4 ms·

There is an awesome short video on such roads by Tom Scott, where he explains how it went badly in Lancaster, California [1]. Twice. That one plays off key. [1

by szszrk 6y ago

There is an awesome short video on such roads by Tom Scott, where he explains how it went badly in Lancaster, California [1]. Twice. That one plays off key. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef93WmlEho0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef93WmlEho0

s5300 6y ago
Lancaster is awesome. Despite it being y'know, the high desert, they're total fucking hillchucks out there (I say this as an Appalachian, and the poorer part of the poorness that is Appalachia at that...) They shut down a sizeable portion of downtown for a weekend every year. Literally shut it down. For a fuckin Grand Prix. Last year, they out of the blue ran into an acquaintance of mine who builds/races custom electric skateboards that can hit 60mph+ (our new speed trap record is 57mph uphill, dude is insane) and invited us out on a whim to race ~45mph on a winding 0.7mile track. Was cool, and the methed out crowd that is the high desert seemed to enjoy it, despite it being quite different from karting... Invited us out again this year and most likely will for the foreseeable future. I never got wind of the price the organization had to pay to the insurance for adding a few dozen random people averaging 42mph on pieces of wood (and chromoly...) on a short track with several tight hairpins a week before the race (which is always finalized at least a year in advance...)
- cameldrv 6y ago
  There's all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff going on in that general part of the Mojave. Lots of tinkerers. Some of them are brought there by Edwards or the Palmdale plant, but now there are a bunch of scrappy and not so scrappy anymore aircraft companies at the Mojave airport, and loads of people trying out strange and fast machines over on the El Mirage lakebed.
- jasonlingx 6y ago
  > They shut down a sizeable portion of downtown for a weekend every year. Literally shut it down. For a fuckin Grand Prix. They do this in Singapore too. They used to close all the roads in the city for 2 weeks just for the F1, but slowly got more efficient (or less over abundantly cautious) over the years. It’s all for the $$$ here though.
globular-toast 6y ago
> That one plays off key Out of tune. The key is determined by the speed of the vehicle and reasonable variance wouldn't affect the perceived quality of the music.
- jacquesm 6y ago
  Speedometers indicating your speed by going C, C#, D, D# and so on would be really neat. Would work in only a couple of places. And those with absolute hearing wouldn't need to look at their speedometer at all!
- weitzj 6y ago
  There is an explanation why it is not the speed of the vehicle alone but the gaps distance

by szszrk 6y ago

s5300 6y ago

Lancaster is awesome. Despite it being y'know, the high desert, they're total fucking hillchucks out there (I say this as an Appalachian, and the poorer part of the poorness that is Appalachia at that...) They shut down a sizeable portion of downtown for a weekend every year. Literally shut it down. For a fuckin Grand Prix. Last year, they out of the blue ran into an acquaintance of mine who builds/races custom electric skateboards that can hit 60mph+ (our new speed trap record is 57mph uphill, dude is insane) and invited us out on a whim to race ~45mph on a winding 0.7mile track. Was cool, and the methed out crowd that is the high desert seemed to enjoy it, despite it being quite different from karting... Invited us out again this year and most likely will for the foreseeable future. I never got wind of the price the organization had to pay to the insurance for adding a few dozen random people averaging 42mph on pieces of wood (and chromoly...) on a short track with several tight hairpins a week before the race (which is always finalized at least a year in advance...)

cameldrv 6y ago
There's all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff going on in that general part of the Mojave. Lots of tinkerers. Some of them are brought there by Edwards or the Palmdale plant, but now there are a bunch of scrappy and not so scrappy anymore aircraft companies at the Mojave airport, and loads of people trying out strange and fast machines over on the El Mirage lakebed.
jasonlingx 6y ago
> They shut down a sizeable portion of downtown for a weekend every year. Literally shut it down. For a fuckin Grand Prix. They do this in Singapore too. They used to close all the roads in the city for 2 weeks just for the F1, but slowly got more efficient (or less over abundantly cautious) over the years. It’s all for the $$$ here though.

globular-toast 6y ago

> That one plays off key Out of tune. The key is determined by the speed of the vehicle and reasonable variance wouldn't affect the perceived quality of the music.

jacquesm 6y ago
Speedometers indicating your speed by going C, C#, D, D# and so on would be really neat. Would work in only a couple of places. And those with absolute hearing wouldn't need to look at their speedometer at all!
weitzj 6y ago
There is an explanation why it is not the speed of the vehicle alone but the gaps distance