the midnight cowboy gif is funny because tbh most of manhattan more or less functions as 'shared space' already - jaywalking is fine, cars don't obey traffic laws. but if anything it demonstrates *why* it wouldn't work in america - people and cyclists get killed on a regular basis.
that's under a system w/ clear speed limits, traffic laws, etc. take that legal structure away and you're just giving people a better reason to drive recklessly.
I mean the concept makes sense in a place w/ strict speed limits, generally more pedestrians than cars and (esp:) very narrow roads. we don't have a ton of places that currently fit that description. we should be designing them for future use, but it's hard to imagine 'shared space' being very useful somewhere like chicago. it would work in like...south of the grid manhattan, if you destroyed the rest of manhattan.
― iatee, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:39 (twelve years ago) link
when I was in peru I rode in a car and we took a road up the mountain, with no guardrails. every time we took a turn the driver would honk, just in case there was a car coming the other way.
in china, people generally drive as if they are the only car on the road, even if they are surrounded by cars and the inside of their car is filled with cars and their are cars on top of their car and they are not actually in a car but are actually a pedestrian. you need to honk at them to let them know that they are about to turn into you or back into you. this is what happens when you have a country that all of a sudden has millions of new car owners who have never driven a car before, and millions of people who are not used to navigating a city suddenly filled with cars.
― dayo, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:40 (twelve years ago) link
I usually toot my horn three times whenever I run a red light.
― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:42 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IhOsPNGrdE
― goole, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:42 (twelve years ago) link
people and cyclists get killed on a regular basis.
haha I could have phrased this better
― iatee, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:43 (twelve years ago) link
savages
― mh, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:43 (twelve years ago) link
haha yeah, driving in Bolivia was insane---well, I was just a car rider, but cars drove whichever direction on the road they wanted, on the left, right, whatever, weaving between each other, no lanes. shared space!
― Euler, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:44 (twelve years ago) link
basically I only honk if I am about to inadvertently kill you
or if you're making me miss a light for no reason
― Tal Berkowitz - Vaccine advocate (DJP), Friday, 9 September 2011 15:44 (twelve years ago) link
btw honking is an essential part of driving & fun to boot. If God didn't want us to honk, he wouldn't have put horns on cars.
― Euler, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:45 (twelve years ago) link
Developping world driving can be very bracing.
― em vee equals pea queue (Michael White), Friday, 9 September 2011 15:46 (twelve years ago) link
people who honk at me deserve to die instantly, hopefully by having rusty forks scrape the skin off of their faces and then having the exposed flesh pressed slowly into lava
― Tal Berkowitz - Vaccine advocate (DJP), Friday, 9 September 2011 15:46 (twelve years ago) link
Mutually exclusive?
i honk all day, honk all night
― brownie, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:47 (twelve years ago) link
djp do you honk when you are advertently about to kill someone
― dayo, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:47 (twelve years ago) link
I don't believe you about the 'instantly' part, Dan.
― em vee equals pea queue (Michael White), Friday, 9 September 2011 15:47 (twelve years ago) link
dayo, now I'm imaging him breaking into someones home, blowing an air horn at them and then hacking them to death with an axe.
― em vee equals pea queue (Michael White), Friday, 9 September 2011 15:48 (twelve years ago) link
it's his 'calling card'
― dayo, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:50 (twelve years ago) link
obv "instantly" means "the instant the hand leaves the horn, forks fly at they face"
― Tal Berkowitz - Vaccine advocate (DJP), Friday, 9 September 2011 15:52 (twelve years ago) link
"I was never able to watch the end of a hockey period after my husband was murdered."
― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:53 (twelve years ago) link
also those are mutually exclusive because there is nothing inadvertent about the murderous rage that builds when someone sits at a left turn light texting on their phone, then guns it when the arrow turns yellow
the only saving grace is that ppl ignore lights in Boston anyway so you have like an extra 3 seconds to turn after the red arrow comes up because everyone expects you to cut them off
― Tal Berkowitz - Vaccine advocate (DJP), Friday, 9 September 2011 15:54 (twelve years ago) link
DJP, just in case there is any misunderstanding or even potential for misunderstanding, I want to make very clear that I am in no way accusing you of being a juggalo or even having juggalistic tendencies.
― em vee equals pea queue (Michael White), Friday, 9 September 2011 15:55 (twelve years ago) link
It's kind of cool that for whatever reasons, different cities have really different driving cultures.
― em vee equals pea queue (Michael White), Friday, 9 September 2011 15:56 (twelve years ago) link
I love the Pittsburgh left; it restores my faith in collective action.
― Euler, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:56 (twelve years ago) link
What is it, Euler?
I find it reassuring that there are so many left turn lights in SF.
― em vee equals pea queue (Michael White), Friday, 9 September 2011 15:58 (twelve years ago) link
pitssburgh left didnt work out so well for ben roethlisburger
― max, Friday, 9 September 2011 15:59 (twelve years ago) link
Pittsburgh left: at a stoplight drivers wait a few secs for the first car in the oncoming lane to make a left. It's not a law, just a habit on the part of locals. the first time I drove there, I got honked at for not knowing the local convention & blasting forward when the light turned. Soon I figured out the deal.
― Euler, Friday, 9 September 2011 16:01 (twelve years ago) link
I mean: wait a few secs after the light turns green, obv
― Euler, Friday, 9 September 2011 16:02 (twelve years ago) link
see, stuff like that just makes me wish driving rules were uniform across the country, because then you could drive to another city and not wonder if it was illegal to make a right turn on red
― Tal Berkowitz - Vaccine advocate (DJP), Friday, 9 September 2011 16:04 (twelve years ago) link
The city buses here pull those Pittsburgh Lefts with each other, since it's pretty freaking hard for a city bus to get a good shot at turning left at a downtown intersection.
― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 9 September 2011 16:04 (twelve years ago) link
Especially with the pedestrians doing the Lindy Hop and the Charleston across the avenue in a re-enactment of old Barnes Dances of Yore.
― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 9 September 2011 16:05 (twelve years ago) link
SHARED SPACE!
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2009/3/26/1238088115201/Fame--Street-Dance-Scene-001.jpg
― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 9 September 2011 16:06 (twelve years ago) link
rofl
― goole, Friday, 9 September 2011 16:06 (twelve years ago) link
So it's kind of the opposite from the LA left which consists of pulling out into the first third of the interesection and waiting for the light to turn red.
― em vee equals pea queue (Michael White), Friday, 9 September 2011 16:07 (twelve years ago) link
Isn't that normal driving practice?
― Euler, Friday, 9 September 2011 16:08 (twelve years ago) link
Liike I said above, I love how many left-turn lanes and lights there are in SF. Drivers are still disgusting savages of course, but making a left turn is relatively stress-free.
― em vee equals pea queue (Michael White), Friday, 9 September 2011 16:11 (twelve years ago) link
apparently not as evidenced by all of the people from out of town who don't pull out into the intersection.
― the wheelie king (wk), Friday, 9 September 2011 16:44 (twelve years ago) link
_Isn't that normal driving practice?_apparently not as evidenced by all of the people from out of town who don't pull out into the intersection.
People who don't do this give me unstoppable road rage and agita. Motherfuckers, are you waiting for the time to come when there is no oncoming traffic, ie, Christmas morning??
― it was as good of a time as any to show a lighter side of 9/11 research (Je55e), Friday, 9 September 2011 22:50 (twelve years ago) link
Last week I rented a car with an broken horn and it felt risky , like driving in fog.
― it was as good of a time as any to show a lighter side of 9/11 research (Je55e), Friday, 9 September 2011 22:53 (twelve years ago) link
"an broken horn"
― it was as good of a time as any to show a lighter side of 9/11 research (Je55e), Friday, 9 September 2011 22:54 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, this is standard driving practice and I've never heard it called an L.A. Left, but I'll add that to my vocabulary because it nestles right up to a Hollywood Stop.
― kkvgz, Friday, 9 September 2011 22:58 (twelve years ago) link
Might be standard driving practice but a lot of people who come from towns where the are no left turn arrows (i.e. people from the suburbs) don't really get it because they've never had to deal with it before. When my inlaws first visited and I was driving them around they were completely freaking out when I went out into the intersection like that.
― the wheelie king (wk), Friday, 9 September 2011 23:03 (twelve years ago) link
were you like "chill out, hicks"?
― mookieproof, Friday, 9 September 2011 23:05 (twelve years ago) link
no left turn arrow in the suburbs?
― kkvgz, Friday, 9 September 2011 23:06 (twelve years ago) link
never heard of that suburb. to be fair, I've never noticed anyone not conforming to this behavior.
it took me a while to realize why they were making weird comments and clutching their seats in terror because I thought I was driving overly cautiously to impress them.xpost
― the wheelie king (wk), Friday, 9 September 2011 23:07 (twelve years ago) link
I meant it the other way around. places where there are dedicated left turn arrows on all of the intersections.
― the wheelie king (wk), Friday, 9 September 2011 23:08 (twelve years ago) link
I've never noticed anyone not conforming to this behavior.
you've never been stuck behind someone who was waiting at the line for a left turn arrow that doesn't exist?
― the wheelie king (wk), Friday, 9 September 2011 23:11 (twelve years ago) link
You're supposed to be like 1/3rd of the way into the intersection, with wheels at like a 20 degree turn to the left iirc.
geez guys, I learned this in drivers ed
― mh, Friday, 9 September 2011 23:35 (twelve years ago) link
no, you are not to turn your wheels -- if someone rear-ends you it will force you into the oncoming traffic
― mookieproof, Friday, 9 September 2011 23:38 (twelve years ago) link
Hmm, true. I was thinking a slight angle was recommended but your statement seems wise.
― mh, Friday, 9 September 2011 23:49 (twelve years ago) link