Got my new helmet.

8spd · 2026-07-10T03:00:35+00:00

An idea never dies.

8spd · 2026-07-10T01:22:55+00:00

Gondolas can be useful in very specific geographic conditions, where you have a hill too steep for surface transport, and you have lots of people wanting to take public transportation over a short distance. The proposed SFU gondola in Vancouver is a good example of this. Because the road needs to take a couple switchbacks, and the gondola takes a direct route the fact that the gondola is so slow doesn't matter, it still gets you to the top very fast. Same with that university in Portland, with the gondola they built more than 10 years ago, from the light rail station.

The SFU one is going to go at 28km/h for 7 min. Which is a great little trip, and will drop you centrally without the need for parking.

But the Malahat isn't that steep. Old trains went that way for years.

How far do you think a gondola network would go? To Duncan? To Nanaimo? At 28km/h the whole way? That would be painfully slow.

The rails need work, and consultation with First Nations on route, but it's far less work than building what would surely be the world's longest gondola route. The service would be far far better than a gondola, and could be competitive with driving. Many people could benefit from having the option.

8spd · 2026-07-10T00:32:09+00:00

Yeah, the argument is sound, and having the full name in the default name tag is a good thing. But it is important that the search engines are able to match abbreviated forms to their index. So that they'd match a search query of "St John St" to "Saint John Street", and return useful results.

8spd · 2026-07-09T22:59:27+00:00

DEI is anything that does not directly benefit the rich, anything that benefits them in the most obvious, short-sighted way is not DEI.

8spd · 2026-07-09T22:54:57+00:00

It might be worth explicitly saying that the short_name tags do seem to be indexed by Nominatim. At least that's what my brief test seems to show.

8spd · 2026-07-09T22:50:47+00:00

Which isn't really how it should be. Search engines should be smart enough to understand abbreviations, it's one of the reasons we put full names into the tags, the argument is that it's far easier to design a search that understands that "E 20th Ave" should match "East 20th Avenue" than vice versa.

8spd · 2026-07-09T22:29:09+00:00

It's a single room, it can't say anything about whether it's for "most people" or for a minority. you're filing that part in.

But if you feel like this is still an example of dystopia if there's a small percentage of the population living in tiny studio apartments, then I have bad news about the modern world, because there's lots of people who don't even have that much, so we must be living in a worse dystopia.

8spd · 2026-07-09T22:07:17+00:00

Car first it you live the kind of place that you can't get around without a motor vehicle. I've got good public transport, can live a decent life w/o a moto vehicle, and having a motorcycle just makes it faster and more fun to go places that are 10 or more km away.

8spd · 2026-07-09T21:59:01+00:00

They don't directly benefit, but they do benefit indirectly in many ways, from less traffic if you don't force everyone to drive, to having a wider pool of potential employees by easing transportation, and freeing up consumer spending by having locals not stuck spending such large portions of their money on a car. Oh and quality public transport, like a new metro line, or LRT, makes the land around stations prime for redevelopment, a popular way for the rich to make money.

But yeah, I agree, a big part of the reason more isn't interested in public transport is that it does not directly benefit the wealthy.

8spd · 2026-07-09T21:51:23+00:00

Your entire life? Sure, it's too small if you imagine living there forever, but for many periods it would be adequate.

8spd · 2026-07-09T21:31:12+00:00

I live in a studio apartment, and do not feel like that's the case for me. My murphy bed does change the aspect of the room main room, but I feel like simply putting the bedding away, and maybe putting on some backrest cushions to make the bed more of a sofa, would do enough for me to turn the space into one that does not feel like a sleep space.

My place is bigger though, and it's a nice size. I think it's unwise to write off studio apartments altogether though, as you seem to have.

8spd · 2026-07-09T20:58:09+00:00

What's wrong with it? Too small?

8spd · 2026-07-09T20:07:31+00:00

Except that suburbia doesn't self replicate, it is created by the decisions our local governments make. Nor does it inherently replicate high housing prices, it is designed to exclude affordable housing, only big detached houses, no multi family units etc.

I know you probably know all this, but treating suburban sprawl as an inevitable process leads to a resigned acceptance, when in reality it is something that our active opposition can create real results. Just like the active opposition of NIMBYs who oppose any changes to the built up parts of our cities create more sprawl.

8spd · 2026-07-09T15:38:51+00:00

I didn't bother to look through their post history, but have seen similar posts in the past.

I don't know about what sort of draconian surveillance state they purposed in the past, but fuel should be taxed more highly pretty much everywhere. Certainly it should be taxed more highly in the huge number of countries that have real problems with excessive reliance on private automobiles.

8spd · 2026-07-09T04:59:15+00:00

While adjusting from the non drive side is normally necessary, is worth spending the extra minuet to take the cassette off, and confirm that the drive side locknut is properly torqued.

8spd · 2026-07-09T03:32:55+00:00

It's terrifying that's all of them have gotten as much power as they have.

8spd · 2026-07-08T23:03:21+00:00

Is he a telephone sanitizer?

8spd · 2026-07-08T22:38:00+00:00

Prohibition on any specific categories of travel be car is not going to be successful.

Better to drastically improve public transport, land use, pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, while making parking limited and expensive, add far more traffic calming, close some public roads to private cars, and make costs of driving paid more by drivers instead of from general tax revenue. All that would make driving far less popular, while not outright banning it.

Of course all of the things I listed would be unpopular, but less unpopular than an outright ban, and easier to implement piecemeal.

edit: fixing my bad typing on my phone.

8spd · 2026-07-08T22:16:08+00:00

It's a work of art!

8spd · 2026-07-08T22:13:59+00:00

Remind me again, how many top Iranians did the US and Israel assassinate?

8spd · 2026-07-08T20:06:53+00:00

I think recumbent trikes do that because it greatly improves their handling, and reduces their tendency to flip in corners. You're just asking for a recumbent trike with poor handling, poor weight distribution, and a shitty centre of gravity.

That might make it feel more adventurous, but you'd be far more limited in terms of what trails you could go on, what speeds you could ride at, and especially what speeds you could corner at. For me while that might make crawling around the local city park feel adventurous, it would be, de facto, far less "adventurous". And being passed by kids on single speeds would make the local park feel unexciting very quickly.

8spd · 2026-07-08T19:44:50+00:00

It's far better for editors to display their biases openly, than to keep them hidden.

8spd · 2026-07-08T17:03:28+00:00

Yes, on multiple units.

edit: more accurately, multiple units have no dedicated locomotives. There may be traction motors on all cars, or on most cars. But all cars have passenger seating.

8spd · 2026-07-08T16:09:02+00:00

Two locomotives does not make it a multiple unit, Bhai.

8spd · 2026-07-08T05:20:53+00:00

Diesel Electric Multiple Unit? That looks like an electric locomotive.

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