[HN Gopher] Guerrilla Public Service Redux (2017)
___________________________________________________________________
Guerrilla Public Service Redux (2017)
Author : DerWOK
Score : 352 points
Date : 2020-05-27 16:05 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (99percentinvisible.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (99percentinvisible.org)
| zackmorris wrote:
| I grew up during the Earth First! movement which started in the
| late 1970s on the coattails of various other forms of
| environmental civil disobedience and tree hugging.
|
| I think what's changed today is that due to the national debt
| etc, most of us know that things are going wrong but we're so
| disenfranchised/disempowered that we feel helpless to do anything
| about it, even if we wanted to or knew we wanted to. It's not
| just that we haven't had a raise in 20-40 years, but that our
| bosses haven't had one, and neither have their bosses. We've
| reached chronic, systemic ineffectualism.
|
| It changes things when we go from a "how do we stop those guys"
| perspective to a "how do we start helping society fix things"
| perspective.
| hammock wrote:
| In my experience the transportation authorities care deeply about
| proper signage, and may have been happy to put up a new sign had
| he asked (did he?). It's not hard to print one in the machine
| shop, and definitely would have been less work than what this guy
| did.
| triyambakam wrote:
| These are the best kind of hacks. And it makes me think about the
| high barriers that end up around fixing things like this. If he
| had tried to make an appeal to get it fixed through official
| channels, how long would it have taken? Would it have been fixed?
| pieterk wrote:
| How do we go about getting a bike lane across the Bay Bridge?
| From Market St to the new section that already has pedestrian
| access.
| [deleted]
| novok wrote:
| It's expensive, in the hundreds of millions of dollars:
| https://mtc.ca.gov/our-work/plans-projects/bicycle-pedestria...
| pieterk wrote:
| It could start with a simple lane closure today, if traffic
| stays at the current levels.
|
| Thanks for posting the link. Will look for info on how to
| fund/vote for this project. As mandelbrotwurst said below,
| it's a small cost to greatly improve mental and physical
| health.
| mandelbrotwurst wrote:
| Is that expensive? Back of the envelope, 10,000 one way trips
| per day at $5 in avoided costs of alternate transport per
| trip = $18.25M per year, seems like could pay for itself well
| within the lifetime of the bridge?
| novok wrote:
| That is lost revenue for the bridge maintenance fund.
| mandelbrotwurst wrote:
| Well, maybe, unless providing this new alternate method
| of transit decreases congestion and pollution, improves
| mental and physical health of its citizens, and by
| extension their productive capacity and the amount of
| income or other taxes that they might pay.
|
| While it's laudable that the City considers funding
| sources for various projects, particularly so given its
| many budgetary issues, it is flawed to think that the
| cost benefit analysis in considering whether to invest in
| a given project is as simple as "will this project pay
| for itself directly through fees that it generates".
|
| Money is fungible and the City has the ability to issue
| bonds. It should consider the effects of what it invests
| in on the overall health of the urban system at large.
|
| We do this for things that are considered "social
| projects", but not for infrastructure, but this is an
| arbitrary distinction, and as always, it's all connected!
|
| Note: I don't intend here to argue that any of the what
| are called "social projects" are worth or not worth their
| expense , just calling attention to what I see as an odd
| disconnect in how we determine what is worth funding.
|
| ...as a sidenote, your point also only holds if all of
| these trips are replacing previously vehicular traffic
| going over the bridge. Also note that you could have
| alternatively chosen to focus on the decrease in wear and
| tear on the bridge!
| mrfusion wrote:
| It would be so cool if this turned into a movement. Kind of like
| open source public works.
| MattGaiser wrote:
| I'm not sure we really want people trying this on their own
| initiative. This was a very good quality implementation, but
| most attempts at this would've consisted of a piece of
| cardboard and some spray paint.
| [deleted]
| Ididntdothis wrote:
| I always wonder what system the LA area is using for their
| signage. They seem to have a rule to mark exits as late or
| confusingly as possible. This leads to people suddenly swerving
| across all six lanes. It requires a certain skill to mark that
| badly....
| derekp7 wrote:
| Is that still an issue today with modern GPS systems, which
| tell you which lane to be in (and when to exit)? I know that in
| the Chicago area I barely pay attention to the signage anymore.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| That's funny because after moving to SoCal from the DC area, I
| was impressed by how _good_ the signage is. I used to joke that
| in DC "Next right" means "you already passed the exit"
|
| Maybe it's improved since I moved away (early '00s), but it was
| terrible when I last lived there.
| selectodude wrote:
| It's not that the signs are bad insofar as the roads are old
| and weren't designed for the speeds that people are driving and
| the volume of traffic that they handle. Cutting over four lanes
| over the course of a mile when everybody is going 50 and
| there's plenty of room is significantly easier than how it is
| now.
| mech422 wrote:
| The original freeway system was designed for 70mph... Dunno
| how old these roads are though.
| wahern wrote:
| The U.S. Interstate system was designed for 70mph.
| California's freeway system is older. IIRC, California
| built the first "freeway" in the U.S.[1] It wasn't until I
| moved to California that I ever even heard the term,
| freeway, used regularly; elsewhere in the U.S. most people
| use the term, highway, as a general word for a fast artery.
| Some east coast locales often have their own terminology
| (e.g. turnpike) for the same reason California does--they
| were the first to build such infrastructure, and to do so
| long before the interstate system.
|
| FWIW, the U.S. Highway system predates the U.S. Interstate
| system, and is still primarily composed of a patchwork of
| pre-existing state roads, "freeways", etc. At the time the
| interstate system was created highways weren't limited
| access--and still aren't necessarily, though most people
| don't understand or obey the technical distinctions in the
| terminology, or what type of road they're driving on.
|
| [1] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arroyo_Seco_Parkway.
| It was designed for 45mph.
| xyzzyz wrote:
| This results in lots of confusion. For example,
| California Vehicle Code defines "highway" as "a way or
| place of whatever nature, publicly maintained and open to
| the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel.
| Highway includes street." This is much wider
| understanding of what "highway" is than that of the rest
| of the country.
| mech422 wrote:
| Huh - I never realized there was a 'real' distinction. I
| always thought it was just regional slang. Thanks!
|
| _edit_ : spelling
| toast0 wrote:
| Socal freeways usually have center signs every couple of miles
| letting you know what named exits are coming up in how many
| miles, then the named exit sign maybe half a mile before the
| exit, then the sign that just says exit with an arrow. Highway
| interchanges have overhead signs with lane indicators (although
| this particular one was deficient untill guerrila fixed).
|
| It's pretty good as long as you're expected named exits.
| California built their highways before federal standards on
| numbering, so they were exempted from numbering exits until
| about 2000. In 2000, they decided to add exit numbers when
| replacing signs, and signs have a planned lifetime of 10 years,
| so anytime now everything should have exit numbers ;). It's
| gotten better, but there was a while where all the map software
| would tell you to take exits by number, but the numbers weren't
| posted (yet), a mix of better databases and more posted numbers
| and me moving out of CA means I don't recall seeing that in a
| while.
| strbean wrote:
| As Californian, I hate exit numbers. I typically know vaguely
| where I'm trying to go, but navigation apps nowadays often
| favor the exit numbers. Exit numbers are still poorly marked
| in a lot of places, and are typically harder to spot.
|
| Missed an exit one time because Google Maps said "take exit
| 34C" and the exit number was only posted far down the
| offramp, after it was too late. Best part was Maps neglecting
| to say "for highway XXX", pretty much the most important
| highway for the area, which would have made navigating
| incredibly easy.
| ocdtrekkie wrote:
| As the article notes, the MUTCD defines the right way to mark
| roadways, and generally most states follow it, or something
| based on it. Of course, in particularly... unique... roadways,
| the guidelines may need a bit of a tweak to handle it well. And
| of course, sometimes mistakes are made.
| igotajob wrote:
| Throwaway account for obvious reasons. I think I got a job offer
| from telling this story.
|
| I heard this Podcast a little while ago. I am a civil engineer
| and found it amusing. I apply for a job in transportation
| engineering with a big agency and go through the interview
| process. I passed the written exam and the second oral interview.
| Next interview is with heads of the organization. They are asking
| me good questions and I think they like me and my answers. One of
| them asks how I keep up with news and latest things happening in
| civil engineering. I mention podcasts as one of the mediums. Then
| to keep the conversation lively, I tell them about this story
| that I heard through 99% invisible. They all laughed and found it
| amusing. It's a transportation engineering job talking about a
| sign on the highway. I know my audience. Haha. And I followed up
| that podcasts are a great news medium and I wouldn't have heard
| this story if I wasn't listening to them. I like to think they
| liked me from my qualifications but this story pushed them into
| picking me.
|
| I ended up declining the offer because I got a better offer
| somewhere else. I'm just glad to know I have a really good
| interview story.
| vernie wrote:
| Only a civil engineer would create a throwaway account to share
| such a mild anecdote.
| humanrebar wrote:
| Maybe it's the main account providing the anonymity. Posting
| something specific enough to be identifiable with a throwaway
| makes sense in that case.
| sedatk wrote:
| Formerly civil engineer, now the president of the United
| States.
| GaryNumanVevo wrote:
| With the decline in street traffic and large increase in
| pedestrian traffic around my neighborhood, I'm thinking about
| buying a couple of street barricades and putting up "local
| traffic only - pedestrian right of way" signs.
| acwan93 wrote:
| How it looks today:
| https://www.google.com/maps/@34.055603,-118.2563622,3a,75y,3...
|
| That part of the LA Freeway System has always been a mess, with
| the 5/10/60/101/110 all mashing together in one spot.
| asveikau wrote:
| It looks like they took hints from his suggested design!
| jrockway wrote:
| You can go back in time and look at the 2008 view and see the
| guerilla sign too.
|
| While I was looking, I noticed that there is barbed wire around
| the pole that supports the sign, to prevent people from
| climbing up. But it's only on the pole that's in the middle of
| the freeway, not the one that is near the side of the road.
| Clearly not a lot of thought was put into this sign!
| flomo wrote:
| If I recall the story correctly, Caltrans replaced the
| guerrilla sign with an official one in the same location, and
| returned the replica to the artist.
| bananabreakfast wrote:
| Unfortunately, they didn't return it to the artist :(
|
| They didn't know where it came from so they just junked it.
| jrockway wrote:
| Yeah, I think they mention that in the article. In 2008,
| you can see the original. In the most recent picture, you
| can see the official replacement.
| flomo wrote:
| I mean they replaced it back in ~2001 so 2008 was the
| official version. Not that it makes a real difference.
| speg wrote:
| > More than eight years after Ankrom's sign went up, he
| got call from a friend who noticed some workers taking it
| down.
| flomo wrote:
| Ah, okay.
| [deleted]
| barnabask wrote:
| This is like the real-world version of applying a userContent.css
| file to patch a UX flaw in a web application, except in this case
| he patched a UX flaw in the freeway.
|
| As users of web applications and freeways, I think we tend to
| overestimate our expertise in designing solutions to the things
| that annoy us. This story had a happy outcome because the expert
| user was careful and competent. Thankfully the barrier to entry
| for submitting patches is relatively high.
| duxup wrote:
| Not far from me there was an indication to take an exit to get to
| another highway... but then no indication that you have to exit
| again to get to that highway. It was a sort of "go here to get
| there and then you're on your own" sort of sign.
|
| I thought about doing something similar, but only as an amusing
| thought.
|
| Fortunately they fixed the sign a few months later and gave extra
| indications where you needed to go.
| jjeaff wrote:
| I love a good forgery.
|
| It's stories like this that can teach us how useless much of the
| things we think are "secure" are actually not.
|
| I'm always frustrated with the bogus security measure out there
| that do nothing to stop the criminals and just serve as a hassle
| to honest people.
|
| Checks are one of those. I have a micr font and a few nice check
| mockups in Photoshop for "verifying" checking accounts for direct
| deposit. I'll simply plug in the bank routing number and account
| number, print it out and write "void" on it. As if that is some
| kind of security. I also keep some blank checks in case I need to
| actually print a check. There is nothing special about them
| except for the number placement (magnetic ink hasn't been a thing
| for a long while, it's almost all optical now).
|
| Another is a utility bill. I've had several occasions where a
| utility bill with your name on it is required to verify your
| location and identity and I either don't yet have the utilities
| in my name or they are in the name of a roommate. A quick scan,
| clone brush, and type tool and you've got a utility bill in your
| name.
|
| I have never had anyone take a second glance at any of this
| stuff. It always works.
| hinkley wrote:
| A lot of traffic laws are essential to the distributed
| consensus algorithm that allows people to get where they want
| to go mostly safely.
|
| There are many things you could do in a car, but the small
| number of things you are allowed to do makes it manageable to
| build a mental model of the people around you, even when you
| can't see their body language. The only 'body language' you
| have is this static chunk of metal, which is why we mandate
| indicator lights, their size and their brightness, so you're
| telegraphing something at least.
| DenisM wrote:
| It's not the central point of your argument, but it bears
| calling out - there is plenty of body language on the road. I
| can see these and more: - Drivers turning
| their heads to check side mirrors before changing lanes.
| - Swerving slightly when making blind-spot check. -
| Front wheel turning before the vehicle turns. -
| Drifting side-to-side within lane, signifying the driver
| is distracted (or drunk). - Speed discrepancy
| signifying the driver is possibly lost and at risk.
| of making a sudden turn. - Tailgating or excessively
| quick approach, indicative of possibly impulsive behavior.
|
| Predicting behavior of other drivers on the road is key to
| survival.
| hinkley wrote:
| Oh absolutely. See also:
|
| - Turn signal on when there is no space to change lanes to
| indicate "soon I _need_ to be in that lane so you 'd better
| move before it becomes an issue"
|
| But it takes a long time to learn this which is part of the
| challenge of being a 16 year old (or in the case of some
| people I know, an inattentive 35 year old).
|
| The telegraphing is important enough that some of us flip
| out when a driver ignores right-of-way trying to 'be nice',
| or keeps tapping the gas and then not going. It's your turn
| (or at least it is now!) just go before you get somebody
| killed.
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| >A lot of traffic laws are essential to the distributed
| consensus algorithm that allows people to get where they want
| to go mostly safely.
|
| I take the opposite view. Traffic laws are just the
| distributed consensus that's dumbed down enough to codify.
| The traffic participants mostly agree what is ok and what
| isn't but it's so nuanced and complex that we just write
| imperfect rules for the big stuff like "thou shalt drive on
| the same side as everyone else" and ignore edge cases like
| all those situations it's perfectly acceptable do something
| that isn't within the letter of the law.
| emiliobumachar wrote:
| If you get caught, there's no plausible deniability. No way to
| pretend you just got confused, or that you were in a hurry and
| just marked "Yes" and signed without reading.
|
| If you were e.g. applying for state welfare while living out of
| state, a forged bill with an in-state address would not get you
| caught, but may be crucial for proving ill intent if you get
| caught by unrelated means.
|
| A lot of security measures add just that much security. It's
| easy to break, but breaking it removes plausible deniability.
|
| Most home locks wouldn't stop even a person slightly below
| average strength, bump it with your shoulder a couple times,
| and you're in. But you can't then claim you got lost, confused,
| or thought it was your friend's house, or thought you heard
| someone say "come in". A surprised homeowner will be less
| hesitant to use available violence, and no court would believe
| you meant no harm.
| snowwrestler wrote:
| This is an aspect of security that a lot of smart technical
| folks seem to have problems reasoning about. Technical
| systems sit within cultural and legal systems, and it is the
| totality of all of those that shapes our behavior.
| owenmarshall wrote:
| I am reminded of the amazing James Mickens and his talk on
| blockchain/cryptocurrency:
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=15RTC22Z2xI
| rantwasp wrote:
| you are going to dislocate your shoulder if you bump the
| door. you should use your foot and you apply more pressure
| without breaking anything Here:
| https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/how-to-break-
| down-a-...
| emiliobumachar wrote:
| Thanks, that was interesting. And counter-intuitive, I
| generally worry more about injuring my knees than my
| shoulders.
| rantwasp wrote:
| you're welcome! the good thing about this technique is
| that the load is distributed and it's knee+hip. also
| because of the lower contact area you can deliver more
| force in the right area (ie the handle)
| [deleted]
| asveikau wrote:
| Something I think is lost from your comment, though:
|
| It's also stories like this that can show us that people are
| generally benevolent. Your reaction to this is to call this
| "forgery" and say the signage is not "secure". Neither of those
| actually occurred to me here. The only thing I see is a well-
| intentioned person fixing inadequate signage. It doesn't seem
| all that less legitimate than signage from the state.
|
| To me, a better argument for increasing "security" of the
| signage is that occasionally in urban areas I've seen taggers
| paint over highway signs. That has the potential to confuse
| drivers, possibly leading to accidents, and it costs the state
| money to re-paint. But there is no danger in a vigilante making
| the signage more accurate.
| libria wrote:
| He did it right by their standards, though. Apparently even
| affixed it well enough to not introduce liabilities (sign
| shearing off in high wind and slicing into a windshield).
|
| If you don't satisfy codes, the city will undo your work [1].
|
| [1] https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/toronto-man-builds-park-
| stairs...
| betenoire wrote:
| All security (crpyto math aside) is weak. Door is locked? Break
| the window. Circumventing security measures means you
| understood what you were doing, and can be punished more
| severely for it.
| mindslight wrote:
| Technically those are real checks you're making, not forgeries.
| A depositing bank might refuse to accept them if they don't
| conform to the technical requirements of automated processing,
| but they're legitimate negotiable instruments. Also, I could
| see your bank charging you a hefty fee if they had to manually
| process one. Does anyone know how this actually works out?
|
| AFAIK there's a huge legal distinction between someone (else)
| forging a whole check, or stealing your duly created check and
| just forging your signature. For one, if your checks are stolen
| you have a duty to notify your bank (whereas you can't possibly
| be aware of a complete forgery). So you might not want to leave
| extra printouts hanging around.
| mattkrause wrote:
| I was sad to discover that the "negotiable cow" story is
| fictional: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Inland_Reve
| nue_v_Hadd...
|
| The principle is true enough though: a check is just an order
| to pay a certain amount of money from a certain account to a
| certain person: https://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/3/3-104 It
| doesn't need to be in the standardized form found in a
| checkbook.
| [deleted]
| slg wrote:
| This is just the physical equivalent of the same thing we have
| been dealing with in the virtual world. A utility bill provides
| no more or less proof than having both my mother's maiden name
| and the name of my first pet. Most people are good so most
| companies and organizations choose convenience over security.
| The end result is that it is often incredibly easy for
| malicious actors to socially engineer themselves into secured
| areas both physically and digitally.
| otterley wrote:
| (2001) - (the web page is dated 2017 but adds little to the
| original news reports of the day, e.g.,
| https://www.laweekly.com/guerrilla-public-service-the-man-wh...
| and https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-14-le-
| pea14...)
| Someone1234 wrote:
| The comments date from 2015, not 2017.
| 1-6 wrote:
| Slipping in code without alerting anyone... Fun!
| Uhhrrr wrote:
| And he did it while it was running in production.
| annoyingnoob wrote:
| https://www.oddee.com/wp-
| content/uploads/_media/imgs/article...
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| I've fantasized about doing this very thing for years!
|
| There's a location here in Oregon that fails to tell motorists of
| a major traffic merge coming. If you miss the merge, you exit the
| freeway. Granted it's not difficult to get back on, but there's
| no way to know this in advance. Prior to the pandemic - at
| _minimum_ once a month - there would be a traffic incident here
| because people don 't get any warning this merge is coming up so
| make drastic changes at the last second.
|
| Here's the location on street view. Notice there's nothing
| indicating a merge is coming on the far right lane:
| https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3709178,-122.7485804,3a,75y,...
|
| Once you enter the turn to go right, still no indication of an
| upcoming merge:
| https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3703302,-122.7526115,3a,75y,...
|
| Here's the merge, but notice that it's not until further ahead
| that you're now being notified the far right lane is an exit
| lane:
| https://www.google.com/maps/@45.37444,-122.7554676,3a,75y,13...
|
| Result? A daily traffic nightmare and constant near-death
| experiences.
|
| EDIT: BTW Google Maps makes it look like you have plenty of time
| to move from the exit lane and back onto the free-way, but it's
| an illusion. People are flying at high speeds on the left and you
| only have several seconds to get into the correct lane.
|
| EDIT: Forgot to mention this funny part. Conversely on the other
| side of traffic for that same freeway (I-205), they DO make use
| of adequate signage. Here's one that shows a merge is coming up:
| https://www.google.com/maps/@45.370089,-122.749564,3a,75y,52...
|
| About two miles down, they notify you well ahead of time that the
| far right lane will be an exit lane:
| https://www.google.com/maps/@45.373263,-122.7342592,3a,75y,8...
| WrtCdEvrydy wrote:
| Do it.
| cfallin wrote:
| Reminds me of this onramp to I-376 in Pittsburgh, where you
| have a stop sign (!) at the bottom of the onramp (!!), which
| then dumps you into an exit-only lane with a few hundred feet
| to merge left (!!!):
|
| https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4287854,-79.9328641,3a,75y,6...
|
| I only took this ramp a handful of times before I learned to
| detour several miles to avoid it...
| leetcrew wrote:
| unless I'm missing some important context, the full stop
| seems like a really bad design choice here. where I live,
| that sort of entrance would just be marked "no merge area!".
| in dense traffic, people should probably stop, but in light
| traffic people could be going a lot faster; it really sucks
| merging into 65+ mph traffic from a full stop.
| aquaticsunset wrote:
| The hilly geography (and poor advanced planning) means you
| don't have room for your lane to continue ahead of you.
| It's an intensely short merge that would be dangerous to
| allow people to fly out into, given you don't have time to
| look and merge safely before your lane ends.
|
| It's essentially:
|
| 1) Stop 2) Find a gap in traffic 3) Floor it
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| I suspect the whichever department is responsible for the
| intersection has some internal rules about where they put
| what kind of traffic signage and this merging area is too
| small for a proper merge with a yield sign so they just
| slapped a stop sign on it knowing full well that most
| drivers will treat it like a yield it in light traffic
| conditions.
|
| Of course this causes problems when dutifully law abiding
| drivers from out of town follow the law to the letter and
| cause near misses or rear endings because they are behaving
| unexpectedly compared to normal traffic but that's not the
| problem of the people who put the sign there. Ignoring
| these kinds of edge cases and expecting someone else (often
| the courts) to sort it out on a case by case bases when it
| causes problems isn't exactly uncommon in government. It's
| like their version of an unanswered bug report from 2010
| with a bunch of "hey I found this by googling and I have
| the same issue" comments below it.
| aquaticsunset wrote:
| This onramp became less stressful and more entertaining when
| I bought a sports car.
| jaaron wrote:
| Grew up in Pittsburgh.
|
| PA has the worst highway merging habits and I blame onramps
| like this. There's a number of them that are too short or
| have stop signs like this:
|
| https://pghroads.tumblr.com/post/44161958475/the-stop-
| sign-o...
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Ah-ha, found the spot in America where you can really benefit
| from driving a Tesla!
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| That's insane! My old F-150 L6 that I use for hauling project
| building materials probably couldn't get past 30MPH by the
| time that merge lane ended!
| Nav_Panel wrote:
| HAH! I took this exit twice last weekend! Really terrifying
| merge during Saturday afternoon traffic, but it was easy on
| Sunday morning (as I breathed a sigh of relief that I was
| leaving Pittsburgh and wouldn't have to do it again). Reminds
| me of a similar on-ramp onto the BQE in Brooklyn, which is
| equally if not more congested: https://www.google.com/maps/@4
| 0.6899298,-73.9989999,3a,75y,1...
|
| The exit off I-376 coming out from the tunnel is also really
| annoying -- exit, then left turn over a bridge, then you're
| back on the highway and need to exit, then pick the correct
| lane to head into Squirrel Hill, but it seems pretty
| arbitrary, and you may end up making a weird left turn anyway
| just to get "into" the neighborhood.
| cfallin wrote:
| Pittsburgh driving taxes one's navigation skills on a good
| day, to put it mildly. Lived in Squirrel Hill for 8 years
| and got used to it but it's probably the most local-
| knowledge-dependent driving I've seen in the US. The five-
| way at the bottom of Murray at Forward is fun too (you want
| to go straight, but WHICH straight?).
|
| When I first moved to Pgh, the street map reminded me of
| this Mario Kart 64 level:
| https://mariokart.fandom.com/wiki/Yoshi_Valley
|
| It was fun but happy to be back on the west coast now :-)
| Also, glad I've never had to drive in NYC -- that looks
| tense!
| jjwiseman wrote:
| There are many of these on the 110 in LA, just north of where
| this story takes place.
|
| https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1032407,-118.1923538,3a,75y,.
| ..
|
| https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1133129,-118.1766803,3a,75y,.
| ..
|
| https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1114424,-118.1817898,3a,75y,.
| ..
|
| https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1070639,-118.1870749,3a,75y,.
| ..
|
| etc.
| remmargorp64 wrote:
| Wouldn't it be less work to just contact the Department of
| Transportation and make them aware of the issue?
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| I've done it twice. The response is basically along the lines
| of "thanks for letting us know, we are aware improvements in
| signage are needed" and then they never do anything.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Yeah that merge sucks all around in both lanes. The left lane
| just merges directly into the freeway with no onramp space,
| while the right lane exits. Meanwhile you've got traffic on I5
| which is still coming up on you at 75mph since that's the point
| where the limit drops, and some of them want off at Nyberg.
|
| Not my favorite interchange, either. Not the worst in Portland
| by far, but definitely awkward at times.
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| > Not the worst in Portland by far, but definitely awkward at
| times.
|
| That's true. I could probably come up with a decent list of
| them.
|
| This one in Portland is similar, and it's on a bridge.
| Everyone on the right wants to go left, everyone on the left
| wants to go right and all want to do it above 60MPH with as
| little space in-between as possible. Scares the shit out of
| me every time. https://www.google.com/maps/@45.5065751,-122.6
| 714366,3a,60.7...
| odysseus wrote:
| The solution here is to stay out of the merge lanes unless
| you need to merge.
|
| And if you do need to merge, do so at the merge point, as
| per http://trafficwaves.org/seatraf.html
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| Which is a great solution if everybody complies, but when
| you have people unfamiliar with the area, bad drivers,
| and anxiety over Google Maps directions is when it spells
| trouble. I've lived in Oregon for over 30 years, so I
| don't typically have a problem but I get nervous over the
| unpredictable behavior of other drivers in those
| situations I outlined.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| The merge point is as soon as the lanes touch. The
| dominant traffic flow is I5 to I84 and every last one of
| those cars has to switch lanes to get there, and some
| traffic will need to cross in front of them to get from
| I405 to I5. There's about a quarter mile to make it all
| happen, while on a bridge with narrow lanes 130 feet in
| the air, moving at speed. No, you will not be leaving
| large gaps to let people in, LOL. You will back off and
| leave exactly enough room for a car to get in front of
| you (assuming you are not just going to trade lanes). It
| works okay as long as everyone acts as expected and
| nobody wimps out. It can get dangerous when grandma goes
| through there and panics when it all gets really dense
| for a moment.
| et2o wrote:
| I'm glad it worked out in this case. He seemed careful and
| diligent. If the wrong person did it I could see this leading to
| people getting hurt (falling off the catwalk) or damage to cars
| (improper fastening). Overall I love it though.
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| >If the wrong person did it I could see this leading to people
| getting hurt (falling off the catwalk) or damage to cars
| (improper fastening)
|
| I really don't like seeing this sort of whatifism whenever a
| story about somebody doing something that is not their day job
| comes up. It's amazing it's still considered safe to file your
| own taxes. The dude had the skills and he did the job and did
| it well. Hand wringing over what-ifs adds nothing to the
| discussion.
| sevenf0ur wrote:
| The risks should be discussed in order to discourage
| copycats. People have died from objects dropped from
| overpasses.
| AnthonyMouse wrote:
| The risks aren't significantly different than from other
| things people do on a regular basis. People have died from
| objects falling out of the back of a pickup truck. People
| have died from a long list of shoddy home improvement
| projects. People have died (and killed others) from working
| in an official capacity for the Department of
| Transportation.
|
| The answer is to do the things that you do safely, not to
| never do anything.
| Animats wrote:
| The Charging Bull bronze is a piece of guerilla art. NYC towed it
| away after the artist put it near the New York Stock Exchange.
| Its current location isn't the original one.
|
| It was a promotion for the artist, who wanted to sell four more
| of them.
| livatlantis wrote:
| Ah I'd heard about this earlier but the details are a lot of fun:
|
| "He copied the height and thickness of existing interstate
| shields, copied their exact typeface, and even sprayed his sign
| with a thin glaze of overspray of gray house paint so that it
| wouldn't look too new."
|
| Of course, not everyone should be doing this, but what a
| brilliant story!
| lima wrote:
| The best part is that Caltrans inspected it and left it up!
| cxr wrote:
| Rob Cockerham's site is part of the Olde Web and is filled with
| things that are not-quite-similar to this, e.g. the "High-Profile
| Sculpture Replacement"
| http://cockeyed.com/pranks/mall/plazaprank.html
| mprovost wrote:
| Thanks for that trip down memory lane! Glad to see he's still
| at it.
| exlurker wrote:
| Lovely, funny story!
| hinkley wrote:
| The highway construction outfit is some excellent social
| engineering.
|
| For some reason this reminds me of the stories after Manhattan
| (?) legalized bee-keeping. People started confessing that they'd
| had clandestine hives for years. My favorite was the guy who made
| a fake AC unit, installed it on the roof, and bought a
| stereotypical AC repairman outfit that he wore every time he went
| to do maintenance work.
| jjwiseman wrote:
| See also
| https://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2006/0...
|
| "The short answer is that it's a scam for parking illegally in
| loading zones. The nerdy answer is that it's an ongoing
| experiment in corporate phenomenology, urban camouflage, and
| brand development."
| michaelt wrote:
| Did you know you can get through the security cordons at
| international summits by simply arriving with flags on your
| car and your own motorcycle outriders?
| https://youtu.be/TdnAaQ0n5-8?t=56
| gibspaulding wrote:
| Slightly different intentions, but your comment about what you
| can get away with while wearing a hi-vis vest reminded me of
| this:
|
| https://www.redbull.com/sg-en/bas-keep-walls-2017-13-01
|
| There's a longer documentary on the project somewhere that I
| can't seem to find right now, but in it they talk about what it
| took to set up the last jump (starting around 3:00). If I
| remember right, they actually closed down part of the road
| (without permission) in order to set up the ramp and make the
| attempt.
| derg wrote:
| >My favorite was the guy who made a fake AC unit, installed it
| on the roof, and bought a stereotypical AC repairman outfit
| that he wore every time he went to do maintenance work.
|
| This is some 90's sitcom silliness I absolutely love it.
| codazoda wrote:
| I dunno if this story is authentic...
|
| In high school, a teacher told me about an artist who was
| applying for a job. The application required three pieces of art.
| The artist included two pieces of art and a note explaining that
| the third piece was the postage stamp drawn on the front.
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