site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2417 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 10, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

when the project was complete he drove down there to take a look and said that whatever other problems there were with the plan they got the signs wrong

LOL. Just a few weeks ago I myself sent to PennDOT a complaint about some signs that were blatantly wrong. Multiple signs all said "left lane ends, merge right", but in reality the right lane ended and motorists had to merge left! And I drove past these signs for many months before I got around to making the complaint. I imagine the lawsuit resulting from a crash at that location would be legendary. (No standards compliance? No design immunity!)

he thought that the MUTCD should adopt something similar

MUTCD-compliant signs serving this purpose already exist.

  • R3-1: "trucks over XX tons no right turn"

  • R5-2: "no trucks"

  • R12 series: "weight limit XX tons", "axle weight limit XX tons", "weight limit 2 axles XX T, 3 axles YY T, 4 axles ZZ T", etc.

  • W8 series: "pavement ends", "loose gravel", "rough road", etc.

Presumably the municipal governments are just too incompetent to install them (and pass ordinances backing up the R (regulatory) signs).

Trucks aren't the only issue though -- around here there are roads that deadend, but have an unbuilt easement or farm road (on private property, but mapped for whatever reasons) making them appear like a nice shortcut to GPS algos. This is a bigger problem for highway combos (nowhere to turn around), but still can create a lot of unnecessary traffic on crummy little roads in the summer when there's a lot of non-locals tooling around glued to their screens.

"Local Traffic Only" would work I suppose, but that one gets abused by local governments when they get too many complaints from residents about people using crummy little roads that actually go through as shortcuts, and also depends on one's definition of "local" -- specifically calling out GPS issues would be useful I think.

an unbuilt easement or farm road (on private property, but mapped for whatever reasons)

If the map itself is wrong, putting up extra signs is only patching the symptoms. Involved people—the owner, the municipal government, and even other inhabitants of the municipality if necessary—need to submit corrections to the mapping service in order to fix the actual disease. (In Google Maps you can just right-click and "report a data problem", and I vaguely recall reading somewhere that municipal governments also have special authority to upload information directly (which indeed may have been the source of the bad map in the first place). I don't know anything about Apple Maps.)

In Google Maps you can just right-click and "report a data problem", and I vaguely recall reading somewhere that municipal governments also have special authority to upload information directly

Sounds nice in theory, but IME contacting Google is... low priority for them. I didn't try contacting the appropriate governing body, but considering the way that they prioritize other things that seem more directly in their wheelhouse, I wouldn't expect it to be much better.

In one of the cases that I know about, the map's not wrong -- there's an easement there! It should be on the map; nothing on any government map I've seen indicates it as a passable road.

The other one is not on any map -- it's just an access track that the former farmer used to get from one field to another, prior to the road being built. It does stick out like a sore thumb on satellite photos, so my working hypothesis is that Google (and whoever else) did not strictly stick to whatever GIS files they got their hands on.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats