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I thought it's just that in Asia, they don't usually hide lines or make effort to decrease number of individual wires. That's what you have on street - that's

I thought it's just that in Asia, they don't usually hide lines or make effort to decrease number of individual wires. That's what you have on street - that's what you get in anime.

donquichotte 9y ago
I was told that at least in Japan, this is done because it's easier to rebuild after an earthquake than digging up and reburying broken power and communication lines.
- kqr 9y ago
  Huh, cool. That's a great illustration of the two general ways to achieve reliability. Either you make it rather hard to break in the first place (bury powerlines underground, write software with strong type systems) or embrace the fact that either way, it will break eventually, so maybe it's just better to focus on making it easy to fix (powerlines in the air, write Erlang-style software that reboots quickly in the face of error.)
- ivm 9y ago
  Yes, same in Chile.
johansch 9y ago
https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2016/07/bangkoks-tangled-power-lines-are-going-underground/490763/ https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2016/07/bangkoks-tangled-p... "That Time Bill Gates Accidentally Shamed Bangkok Into Burying Its Power Lines"
ginko 9y ago
That was my understanding as well.
Symbiote 9y ago
I thought that when I visited America. Streets in many towns look like this [0]. In much of Europe, you'd need to be in a very rural area for the power lines to be above ground. It's a bit more common for telephone lines to be above ground, but that's still something seen in villages rather than towns. [0] https://i0.wp.com/brokensidewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01-main-street-louisville.jpg?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/brokensidewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016... or https://ak9.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/2544149/thumb/1.jpg https://ak9.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/2544149/thumb/1.jp...
- Coding_Cat 9y ago
  Switzerland (the geneve/lausanne area) has a lot of overhead wiring too. I must say, you never appreciate underground wiring until you no longer have it and a storm picks up. I would consistently lose power whenever there was a big storm. Hardly ever happened when I had underground wiring.
- Kihashi 9y ago
  That's interesting, since it seems to be the opposite in the US. I always assumed that was because it was cheaper to run lines on poles rather than doing the digging that could be dozens and dozens of miles. What makes it different, I wonder?
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    Part of it has to be that our infrastructure is among the oldest (presumably the same reason we use a form of power socket with relatively few safety features to prevent electrocution, still have lead pipes in places, etc.).
    - Symbiote 9y ago
      Are those wires really 80 years old though? [1] (just the abstract) suggests overhead wires need replacement after 50 years. In any case, towns in Europe were electrified at a similar time to America. (Rural areas probably aren't comparable, with the bigger distances in the US being the reason Europe was first for this.) [1] http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/595590/?reload=true http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/595590/?reload=true
      - emodendroket 9y ago
        Probably most of them are not, but I would imagine that the upkeep has been done in a largely piecemeal basis rather than them regularly redoing everything.
svachalek 9y ago
Asia is not a country. In Chinese news stories about American power failures they usually have to start by explaining that there are actually a lot of power lines above ground even though the U.S. is considered "developed".

I thought it's just that in Asia, they don't usually hide lines or make effort to decrease number of individual wires. That's what you have on street - that's what you get in anime.

donquichotte 9y ago

I was told that at least in Japan, this is done because it's easier to rebuild after an earthquake than digging up and reburying broken power and communication lines.

kqr 9y ago
Huh, cool. That's a great illustration of the two general ways to achieve reliability. Either you make it rather hard to break in the first place (bury powerlines underground, write software with strong type systems) or embrace the fact that either way, it will break eventually, so maybe it's just better to focus on making it easy to fix (powerlines in the air, write Erlang-style software that reboots quickly in the face of error.)
ivm 9y ago
Yes, same in Chile.

johansch 9y ago

https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2016/07/bangkoks-tangled-power-lines-are-going-underground/490763/ https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2016/07/bangkoks-tangled-p... "That Time Bill Gates Accidentally Shamed Bangkok Into Burying Its Power Lines"

ginko 9y ago

That was my understanding as well.

Symbiote 9y ago

I thought that when I visited America. Streets in many towns look like this [0]. In much of Europe, you'd need to be in a very rural area for the power lines to be above ground. It's a bit more common for telephone lines to be above ground, but that's still something seen in villages rather than towns. [0] https://i0.wp.com/brokensidewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01-main-street-louisville.jpg?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/brokensidewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016... or https://ak9.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/2544149/thumb/1.jpg https://ak9.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/2544149/thumb/1.jp...

Coding_Cat 9y ago
Switzerland (the geneve/lausanne area) has a lot of overhead wiring too. I must say, you never appreciate underground wiring until you no longer have it and a storm picks up. I would consistently lose power whenever there was a big storm. Hardly ever happened when I had underground wiring.
Kihashi 9y ago
That's interesting, since it seems to be the opposite in the US. I always assumed that was because it was cheaper to run lines on poles rather than doing the digging that could be dozens and dozens of miles. What makes it different, I wonder?
- emodendroket 9y ago
  Part of it has to be that our infrastructure is among the oldest (presumably the same reason we use a form of power socket with relatively few safety features to prevent electrocution, still have lead pipes in places, etc.).
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    Are those wires really 80 years old though? [1] (just the abstract) suggests overhead wires need replacement after 50 years. In any case, towns in Europe were electrified at a similar time to America. (Rural areas probably aren't comparable, with the bigger distances in the US being the reason Europe was first for this.) [1] http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/595590/?reload=true http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/595590/?reload=true
    - emodendroket 9y ago
      Probably most of them are not, but I would imagine that the upkeep has been done in a largely piecemeal basis rather than them regularly redoing everything.

svachalek 9y ago

Asia is not a country. In Chinese news stories about American power failures they usually have to start by explaining that there are actually a lot of power lines above ground even though the U.S. is considered "developed".