A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
Granite and concrete blocks are installed as part of Operational Projects as hardening in order to provide safety for pedestrians. Many granite blocks have been repurposed from bridge rehabilitation projects across the City. These blocks are a sustainable solution that integrates seamlessly into New York City's urban environment. NYC DOT also purchases new blocks when needed.
I put a boulder at the end of my driveway as people kept plowing through my yard/garden and it has worked wonders. We call it the car parts god. And the car parts god demands sacrifice.
I have seen it this done well and with aesthetic attention to detail. But apparently in New York you just dropped rocks on the ground and go home.
Usually these are raised up to the level of the walkway and generally integrated little bit better into the environment maybe put some plants and gravel around them, this looks like the result of a landslide that they've just painted an outline around. I suppose it's equally effective but I feel like aesthetics account for something.
These look they just fell out of the sky after a volcanic eruption, and they were too heavy to move, do they just live here now.
Many granite blocks have been repurposed from bridge rehabilitation projects across the City.
Why did the bridges have a drinking problem?
It's from former mayor Bloomberg's transportation chief Janette Sadik-Khan. He gave her a few million bucks to go ham with experimental street redesigns. She went max-economical and stretched that budget by spending it on street paint, simple street furniture, the adhered sand application you see in the photo (that's not tan paint), and repurposed bollards like those boulders. She grew out the city's class 2 bike lane network with the paint, used the adhered sand and boulders and street furniture to sketch out extra curb space and plazas all over. Many of which were very well-received and got public support to go permanent with actual cement over the following decade. But the city still frequently uses her temporary application approach to test out pedestrianization changes, and the adhered sand / boulder combo works so well it's become pretty much permanent on it's own in some places.
A few years ago they put some rocks in low visibility corners in my neighbourhood after a few close calls with kids. Every once in a while someone still tries to cut the corner and hits the rocks. Often enough that the rocks need to be moved back at least once a year.
Now, in the US I expect the rocks will be protests as soon as the first idiot backs into one of the rocks.
In my area they raised the issue that crashing into them could injure or kill the driver lol.
With cars as bloated as today? Not a chance.
They should also remove houses and all other buildings, way to dangerous if a driver crashes into them.
You forget the murderous trees that suddenly jump into the way of speeding drivers.
Doesn't it bother you when the random tree just decides to cross the road with no notice? Especially in corners.
What bothers me even more is when they stand there waiting as if they are about to cross. I mean make a decision and stick with it for once.
Have you faced the Drunk Tree? It's that weird tree that steps into the road to take a leak, stands there awkwardly for two seconds too long, you crash your precious car into it and they just go their way without a care.
No where I live they drown in the canals. But thanks for the heads up, can imagine them being dangerous for drivers.
This big ass rock under our feet is a hazard, anyone can crash into it at any moment, especially the elderly and children
In the US the owner of the vehicle would likely try and sue the owner of the rocks.
These have been around for years
Back meaning further back from the corner or back to where it was before the hit?
To before it was hit
These blocks are a sustainable solution that integrates seamlessly into New York City's urban environment.
Uhh that doesn't look seamless to me. But far from me to complain, bollards are great.
The rectangle ones look a bit odd, but the ones with natural looking shapes look quite nice imo.
Also fun fact the name of the colour of my phones backplate is based on a Finnish town sharing your username, Inari blue.
They're all over the city and provide free public seating. I'm not complaining. Seems like a good way to reuse old materials
I love sizable rocks
I recently read something about how Paris uses temporary measures before redesigning a road, selling initial changes to the public as an experiment. By not immediately going to a final design, people seem to be more accepting of the end result even if that result is exactly the same as the temporary fix was. Almost as if the drivers need some time to let go of 'their' street. Guess these kinds of blocks can easily be used to 'temporarily' change a street layout, by making a street/lane for cars inaccessible for cars.
That's a clever hack around how people are stupid and dislike change, any change, even good change.
Good of them to provide ammunition for the upcoming block-by-block urban trebuchet battles.
I always laugh when I see a Jeep broken down on a trail, especially because I was once in a jeep broken down on a trail. Garbage cars!
I own an old SUV from back in the day when SUV directly decent vehicles, what are the best feelings in the world is a driving around a Jeep or land rover that has managed to get stuck in a farmer's field, and here I am in suburbanite vehicle driving circles around them.
But they have badges! 😆
Wranglers can handle trails, but most of their drivers can't. And it only applies to their ability to drive on said trails, not their tendency to break down biweekly, which is a separate issue lol
Stellantis. Not even once.
Yeah, it's hard to escape that opinion in my own mind.
I try to avoid sweeping generalisations like "american cars are shit" but it just seems to be born out so repetitively that it seems like a truism.
Jeep used to have a certain design aesthetic for their short wheel base models which has been great for decades. But reliability has never matched it and they haven't been able to transfer it to their other models like the cherokee.
In the Australian offroad scene you never see anything american. The guys building the most capable machines are starting with toyotas and nissans.
I've been on enough trails to see all kinds of trucks broken down on trails.
Trail use is hard on vehicles of any kind.
Not that (most) Jeeps aren't trash ... but it's not because you occasionally see a broken one on the trail.
True, but when my $1400 Mazda 2 Neo hatchback is sailing past a broken down $140000 off road beast I do admit to a little chuckle. I've taken my mini beast down some clearly stupid paths and it has yet to let me down. I've also never crashed into a roo or gotten myself stuck in a way I couldn't fix because it is only 1300kg tare weight so I can literally push the car out of a ditch if needed and I couldn't possibly do that with one of the urban tanks.
Surely they could come up with something a bit better contrasting ?
I see you've never driven in NYC
Trust us, this isn't an issue.
You see that white paint? That's reflective, if you can't see that line you shouldn't be driving. If you hit the rock that's your fault.
There is quite a bit of contrast between the road and sidewalk, if someone is driving on the sidewalk and don't see the rocks then maybe they'll learn not to drive on the sidewalk next time
My pet rock will be so happy to see more friends while we're out for our walks!
Not what I expected...
...but the next best thing.
That game was awesome once childhood me finally figured out the right way to play it.
I've sometimes considered that merely tossing/rolling midsize to large rocks into the middle of the road in random places might be a good way to protest car-centric infrastructure... Even a rock that's only about fist-sized could still cause major problems for some cars.
Yeah the family of the underpaid Amazon worker will thank you for the medical bill.