@Will@thepit.social avatar

Will

@Will@thepit.social

I plan & build bike & transit infrastructure.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Will, to random
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@actuallybot for children to be safe while cycling, we really need to build a network of protected bike lanes and trails, especially in areas around schools, Metro stations, and parks. @peter is a big supporter of this idea

crschmidt, to random
@crschmidt@better.boston avatar

There are 295 people signed up for public comment at the Cambridge City Council tonight, most of whom will be speaking on a policy order to delay the city's implementation of bike lanes.

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@crschmidt @bikepedantic I need the rundown on this.

javi, (edited ) to random

offf, this story about how Google made google search into a pile of seagull shit hits me hard:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/

Around the time of this story, I was living through a similar situation in my work life (on a much smaller scope, of course, WordPress.com first, Tumblr later).

Back in 2019, working on WordPress, I started finding myself, almost weekly, arguing against people who wanted to take the product we were working at and made it worse if that mean they could squeeze 0.1% more revenue from it

The 0.1% figure is not even a random number: I remember this speciffic A/B test on WordPress.com that was declared a success and shipped to 100% of the users because it increased the free-to-paid conversion by 0.1%. Soon after it was released, I found out that as a side effect, it increased the churn of free users by 20 something %,so I called for an urgent rollback and removal of the change. So I was promptly explained that we didn't care about free-users churn, because finance had calculated the average long-term value of the free users to be something like $2 per year, and the increase in conversion was bigger than what we could get from them.

Everything became about growth hacking. Everything became thinly-veiled dark patterns. In our private dev slack channels, we joked that since it was impossible to make it smaller or less conspicuous, the next thing the growth team was going to ask us to do was to make the 'free plan' button flee away from the mouse pointer when the user tried to click it. We kept making our product worse, we kept consciously crippling the cheaper versions so we could force people to move to the more expensive options.

Back then I was the lead of one of the two dev divisions working on WordPress.com, so my job was mainly to discuss what we were going to be doing, when and how. And I was getting drained by a constant state of fight against a constant wave of shit they wanted us to build. So much than by the end of 2020, the CEO quietly told me to follow the growth team plans and shut up or step down.

So I requested to move to tumblr, because I thought the pastures were greener over there. But it was all the same: Adding login walls to what we were pretending to be "the last bastion of the free internet", cramping in embarrasingly obvious money-making schemes disguised as features, and making them silently opt-out instead of opt-in so the less people the possible would deactivate them, having to fend off the pressure from the CEO to make everything algorithmic timelines because, you know, tiktok makes a lot of money and why aren't we, etc etc.

I found myself in a place where building something good that people enjoy using was no longer a priority, but tricking people into generating more money for the company was. And when I looked around me, I could see that happening everywhere else, not only in my company. Experiencing the start of the enshittification years from inside wasn't easy.

And, as in the article, the people who decided to turn the shit-metter up to 200%, have a name, in every case. And these people, no matter if they are called Sundar and Prabhakar or Matt and Mark, are destroying the internet. These people are milllionaires, or billionaries, and are destroying our shared, common spaces to squeeze some extra cash from us.

That's why the fediverse and its principles are important. Because that's how we take back internet from their dirty hands. That's how we make internet resilient against them. That's how we build the commons.

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@javi the last bastion of the free internet is Craigslist, which I hope will never change

Will, to random
@Will@thepit.social avatar

Sometimes I see people in real life @bikepedantic

Will, to random
@Will@thepit.social avatar

big announcements on housing, 2 year term $400/months tax credit on new mortgages! no title insurance required on federal loans

bikepedantic, to random
@bikepedantic@transportation.social avatar

I just connected with a JPODS guy on LinkedIn, and yall said it was the no-fun social media…

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@mdickens @bikepedantic lOL, I just started looking for that GIF when I saw you already posted it!

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

Do road diets really cost what DOTs say they do?
Because a Baltimore streetscape project was changed in midstream, we know the price of the road diet part. Converting the 4-lane road to 2 car lanes + 2 bike lanes cost $182,432 out of a total project cost of $61,200,000.
https://baltimorebrew.com/2024/03/06/after-8-years-of-construction-and-31-over-budget-the-central-avenue-streetscape-is-almost-done/?mc_cid=0fb958e257

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@BenRossTransit I can tell you what the ones I work on cost. Which are you interested in? On a tight budget, I could make one happen for $300k/mi, but I can always spend more and make it nicer with more features. Whenever you see a big ticket road project, much of the cost is drainage engineering and utility relocations

kcivey, to random
@kcivey@mastodon.social avatar

Recall campaigns in DC have to file campaign finance reports only twice a year (January 31 and July 31). You'd think out of self-interest the council would have made them be at least as transparent as other kinds of political committees.

The campaign attempting to recall Charles Allen did file a report yesterday, but it shows $0 raised and spent. It says it covers the period 12/13/2023 to 12/13/2023 (1 day).

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@kcivey I'm friends with Charles, so take with grain of salt, but he doesn't even chair the committee overseeing criminal justice anymore, It's been over a year since they changed.

I don't even understand what this group thinks a single councilmember can change. Why not go after the various do-nothing CMs? It's curious that for whatever reason, Charles pushes their buttons. I don't get it.

Will, to Bluey
@Will@thepit.social avatar

Parents probably already know, but in case you don't, the "Faceytalk" episode of Bluey is legitimately the funniest thing I've watched in I can't remember how long?

Everything about it is perfect.

@bikepedantic

wegonnaseeno, to random
@wegonnaseeno@thepit.social avatar

is coming to town! september 23 at anthem. tickets acquired and ready to go!

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@wegonnaseeno In the same vein, check out Khun Narin's Electric Phin band. As best I can tell it's Thai wedding music that due to this guy's particular take on it smears the line into psychedaelic surf guitar sounds. Give it a listen.

Will, to cycling
@Will@thepit.social avatar

I picked up my first Grant Petersen bike, a 1992 Bridgestone XO-4. At 32 years old, it still shifts and rides perfectly. Frame is great, although paint has faded to rose hue. Should I give it moustache bars and knobbies to make it more like the famed XO-1? It rides very well, a testament to good design and components.

image/png
image/png
image/png

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@bikepedantic it’s got what appears to be a Nitto curved bar on it now, which is pretty nice, and original. So many very good possibilities with this, should be fun to tinker with.

georgetakei, to random

The answer to the Fermi Paradox is they are avoiding us.

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@georgetakei The only thing that makes sense for alien sentient species to do is to trade intellectual property, and perhaps entertainment content. Traveling at or near speed of light may not be possible, but sending information is rudimentary. I bet they would enjoy watching Star Trek episodes a great deal, and I wonder what types of technology they would trade for each episode/film...

skinnylatte, to random
@skinnylatte@hachyderm.io avatar

Well the interesting thing about 2024 is going to be when American liberals say ‘fuck it I’m going to move to Europe’ you know for sure that they just mean ‘I don’t want to deal with my own fascism’

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@skinnylatte always be skeptical of that attitude in run up to elections, but the rest of the time, I'm sympathetic to wanting to live in a place where the physical environment (cars especially) does not feel hostile to you as a human on foot or on a bike. I am working real hard to make US cities more humane to people on foot, but yeah, sometimes the struggle feels overwhelming.

jonny, to random
@jonny@neuromatch.social avatar

back in the olde fedi, even a hint of skepticism of people who are still doing git over email got you a paddlin'. now you can walk around saying "email sucks and software should be easy to use" and nobody bats an eye.

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@jonny I came onto the fediverse while this was still the case, right as the big wave of new entrants showed up and made retail complaining to chronic posters untenable. Its funny to think that this was a real way people interacted for a long-ish period of time. Then again, only 2 weeks ago, someone I don't know passive aggressively replied to my post with the written alt-text for the image (which I am not in the habit of including).

ridingnowhere, to random

I spend a lot of time on Alaska 737s in and out of Portland so that's fun 😬😬

Ya gotta admit tho, it sure looked like a great view outta that door-hole

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@ridingnowhere can you imagine if they had to bank left at any time after this happened?!? Anyone seated behind or in that row will remember it forever.

enobacon, (edited ) to random
@enobacon@urbanists.social avatar

What is with this plate on the REI #eBikes for the motor controller compartment cover? The edges aren't sealed at all and the tapped steel flat bar floats in there with the controller hooked to both ends, like this is just to clamp it in place. The center screw doesn't thread into anything except the plate and then it touches down on the controller, plus had this red grease only on it. I'm concerned that water is going to get in, since there are no gaskets and it faces up. #BikeTooter

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@enobacon seal it with silicone, FTW

Mark, to random
@Mark@weird.autos avatar

Ram, Tesla and Subaru Have the Worst Drivers, While BMW Drivers Have the Highest DUI Rates

https://www.lendingtree.com/insurance/brand-incidents-study/

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@Mark @bikepedantic Is RAM the brand now? I am 99% certain Dodge is the brand, and Ram is the model, b/c otherwise, Dodge makes no appearance. The muscle car category defined by challengers/chargers/hellcats is definitely the most likely car to get in single car crashes. They could just call it Stellantis and be done with it.

Will, to random
@Will@thepit.social avatar

Apparently I'm a traffic engineer now, according to my agency's new org chart. Please don't blame me, I didn't do anything to deserve this title. 😅

Will, to random
@Will@thepit.social avatar

Once again, . This is probably my 13th consecutive year getting a tree this way. I have about 1 mile to travel like this.

Will, to random
@Will@thepit.social avatar

On another car note, I just returned from a 4 day wedding trip to my former home of L.A. Drove pretty much everywhere, but walked a lot in Downtown. It really drives home a couple things; 1) drivers there are very polite and kind in general, and it emphasizes to me that the avg Maryland driver is a lunatic by comparison. It's so pronounced when you are in thick/deep LA traffic, no one is honking, zipper moves flow easily, and no one tailgates you. What can explain this?

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

2)LA's largest source of density are all buildings constructed in the 1920s when it was the fastest growing city in the world. These buildings still create an enormous supply of housing and mixed use stuff, many are still getting renovated, but it is still the case that you could not construct a new copy of one of these today. It is such an indictment of zoning, what else can you say? The few new buildings have either a plinth of parking, underground, or acres of parking surrounding the bldg...

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar
  1. LA is a great food city, from the cheap and accessible to the extremely high end. At the high and low ends, prices are 30% less than what I'm used to in the DMV, and quality is higher on basically everything.
  2. The weather is not underated. I swam in the ocean or a pool every day (in December) and it was lovely, not cold. Daily highs were 68, lows 50. Pedestrianizing more of this city will elevate it in so many ways, it's perfect for walking/biking except for the overbuilt car environment
Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar
  1. I went to Topanga State Beach & a guy was blasting Sublime in the parking lot without a hint of irony or self consciousness. First time hearing an authentic playing of the music of my youth by a diehard fan in years. California is still giving out free seashells at the beach, just go find one.
bikepedantic, to random
@bikepedantic@transportation.social avatar

Today in bad-idea station-wagon shopping: A Volvo 850. Maybe if it was the ludicrous T-5R model. https://carsandbids.com/auctions/rN108Wzw/1995-volvo-850-turbo-wagon

Will,
@Will@thepit.social avatar

@bikepedantic Maybe someone at can chime in, but is there a business model where a small restomod shop gets 20-30 of these as donor shells and sequentially converts them? I feel like there is a market for such things, and you could probably scare up 20-30 of a given model in reasonable shape. They could do it with Jeeps, or VWs, or old Benz models. Basically stuff that was made well, and have more life as rolling stock, but are very fuel inefficient.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • Leos
  • rosin
  • InstantRegret
  • ethstaker
  • DreamBathrooms
  • mdbf
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • Youngstown
  • tacticalgear
  • slotface
  • Durango
  • khanakhh
  • kavyap
  • megavids
  • everett
  • vwfavf
  • normalnudes
  • osvaldo12
  • cubers
  • GTA5RPClips
  • cisconetworking
  • ngwrru68w68
  • anitta
  • provamag3
  • tester
  • modclub
  • JUstTest
  • All magazines
    •