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I’m a little puzzled by the over-engineering. Wouldn’t fixing the road be much cheaper and benefit more people? Don’t get me wrong: lowering the cost of active

by bertil 8y ago

I’m a little puzzled by the over-engineering. Wouldn’t fixing the road be much cheaper and benefit more people? Don’t get me wrong: lowering the cost of active suspension is a wonderful idea, and will have a ton of benefit, but…

chatmasta 8y ago
Er, wouldn’t fixing the road be the overengineering? One solution requires a single company to build a single bus to solve a specific problem. The other requires every municipality in the country to “fix the road” (unclear what that even means?) to solve for a specific problem affecting one specific use case.
- bertil 8y ago
  I was anticipating that fixing potholes would benefit all the vehicles on that road and that you would save a lot on vehicle’s suspension.
  - acct1771 8y ago
    Yeah, but they're not the government's vehicles, so what do they care?
    - bertil 8y ago
      I’m not generally very comfortable with cynicism when it comes to road safety.
chr1 8y ago
Roads are huge and are deteriorating all the time. Keeping the road in a state suitable for people to sleep in a normal bus would not be cheap, and maybe even impossible.
- bertil 8y ago
  I grew up in Europe where highways are perfectly smooth overall. There are bumps in the city, but you are not really meant to drive fast on those. This is to a point that I have met some native French speakers who wouldn’t know the word for “potholes” in French.
hanklazard 8y ago
Ha, that’s a good point! I drove from Paris to Bordeaux a few months ago and was blown away by the quality of the French interstate—it was perfectly smooth, zero potholes, impeccable lines and signage. Of course it had the most expensive tolls I’ve ever heard of, but as an American, it made me think about whether higher tolls would be worth it, if we could be sure the money would actually go into better infrastructure. Anyway, I bet a similar bed-in-bus system on that French highway wouldn’t require this bump-cancellation tech, so you make a good point, at least from a technical standpoint. Politically, now that’s a different story ...
- pouetpouet 8y ago
  I checked: Paris-Bordeaux toll is 55€ (US$63 with tax) for 563km (350 miles) of highway, 583km total. Add 34L (9 US gal., 39MPG!) of fuel @1.5€/L (US$6.6 per gallon) that is 51€ of fuel. So toll+fuel total, that's at least 106€ ($122) one way. Now you have to take into account the car rent/lease/depreciation+maintenance. You're likely better off with the train (2 hours and 8 minutes) unless you carpool.
Someone 8y ago
In the USA, highway building and maintenance is paid out of the highway trust fund, which is filled from the federal fuel tax. That fund doesn’t receive enough money to maintain highway quality. This being the USA, the average citizen doesn’t accept the fact that “we would like to have better roads” may mean “we need to raise the fuel tax”, so, instead, they pay, on average, $515 per year in extra car repairs, so that they can keep their payments on fuel taxes at a low $97 (according to https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/25/why-driving-on-americas-roads-can-be-more-expensive-than-you-think https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/25/why-d...)
- craftyguy 8y ago
  Alternatively, take a tiny fraction of what we spend on 'defense' and send it to the highway trust fund. The federal government has a problem with prioritization, not with lack of funds.
  - mmirate 8y ago
    .
    - craftyguy 8y ago
      I'm not sure what you are referring to. US presence in places like Japan, Germany, Iraq(lol), etc are self-imposed, not because they invited us in. Edit: Comment I replied to was (paraphrasing since they 'deleted' it): > (Another alternative: charge allies a fair price for being their police)
    - twblalock 8y ago
      Removing the text of a comment after people have replied to it is one of the most annoying things you can do on HN.
      - omosubi 8y ago
        Or any thread based site for that matter
stcredzero 8y ago
I’m a little puzzled by the over-engineering. Wouldn’t fixing the road be much cheaper and benefit more people? My information might be over a decade out of date, but the last time I read about it, the US and Italy did not require warranties on roads, but Germany did. As a result, companies are constantly charging money from the government in the US and Italy to repair mediocre roads, while German roads are overall excellent and do not require frequent repair. Funny how that works.
- blattimwind 8y ago
  > while German roads are overall excellent and do not require frequent repair. Well certainly better on average than some other countries, but certainly not what I'd call excellent by any stretch of the imagination.
  - stcredzero 8y ago
    I only know what it was like around Stuttgart in the early 2000's. Compared to Pennsylvania in the 80's, it looked like utopia!
    - blattimwind 8y ago
      Stuttgart suffered a "traffic stroke" since then, so to speak. The roads may be fine, but the traffic isn't. Interestingly things have taken a noticeable turn to the worse since the Greens were elected to state government... some say they invented "red wave" traffic lights. I'm not sure if that's true, but if you're driving to Stuttgart, pack an extra pack of brake light bulbs -- they might burn out on you.
imgabe 8y ago
The bus company isn't in charge of the roads. They have little ability to change the quality of the road, all they can do is improve their buses.
- bertil 8y ago
  Domino’s Pizza seemed to have taken upon themselves to act on that. I suspect that this is because it was the cheaper option for them.

by bertil 8y ago

chatmasta 8y ago

Er, wouldn’t fixing the road be the overengineering? One solution requires a single company to build a single bus to solve a specific problem. The other requires every municipality in the country to “fix the road” (unclear what that even means?) to solve for a specific problem affecting one specific use case.

bertil 8y ago
I was anticipating that fixing potholes would benefit all the vehicles on that road and that you would save a lot on vehicle’s suspension.
- acct1771 8y ago
  Yeah, but they're not the government's vehicles, so what do they care?
  - bertil 8y ago
    I’m not generally very comfortable with cynicism when it comes to road safety.

chr1 8y ago

Roads are huge and are deteriorating all the time. Keeping the road in a state suitable for people to sleep in a normal bus would not be cheap, and maybe even impossible.

bertil 8y ago
I grew up in Europe where highways are perfectly smooth overall. There are bumps in the city, but you are not really meant to drive fast on those. This is to a point that I have met some native French speakers who wouldn’t know the word for “potholes” in French.

hanklazard 8y ago

Ha, that’s a good point! I drove from Paris to Bordeaux a few months ago and was blown away by the quality of the French interstate—it was perfectly smooth, zero potholes, impeccable lines and signage. Of course it had the most expensive tolls I’ve ever heard of, but as an American, it made me think about whether higher tolls would be worth it, if we could be sure the money would actually go into better infrastructure. Anyway, I bet a similar bed-in-bus system on that French highway wouldn’t require this bump-cancellation tech, so you make a good point, at least from a technical standpoint. Politically, now that’s a different story ...

pouetpouet 8y ago
I checked: Paris-Bordeaux toll is 55€ (US$63 with tax) for 563km (350 miles) of highway, 583km total. Add 34L (9 US gal., 39MPG!) of fuel @1.5€/L (US$6.6 per gallon) that is 51€ of fuel. So toll+fuel total, that's at least 106€ ($122) one way. Now you have to take into account the car rent/lease/depreciation+maintenance. You're likely better off with the train (2 hours and 8 minutes) unless you carpool.

Someone 8y ago

In the USA, highway building and maintenance is paid out of the highway trust fund, which is filled from the federal fuel tax. That fund doesn’t receive enough money to maintain highway quality. This being the USA, the average citizen doesn’t accept the fact that “we would like to have better roads” may mean “we need to raise the fuel tax”, so, instead, they pay, on average, $515 per year in extra car repairs, so that they can keep their payments on fuel taxes at a low $97 (according to https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/25/why-driving-on-americas-roads-can-be-more-expensive-than-you-think https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/25/why-d...)

craftyguy 8y ago
Alternatively, take a tiny fraction of what we spend on 'defense' and send it to the highway trust fund. The federal government has a problem with prioritization, not with lack of funds.
- mmirate 8y ago
  .
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    I'm not sure what you are referring to. US presence in places like Japan, Germany, Iraq(lol), etc are self-imposed, not because they invited us in. Edit: Comment I replied to was (paraphrasing since they 'deleted' it): > (Another alternative: charge allies a fair price for being their police)
  - twblalock 8y ago
    Removing the text of a comment after people have replied to it is one of the most annoying things you can do on HN.
    - omosubi 8y ago
      Or any thread based site for that matter

stcredzero 8y ago

I’m a little puzzled by the over-engineering. Wouldn’t fixing the road be much cheaper and benefit more people? My information might be over a decade out of date, but the last time I read about it, the US and Italy did not require warranties on roads, but Germany did. As a result, companies are constantly charging money from the government in the US and Italy to repair mediocre roads, while German roads are overall excellent and do not require frequent repair. Funny how that works.

blattimwind 8y ago
> while German roads are overall excellent and do not require frequent repair. Well certainly better on average than some other countries, but certainly not what I'd call excellent by any stretch of the imagination.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  I only know what it was like around Stuttgart in the early 2000's. Compared to Pennsylvania in the 80's, it looked like utopia!
  - blattimwind 8y ago
    Stuttgart suffered a "traffic stroke" since then, so to speak. The roads may be fine, but the traffic isn't. Interestingly things have taken a noticeable turn to the worse since the Greens were elected to state government... some say they invented "red wave" traffic lights. I'm not sure if that's true, but if you're driving to Stuttgart, pack an extra pack of brake light bulbs -- they might burn out on you.

imgabe 8y ago

The bus company isn't in charge of the roads. They have little ability to change the quality of the road, all they can do is improve their buses.

bertil 8y ago
Domino’s Pizza seemed to have taken upon themselves to act on that. I suspect that this is because it was the cheaper option for them.