in pedestrian crossings with a high visibility vest jammed in the window.

The Democrats, left? As someone not living in the US, to me, Democrats are just a light right wing party. At best they might be considered centrists, but left?! Sorry for your “choices”.

That’s why road diets and reducing road capacity is also important. Like Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Madrid or Vienna, the space dedicated to cars also have to be reduced in order to incite people to use something else than a car.

Cynical take from today’s fucked up point of view: The teacher was woke and entirely wrong. The proof is that climate change is still not happening today. Caring for the environment is economic terrorism. There never was anything to worry about in the first place. Drill baby drill.

Monster is actually a company that I will try to avoid as much as possible, specifically for their marketing. It’s one of the few energy drinks that I can tolerate and it would be my default “go to” when I need one, but I refrain from buying them because I remember seeing their giant pickup trucks in the streets of my city and I hate them.

I bought hundreds of cans before but since I’ve seen a few of their monstrosities parade in my city, I avoid them.

I don’t drive but I live on a four lane road in front of trafic light and beyond particles, for me it’s a combination of multiple things, all from cars.

There’s the pollution from the combustion particles, but the noise is also a significant source of stress. From the young dudes that want to impress and rev their engines, to the huge trucks with trailers, they are all noisy and it makes it impossible to keep the windows open. Even the electric cars are noisy. Some of them sound like they are constantly honking at low volume. Plus, their tires are also making that white noise when they move at a certain speed, and they also shed microplastics.

And then because we don’t have emergency lanes, there are several emergency vehicles passing in front of my apartment multiple times a day, sirens blasting and honking at cars stuck in trafic.

Also, the visual aspect of a car sewer makes me depressed. Seeing them everywhere. A sea of cars in cities, but also deep in nature.

Last year I visited a few Carribean islands and all of them were choked by cars. Want to take a hike? Just get a car, there’s a parking on the top of the volcano.

The article ends on the note that electric cars will at least help with the pollution from combustion particles, which is good. But the noise and the sea of cars will remain, they’ll just be electric.

This reminds me of the song Dearly Beloved by Bad Religion.

Dearly beloved, dearly beloved, dearly beloved

(Make no mistake, despite our traits I’ve seldom seen)

I can’t relate to you (I can’t relate to you), I can’t relate to you

…

Do you know my name - sing a light refrain

For a man estranged - I won’t deny that I’m inclined to isolate

Dearly beloved…

Don’t worry, car collisions are only one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in the US.

Who cares if you’re blind, you need to go places. Here’s your license. The other shiny dots are just NPCs.

Anything but public or active transit.

Yeah. It’s always a bit pathetic to watch or read about the efforts of cities to make things safer around here.

The scheme that is very popular here to “secure” intersections is to add an exclusive pedestrian phase (a scramble) to the traffic lights cycle. So everyone has to wait for everyone. No pedestrians are crossing while cars are moving through an intersection, and no cars are crossing the intersection while pedestrians are. But it’s tuned for cars and pedestrians have to wait an eternity to have their exclusive phase. So what happens? Pedestrians are eventually losing patience and cross traffic like chickens.

Exclusive phases are also encouraging car drivers never to yield to pedestrians or cyclists, because they never have to. So in some cities where they mainly have this type of crossing, car drivers are not stopping where there’s no traffic lights. Some cities even have to leave orange flags on the side of the road so that pedestrians can wave them in front or cars while crossing.

And don’t get me wrong, scrambles are wonderful for pedestrians when they are in the majority, and when they are configured for pedestrians first. It’s just that some cities here put them at every intersection as a way to separate cars and pedestrians, for safety, and it’s frustrating. And then they scold pedestrians for not waiting “their” turn.

As a pedestrian and cyclist, it’s one of the things I see when I change city. I really don’t like walking in Québec City for this because you have to let cars pass in all the directions first before you are allowed to cross. In Montréal everyone crosses at the same time but they put straight arrows on green lights for a few seconds at the beginning of the cycle, so pedestrians and cyclists have a few seconds to start crossing before cars can try to crush them. And I prefer this. A lot.

It depends what we are talking about.

Why? It’s made specifically so that cyclists and pedestrians can be at an angle where it’s easy to see them from a car. Motorists have a better view of cyclists and pedestrians than in a + intersection.

They are rare here in Montreal but we have a few like this on Nun’s Island and they work fine without any traffic lights.

I go touch grass regularly. Actually I went bike touring and camping this very week. And the week before. Want some pictures?

And no. Just like life, I’m gonna stay here, be a thorn, and point out the obvious to the boot lickers. Otherwise I would have killed myself a long time ago.

Just a job by participating in the murder and torture of innocent people that happens to be living in the wrong place at the wrong time.

At least he doesn’t shoot you down literally.

Yeah, he should be waterboarded by one of your heroes torturing America’s ennemies in Guantanamo Bay, then he would have more respect.

They call it collateral damage. Or is it casualties?! A few hundred thousand in Iraq. Plus a few tens of thousand in Afghanistan. And maybe some torture here and there.

And I doubt this person is old enough to have fought literal fascists.

All heroes for participating in the glorious defence of capitalism democracy.

It’s a quote from an episode of the Simpsons. I don’t know who wrote that but I left it verbatim.