Reminds me of an old science fiction novel I read years ago. Teleportation had became common, so people no longer needed cars. The entire system of interstate highways was converted to long, narrow parks.
You’ll be disappointed. It’s a very minor part of the plot, and the construction of the parks is only mentioned in passing. The novel was Ringworld by Larry Niven (written in 1970. Sexism ahoy!)
At first I read the comments and was appalled, then I realized I automatically assumed the shittier picture was the new one. I’m assuming it’s because I’ve never seen it go this direction before.
They actually can’t afford not to. Walkable cities improve the economies of cities because people are actually able to get to stores on roads that would otherwise be swamped with cars. It improves health and safety as well.
No, by replacing it with public transportation and human-scaled spaces. Well, leaving one small part of it for service vehicles and people who absolutely need to go buy car if there is no better option.
Ah yeah they should’ve just done the American thing instead and bulldozed the whole strip of town to put in a 20 lane wide interstate with a Bucees and Walmart/s
What people call „Rhine“ is a heavily straightened and channelized artificial water road.
Especially in the 19th century they cut off many loops and bends to make it more accessible for ships, to make the land useable and to get rid of flooding (narrator: „it didn’t work“):
I think this is my first time seeing the “/s” on lemmy. And I really hope it doesn’t follow users here. We fully understood the sarcasm without it. It was honestly so much more a statement with ironic wording than it was even sarcasm.
I feel like we’re better than this. We can’t complain about Hollywood and advertising dumbing everything down to the level they think we need and then turn around and spoon feed each other the most basic forms of speech.
It’s sometimes impossible to detect sarcasm from just text, that’s why Poe’s law exists. You may be good at understanding sarcasm and satire, but some people aren’t and putting /s is making sure that everyone understands instead of just you.
I feel you on the dumbing down part though, but I think sarcastic comments are not a form of media that must be left only to be enjoyed by the people who are “better than this”.
I mean… They don’t have to be left to anyone. Is it really that hard to ask for or wait for more context before popping off? If I misunderstand sarcasm I just say oh oops I misunderstood my bad and move on with my day. It’s such a non-issue.
You might be able to easily spot sarcasm, but not everyone is blessed with that ability. Many autistic people, for instance, struggle to detect sarcasm. And comments being text only makes it harder. “/s” is an accessibility tool and implying that using these tools is “dumbing down” communication is honestly a very shitty move.
Autistic person here, yeah I can’t read tone for shit through text sometimes, and especially online you never can tell if and when someone’s being serious.
Beyond autism, that /s has become all the more necessary these days in the wake of this huge wave of anti-intellectualism. Outside of private circles, it's so hard now to tell the difference between absurd sarcasm and the genuinely ignorant takes some people proudly share, there's too much of an overlap between the two lol
I fully get and embrace inclusivity/accessibility but it’s starting to get to the point where people genuinely get super angry if they don’t get a joke or something and somehow that’s everyone elses fault. Like, it’s ok if you didn’t pick up on a joke. It’s not the end of the world. Every joke isn’t gonna be a reference or tone that you pick up on right away. Just delete your reactionary comment if it was cringy and learn from it. It’s not that big of a deal. I don’t know why people act like it is. It’s mildly embarrassing at most if you miss sarcasm and it’s pointed out to you later. Your comments aren’t critically important. Just wait for context or ask for it before popping off it’s not that deep lol
Lowering the standard of living in that way is murder? That sounds a bit melodramatic. You’re probably even saving people since there are less traffic accidents.
Also speak for yourself. For me, not having to drive means a better quality of life.
Well, yeah. That’s why it would be nice to work on walkable infrastructure isn’t it? Because then we can reduce cars without lowering anyone’s quality of life. That’s the whole discussion.
Holy crap, dude. Obviously I’m not actually literally suggesting we should just bury all cars with the people still inside them. Long term cars are actually terrible for standard of living, but there needs to be a rational transition and effective mass transit in place before we start getting rid of cars. It is stupidly, ridiculously obvious that no one in their right mind would actually want to bury people alive for doing the only things that work with our current terrible transit system.
Maybe don’t just go around assuming everyone who says anything you don’t like is a monster in a medium famous for it’s lack of a serious tone?
Here is another picture. you can see the church in the background. The right side is the road to the houses, and on the left is the speed-way with 2x2 lanes. It was (still) crazy back then.
EDIT: I was corrected. Its not. It is the substitute road.
Here is a recent picture looking from the other direction. Again the church now on the left. It was a crazy project but it was well received by the Altstadt/Oldtown.
In the German Wikipedia you can find another nice picture of the Rhine-Bank (Rhein-Ufer). It shows the Steps to the Rhine in 1900 - before the asphalt rolled over all that land. Notice the church and Tower in the back. And today.
mildlyinteresting
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