#car infrastructure

[cartoonverisimilitude]

I do like Twitter sometimes because they’re discussing how people in NYC and NJ are going to be impacted by the World Cup and Europeans are like, “We’ll walk across the six lane highway if we need to, they won’t run over all of us…”

Like

1) They have you on public transport because that area isn’t walkable

2) I don’t think any of you have seen a six lane U.S. highway in your life

3) I don’t think you’ve been to New Jersey either.

If you don’t think some Italian-American mom in New Jersey who drives an SUV everywhere and whose family works in construction is gonna be okay with you getting in the way of her regular beauty salon session, you’re wrong.

Also these soccer fans think they can get away with damaging cars if they almost get run over or whatever…which is also funny

Because taking into consideration the area being discussed (NYC/New Jersey) there’s a good chance that American they pissed off has been in at least 1 physical fight in the past six months, has a lot of pent up rage that they’re just looking to let out and owns a gun.

We’ve had this discussion before, an average European from like Spain, Portugal, England, France etc. isn’t gonna win a physical fight against an American. I don’t care how rowdy you think you are after a soccer game - even the worst HOA enemies will team up together to stop you.

[sception]

[scanlinesymphony]

There's a lot of design elements that we take for granted, and that's intentional! But a really simple mental exercise is working backwards, break down the elements, and ask yourself how you would approach it.

As a first example, take traffic signs. They're simple, they're ubiquitous, while almost universally understood. But how did they achieve all of that at once? Let's break it down:

Simple shapes! The dimensions should be appropriate for each situation. The thinner, taller signs are meant for drivers who are closer to the sign, and the environment may have limited space. Avoid repetition so people could recognize a silhouette easily--a Stop sign should NOT be confused with a Speed Limit sign, which should NOT be confused with a Yield sign.

Colors! While deceptively simple, there are a ton of factors to consider. Try to limit the palette to 3 colors or less, 2 main colors are optimal. Colors should HEAVILY contrast each other: A No Right Turn is distinct from a Right Turn Only sign because of the bold red circle-slash going over the arrow. Furthermore, the colors should be easily distinct in most kinds of lighting, hence the stark white background with bright red or dark black text.

Typography!* Ain't no sign should have cursive or comic sans, it's gotta be DISTINCT and BIG--note that all text is in UPPERCASE!! The font should be standardized & recognizable from a distance: The Speed Limit sign has a giant "50" that's twice of the "speed limit" text, and is always on the bottom half. Text should come secondary to shape & color, but it's also important.

Icons! This is technically a subsection to shapes and follow most of the same rules, but they have unique challenges. A Pedestrian icon is a distinct shape of a person, it can't be confused with a Truck icon! The hard part is using icons which are universally recognized to explain complicated ideas, which is more cultural context than literal. For instance, the Cancel icon on the No Right Turn is well understood now, but its design is a bit abstract. The same goes for the Arrow icon. They don't have one-to-one real-world counterparts, so its meaning had to be proliferated culturally.

Altogether, these design elements combine to make a traffic sign that a person only glances at for a couple seconds at most. It has to explain how the road works, what's coming up, what the rules are, and how other cars or pedestrians should behave. As much of an imperfect system it is, it's fascinating to take a couple minutes to think about the design challenges & solutions instead of letting it be invisible to you.

[disco-tropics]

how is it that people want to drive everywhere and add extra lanes when most of the them can't even fucking DRIVE???

[librarylurker]

My eyes say hit me with your car. They do this, of course, with their terrible fanged mouths

[transpondster]

[scanlinesymphony]

The rational part of me saying, "Okay, we need to closely discuss with ordnance, city, and state councils to organize public transit efforts. Not only should there be more sufficiently paced and funded construction & planning efforts, but we should also focus on incorporating education about public infrastructure at early education to open up interests and career opportunities for the next generation."

The very emotionally charged part of me in a strait jacket yelling, "For DECADES we have let oil, automobile, and insurance companies force feed us the idea that our society can ONLY function with this singular form of transport. As a society, we have gone far too long casually accepting the fact that HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of taxpayer / consumer dollars are constantly burned away in vain efforts to make this work. We have accepted that TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE are worth getting killed every year just so we can get stuck in delays for hours, design cities that put pedestrians in harm's way, and disproportionately CRUSH the lifestyle and health of marginalized communities."

[winterthebeau]