@halm Diaspora only federates with Friendica (because the latter has diaspora protocol support). Friendica doesn't have its "own protocol", it uses ActivityPub with its own proprietary extensions IIRC.
The decision to build freeways instead of rail in the post-war years, along with the low-rise single-zoned suburbs it promoted, has been an absolute planning disaster.
But the mistake can be fixed, and freeways can be removed.
City Beautiful's Dave Amos @citybeautiful has an interesting look at some of America's endangered freeways, and how communities can get them removed:
So WestConnex was totally going to solve traffic in Sydney by adding more lanes for cars. Just a few teething problems on the Rozelle Interchange and it'll all clear up, they said.
I wonder how it's going?
"Gladesville and Drummoyne locals say gridlock is worsening in their suburbs following changes to improve traffic flow through the notorious Rozelle Interchange, with drivers using local streets as “rat runs” to dodge congestion."
How are they unrepairable yourself? Are there not people online selling boards for them? Most of the time all you have to do is replace the power board or image board or one of the others if a TV dies. $100 and you gotta new TV. Is that not a thing for Vizio TVs?
As per iFixit and other sites like tvserviceparts, it depends on the Vizio model. Mainstream models you can often replace the screen and even power input board, others you simply cannot without sourcing their brand though.
The whole issue with LLM models right now is that they are notoriously difficult to control. If it were up to Google, every single response would include a reference to some sponsored content - but they can't do that without completely destroying the usefulness of the output and besmirching the sponsor's brand.
Of course, as time passes, we're going to refine this technology, until we have enough control to implement these terrible/profitable ideas. Like any aspect of life under capitalism, we can really only enjoy it while it lasts.
I hope at that point we have enough capable alternatives. Like, hopefully around the time they add ads is also the time when open-source models and apps have caught up again.
So the RTA's own modelling showed the Rozelle Interchange would be a traffic disaster—but generating more toll road trips for Transurban was more important.
"The [NSW Roads and Traffic Authority] finalised the first business case for the WestConnex tunnel project in June 2013, with the help of road designers from around the world.
"[Paul Forward, a former CEO of the RTA] said the initial concept did not include the Rozelle Interchange.
...
"In 2014, an expert review group was formed to assess these plans.
"Mr Forward said it was at this point that TfNSW bureaucrats began to question the connectivity provided by the design.
"The RTA's former director of traffic Chris Ford told the inquiry that 15 alternative designs were modelled.
"Mr Ford said the modelling found that another motorway leading to the Anzac Bridge would cause congestion.
"'The issues that we see today were very clearly established in the modelling in 2014,' he said.
"In November 2015, after Mr Forward and Mr Ford were dismissed, TfNSW updated the WestConnex business case to include the tunnel to the Anzac Bridge, despite the congestion concerns raised by the modelling.
"In 2016, Transport for NSW updated the business case a second time ... creating a tunnel linking the Iron Cove Bridge to the Anzac Bridge."
...
"In 2018, the NSW government sold its 51 per cent stake in the Sydney Motorway Corporation, the body responsible for operating WestConnex, to Transurban for $9 billion.
"Mr Forward said the final design would generate a larger number of toll trips than previous options."
@shermozle@ajsadauskas@fuck_cars
Same here in Stockholm. Now that the 21 km tunneled motorway ringroad is nearing completion they're adding several widenings of connecting motorways etc as separate projects even though even in the planning documents they're explicitly consequences of the big new motorway "bypass".
"It's going to be a bloody disaster": Tell me again about how the second road tunnel under Sydney Harbour won't make congestion worse?
"Civil engineer Les Wielinga, a former CEO at the now-defunct Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA), made the fiery comments at a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the bungled Rozelle Interchange.
"The Western Harbour Tunnel, which is under construction, will allow drivers travelling between the inner west and the North Shore to bypass the CBD.
"Entries and exits to the tunnel will lie at the Ernest Street interchange in Cammeray and near the Falcon Street interchange at North Sydney.
"'It's going to be a bloody disaster,' Mr Wielinga told the upper house committee on Friday.
"Paul Forward, another former CEO of the RTA, told the inquiry he was concerned about the project's design.
"'You've now got three motorways coming out into this short area, and whilst I would recognise there are some exit points, some off-ramps, those motorways are now all going into the Lane Cove Tunnel,' he said.
"'A large number of lanes are going into two lanes at the Lane Cove Tunnel. Sounds familiar?'"
@erkpod@Rentlar Really hoping that opens before the Wallabies matches start this year. Getting current public transport home means at the final transport change I have to wait for busses that only come every hour, and I ALWAYS get there < 5 minutes after the last bus left.
The metro will get me close enough to home it’s just a casual stroll. And is SO much more regular at all hours.
@ajsadauskas@fuck_cars So when are they going to have the courage to close the City West Link and most of Victoria Road through Rozelle? You shouldn't be using those "streets" unless you're local (or a bicycle).
We're halfway to solving these stroads. Let's do it.
A rising road toll in the US. A rising road toll in Australia. Journalists give 1000 reasons why it could be happening.
And they studiously avoid mentioning the growing proportion of massive SUVs and pickup trucks on the roads. If they mention it at all, it's only in passing: https://youtu.be/Hb5_RUNeC0g?si=uuns6D1I6fGINdpU
But.
If you have larger and heavier cars, with larger blind spots, of course you're going to have more fatalities!
@technology Oh, for sure, they mention the App Store fees and extensive review process, but in my opinion involving the price of the iPhone and past history of Apple is strange (and seems to make the case weaker).
Eeeeehhhhhh… you can’t really fault a company for a previously unknown hardware defect going against their stated principles. That’s like faulting the devs of OpenSSH for their principle of security because CVE-2023-38408 existed for years.
Hate on Apple for legitimate things, of which there are many.
A good look at The Verge about the history of false claims made by the Silicon Valley hype machine around self-driving cars:
"In 2015, the then-lead of Google’s self-driving car project Chris Urmson said one of his goals in developing a fully driverless vehicle was to make sure that his 11-year-old son would never need a driver’s license.
"The subtext was that in five years, when Urmson’s son turned 16, self-driving cars would be so ubiquitous, and the technology would be so superior to human driving, that his teenage son would have no need nor desire to learn to drive himself.
"Well, it’s 2024, and Urmson’s son is now 20 years old. Any bets on whether he got that driver’s license?"
Thanks for the links. As I read it, none of that is saying their ratio is below 1:1, just that they switch between vehicles as needed.
And the "what their operators do" link sounds like they are the equivalent of a driving instructor sitting in the passenger seat, giving instructions but not "directly controlling" the vehicle.
Meanwhile, toyota's driver assist tech from 2023 models will actively jerk the wheel from you and try to steer itself into obstructions on the side of the road you're trying to pass, if you have to move closer to the double yellow dividing lines to do it. Oh you live in a rural area and more than half the roads don't even have markings? It will occasionally attempt to steer you into the middle of the two lane road, into oncoming traffic.