5 ms·

Hands down the most fascinating part of this thread is the number of comments from people saying "in the US x is different" or "in State y it works this way". Y

by senux 6y ago

Hands down the most fascinating part of this thread is the number of comments from people saying "in the US x is different" or "in State y it works this way". You go on reading and you see people contradicting each other because of course, different States, different solutions; different towns, different solutions. It goes to show how much people think they know their country, to what degree they believe to know everything there is to know about their culture, history, and surroundings. Really though, we know very little despite what we tell ourselves or others. I guess the message is: travel a little people. Even if it's just to the neighboring State for crying out loud.

kortilla 6y ago
Or mainly just read more. Traveling to places just to learn about differences is pretty terrible for the environment.
- z3ncyberpunk 6y ago
  Not if you walk or bike.
- Transfinity 6y ago
  Having done a lot of traveling along with a lot of reading (often at the same time), just reading about a place is a good start, but there's no substitute for actually going there, meeting real people, eating the food, dealing with public transportation and the weather, experiencing all the tiny inconveniences and innovations that shape life. It broadens your worldview, confirming beyond a doubt that the way things are done in your town is neither the only nor the best way, just one of many, and that the people who live "over there" are in fact people, not just statistics. I agree that the environmental impact is a big problem. But perhaps if more people traveled, we would be more likely to get the kind of international cooperation we need to tackle climate change systemically.
  - kortilla 6y ago
    Nope. Having traveled a bunch myself and talked to many other people who have traveled, traveling to a place can easily be one of the worst ways to actually learn about how the people live. Being a tourist in a place teaches you nothing about the voting process there, the community councils, the property tax codes, etc. Essentially, traveling to another place without living there for many months only gives you an understanding of the most superficial aspects of life. > we would be more likely to get the kind of international cooperation we need to tackle climate change systemically This doesn’t even make sense. People who live in the same cities struggle to cooperate on even super local problems like housing. Ted from Kansas City flying to Europe to eat a steak in Florence is not going to help anything.
- jimmaswell 6y ago
  Bending over backwards for the enrionment at the cost of living life is paperclip maximizing - the point of maintaining the environment is to keep it sustainable for our wants and needs.
_8091149529 6y ago
This! I used to be puzzled by how anyone could ever drive off with the nozzle still in the car. I had only seen the non-latching dispenser, and service stations don't exist in my country. I was probably (shamefully) thinking something along the lines of "dumb Americans." Once in the US, I realized it's a mixture of full service and self-service stations with latching or non-latching dispensers, depending on the region. And I do need to make an extra glance at the gas tank door before driving off.
jfb 6y ago
One of the low-key weirdest things about moving from California to Ontario, Canada was that, until earlier this summer, basically no gas stations ("gas bars") had the auto-shutoff triggers. They seemed to make a lot more sense here in the land of actual winters than in Oakland, but eh.
- pfundstein 6y ago
  I'm not sure if you're using the Canadian "eh" correctly, but I'm not Canadian so what would I know eh
  - jfb 6y ago
    I've only been up here for eight years, so.
  - graeme 6y ago
    We use it both ways.
Aperocky 6y ago
Ha, I've once been to New Jersey where it's not legal to fill up yourself. That was weird. Second only to the four consecutive tolls 5 miles apart from each other in WV.
- cafard 6y ago
  You can't fuel your own car in Oregon, or you couldn't the last time I was there.
  - myself248 6y ago
    They made an exception for late-night now, to allow stations to staff just a single attendant who can stay in the store, while people gasp pump their own ultra-flammable danger fuel! I'm from a self-serve state and full-serve weirds me out, so when I was in Portland I found myself driving up into WA to gas up my rental.
    - casefields 6y ago
      That's good to know. On a late night road trip up to Mt Hood I got chewed out by the attendant for touching the machine. I imagine a to. Of Californians make that mistake.
Slartie 6y ago
Interesting gas pump related differences between Germany and the US: - German gas pumps are mandated to have a vapor recovery system, which sucks out the poisonous air vapors from the tank as it is being displaced by new gas. US pumps don't appear to be mandated to have such a system, but many still seem to have it. They also often have some kind of plastic or rubber seal behind the tip of the nozzle that prevents gases from escaping the fuel tank - irritatingly, this seal, which I consider a great and practical idea, is almost unheard of at German gas pumps, even though they are mandated by law to perform vapor recovery, and one would think that such a seal would help with that. - The notion of pre-paid gas is almost nonexistent in Germany, and doing pre-paid gas purchases - including doing the dance of having to walk to the shop assistant twice or estimating the remaining space in the tank and only filling it up partially - are a typical "weird thing" German travelers encounter when they do their first US road trip. Pumps here in Germany usually don't even seem to have the capability to slow down fuel pumping when the money runs out, nor can they completely shut off the flow. There are a few modern pumps that can do this, they allow you to pre-select an amount (that you don't have to pre-pay, the pre-selection is just a convenience thing for the customer), but most of them can't. There are a few automated, unmanned gas stations where you "kind of pre-pay" the fuel by placing a hold on your credit card, then fill up, and finally you complete the purchase at which point the account is charged the amount you purchased. But the size of the hold is usually high enough to cover even the largest cars' fuel tank to be completely filled, so it is untypical to hit that limit. Because of this, I don't even know what happens then with regard of the fuel flow: whether it actually stops (because of the aforementioned technical inability of most of the pumps in Germany to stop at a precisely predeterminable dispensed amount, implementing that might not be so easy) or whether it just lets you run past the limit and sorts out potential fraudsters later (by involving law enforcement and identification of the customer via the credit/debit card). - Switching between different kinds of gas (octane differences, or premium fuels) is usually done by taking a different hose from a rack of 4-6 hoses + nozzles attached to the same pump. The US-typical switches you need to press to choose your fuel type are inexistent in Germany. These have also been a major hiccup source for first-time US road trippers in my circle of friends: "Why doesn't the gas flow? I've done everything right...ah, I need to choose which gas I want first!"
- 6y ago

by senux 6y ago

kortilla 6y ago

Or mainly just read more. Traveling to places just to learn about differences is pretty terrible for the environment.

z3ncyberpunk 6y ago
Not if you walk or bike.
Transfinity 6y ago
Having done a lot of traveling along with a lot of reading (often at the same time), just reading about a place is a good start, but there's no substitute for actually going there, meeting real people, eating the food, dealing with public transportation and the weather, experiencing all the tiny inconveniences and innovations that shape life. It broadens your worldview, confirming beyond a doubt that the way things are done in your town is neither the only nor the best way, just one of many, and that the people who live "over there" are in fact people, not just statistics. I agree that the environmental impact is a big problem. But perhaps if more people traveled, we would be more likely to get the kind of international cooperation we need to tackle climate change systemically.
- kortilla 6y ago
  Nope. Having traveled a bunch myself and talked to many other people who have traveled, traveling to a place can easily be one of the worst ways to actually learn about how the people live. Being a tourist in a place teaches you nothing about the voting process there, the community councils, the property tax codes, etc. Essentially, traveling to another place without living there for many months only gives you an understanding of the most superficial aspects of life. > we would be more likely to get the kind of international cooperation we need to tackle climate change systemically This doesn’t even make sense. People who live in the same cities struggle to cooperate on even super local problems like housing. Ted from Kansas City flying to Europe to eat a steak in Florence is not going to help anything.
jimmaswell 6y ago
Bending over backwards for the enrionment at the cost of living life is paperclip maximizing - the point of maintaining the environment is to keep it sustainable for our wants and needs.

_8091149529 6y ago

This! I used to be puzzled by how anyone could ever drive off with the nozzle still in the car. I had only seen the non-latching dispenser, and service stations don't exist in my country. I was probably (shamefully) thinking something along the lines of "dumb Americans." Once in the US, I realized it's a mixture of full service and self-service stations with latching or non-latching dispensers, depending on the region. And I do need to make an extra glance at the gas tank door before driving off.

jfb 6y ago

One of the low-key weirdest things about moving from California to Ontario, Canada was that, until earlier this summer, basically no gas stations ("gas bars") had the auto-shutoff triggers. They seemed to make a lot more sense here in the land of actual winters than in Oakland, but eh.

pfundstein 6y ago
I'm not sure if you're using the Canadian "eh" correctly, but I'm not Canadian so what would I know eh
- jfb 6y ago
  I've only been up here for eight years, so.
- graeme 6y ago
  We use it both ways.

Aperocky 6y ago

Ha, I've once been to New Jersey where it's not legal to fill up yourself. That was weird. Second only to the four consecutive tolls 5 miles apart from each other in WV.

cafard 6y ago
You can't fuel your own car in Oregon, or you couldn't the last time I was there.
- myself248 6y ago
  They made an exception for late-night now, to allow stations to staff just a single attendant who can stay in the store, while people gasp pump their own ultra-flammable danger fuel! I'm from a self-serve state and full-serve weirds me out, so when I was in Portland I found myself driving up into WA to gas up my rental.
  - casefields 6y ago
    That's good to know. On a late night road trip up to Mt Hood I got chewed out by the attendant for touching the machine. I imagine a to. Of Californians make that mistake.

Slartie 6y ago

Interesting gas pump related differences between Germany and the US: - German gas pumps are mandated to have a vapor recovery system, which sucks out the poisonous air vapors from the tank as it is being displaced by new gas. US pumps don't appear to be mandated to have such a system, but many still seem to have it. They also often have some kind of plastic or rubber seal behind the tip of the nozzle that prevents gases from escaping the fuel tank - irritatingly, this seal, which I consider a great and practical idea, is almost unheard of at German gas pumps, even though they are mandated by law to perform vapor recovery, and one would think that such a seal would help with that. - The notion of pre-paid gas is almost nonexistent in Germany, and doing pre-paid gas purchases - including doing the dance of having to walk to the shop assistant twice or estimating the remaining space in the tank and only filling it up partially - are a typical "weird thing" German travelers encounter when they do their first US road trip. Pumps here in Germany usually don't even seem to have the capability to slow down fuel pumping when the money runs out, nor can they completely shut off the flow. There are a few modern pumps that can do this, they allow you to pre-select an amount (that you don't have to pre-pay, the pre-selection is just a convenience thing for the customer), but most of them can't. There are a few automated, unmanned gas stations where you "kind of pre-pay" the fuel by placing a hold on your credit card, then fill up, and finally you complete the purchase at which point the account is charged the amount you purchased. But the size of the hold is usually high enough to cover even the largest cars' fuel tank to be completely filled, so it is untypical to hit that limit. Because of this, I don't even know what happens then with regard of the fuel flow: whether it actually stops (because of the aforementioned technical inability of most of the pumps in Germany to stop at a precisely predeterminable dispensed amount, implementing that might not be so easy) or whether it just lets you run past the limit and sorts out potential fraudsters later (by involving law enforcement and identification of the customer via the credit/debit card). - Switching between different kinds of gas (octane differences, or premium fuels) is usually done by taking a different hose from a rack of 4-6 hoses + nozzles attached to the same pump. The US-typical switches you need to press to choose your fuel type are inexistent in Germany. These have also been a major hiccup source for first-time US road trippers in my circle of friends: "Why doesn't the gas flow? I've done everything right...ah, I need to choose which gas I want first!"

6y ago