Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Infrastructure
Fig. 1. Post-collapse scene at the Fern Hollow Bridge, photograph by National Transportation Safety Board, January 29, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
This is one reason I can’t give up Twitter, not even my public account, quite so easily:
I realize I don't matter because I'm just a poor Uber driver trying to make a living, but I hope @pittsburgh politicians are satisfied with the absolute gridlock around Heinz Field. Nothing is moving. Just gas engines polluting the air. And I'm losing my ass, @MayorEdGainey
— David Benfell, PhD (Pub.),@Benfell@hcommons.social (@BenfellPhD) December 11, 2022
When things are really asinine, this is my one channel with any reach at all to protest.
A Steelers game had let out and, contrary to public belief, rideshare and taxi drivers lose hugely on events like this. You can’t get in, you can’t get out. If you’re trying to pick someone up, the chances that they’ll be where they’re supposed to be are close to nil. An Uber surge of 10,000 percent wouldn’t change this.
In this case, I was trying to drop someone off at the Rivers Casino, less than a block from Acrisure Stadium (formerly Heinz Field) which requires Uber and Lyft drivers to drop off at their bus lobby, which can only be reached via a circuitous route through a sketchy neighborhood, which of course was clogged with cars. It’s all so totally asinine it’s beyond belief. They have tens of thousands of people all trying to arrive at the same time, all trying to leave at the same time and there’s simply no way in hell the roads around these stadiums (Heinz Field/Acrisure Stadium and PNC Park, which are much too close together, and yes, sometimes this is a problem) can accommodate the traffic as people are trying to get into or out of parking lots.
When I say politicians love traffic jams, hate cars, and seek to punish drivers, this is further evidence. As I wrote in just the last issue,
It shows up in too many ways for it to be anything else. You see it in maliciously timed traffic signals that jam traffic; in the potholes, the cobblestone streets, and the brick streets that relentlessly destroy cars; in traffic-disrupting street festivals even at the hub of Pittsburgh’s hub-and-spoke road network (downtown); in the unending road projects that are never ever finished that further damage road surfaces (Forbes and Fifth Avenues come to mind) and jam traffic; in an absolute refusal to enforce laws against reckless driving, leading, of course, to collisions and loss of life.[1]
This is shit that costs me way too much money and the apparent indifference of politicians to these problems simply staggers me. My mother wisely warns me not to assume malice when stupidity will suffice, but there’s just so much evidence hitting me over the head pretty nearly continuously that it’s completely beyond my imagination that people, even politicians, could really be this stupid.
Gilead
Fig. 1. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,[2] fair use.
I have now updated my contact information page with social network information.
- [1]David Benfell, “Rupert Murdoch to face questioning in Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News,” Irregular Bullshit, December 11, 2022, https://disunitedstates.com/2022/12/11/rupert-murdoch-to-face-questioning-in-dominions-defamation-lawsuit-against-fox-news/↩
- [2]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/↩