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Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

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Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#301

Unprecedented? This happens all the time. It is called a major winter storm and they happen every year. It is also a cautionary tale. If you rely on cell phones for communication, you may find yourself in big trouble when the cell phones no longer work. Get a two way radio. At least a FRS or CB radio, but better off with an amateur radio license so you can use the many repeater sites and HF if you are truly stuck som…

A satellite phone seems a simpler solution which is more reliable than Ham radio?

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#302
post #45

I'm not surprised. I've taken this road before during the 2017 Eclipse. Its a path that connects major parts of the country together, but there are no alternative roads to take if this one road closes. Other locations have "Backup" highways to lighten the load or otherwise take up the slack if the main road closes. Not so here. I've been told that Virginia once had plans to build additional highways / alternative roa…

No comments on emergency situations, but wanted to call out one thing: > You need additional highways (aka: additional offramps) to truly scale day-to-day traffic Additional highways are at-best a stop-gap for day-to-day traffic, never a solution, due to induced demand [1]. You really need large-scale investments in public transportation for this. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand#Effect_in_trans...

Is there really that much induced demand in rural interstate highways? They're congested rarely enough and still almost everywhere the standard 4 lane interstate can handle things without seeing demand fill the available capacity. Certain corridors see increased demand at times but that's because of the surrounding communities happening to grow (and thus need more goods delivered / ability to ship goods) more than the highways necessarily inducing that growth.

I understand that induced demand is a thing in sprawling metropolis where transport is the bottleneck preventing growth in certain areas, but this feels like a different situation.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#303
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is the scientific proof that this isolated weather event is climate change? Just like you cannot claim that one day of bad weather refutes global warming you also cannot claim that an isolated event is climate change. It takes time to prove that. Getting tired of everyone spouting off about climate change every time bad weather occurs. It's just as anti-science as denial.

This is a common argument encouraged by the fossil fuel industry but it's not that simple. Climate science operates on a longer time scale so there isn't a single “We did it – Exxon, et al.” note to find but what you can talk about are the probabilities shifting (100 year floods become 20 year floods, etc.) and that tends to happen after most major events. For example, two noteworthy weather events this summer: https…

You guys are talking past each other. It's (mildly) dishonest to point at any one event and say "this is global warming". It's entirely accurate to point at a single event and say "if it weren't for global warming, there would be a 1% this happened, but with global warming, it's a 10% chance".

It's like the Swiss cheese theory of accidents: accidents don't happen because one guy wasn't paying attention, they happen because one guy wasn't paying attention AND because the guy who was supposed to supervise him was off AND because the manager hadn't thought to call someone else in AND because the system designers forgot to add a rule for this AND the regulators because they forgot to require ...

There's a fine line to thread here. On one side, you're lying if you say that global warming was the sole, isolated cause of this. On the other side, you're criminally irresponsible if you forget to mention the fact global warming certainly was an important contributory cause.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#306
post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have these bags made for urine or vomit with a gel in it that will congealed the contents. I was stranded on a closed highway and had to pee so bad. Never again.

Why didn't you just take a pee by the side of the road?

In my experience, men will piss anywhere/on anything/in front of anybody. Women not so much.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#307
post #260

A good reminder to keep some warm blankets/coats/gloves/hats in your trunk, along with some non-perishable snacks and a first-aid kit & flashlight. Water is harder to store in the winter since it will freeze and burst containers if full, but snow can be melted given a container to put it in. Also a good to refuel often. I try treat 1/2 a tank as empty and stop accordingly. On longer trips it lines up well with bathro…

Emergency (foil) blanket saved my life one night when I was freezing. I carry one more often than not now. Minor space/weight penalty to avoid hypothermia. Camelbak 3L comes with me on all road trips but I’m considering a permanent water tank in my car.

How do foil blankets work actually? Doesn’t metal foil transmit heat very well which would make them a bad blanket to trap heat?

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#308
post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have these bags made for urine or vomit with a gel in it that will congealed the contents. I was stranded on a closed highway and had to pee so bad. Never again.

Why didn't you just take a pee by the side of the road?

Believe it or not, in some parts of the USA that can get you labeled a sex offender for life.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#309

A good reminder to keep some warm blankets/coats/gloves/hats in your trunk, along with some non-perishable snacks and a first-aid kit & flashlight. Water is harder to store in the winter since it will freeze and burst containers if full, but snow can be melted given a container to put it in. Also a good to refuel often. I try treat 1/2 a tank as empty and stop accordingly. On longer trips it lines up well with bathro…

How does this logic work with electric cars; just cut the range in half?

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#310
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why public transit doesn't have exactly the same induced demand problem as highways. If there's enough people to fill up new highways, they'll also fill up the public transit... Unless the plan is to make public transit miserable enough that only outside with no better options will use it, in which case it seems like it's all going according to plan already.

The way that public transit scales to meet higher demand is different than roads. Whereas roads require more lanes, public transit such as trains can scale by either adding more train cars to existing trains or adding more frequent service. More frequent service, in addition to improving throughput, also helps everyone else using the system by making it more convenient. And, if it "induces" people to move from roads…

Increasing service is very difficult to do. For example, before the pandemic I would take the red line in LA which would be packed to the brim by the time it rolled into downtown LA, not enough room to even turn around while standing. During my commuting I would do a lot of reading about transit and about the redline in particular.

To increase the capacity of the red line would take a lot of work that would not be cheap. For instance, the length of the trains could be increased, but to do that you have to construct new stations, since the train is already the length of the entire platform, at least the ones used for rush hour. LA has actually lengthened platforms that are on the surface before to accomodate longer light rail trains, but underground this is so much more difficult.

You could lower headways from the 10 minutes they are currently at, but this becomes a physics problem fast. One issue is a lack of turnback stations at the ends of the line so the train has to come to a stop then 'reverse' at the end. Another issue is a subway with a train works like a pneumatic tube, there is a volume of air moving that needs sufficient ventilation, which is why you see these big ventilation grates on sidewalks where subways run below, and to run more frequent trains would require significant upgrades to the ventilation systems along the entire line.

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