First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.
-
@Polygeekery said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
Plastic manhole covers?? Why? Why would you do that?
Because hobos and gypsies apparently steal the heavy iron ones and sell them for a little bit of money at scrap yards. Plastic covers are not uncommon here in central Europe. I presume they're somehow secured in place so they're not going to get knocked off by traffic.
-
@blek The plastic ones are secured in place, but the iron ones aren't?
-
@RaceProUK I don't know, they could be but I don't think so. They're heavy as hell. But I don't know, I don't spend much time worrying about manhole covers... (inb4 "but I bet you think about man holes all the time")
-
@blek said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
inb4 "but I bet you think about man holes all the time"
Nothing wrong with thinking about man holes ;)
-
@blek said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
Plastic covers are not uncommon here in central Europe.
Are you sure? I have never seen one... Granted, I don't get around much outside of Munich, so maybe that's why ^^
-
@Akko I'm a bit east of you, but they're fairly common in Prague and Brno, for example.
-
@blek These guys are selling them and have a list of reasons why you might want to use them instead of cast iron:
https://www.aquatechnologygroup.com/category/applications/plastic-manhole-covers/
-
@boomzilla I like how their priorities are a bit skewed here:
Once a manhole lid is off or missing, the sewer or storm sewer is open to children, bikes, cars, animals, debris or even worse.
Children, whatever, at least they're small so they won't block the drain. Having a car fall into the drain (how?!) would probably be worse. But think about the mayhem and havoc that falling debris would bring! OR WORSE!
I'd assume "or worse" covers a bunch of dirt, quarters, pocket lint and Rush Limbaugh.
-
@blek Ah well I wouldn't know about that ^^. Interesting though, I've never heard of that before.
-
@Maciejasjmj You might be a bit young, but there were a fair few kids got stuck down there when the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film came out.
-
@Maciejasjmj said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
Having a car fall into the drain (how?!)
Could be a Peel P50:
It's officially the world's smallest production car ever at 1.34m long by 0.99m wide by 1m high. Also, it weighs only 59kg unladen (for comparison, I currently weigh 107kg).
-
@Maciejasjmj said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
Having a car fall into the drain (how?!) would probably be worse.
They don't fall in, but small cars with small tires can and will get stuck in them even if they would not fall through. If a car hits an open manhole cover at speed it can also cause a hell of a lot of damage.
-
@coldandtired said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@Maciejasjmj You might be a bit young, but there were a fair few kids got stuck down there when the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film came out.
At least they no longer have a clown in them.
-
@coldandtired said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
You also get to permanently surround your electricity and data cables with water
Not necessarily that bad, in some cases it's even a feature: "Pumped canal water is circulated as a coolant for the high-voltage cables.". I learnt that while walking along the canal, which suddenly didn't seem so calm and peaceful anymore!
@Polygeekery said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
The Romans made concrete.
According to some, the Egyptians also did to build the pyramids ().
-
@remi said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
Not necessarily that bad, in some cases it's even a feature: "Pumped canal water is circulated as a coolant for the high-voltage cables.". I learnt that while walking along the canal, which suddenly didn't seem so calm and peaceful anymore!
I hope that's DC and not AC.
-
@RaceProUK said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
but the iron ones aren't?
The street in front of my house just had all the covers replaced (with the new pavement, they were all too low). The new ones look like they're hinged.
-
@RaceProUK said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
It's officially the world's smallest production car
I wouldn't want to drive that over any of the bridges around here!
"Look at meeeeee.... I'm flyingggggggg"
-
@Polygeekery said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
They don't fall in, but small cars with small tires can and will get stuck in them even if they would not fall through. If a car hits an open manhole cover at speed it can also cause a hell of a lot of damage.
This. Imagine a pothole the size (and depth!) of a manhole and you start to see the problem.
-
@masonwheeler said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
Imagine a pothole the size (and depth!) of a manhole and you start to see the problem.
Yep. There are a few exceptions for specialty cases, but the general requirement in the USA is no dimension should be less than 24". Even that can make for a tight squeeze in the winter when one is likely to be wearing several layers of heavy clothing to stay warm.
-
@Maciejasjmj He must have floated away?
-
@remi said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
canal, which suddenly didn't seem so calm and peaceful anymore!
Yeah, water is really fast in canals, you do not want to fall in one...
-
@Tsaukpaetra said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@remi said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
canal, which suddenly didn't seem so calm and peaceful anymore!
Yeah, water is really fast in canals, you do not want to fall in one...
Falling into a canal in the middle of London is not something that appeals to me whatever the current, given the amount of crap (both figuratively and much, much too literally as well!) that floats in there...
-
@remi You could be lucky and fall on a floating sofa
-
-
@PleegWat said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@Polygeekery said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@coldandtired said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@Polygeekery You could also go to https://www.plasticroad.eu/en/ :)
I think they just ran it through Google Translate. It all seems like a Dutch form of Chinglish.
Having to use google translate to turn a Dutch text into English tells you quite a bit about a Dutch person's education level.
Or, if they are like the French, their age. Younger French people seem to be better at (written) English, both when reading and when writing than older people, on average. (Also, in France, it's highly sensitive to location. An old friend, a British artist who lives in Paris, says that people there seem to know English quite well, but around Lille, where I live, that's less common.)
-
@masonwheeler said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@Polygeekery said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
They don't fall in, but small cars with small tires can and will get stuck in them even if they would not fall through. If a car hits an open manhole cover at speed it can also cause a hell of a lot of damage.
This. Imagine a pothole the size (and depth!) of a manhole and you start to see the problem.
Many moons ago, I had taken my dad's car to the mechanic at the local dealership for a routine service, and there was a guy there with his (large) pickup, and he was getting bad news from the service manager. He had hit a sizeable pothole, and he had bent his rear axle, and was therefore facing a substantial bill for the repair.
-
Maybe the execution is kind of bad, but I like that someone out there is looking for alternatives to asphalt.
-
@Steve_The_Cynic I feel like his truck was just not big enough.
-
@Steve_The_Cynic said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@masonwheeler said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@Polygeekery said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
They don't fall in, but small cars with small tires can and will get stuck in them even if they would not fall through. If a car hits an open manhole cover at speed it can also cause a hell of a lot of damage.
This. Imagine a pothole the size (and depth!) of a manhole and you start to see the problem.
Many moons ago, I had taken my dad's car to the mechanic at the local dealership for a routine service, and there was a guy there with his (large) pickup, and he was getting bad news from the service manager. He had hit a sizeable pothole, and he had bent his rear axle, and was therefore facing a substantial bill for the repair.
How big must that pothole have been? I cannot even list the large things I have hit with a pickup and never done damage like that.
-
@Polygeekery Or he was at just the right speed between "into the pothole but no damage" and "fly over the pothole"?
-
@aapis said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
Maybe the execution is kind of bad, but I like that someone out there is looking for alternatives to asphalt.
Why? What is wrong with asphalt? It is cheap, durable, readily available, etc.
-
@Rhywden said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@Polygeekery Or he was at just the right speed between "into the pothole but no damage" and "fly over the pothole"?
If it were a large truck, and it bent the axle, I have to presume it was not the pothole that bent it but the Prius that had fallen in to the pothole.
The worst I have ever bent on a truck was a Pitman Arm and in order to do that I had to hit a traffic island.
Hell, I even once dropped a wheel off in to an open manhole and did not damage anything. That happened at idle speed though. It was still kind of impressive, because the bumper was on the ground.
-
@Polygeekery said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
it but the Prius that had fallen in to the pothole.
-gasp- IT WAS YOU WHO PUT MY PRIUS IN THAT HOLE!
-
@accalia said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
IT WAS YOU WHO PUT MY PRIUS IN THAT HOLE!
Don't blame me for where you put your "Prius". Pervert.
-
@Polygeekery said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@accalia said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
IT WAS YOU WHO PUT MY PRIUS IN THAT HOLE!
Don't blame me for where you put your "Prius". Pervert.
you come over here and say that to my face! i'll gnaw your ankle off!
-
@Polygeekery said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@accalia said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
IT WAS YOU WHO PUT MY PRIUS IN THAT HOLE!
Don't blame me for where you put your "Prius". Pervert.
Vaguely relevant: When the car was first introduced, every time I saw "Prius," I thought of Priapus.
-
@HardwareGeek said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
Vaguely relevant: When the car was first introduced, every time I saw "Prius," I thought of Priapus.
That would be a better association for BMW and Audi drivers. They are usually driven by cocks.
-
@Polygeekery said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@HardwareGeek said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
Vaguely relevant: When the car was first introduced, every time I saw "Prius," I thought of Priapus.
That would be a better association for BMW and Audi drivers. They are usually driven by cocks.
this i can confirm.
at least the audi drivers. don't see too many beemers in maine, they rust too fast from the salt to be worth the expense.
-
@Polygeekery True enough, but I think it applies to Priuses, too, or did. When they first came out, a lot of the people who bought hybrids were virtue-signaling pricks.
-
@HardwareGeek said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@Polygeekery True enough, but I think it applies to Priuses, too, or did. When they first came out, a lot of the people who bought hybrids were virtue-signaling pricks.
I think they're buying Tesla's now...
-
@HardwareGeek said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
When they first came out, a lot of the people who bought hybrids were virtue-signaling pricks.
i can also confirm this to be the case.
i bought mine because i wanted a small car, that had decent cargo capacity when i need it, and that i only need to fill up once a month or so.... the Prius was the only one that fit the bill and was in my price range.
i want a Tesla, but that's mostly because -drool- factor, i doubt i'll ever buy one becuase that's just asking for trouble from vandals and jackers. that's too nice a car.
-
@accalia Tesla just needs to add a function so the car drives away when someone tries to steal or deface it.
-
@coderpatsy said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@accalia Tesla just needs to add a function so the car drives away when someone tries to steal or deface it.
It's an electric car, why can't it just electrocute them ?
-
@TimeBandit said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@coderpatsy said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
@accalia Tesla just needs to add a function so the car drives away when someone tries to steal or deface it.
It's an electric car, why can't it just electrocute them ?
-
@dcon Some shoot flames for real, not just for show
-
@TimeBandit Maybe I linked the wrong thing (quick google). The one I wanted is an anti-carjacking device.
edit: This
-
-
@TimeBandit said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
It's an electric car, why can't it just electrocute them ?
@dcon said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
anti-carjacking device.
Has anyone here seen The Wizard of Speed and Time ?
-
@TimeBandit said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
A nice anti-theft device is a manual transmission
I miss my manual... (but not in the damn traffic around here)
-
@accalia said in First there were SolarRoads, now there will be PlasticRoads.:
i bought mine because i wanted a small car
Pfft. That's not small.
This is small: