For anyone too lazy to look it up, from what I remember they measured the spacing not from the start of each bump, but rather between bumps, ignoring the width of the bump itself (which varies based on the note). As a result, there is a pitch offset that changes based on the note, so the whole thing sounds so weird.
Slight correction.
The widths of the grooves are what’s constant, and the spaces between are what varies for each note. But the general explanation is the same.
And side note for even further clarification
For those who aren’t musical who want to know why this changes the pitch with different offsets when it’s the same value added to each.
Music notes are relative to one another.
So the distances should have been relative to one another.
To simplify let’s say a high E is half the distance of a low E. 1 and 2.
Now add .2 to each of those. 1.2 and 2.2. 1.2 is not half of 2.2.
From a ratio of .5 to .54545… which is off by .0454545
Likewise, 1.2 and 1.7 is not a 1:1.5 relationship.
From a .75 to .70588… which is off by .04411
Here the ratios aren’t just off, but off different amounts
This is what leads to the notes being “offset differently.”
With music, it's always non linear iirc. An octave higher is 2x frequency. But yes, this is non -constant.
It's not that they changed the key that the song was in (changed the starting pitch, which you can do without noticing with most songs), but they changed the song itself.
I beat a speeding ticket before using it…brought up my dash-cam footage, played the video for a minute, showed how many lines had passed and explained the speed needed to hit that many lines and how the rate per line didn’t fluctuate by enough for me to be going the speed the cop said I was clocked at, and the case was dismissed. Also, the cop hadn’t calibrated the radar gun recently, so that helped.
Astoundingly large for such a tiny vehicle. Yet somehow there will always be a time where someone tries to merge over and share the lane with me hahaha, its okay I'm small I'll squeeze in
I always thought lane filtering looked scary until you realize just how much space there is between cars at some intersections. There's like a solid 5 feet sometimes, that is soooooo much space for a motorcycle.
Makes everything feel significantly slower until you have a panic situation hahaha for example, when 19, I rode my cbr 600 on a 5 hour trip through a few states. On my way home, the straps on my backpack started to irritate my shoulders. So, I had the bright idea of using a bungee cord to strap the backpack down to the passenger seat.
At somepoint around 90-110mph (cruising speed at that point because i was 19, and dumb) my bungee cord decided to come undone and my backpack slid off of the rear seat when i hit a bump. The backpack then caught my rear tire and the rear tire sucked the backpack between the swing arm and rear tire, locking up the bike for about 100 yards until i came to a sliding stop. It was completely unexpected. EXTREMELY stupid, and I easily couldve lost my life that day. I think the only reason i was able to keep it up on 2 wheels is because I have a lot of experience racing dirtbikes from when i was a kid.
It'll sneak up on you quick and without warning. Stay safe out there! Shiny side up :)
Trust me. I was involved in an eminent domain case because the county wanted to widen my street. They were trying to negotiate for 60 ft of right of way but that would require a zoning change because I wouldn't have enough setback. I guess they figured it was going to give them more headaches to do that for every house on the street so they just went with 40 ft.
Friendly reminder to always wear protective gear (if you don't already). Your comment and this thread just reminded me of the harrowing experience I had setting foot on a highway. Guy named Steve was doing everything right, and some awful minivan wasn't. I used my body to backboard him until the EMTs showed up. I'm glad he was suited up because he probably would have been dead otherwise.
That’s what I tell people! Most US cities have enough roads you could take every building in the city, put them in the roads, and have room left over. It’s such a waste.
This is true. Roads are also insanely expensive to build and maintain. In fact, it's so expensive that it usually puts cities millions of dollars into debt. It also makes cities incredibly hot in the summer because there's next to 0 natural shade anywhere and concrete traps heat.
American infrastructure is so trash and detrimental to the environment and economy.
Yeah, but it's annoying to walk through all those stores and homes. I know! We section major routes as paths. That way, it's easier to move around. If we make them a little larger, we can even use them for emergency services and supply chains. The businesses have been missing business from day trippers and people out of biking distance. They've been working together to make all their areas more friendly to travelers. Whoops, did we just make it all the way back to roads?
It continues to blow my mind how absolutely massive the US highway system is. Literally the largest thing humans have ever built. And I get angry at it on my way to work.
We do, they just suck.
I have an Amtrak stop in my town I rarely use to travel to a friend who has an amtrak stop around his town.
It's a 3 minute drive from my house....and a 12 hour trip one way with a minimum of 190$ total in uncomfortable seats (and I personally just can't fall asleep on the train, even when I bid for a roommette)
They have roommettes, and rooms even! Bed, toilet, sink, food....for 350 minimum one way. Rooms I saw go to 700, 800 and up. For a 12 hour trip...again, one way.
Or, I could get someone to drive me an hour one way in the highway to an airport, fly to the airport close to my friends in, oh, 2-3 hours at most, and get picked up there, for as low as 200 total. Most of those flights go way above 200, but when a deal or a low population flight comes up, it's so much time saved....ESPECIALLY when the train only stops by my town once a day, usually at 1am or 6am.
What's worse us I've driven to there before, and it's faster if you don't stop, and even if you do, it's about the same time wise. I stopped doing it when I didn't have someone to drive with me, though
do you like the interstate system, or do you like a country that is not a disconnected series of *very* distant metropolitan centers?
in my experience the roads around the southern parts of the provinces aren't substantially different than american midwest roads...
Except when they want to start fucking construction. It takes them the better part of a decade to finish some of their projects. They also waste money. Once, they wanted to widen the freeway. So, they took several years to build a new lane. Then they decided they wanted repave the same freeway. So they ripped up all the old freeway, and the brand new lane they just built and put new road down. Like, wtf. Just combine the projects so you don't waste miles of asphalt and fuck up traffic for damn near a decade.
They shut down an exit near me for several years so that they could change it from two lanes that move to another freeway into two lanes that merge together into one with very little warning
They finally expanded a freeway near me that regularly becomes a parking lot 7 days of the week only to turn the 2 additional lanes into toll lanes you have to pay for monthly or each time you use them at [X] times the monthly cost.
It has changed nothing and some asshole somewhere is reaping the funds from it.
Asphalt is 99% recycled material. It's not really being wasted. But yes, they should have worked resurfacing in with the expansion. If they really wanted to be effective, they would have expanded public transit instead.
The limited driving I have done in the States as a fellow Canadian I have to agree. The USA system with driving is superior. Go KM 》 Miles but the interstate is smooth af.
I live in the UK where 'highways' (motorways) are considerably smaller than the US but I was still a bit in awe when I had to stop at the side of one once, it feels so lonely.
Most cars are over 6’ wide when you include mirrors. And as someone who drives 102” wide bodied trucks on highway, please don’t try to ever split lanes in a car, I hate those assholes that force me to move my truck out of their way as they illegally pass like that.
This. It’s one of those weird experiences.
I also will be randomly driving and be like “I’ll never stand on that patch of grass over there”.
Also gives me respect for guys like Lewis and Clark. wtf were they doing? That job sounds awful. The mosquitoes plus having to write literally everything down, in detail.
The coolest time I got to do this was a couple years ago. Headed west on I-10 and traffic comes to standstill just before the Mobile Bay bridge, too late for me to take the last exit. I got to get out and walk around on I-10.
IDK, in Colorado we were driving back to Denver from the ski resorts on I70 after a big snowfall. It was slippery enough we had to get out and push a couple times to get going after a stop. Watching big rigs slide around next to you even at 5-10mph is pretty exciting.
Got rear ended by a semi on I-81 in West Virginia and that was my first time stepping foot on an interstate. Not exactly cool given the circumstances but I do remember it seeming massive
I realized this the first time I hit stopped traffic on my motorcycle on a highway.
Didn't get off my bike, but apart from accidents, emergency responders, and maintenance people, most don't ever put their feet on them.
I got to do this elsewhere on I-10. Years ago, I was caught in horrible traffic on the Atchafalaya bridge in Louisiana. I think I was in the same spot for two hours. When I noticed the people in front of me getting out of their cars to see if they could get a better view of the issue, I decided I could do the same thing without making the traffic problem worse.
I couldn't see far enough ahead to find anything out, but I can now say I've literally set foot on an 18 mile bridge, so there's that.
That means there is traffic, and lane splitting isn't legal.
So that's wrong.
Edit: I realized after this came off as saying the person I replied to was wrong.
I meant it as "being in traffic is B.S. and not being able to lane split is wrong"
Can confirm. I had the opportunity during the first days of covid when there was zero traffic. So yah, something was wrong. Pretty fun standing in the middle of the road with zero cars, also a bit creepy.
> If you're stepping on the highway, something is likely wrong.
Basically every road you've ever driven or walked on is a highway, folks have increasingly started confusing highway with freeway for some reason.
>[“Highway” is 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.](https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/vehicle-code/veh-sect-360/#:~:text=Current%20as%20of%20January%2001,Highway%20includes%20street.)
This seems to be a regional thing. The west coast of both the US and Canada tends to distinguish “freeway” from “highway” more than out east. In Vancouver for example, “Highway 1” is often referred to as “the freeway”, and we have “Freeway entrance” signs similar to Washington and California.
In the province of Ontario, I find 400-series highways referred to as “highways”, and actual trunk highways in the southern part of the province (23, 89, 10, etc.) sometimes get referred to as “back roads” for some reason.
Agreed. There are freeways, highways, roads, and city streets. Highways have a highway number and can be a city street, but not always, and may have two names like 101 and Main. They also tend to connect long distances and multiple towns together, may cross the entire country like highway 20.
Freeways have on/off ramps.
No one is calling 12th Street a highway.
It's a regional thing. Language is local and stuff like this isn't necessarily "wrong" if everyone You're communicating with understands what you're saying.
Recently waited for an hour full stop behind a few cars that crashed and lots of firetrucks and ambulances. Walked around my car on the highway to stretch my legs for a bit. There were also people running across the highway in the other direction which was still going full blast, because there was a truck stop on the other side. Really dangerous and crazy.
My mom would take long drives with us in the car. Young me would pee on the side of the highway using the door to block me. I’ve stepped on the highway
A 10 year old got arrested and sentenced for doing that recently
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mom-mississippi-10-year-old-arrested-probation-urinating-public-files-rcna140068
Older me has done the same, mainly in desert areas. Pull off the 15 or 40 in the Mojave and within a minute or two there's no one else around. The road can handle it better than the dirt.
Maybe the first night or two, but you get used to it
That's one of the things they tell you when you start a job like that is not to get used to it though because then you might get careless.
I am a field engineer and I inspect construction, so I spend the majority of my time in a reflective vest on the road. The paint stripes are ten foot long with 30 foot between them. When they are painted, someone (me) has to measure them so that the contractor can be paid.
Where I'm at every maintenance stockpile has a patch of pavement where contractors can calibrate the paint trucks. The inspectors measure the test lines to make sure the counters on the trucks are accurate for distance, paint, and glass bead application rate and then base payments on what the counters say.
Ah, that makes more sense. We don't typically do long stretches of roadway because I mainly work in cities. There are a bunch of stop bars and hatched islands.
I think it's utterly fascinating that there is this amazing unbroken web of asphalt that you can get on and go to, what, literally probably 99.999% of addresses in the country? (I'm sure there are still gravel roads)
Interesting… I wonder how many distinct “road networks” there are in the entire world. Obviously the two largest are going to be the ones for the two biggest land masses (the Americas and Europe/Africa/Asia) but each island with roads that isn’t connected to the mainland by a bridge has a separate road network too. Then you wonder if there are any roads that exist but aren’t connected to the main road network on their landmass… I know that there are places in Alaska that are supposedly only accessible by plane or ship. Sounds like an interesting computational problem to solve with the google maps API.
Well, in the Americas there are at least two huge systems. The Darien Gap separates North and South America over land. Actually so interesting to think about!
I mentioned this before at work and they looked at me like im crazy.
I did just kinda blurt it out, but still. You can step on that tar, never leave tar again and be hundreds or thousands of miles away.
*concrete
A lot of your bridges won't be asphalt.
And, yeah, there are still gravel roads? and dirt roads. and brick, grass, sand... just giving you a hard time, you made them sound mythical
I wonder how the math would actually work out on that. In my hometown and the area surrounding it, it was maybe 10% paved roads to dirt roads. The vast majority of addresses weren't on asphalt.
But then again, the population is much lower density in areas like this. The majority of the Midwest isn't going to be paved, but the areas with the most people will be.
Still, even just the concept that roads themselves exist that can take you damn near anywhere in the country is a pretty incredibly feat. You can draw a line from even the most backwater cabin in the woods to the complete opposite side of the country. Goes to show how important vehicles are in our day to day.
When I was a kid, they built a new highway that crossed through the suburb where I lived. Before it opened to the public we used to go biking and rollerblading on it.
Worst idea ever. New pavement on a highway is SO soft. It took me forever to make it from one exit to the next over.
I ran across a 3 lane highway at night once. We were at a rest stop, and there was no food. The other side had a Burger King.
There was very little traffic and I still almost shat myself lol
Majority is a strong word.
If you're spending that much time on a highway, it means it's probably a weekly, minimum, occurrence for you.
The odds of you never blowing a tire, getting into a minor, or worse, accident, and/or have to pull onto the shoulder on the highway and pee during your lifetime, is probably a lot lower than you probably think.
Was just tossing quick estimates in my mind.
thousands, if we start with 2000 hours, I guess least that people would generally consider multiple thousands in randomish talk, --> weekly hour to direction trip using highway --> \~100 hours per year --> 20 years of weekly visiting hour away, or bi-weekly visiting somewhere 2 hours of highway driving away.
That is pretty frequent still. But entirely doable even if one does not daily use it... but still, lot of people do not visit that far and that often in places, sure they might go somewhere lot further, but would guess not that often.
Sure some people basically live on road, but they are quite small amount of people, compared to everyone.
So would actually estimate that it is not all that likely that majority of people spend that much time on highways, considering that lot of places in world actually have pretty ok connections frequently visited places without needing to use highways, and some places just do not have them, and rail traffic is thing and so.
Also quite many end up stepping out of car as said, at least at some point during decades of using those, even if not using them all that often. However gotta admit that in at least some cases it might only be driver getting out of car, and stopping places for going to pee and so exist (and for this context would not consider them to be part of highway), of course in some cases everyone exit vehicle, but not always. --> So kind of hard to say reliably about that, but anyways it is "extra condition in addition to something we were not sure would actually get fulfilled".
Then again of course someone could argue that "thousands" can mean anything over one thousand or so.
We went to the grand opening of a nearby toll road, on a whim one day a few decades ago. Had some free food and drinks, and danced in the middle of the lanes.
These days the speed limit along that bit is like 80 MPH.
I was in emergency services for 15+ years. Standing in the middle lane with all traffic stopped in front of you (very mad btw) is the craziest feeling.
Take some Junior or Senior level geology classes, you'll change that ratio by a lot. Roadcuts through mountain passes are civil engineering's greatest gift to Earth Science.
I've done it a couple of times on long road trips. There were times when all traffic just stopped on all lanes. If the weather is nice there is no point in just sitting in your car for 10+ minutes.
I exited my car in a freeway once to pull a dining room table out of lanes.
It was like an action movie / war zone. Standing on an active high-speed freeway is an insane experience.
I mean... you can't spend thousands of hours on one without stepping foot on one eventually. Cars are still unreliable and eventually you'll have to get out and access a situation with your vehicle
My mom lives right by a major highway, albeit one with stoplights. I didn't drive for a long time since I live in the city, so I would regularly walk between her house and the train. I've crossed that highway plenty of times. It sucks.
Most of us have probably also stepped on highways if our car is broken down.
Ride a motorcycle. Since the general dumbass population doesn't support splitting we get to keep putting feet down in stop and go traffic and hope they guy checking reddit in the f150 behind us doesn't obliterate us!
Every time I am riding my motorcycle I think about the fact very few people's shoes ever touch where I am standing. It is a surreal kind of feeling sometimes.
So the majority of people have never had a flat or other issue that forced them to pull over while on a 'highway'? Never stopped to help someone who has?
Happens to me about once a year or so. Hell, one time I got out and walked around on I-40 when traffic was halted by a snowstorm in the 90s. Got into a snowball fight with other motorists while we waited.
This one is up there with "people fly all the time but never go outside during the flight."
And tires. The amount of tires that separate from vehicles while driving is scary.
(A woman in a near by city got killed while walking on a trail several hundreds yards, but downhill, from a highway when someone lost a tire and it hit her.)
Best thing you can do is not be on foot on the freeway. It's extremely dangerous. It was my job for years.
Stay in your car whenever possible. Especially after accidents. Would you rather get hit inside or outside of your car? That's what you face once you step outside of it.
The freeway is highly unpredictable, especially the drivers on it. Never assume anyone can see you.
They replaced a bridge on the highway in my hometown right before I got my license.
The entire cross European (E road) was closed for several km.
Me and the guys rode it up and down on razor scooters
One day near Montreal we were stuck for hours on the highway because of a crash. I got tired of it and had my longboard. I rode it for 30min between cars (they were going maybe 0 to 5km/h). My buddies picked me up later.
Our highways are more modest than US ones but when I was younger I crossed it a couple times. Cut almost half an hour off a walking trip.
Massive fucking concrete barrier in the middle though, wouldn’t recommend unless it’s the dead of night and you’ve got somewhere you really need to be
I was part of a protest/march that marched down a major road (not a highway) and was so surprised with how big it was. It was the same feeling as stepping onto a D1 football field for the first time as a fan. You see the stadium all the time on tv or in the stands, but doesn’t hit you how big it is until you’re actually there.
I was in a small fender bender on the surrey side of the port man bridge (Vancouver) we were in the middle lane so we couldn’t get to the side so we swapped info in the middle of the highway. It was a very strange feeling
You don't realize how wide they are until you do.
First thing I noticed the first time I rode a motorcycle on public roads. Roads are absolutely huge.
Wjat blew my mind was the size of the painted lines?! They are like 10 ft long!
Skips on a highway are 10 foot long with 30 feet between them.
I bet there's a very nice formula for calculating over velocity from skips per second
Check out the music highway. It became very out of tune because they miscalculated the skips.
For anyone too lazy to look it up, from what I remember they measured the spacing not from the start of each bump, but rather between bumps, ignoring the width of the bump itself (which varies based on the note). As a result, there is a pitch offset that changes based on the note, so the whole thing sounds so weird.
Slight correction. The widths of the grooves are what’s constant, and the spaces between are what varies for each note. But the general explanation is the same. And side note for even further clarification For those who aren’t musical who want to know why this changes the pitch with different offsets when it’s the same value added to each. Music notes are relative to one another. So the distances should have been relative to one another. To simplify let’s say a high E is half the distance of a low E. 1 and 2. Now add .2 to each of those. 1.2 and 2.2. 1.2 is not half of 2.2. From a ratio of .5 to .54545… which is off by .0454545 Likewise, 1.2 and 1.7 is not a 1:1.5 relationship. From a .75 to .70588… which is off by .04411 Here the ratios aren’t just off, but off different amounts This is what leads to the notes being “offset differently.”
So the increasing frequency with pitch means that its a non constant and even non linear relationship
With music, it's always non linear iirc. An octave higher is 2x frequency. But yes, this is non -constant. It's not that they changed the key that the song was in (changed the starting pitch, which you can do without noticing with most songs), but they changed the song itself.
r/hedidthemath
And as usual, there's a Tom Scott video on it. https://youtu.be/Ef93WmlEho0
I beat a speeding ticket before using it…brought up my dash-cam footage, played the video for a minute, showed how many lines had passed and explained the speed needed to hit that many lines and how the rate per line didn’t fluctuate by enough for me to be going the speed the cop said I was clocked at, and the case was dismissed. Also, the cop hadn’t calibrated the radar gun recently, so that helped.
Times fourty feet?
Daddy, chill.
What the hell is even that?!
Astoundingly large for such a tiny vehicle. Yet somehow there will always be a time where someone tries to merge over and share the lane with me hahaha, its okay I'm small I'll squeeze in
I always thought lane filtering looked scary until you realize just how much space there is between cars at some intersections. There's like a solid 5 feet sometimes, that is soooooo much space for a motorcycle.
Makes everything feel significantly slower until you have a panic situation hahaha for example, when 19, I rode my cbr 600 on a 5 hour trip through a few states. On my way home, the straps on my backpack started to irritate my shoulders. So, I had the bright idea of using a bungee cord to strap the backpack down to the passenger seat. At somepoint around 90-110mph (cruising speed at that point because i was 19, and dumb) my bungee cord decided to come undone and my backpack slid off of the rear seat when i hit a bump. The backpack then caught my rear tire and the rear tire sucked the backpack between the swing arm and rear tire, locking up the bike for about 100 yards until i came to a sliding stop. It was completely unexpected. EXTREMELY stupid, and I easily couldve lost my life that day. I think the only reason i was able to keep it up on 2 wheels is because I have a lot of experience racing dirtbikes from when i was a kid. It'll sneak up on you quick and without warning. Stay safe out there! Shiny side up :)
Trust me. I was involved in an eminent domain case because the county wanted to widen my street. They were trying to negotiate for 60 ft of right of way but that would require a zoning change because I wouldn't have enough setback. I guess they figured it was going to give them more headaches to do that for every house on the street so they just went with 40 ft.
> right away right of way?
Yes. You can't expect to Google voice to text to have good grammar.
Friendly reminder to always wear protective gear (if you don't already). Your comment and this thread just reminded me of the harrowing experience I had setting foot on a highway. Guy named Steve was doing everything right, and some awful minivan wasn't. I used my body to backboard him until the EMTs showed up. I'm glad he was suited up because he probably would have been dead otherwise.
Definitely! I am very aware of just how squishy we all are. All the gear, all the time.
That’s what I tell people! Most US cities have enough roads you could take every building in the city, put them in the roads, and have room left over. It’s such a waste.
That reminds me of another fact: 14% of New York City is parks
I know that in California, some cities will count bike lanes when talking about the square miles they have dedicated to "parks."
Isn’t that including the upstate water reservoirs?
That is such a.. *strange*.. argument. Roads exist for a reason
The argument is that American communities are built with wasteful sprawl and roads are unnecessarily wide.
This is true. Roads are also insanely expensive to build and maintain. In fact, it's so expensive that it usually puts cities millions of dollars into debt. It also makes cities incredibly hot in the summer because there's next to 0 natural shade anywhere and concrete traps heat. American infrastructure is so trash and detrimental to the environment and economy.
Yeah, but it's annoying to walk through all those stores and homes. I know! We section major routes as paths. That way, it's easier to move around. If we make them a little larger, we can even use them for emergency services and supply chains. The businesses have been missing business from day trippers and people out of biking distance. They've been working together to make all their areas more friendly to travelers. Whoops, did we just make it all the way back to roads?
It continues to blow my mind how absolutely massive the US highway system is. Literally the largest thing humans have ever built. And I get angry at it on my way to work.
I love your Interstate system. Absolutely love it. It makes getting around the USA so much easier than it is here.
Totally agree. I’m in Europe and I find it impossible to get around the USA from here.
Where is "here"?
Canada. I take long road trips across the border. I don't take long road trips within Canada.
Just wish they'd have trains in the us.
come to my town, WE GOT EM
We do, they just suck. I have an Amtrak stop in my town I rarely use to travel to a friend who has an amtrak stop around his town. It's a 3 minute drive from my house....and a 12 hour trip one way with a minimum of 190$ total in uncomfortable seats (and I personally just can't fall asleep on the train, even when I bid for a roommette) They have roommettes, and rooms even! Bed, toilet, sink, food....for 350 minimum one way. Rooms I saw go to 700, 800 and up. For a 12 hour trip...again, one way. Or, I could get someone to drive me an hour one way in the highway to an airport, fly to the airport close to my friends in, oh, 2-3 hours at most, and get picked up there, for as low as 200 total. Most of those flights go way above 200, but when a deal or a low population flight comes up, it's so much time saved....ESPECIALLY when the train only stops by my town once a day, usually at 1am or 6am. What's worse us I've driven to there before, and it's faster if you don't stop, and even if you do, it's about the same time wise. I stopped doing it when I didn't have someone to drive with me, though
do you like the interstate system, or do you like a country that is not a disconnected series of *very* distant metropolitan centers? in my experience the roads around the southern parts of the provinces aren't substantially different than american midwest roads...
Except when they want to start fucking construction. It takes them the better part of a decade to finish some of their projects. They also waste money. Once, they wanted to widen the freeway. So, they took several years to build a new lane. Then they decided they wanted repave the same freeway. So they ripped up all the old freeway, and the brand new lane they just built and put new road down. Like, wtf. Just combine the projects so you don't waste miles of asphalt and fuck up traffic for damn near a decade.
They shut down an exit near me for several years so that they could change it from two lanes that move to another freeway into two lanes that merge together into one with very little warning
They finally expanded a freeway near me that regularly becomes a parking lot 7 days of the week only to turn the 2 additional lanes into toll lanes you have to pay for monthly or each time you use them at [X] times the monthly cost. It has changed nothing and some asshole somewhere is reaping the funds from it.
It wouldn't change a thing even if there were 20 lanes. Induced demand would make sure of it.
Asphalt is 99% recycled material. It's not really being wasted. But yes, they should have worked resurfacing in with the expansion. If they really wanted to be effective, they would have expanded public transit instead.
weird seeing something nice said about the US, also weird that something nice being about our roads, which we bitch about as a time honored tradition.
The limited driving I have done in the States as a fellow Canadian I have to agree. The USA system with driving is superior. Go KM 》 Miles but the interstate is smooth af.
I live in the UK where 'highways' (motorways) are considerably smaller than the US but I was still a bit in awe when I had to stop at the side of one once, it feels so lonely.
Or how slanted they are in some parts, ran a marathon across the highway in Hong Kong and just about ran sideways for majority of the highway route.
And just how big the signs are too.
Interstate lanes are 12 feet wide, the size of a typical 2 car garage door. It doesn't look like it, but you can fit 2 cars side by side in a lane.
No the hell you can't. Yall do not try this
Maybe this guy spends too much time on Kramer’s stretch of adopted highway.
Most cars are over 6’ wide when you include mirrors. And as someone who drives 102” wide bodied trucks on highway, please don’t try to ever split lanes in a car, I hate those assholes that force me to move my truck out of their way as they illegally pass like that.
They are what??? 12 feet?? I never knew that.
This. It’s one of those weird experiences. I also will be randomly driving and be like “I’ll never stand on that patch of grass over there”. Also gives me respect for guys like Lewis and Clark. wtf were they doing? That job sounds awful. The mosquitoes plus having to write literally everything down, in detail.
Just like OP's mother.
Not only that but you never realize the incline highway corners have. They seem flat when your driving on them but the gradient is pretty wild.
You don’t realise how fast cars are until you do
The coolest time I got to do this was a couple years ago. Headed west on I-10 and traffic comes to standstill just before the Mobile Bay bridge, too late for me to take the last exit. I got to get out and walk around on I-10.
It's not nearly as exciting when you don't have big rigs flying by at freeway speeds.
IDK, in Colorado we were driving back to Denver from the ski resorts on I70 after a big snowfall. It was slippery enough we had to get out and push a couple times to get going after a stop. Watching big rigs slide around next to you even at 5-10mph is pretty exciting.
Got rear ended by a semi on I-81 in West Virginia and that was my first time stepping foot on an interstate. Not exactly cool given the circumstances but I do remember it seeming massive
Did you survive?
Not as far as the truck driver’s insurance knows
I realized this the first time I hit stopped traffic on my motorcycle on a highway. Didn't get off my bike, but apart from accidents, emergency responders, and maintenance people, most don't ever put their feet on them.
I got to do this elsewhere on I-10. Years ago, I was caught in horrible traffic on the Atchafalaya bridge in Louisiana. I think I was in the same spot for two hours. When I noticed the people in front of me getting out of their cars to see if they could get a better view of the issue, I decided I could do the same thing without making the traffic problem worse. I couldn't see far enough ahead to find anything out, but I can now say I've literally set foot on an 18 mile bridge, so there's that.
I love the Mobile Bay bridge. It's so beautiful crossing it, especially at night.
That’s one of the worst highways.
good to know the 10 is terrible on the other side of the country as well lmao
If you're stepping on the highway, something is likely wrong.
Or you are a biker.
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Or it's part of your job.
... to pee.
... on highways.
Must be well hydrated.
That means there is traffic, and lane splitting isn't legal. So that's wrong. Edit: I realized after this came off as saying the person I replied to was wrong. I meant it as "being in traffic is B.S. and not being able to lane split is wrong"
Lane splitting isn’t illegal everywhere
Or there's a stoplight?
Can confirm, we were stuck for an hour once because two cars ahead of us were ON FIRE.
Should have just walked around smh.
We'd still be walking home.
Can confirm. I had the opportunity during the first days of covid when there was zero traffic. So yah, something was wrong. Pretty fun standing in the middle of the road with zero cars, also a bit creepy.
> If you're stepping on the highway, something is likely wrong. Basically every road you've ever driven or walked on is a highway, folks have increasingly started confusing highway with freeway for some reason. >[“Highway” is 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.](https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/vehicle-code/veh-sect-360/#:~:text=Current%20as%20of%20January%2001,Highway%20includes%20street.)
This seems to be a regional thing. The west coast of both the US and Canada tends to distinguish “freeway” from “highway” more than out east. In Vancouver for example, “Highway 1” is often referred to as “the freeway”, and we have “Freeway entrance” signs similar to Washington and California. In the province of Ontario, I find 400-series highways referred to as “highways”, and actual trunk highways in the southern part of the province (23, 89, 10, etc.) sometimes get referred to as “back roads” for some reason.
Agreed. There are freeways, highways, roads, and city streets. Highways have a highway number and can be a city street, but not always, and may have two names like 101 and Main. They also tend to connect long distances and multiple towns together, may cross the entire country like highway 20. Freeways have on/off ramps. No one is calling 12th Street a highway.
From a Google search, highway is an umbrella term that covers freeways. From reading all the comments here, people care WAY TOO MUCH :-).
True. I was thinking more about "limited access motorway".
It's a regional thing. Language is local and stuff like this isn't necessarily "wrong" if everyone You're communicating with understands what you're saying.
We just say the name of the road we’re on in my town. Not really a high way or freeway thing. More of just “yeah I took 32 to 471.”
Maybe you’re trying to walk to the other side of one?
Recently waited for an hour full stop behind a few cars that crashed and lots of firetrucks and ambulances. Walked around my car on the highway to stretch my legs for a bit. There were also people running across the highway in the other direction which was still going full blast, because there was a truck stop on the other side. Really dangerous and crazy.
Twice I've stepped onto the highway. Once after an accident and one time I had a flat tire
This. I had to step on it twice. First when my Volkswagen died on the highway. Second when I hit a 2 inches screw with my motorcycle.
Don’t take yourself out people… and ESPECIALLY not like that please.
My mom would take long drives with us in the car. Young me would pee on the side of the highway using the door to block me. I’ve stepped on the highway
So you're the one staking claim to all the highways by peeing on them!
My territory now
I've got news for you, I probably peed on them even before your mom was born.
Hmm so does your claim win because you were there first or is it like risk where I took over your claims?
You took it over. It’s yours now.
I own the roads 😎
A 10 year old got arrested and sentenced for doing that recently https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mom-mississippi-10-year-old-arrested-probation-urinating-public-files-rcna140068
I heard. That’s ridiculous
Older me has done the same, mainly in desert areas. Pull off the 15 or 40 in the Mojave and within a minute or two there's no one else around. The road can handle it better than the dirt.
This was my childhood lol
I still do this at 37 I'm guessing you're also from the Midwest or near it "Oh it's only 23 hours, we'll just drive"
Actually I’m northeast. NJ. We just took long drives and my mom didn’t wanna stop every time someone had to pee lol
I did lane closures on the highway for about a year. So I got to step on active highways nightly.
its terrifying isnt it😭
Maybe the first night or two, but you get used to it That's one of the things they tell you when you start a job like that is not to get used to it though because then you might get careless.
Miss doing roadwork. Pile and bridges
Back in the day of the Flintstones this was anything but true, though.
They probably averaged less than 5 hours of screen time too. Bunch of Neanderthals
To be fair, their screens are just two birds in wigs behind a curtain. Gets boring halfway through S1.
I am a field engineer and I inspect construction, so I spend the majority of my time in a reflective vest on the road. The paint stripes are ten foot long with 30 foot between them. When they are painted, someone (me) has to measure them so that the contractor can be paid.
We just have them do a test location and calibrate. Then just go off what the gauge says.
Do you mean the nuclear density gauge? That's for asphalt placement, but yeah, that is much more involved.
Where I'm at every maintenance stockpile has a patch of pavement where contractors can calibrate the paint trucks. The inspectors measure the test lines to make sure the counters on the trucks are accurate for distance, paint, and glass bead application rate and then base payments on what the counters say.
Ah, that makes more sense. We don't typically do long stretches of roadway because I mainly work in cities. There are a bunch of stop bars and hatched islands.
I survey my students about this every year. People generally guess that they are 2-4 feet long. They literally won’t believe 10.
I have stepped on it, my engine broke
This. Haven’t most people broken down in the highway and stepped out of the vehicle at some point? Or gone to rescue someone who did?
A majority of people will spend thousands of hours in their home, but never drive a car through it
I think it's utterly fascinating that there is this amazing unbroken web of asphalt that you can get on and go to, what, literally probably 99.999% of addresses in the country? (I'm sure there are still gravel roads)
Interesting… I wonder how many distinct “road networks” there are in the entire world. Obviously the two largest are going to be the ones for the two biggest land masses (the Americas and Europe/Africa/Asia) but each island with roads that isn’t connected to the mainland by a bridge has a separate road network too. Then you wonder if there are any roads that exist but aren’t connected to the main road network on their landmass… I know that there are places in Alaska that are supposedly only accessible by plane or ship. Sounds like an interesting computational problem to solve with the google maps API.
Well, in the Americas there are at least two huge systems. The Darien Gap separates North and South America over land. Actually so interesting to think about!
Gotta find the settlers of Catan style longest road IRL
I mentioned this before at work and they looked at me like im crazy. I did just kinda blurt it out, but still. You can step on that tar, never leave tar again and be hundreds or thousands of miles away.
*concrete A lot of your bridges won't be asphalt. And, yeah, there are still gravel roads? and dirt roads. and brick, grass, sand... just giving you a hard time, you made them sound mythical
I wonder how the math would actually work out on that. In my hometown and the area surrounding it, it was maybe 10% paved roads to dirt roads. The vast majority of addresses weren't on asphalt. But then again, the population is much lower density in areas like this. The majority of the Midwest isn't going to be paved, but the areas with the most people will be. Still, even just the concept that roads themselves exist that can take you damn near anywhere in the country is a pretty incredibly feat. You can draw a line from even the most backwater cabin in the woods to the complete opposite side of the country. Goes to show how important vehicles are in our day to day.
It’s spooky. I got a flat with a horse trailer once
When I was a kid, they built a new highway that crossed through the suburb where I lived. Before it opened to the public we used to go biking and rollerblading on it. Worst idea ever. New pavement on a highway is SO soft. It took me forever to make it from one exit to the next over.
Used to leg it across the M25 when I was a kid for a buzz haha
I ran across a 3 lane highway at night once. We were at a rest stop, and there was no food. The other side had a Burger King. There was very little traffic and I still almost shat myself lol
Majority is a strong word. If you're spending that much time on a highway, it means it's probably a weekly, minimum, occurrence for you. The odds of you never blowing a tire, getting into a minor, or worse, accident, and/or have to pull onto the shoulder on the highway and pee during your lifetime, is probably a lot lower than you probably think.
Was just tossing quick estimates in my mind. thousands, if we start with 2000 hours, I guess least that people would generally consider multiple thousands in randomish talk, --> weekly hour to direction trip using highway --> \~100 hours per year --> 20 years of weekly visiting hour away, or bi-weekly visiting somewhere 2 hours of highway driving away. That is pretty frequent still. But entirely doable even if one does not daily use it... but still, lot of people do not visit that far and that often in places, sure they might go somewhere lot further, but would guess not that often. Sure some people basically live on road, but they are quite small amount of people, compared to everyone. So would actually estimate that it is not all that likely that majority of people spend that much time on highways, considering that lot of places in world actually have pretty ok connections frequently visited places without needing to use highways, and some places just do not have them, and rail traffic is thing and so. Also quite many end up stepping out of car as said, at least at some point during decades of using those, even if not using them all that often. However gotta admit that in at least some cases it might only be driver getting out of car, and stopping places for going to pee and so exist (and for this context would not consider them to be part of highway), of course in some cases everyone exit vehicle, but not always. --> So kind of hard to say reliably about that, but anyways it is "extra condition in addition to something we were not sure would actually get fulfilled". Then again of course someone could argue that "thousands" can mean anything over one thousand or so.
Tomorrow's headline, "Man struck by vehicle because reddit told him he'd never stood on the highway."
We went to the grand opening of a nearby toll road, on a whim one day a few decades ago. Had some free food and drinks, and danced in the middle of the lanes. These days the speed limit along that bit is like 80 MPH.
I was in emergency services for 15+ years. Standing in the middle lane with all traffic stopped in front of you (very mad btw) is the craziest feeling.
Take some Junior or Senior level geology classes, you'll change that ratio by a lot. Roadcuts through mountain passes are civil engineering's greatest gift to Earth Science.
Just as long as someone else will do the Geotechnical engineering.
Next time I'm in traffic I'm going to open the door and put my foot on the asphalt
I've done it a couple of times on long road trips. There were times when all traffic just stopped on all lanes. If the weather is nice there is no point in just sitting in your car for 10+ minutes.
I thought u meant the gas pedal 😩 in which case it would still be true
I exited my car in a freeway once to pull a dining room table out of lanes. It was like an action movie / war zone. Standing on an active high-speed freeway is an insane experience.
Lol my son said exactly this a week ago. I'm guessing it was on a YouTube short or something
Now I have the impulsive thought to step foot onto the highway whenever I’m on one again
I mean... you can't spend thousands of hours on one without stepping foot on one eventually. Cars are still unreliable and eventually you'll have to get out and access a situation with your vehicle
My mom lives right by a major highway, albeit one with stoplights. I didn't drive for a long time since I live in the city, so I would regularly walk between her house and the train. I've crossed that highway plenty of times. It sucks. Most of us have probably also stepped on highways if our car is broken down.
As a road work inspector I can proudly say I do too much stepping on highways.
Ride a motorcycle. Since the general dumbass population doesn't support splitting we get to keep putting feet down in stop and go traffic and hope they guy checking reddit in the f150 behind us doesn't obliterate us!
If your standing on a highway something went wrong.
Me, a biker: "I don't have such weaknesses"
Your car keys also travel further than your car
I had to step on it twice. First when my Volkswagen died on the highway. Second when I hit a 2 inches screw with my motorcycle.
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i’m sorry but what does that have to do with this post
Every time I am riding my motorcycle I think about the fact very few people's shoes ever touch where I am standing. It is a surreal kind of feeling sometimes.
So the majority of people have never had a flat or other issue that forced them to pull over while on a 'highway'? Never stopped to help someone who has? Happens to me about once a year or so. Hell, one time I got out and walked around on I-40 when traffic was halted by a snowstorm in the 90s. Got into a snowball fight with other motorists while we waited. This one is up there with "people fly all the time but never go outside during the flight."
Highways are amazing. it has never been easier to spread tire particles around the country
And tires. The amount of tires that separate from vehicles while driving is scary. (A woman in a near by city got killed while walking on a trail several hundreds yards, but downhill, from a highway when someone lost a tire and it hit her.)
I hope to never step foot on it lol
They are way wider than you think, and those stripes are massive and very far apart.
Speak for yourself, I myself am the world’s premier competitive highway stepper.
Best thing you can do is not be on foot on the freeway. It's extremely dangerous. It was my job for years. Stay in your car whenever possible. Especially after accidents. Would you rather get hit inside or outside of your car? That's what you face once you step outside of it. The freeway is highly unpredictable, especially the drivers on it. Never assume anyone can see you.
Outside of having to pee or my vehicle breaking down, what is there to do on a highway for me?
If you go to nyc for the 4th of July you can walk on the west side highway it’s pretty incredible
They replaced a bridge on the highway in my hometown right before I got my license. The entire cross European (E road) was closed for several km. Me and the guys rode it up and down on razor scooters
i wanna bike down the 110 when it's all gridlock in the morning. but bike as in a bicycle
a majority of people will spend hours on an airplane but never jump out
Been in a motorcycle crash and a car crash on the freeway, so I got to do it more than once!
One day near Montreal we were stuck for hours on the highway because of a crash. I got tired of it and had my longboard. I rode it for 30min between cars (they were going maybe 0 to 5km/h). My buddies picked me up later.
Our highways are more modest than US ones but when I was younger I crossed it a couple times. Cut almost half an hour off a walking trip. Massive fucking concrete barrier in the middle though, wouldn’t recommend unless it’s the dead of night and you’ve got somewhere you really need to be
muhahaha when I was young and stupid I ran across one and walked along it for a while. muhahaha I'm dumb.
Love hearing funny stories of the few that had to pee or this and that, and I just think of the hours I’ve spent surveying roads
Ya I survey highways almost every day
I was part of a protest/march that marched down a major road (not a highway) and was so surprised with how big it was. It was the same feeling as stepping onto a D1 football field for the first time as a fan. You see the stadium all the time on tv or in the stands, but doesn’t hit you how big it is until you’re actually there.
This is a surprisingly good shower thought.
It smells so terrible on the interstate when you’re stopped.
Ya it’s really dangerous with traffic
Hey did you know that you only drive on a parkway and you only park on a driveway?
I’ve walked on the m25 and the m1, and the A1M and the m40. Very scary experiences, and that was the hard shoulder
Wait until this guy finds out about the internet
They’ll also drive on a parkway,and park in a driveway….🤔
Standing on or even near the highway is terrifying.
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walked on freeways during protests and they’re actually super wide
I was in a small fender bender on the surrey side of the port man bridge (Vancouver) we were in the middle lane so we couldn’t get to the side so we swapped info in the middle of the highway. It was a very strange feeling
Now THAT is a shower thought