Favorites January 8th 2023

March 2022, Toronto

Warren J. Wells, AICP 🚴🏙️🦀 @WarrenJWells

Very important finding on crosswalks, yield rates, and speed. At 20 mph, 3 out of every 4 drivers yield to a pedestrian in the basic crosswalk. At just 30 mph, that rate drops to 1 in 8 drivers.

The thread continues, but this topline graph really says it all. Crosswalks without a stop sign basically don't work, especially it high speeds.

Emil🚰 (parody) @mayorseidel

Another way to look at the data is to normalize it by metro area population. This draws out the high performers. Size helps, but there’s a level the playing field for purposes of comparison. Two tiers emerge: NY and the three big Canadian cities, and the other US transit cities.

This way of representing the data really makes things clear. Owens adds on with some commentary about how much more effective buses are in Canada than the US, it's all about frequency.

Armand Domalewski @ArmandDoma

China is debuting an offshore wind turbine with rotor diameters of about 1/6 OF A MILE 🤯

And you better believe there are no Jones-act compatible ships that can carry that turbine, which makes it really hard to install these in the US.

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

Not surprised at this finding, but the productivity numbers really do validate the idea that the best stuff came out when I was a teenager.

Ethan Mollick @emollick

Worth thinking about this finding that technology peaked when you were born, and everything after sucks. A set of experiments shows that folks evaluate technologies developed after they were born as being worse than older ones, because newer innovations threaten their status quo https://t.co/026V6PwuJG

Yglesias responds by pointing out that productivity growth took off when we figured out how to use computers in the 90s and then plateaued when the smartphone came out and everyone got really good at wasting time. Smith responds that if everyone is secretly goofing off at work, then labor productivity is actually higher because everyone's actually working less than they say.

physicist @FinitePhysicist

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different res- wait what the fuck?

Threads

• Thread explaining the situation that lead to the coining of "Stockholm Syndrome", and uh, the psychologist seems to have been 100% in the worng.

• Thread covering events in Brazil where pro-Bolsonaro insurrectionists forced their way into government buildings today. Apparently they cheered when military showed up, apparently not realizing they were about to be arrested. Looks like things have mostly come to an end, but they've done significant damage to the buildings which is a bummer.