411–420 of 770 posts
There are a lot of comments here about why public transit in the DC area doesn't work, but nobody that I've seen has put their finger on it. The biggest issue is that the area covers two states, at least ten counties depending on what you count as the “DC area”, plus the District of Columbia, which isn't a state, doesn't have control over its own budget, and has no representation in Congress. Oh, and in Virginia citi…
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A satellite phone seems a simpler solution which is more reliable than Ham radio?
Satellite phone subscriptions aren't cheap, but chucking a Baofeng in the car pre-programmed with some repeaters along your route (CHIRP can do this) is free.
There are a lot of comments here about why public transit in the DC area doesn't work, but nobody that I've seen has put their finger on it. The biggest issue is that the area covers two states, at least ten counties depending on what you count as the “DC area”, plus the District of Columbia, which isn't a state, doesn't have control over its own budget, and has no representation in Congress. Oh, and in Virginia citi…
> And because unlike everywhere else in the US DC workers who live in Virginia or Maryland don't pay DC taxes I don't think that's the case. In my experience as a remote worker you always pay where you live, not where you work.
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I've never understood how inducing demand doesn't count as success. That means people want to use the road, doesn't it? It's almost like saying that releasing new software doesn't do anything to help users, because it increases the demand for software by the virtue of its own utility more than it reduces the demand for software by keeping people busy.
Just to be clear (I lived in DC/northern Virginia for 10 years, and witnessed induced demand over and over), if the goal of widening a highway is to ease traffic congestion, induced demand quickly makes this a failed strategy. In northern Virginia, every project to widen 66 or 95 has always been sold to taxpayers as a move to ease congestion. But the result of that is temporary. As soon as the congestion is eased, ch…
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…
Regardless of how well prepared you are to comfortably hunker down in your vehicle, unless you're truly in no mans land without any reachable alternatives for shelter, it's best to lock up the vehicle with a note on the dash and make your way to a shelter out of harms way. Preferably by way of a route that is not along the road, even if it's more difficult. It's never safe to be arbitrarily stopped on a road, even if…
That’s relevant to a car breaking down, but not so much in the middle of a long line of stuck traffic. The cars behind you are going to prevent anything from hitting your car at high speeds. Meanwhile getting out early can be quite dangerous.
I'm getting a bit of a chuckle over these suggestions of "backup roads" and "alternative routes." NoVa is just as strapped for housing as it is for transportation. Mass transit in this area doesn't and won't work, no matter how much money is poured in, because much of it is not a "city" in the usual sense, but rather endless miles of suburban sprawl stretching from one horizon to the opposite. The only viable solutio…
Where would they possibly move it? St. Louis and everywhere else you could imagine that isn't a corn field or a feedlot in the central U.S. also has suburbs sprawling to the horizon and suburban office parks. Constructing a new capital in the middle of nowhere is like corrupt dictator tier stuff.
What? You mean the middle of nowhere like some sparsely-populated riverbanks near the border between two states that happens to be near the geographic center of the nation at the time it's built, but hours away from the nearest metropolitan areas? Yeah that's a crazy idea - the United States would never do that.
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Those are great to have. I will say that 3100mAh is pretty low and wouldn't even fully charge most smartphones. 20kmAh batteries can be purchased for less than $100, and 10k-15k mAh for less than $50. A good idea to have just in case. :)
Someone already mentioned this but I want to clarify that mAh alone is not a full measure of capacity. OP mentioned his mAh rating in 12 V but you’re comparing it to Ah ratings in 5 V. OP’s battery should be able to charge a full smartphone fine. Also, most of those 10-20k battery packs won’t be able to jump start your car because they have greater capacity but cannot provide power quickly. There are high capacity ba…
Caveat - unlike a standard battery booster pack (lead acid), lithium battery does not take kindly to freezing temps, so it is useless to keep it in the car over winter. I wouldn’t expect to be able to start anything in the middle of winter up here unless it was kept indoors at room temp.
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Greetings from Wisconsin. We have one car that we use for trips, the other is just used locally. But even for just going somewhere in town, we have a rule: Make sure you're prepared to walk a mile if necessary.
Knowing where the nearest Kwik Trip can be a life-saving necessity, if you have to walk from a dead car. Planning winter trips on high-travelled roads (avoid backroads not only because they may not be plowed, but there may be nobody along if you have trouble).
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…
> 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. Emergency drinking water that comes in foil pouches seems to survive freezing; I’m not sure if it’s a requirement of the ISO standard they have to conform to for use on survival craft (I don’t want to pay $250 for the ISO standard just to find out). I keep an emergency sup…