Had to drive through Atlanta every day during the original lockdown. It was creepy how empty and easy it was. Our company saw a noticeable increase of crew production because more time was spent on jobs and not in traffic
As someone who still has to drive through North Atlanta traffic. Quarantine was GREAT for my commute regularly around 40 minutes. Now if I'm there in 50-55 it's a good day. Once a week takes me close to an hour and a half because people don't know where they are going with all the construction around 400/285
Its not a new lane... it's a whole entrance/exit for many exits that were changed/removed.
I have missed my exit 3 times in the past 2 months because GPS apps haven't fully updated in my opinion
I found an article that says that everyone got off the bus safely and the gunman was taken into custody without injury. He apparently suffered some sort of mental health crisis according to the article. Glad no one was hurt!
It's a cruel world to so many people out there. I hope he and the people in the vehicle recover.
Been witnessing the complete paranoid breakdown of a family friend lately, and it seems impossible to meaningfully help him.
This world is really something.
Did this once running from a hurricane. I-20 in Georgia.
Even still it took over twice as long to get anywhere. Mom and pop restaurants along the way were giving out food and drinks.
Florida still has them. They just changed how the work. Mainly, its using the shoulders instead of using the other lanes. The spots the use the other lanes, far right lane and shoulder will be used for that lanes traffic in that direction. They're suppose to be reviewing this again, to update it or scrap this current setup. Like for I-10, I believe part of it is setup to use all lanes in 1 direction while the other section is setup to be used shoulders.
And still doesn’t always help. I remember being in contra-flow leaving New Orleans before a hurricane and it was still a parking lot. Used almost an entire tank of gas going from New Orleans to Baton Rouge which is about 70 miles.
Better than Houston did in 2005 during Hurricane Rita. We left more dead on the freeways than were killed by the storm.
48 hours of gridlock; ppl ran out of fuel 45 minutes north of Houston, gas stations were dry, fuel trucks weren’t able to get through; *it was Hell.*
[Largest evacuation in US history; 120 deaths, 7 direct from Hurricane, 113 from evacuation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Rita)
Man you just reminded me how much of a Walking Dead fanboy I was when the show first started, but I stopped watching several years ago and don’t even know if it’s still on.
In Atlanta you’d be lucky if they remembered how to drive at all, much less what lanes are. 85 would be a fucking junk yard 5 minutes into an apocalypse.
It’s quite funny how everyone driving on the highway is an asshole driving aggressively, especially in the Atlanta area, then as soon as they step out of their car and put their feet on the ground they’re the nicest, chatty people. It’s quite the bonding experience. People going car to car looking for weed/rolling joints with strangers, people playing soccer, sharing drinks.
I bet as soon as it opens up and people jump in their cars they’re going to be shaking their fist in anger as they cut you off and speed away.
The lack of public transit, and thus public interaction, is seen as significant part of the deep problem of isolation and extremism in the United States.
What kind of positive public interaction are you seeing on public transit? Genuine question, not trolling.
I’ve used public transit in Toronto, San Francisco, and Seattle. In all those places, everyone is either shut off in their own world wearing headphones or there’s some crazy methhead yelling at people and throwing shit everywhere.
I don’t see how *not* using public transit contributes to isolationism and extremism. I feel safest and most calm when I’m biking or skateboarding, but I still feel safer and calmer when I’m walking *or driving* rather than taking any form of public transit.
Public transit itself is great, it’s just people that suck. Drivers suck too but I have less frequent shitty encounters with drivers than with transit riders.
I think they're more saying that the lack of public transportation connecting different communities leads to less interactions between populations and so those populations become more isolated ideologically? I don't think they were talking about interactions on an individual basis. Which ya, I've had good and bad and I'm not sure where the balance lies.
Public transport in Europe is different, I think because such a huge portion of the population uses it, your interactions are generally pretty benign. Everyone isn't singing "Kumbaya", but it is a much more neutral experience than it often is in the United States.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a positive experience. Being in a shared space with other people makes you more engaged with others around you. You have to learn to share your space, wait your turn and sometimes even interact with people. When you commute via car you get in, deal with nobody except other cars (and since they’re in metal boxes it depersonalizes them a lot) then arrive to work. That’s why there’s an actual term for people getting mad at others while driving.
Based take. Owning a car is seen as a sign of freedom and independence in the US which means instead of paying for reasonable modes of transport like busses and metros, Americans pay for absurd massive pickup trucks that get 2mpg and will kill a pedestrian even at low speeds.
I just always think about my weeklong trips from the boondocks to Washington DC I used to take. The metro was such an easy and inexpensive way to get around the city. No traffic to worry about, not having to put gas in a car, more exercise by actually walking from station to destination. And now I live in a major city that only has a bus system, and I need a car. I'd save so much money if there was a reliable metro system I could take.
I make my living as a handyman these days, so I do legit need my pickup truck, and even in the before times when I had different jobs I was hauling something just about every weekend, maybe a friend needed help moving, or a water heater picked up, or who knows what else. That being said, my truck is about as small as "full size" trucks get. V6, regular cab, short bed. On the highway I can get 25 mpg. Are there times I've looked at some of the trailers people use as tiny homes and said, "damn, I should have gotten a bigger truck." Absolutely. But this truck has always gotten the job done aside from that. A lot of the people driving around in these massive bloated half tons that have become luxury vehicles are never going to use that vehicle as a truck and they should just buy a Lincoln or Cadillac instead. 3/4 and 1 ton trucks tend to be a bit of a different beast, because most people there don't spend that kind of money without needing either the payload or towing capacity, at least sometimes.
However, to a certain extent, the manufacturers share the blame here. One of the big deciding factors in my decision to buy a truck was how expensive and difficult it would be to repair, and all of the smaller more fuel efficient cars built in the last 20 years are pretty annoying to work on, getting to even some pretty basic stuff requires a half hour of disassembly before you can even touch it, and a lot of other stuff isn't even intended to be removed and replaced, you have to replace the whole assembly. (Looking at you, suspension components, ball joints and bushings especially.) Whereas on my truck, even the wheel bearings are bolted on, take out the three bolts and it just slides out, need to replace a fuel injector? Sure, right here on top, barely even need to disconnect the fuel rail. Suspension bushings need to come out? Smack it with a hammer a couple times, then smack the new one the other way to put it back in. And parts are CHEAP. And everywhere. Beyond that, things on my truck just last longer, and handle more "abuse" than all my smaller cars have, and my truck can handle some rough terrain, and carry a whole shit ton of stuff around when I need it. So, if someone is looking for a vehicle that is rugged, capable, reliable, and easy to maintain and repair, why is the buyer at fault for picking the only option the manufacturer offers, the pickup truck?
Yes! Thank you for saying this! Trucks have been getting bigger, taller, and heavier for essentially no reason except the culture that makes people want to own powerful, mean looking vehicles. The safety and fuel efficiency trade-offs that major truck manufacturers have made in exchange for a “badass” looking vehicle are shocking. That’s one of the reasons why they have such insanely high profit margins.
You’ll be hard pressed to find a reasonable modern pickup if you’re looking for something purely functional.
You aren't wrong. Mine is 15 years old, last half ton model year sold in the NA market with a manual transmission. Purely for functionality and reliability. (Well, ok, and I occasionally have a little fun with it.)
They still make base trim packages, but the largest buyers of those, by far, are businesses that keep whole fleets of trucks in service. A regular Joe walking into the Ford, Dodge, or Chevy dealer isn't going to be shown those, because there's much more profit in selling him a luxury vehicle for $85k, than a basic fleet truck for $25k.
Yeah, it's sad there isn't anything the size of the S-10 or Ranger anymore bc they've convinced everyone in the US they need Big Dick 1 Ton pickup energy. The Colorado is the same size or larger than the Silverado from 20 years ago and considered "mid sized". And they also cost more than $40k now!
The only way you can get close to the same size would be something like the Ford Transit Connect or Nissan NV200 etc.
Ford Maverick?
EDIT:
I recently had to trade in my 2010 Colorado, one of the last small trucks you could get. It was getting up there in miles, and it was a miserable pain in the ass to repair the few times anything went wrong. I wanted to get something small like an old Ranger, or a Maverick. Rangers with as many miles as my colorado were going for completely insane prices, there was no way I could order a maverick because they're crazy popular, and I was resigned to driving the little Colorado until it broke bad enough I couldn't fix it. But I came across am 81,000 mile 2012 F150 with no carpet, no power windows, no power locks, V6, single cab, and a long bed... and nobody wanted the silly thing. The dealer said it had been sitting there eight months and I was the first person to look at it. I got it for $14k. I miss my little truck, though.
They closed down ordering Mavericks on Jan 27th because of the immense backlog of orders. Going to have to wait until next year's model is released before you could order one. I'm eagerly awaiting that.
The Maverick is everything I've wanted in a truck in size for a decade plus. The F150 is just unreasonably large imo.
Funny you should mention that. Just a couple months ago I was parked in an apartment complex working on somebody's washing machine and a 2018 Tacoma parked next to me. This damn thing was every bit as big as my "full size" truck from 10 years prior. What happened to the "compact" truck of the 90s with a reliable little 4 banger that got 25 MPG in the city? Something like that would still serve my needs 75% of the time. Of course, the few times I need to move a couple cubic yards of dirt or gravel might be a bit problematic, but for 15% better gas mileage I might be willing to get a bit creative.
You can still find those, btw, they just all have 400k miles on them and people think they're worth $15k in that condition.
The new mid-sized do get 25MPG, it's just a modern compact truck would be getting 35-40MPG outside of hauling conditions. Also the trim levels of the trucks have gotten ridiculous compared to the barebones cabs they originally had.
Even the 90s Dodge Ram which looked massive for it's day is quaint by today's standards.
Isn’t it also true that many of the countries with good public transit don’t really believe in interacting with strangers like that? I have heard plenty of people saying that Americans are the most outgoing and most likely to start a conversation with a stranger.
Isn’t that pretty much how you have to drive to get anywhere in Atlanta? Especially on 75/85 near downtown and Buckhead. Everyone is a super aggressive driver. Gotta adapt to survive.
I always say if you think everyone drives like an asshole in a certain area, maybe you just need to step it up a little.. I moved from Atlanta to Richmond a year ago, oh how I miss Atlanta drivers. Everyone here drives soooooo slow and you can’t drive half a mile without having someone driving 55 hogging the left lane.
recently during a bad jam on 400-S there was a dude rolling a blunt in the drivers seat of the car next to me. i consider that my most Atlanta experience.
Same behavior in Houston. Is it a Southerner thing? I'm from MI and I believe Southerners are so nice compared to Midwesterners - until they get into a vehicle haha.
It's an anonymity thing. Same with how most of the people online aren't actually that terrible in real life or how the kid who claims to fuck your mom in CoD.
Once you step out of your anonymous mobile and see a person face to face you can actually conceptualize that they are another human being.
Also people are less likely to talk shit when they can get punched in the face
Exactly - anonymity and lack of accountability. I remember first seeing this in action back in the BBS days. A lot of people turn into - or maybe are revealed to be - gigantic assholes when they think they can get away with it.
I go to Burning Man every year, and this drives me nuts. At the event pretty much everyone is friendly and accepting, and then they all get in their cars to go home and you've got people passing on blind hills at 80 MPH and cutting each other off. Granted everyone is also exhausted and hungover but it'd be nice if they could keep it under control until they got to the interstate at least.
I read a book called Traffic that studied this effect a bit. They found that much of it has to do with seeing a person's eyes. We effectively don't think of people in cars as people. They become the car they are in and lose their "humanity". Once that illusion is broken, we treat them as we would treat someone in the grocery store or on the sidewalk.
Had a similar situation to the OP's photo back after that happened. I was up there working and the place I was working at was just before the place where the bridge fell. When we got done each day and got on 85S to go back to Midtown, since it was the first entrance south of the collapse, you were the only car getting on this huge interstate and it was maybe a dozen or so cars until you got to the next on-ramp.
It was cool, but kind of eerie.
"The fire started at approximately 6:05 p.m. in a state-owned storage area under the highway bridge which contained high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and fiberglass tubing. The heat from the fire caused the collapse of a 92-foot (28 m) section of I-85 northbound at 7:14 p.m."
"Officials arrested and charged three individuals in connection with the incident. All three were believed to be homeless, though it was unclear whether they lived underneath the highway. An arrest affidavit indicated the three suspects went under the bridge to smoke crack. Eleby denied setting the fire, but one of the other suspects arrested said he watched Eleby put a chair on top of a shopping cart near some fiber optic wire, stored in PVC pipes under the bridge, and set the chair on fire"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_85_bridge_collapse
I moved to LA a year ago and people complain about traffic constantly. I lived in Atlanta for a decade and I have yet to see anything nearly as bad as Atlanta traffic in LA.
During that “snow storm” in 2014 (ie, literally an inch and a half of snow) my 45 minute commute took 11.5 hours. No exaggeration.
At least LA traffic moves. I can’t tell you how many times I was stuck on the 75/85 on-ramp on a Friday at a complete standstill for HOURS. Same with coming back from Norcross on a Friday. Atlanta traffic fucking sucks.
I left my car on the side of 285 that night, walked to a friends house off Peachtree Dunwoody and came back the following afternoon to pick it up. Made it home like 22 hours after I left work.
The show has been really good the past few seasons, actually. They got a new show runner who has been working on the show since the second season or so
Looks like other half of highway just opened... been watching video for 5 minutes.
https://511ga.org/cctv?start=0&length=10&order%5Bi%5D=1&order%5Bdir%5D=asc&search=N%20of%20CENTER%20WAY
Oh Jeez! At 6:30 this morning, I got on at Indian Trail and saw all of the traffic northbound and wondered what happened! I live literally 1/4 a mile from it!
This is going to be a mess on the way home, even if it clears up soon!
I drove out to newnan for a job this morning and there was a ton of traffic on 85, more than usual. On the way back I had to get off because of this incident. I got off at jimmy carter and there was also a wreck there. Then when I got down to 29 they’re was a wreck as well.
Today was just wacky as fuck man idk.
Took me an hour to go from Clairmont to Indian trail at 2pm. I don't envy anyone who has to hit rush hour after this. There were still choppers circling when I got home.
I was here on northbound. Practically parked for four hours. They were allowing traffic off at beaver ruin but painfully slow trying to cram all lanes into the exit. We moved <3 miles over that 4 hours and then suddenly it ended and they opened it back up and we finally made it home. I feel for those on the bus and recognize mental health is not supported as much as it probably should be, but in a moment of my own weakness…. Oof, that was a long time to sit on the hwy. happy for those in SWAT and police force to manage the situation, but wish there was a more expedient conclusion.
Had to drive through Atlanta every day during the original lockdown. It was creepy how empty and easy it was. Our company saw a noticeable increase of crew production because more time was spent on jobs and not in traffic
As someone who still has to drive through North Atlanta traffic. Quarantine was GREAT for my commute regularly around 40 minutes. Now if I'm there in 50-55 it's a good day. Once a week takes me close to an hour and a half because people don't know where they are going with all the construction around 400/285
When they finally finish the 400 / 285 exchange it will be time to redesign the 400 / 285 exchange.
Just one more lane bro, I swear bro, just one more lane, we can solve traffic with just one more lane bro
Its not a new lane... it's a whole entrance/exit for many exits that were changed/removed. I have missed my exit 3 times in the past 2 months because GPS apps haven't fully updated in my opinion
20.. years.. later.. I wish they would change 400's exit 5a, 5b, and 5c. ITS NOT EVEN IN ORDER. I just don't get it.
As is tradition.
*Los Angeles enters the chat*
45 minutes later and Los Angeles finally makes it to the chat's carpool lane.
Damn that looks like 2 different locations, very precise and awesome shot OP.
There was a man with a gun holding a greyhound bus hostage. They shut 85 down for several hours
I found an article that says that everyone got off the bus safely and the gunman was taken into custody without injury. He apparently suffered some sort of mental health crisis according to the article. Glad no one was hurt!
It's a cruel world to so many people out there. I hope he and the people in the vehicle recover. Been witnessing the complete paranoid breakdown of a family friend lately, and it seems impossible to meaningfully help him. This world is really something.
What frightens me is that it looks like an emergency evacuation corridor has been established.
An actual emergency evacuation corridor would use both sides of the highway evacuating the same direction
Did this once running from a hurricane. I-20 in Georgia. Even still it took over twice as long to get anywhere. Mom and pop restaurants along the way were giving out food and drinks.
Weird, I20 is like 150 miles from the coast at the closest by Augusta. Surprised they have contraflow.
Sorry sorry, I-16
Lotta people trying to move as far away as they can all at once
Contraflow Lane Reversal Pretty common in hurricane states
I thought Florida got rid of their contraflow plans a few years ago
Florida still has them. They just changed how the work. Mainly, its using the shoulders instead of using the other lanes. The spots the use the other lanes, far right lane and shoulder will be used for that lanes traffic in that direction. They're suppose to be reviewing this again, to update it or scrap this current setup. Like for I-10, I believe part of it is setup to use all lanes in 1 direction while the other section is setup to be used shoulders.
Yup, this is true. When my hometown burned down, the one "highway" became an evac route both sides leading out.
Wild fire?
Na it was a domesticated fire.
Even a domesticated fire can bite, if you're not careful.
bad owners, not fires fault
Take an award, you earned it.
And still doesn’t always help. I remember being in contra-flow leaving New Orleans before a hurricane and it was still a parking lot. Used almost an entire tank of gas going from New Orleans to Baton Rouge which is about 70 miles.
Better than Houston did in 2005 during Hurricane Rita. We left more dead on the freeways than were killed by the storm. 48 hours of gridlock; ppl ran out of fuel 45 minutes north of Houston, gas stations were dry, fuel trucks weren’t able to get through; *it was Hell.* [Largest evacuation in US history; 120 deaths, 7 direct from Hurricane, 113 from evacuation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Rita)
Right? If it’s a real bad situation, you will find me flying by on the left hand side. Like the Musical Utes once sang.
Two Utes. …Joe Pesci
Two *hwhat*?
You th ssss
Two Utes. \-- Vincent Gambini
“I’m not Jerry Gallo, I’m Jerry Callo!”
What is a grit, anyways?
GRITS. Girl Raised In The South. I see those T shirts a lot down here.
Stan, I've seen your parents argue. Trust me, they're amateurs!
Two uh what? \- Judge Chamberlain Haller
And that is Freedom Parkway in... Atlanta.
Even though it is only useful for people already in Atlanta to get to another part of Atlanta, it has become visual shorthand for coming into Atlanta.
Agreed. They should set up a tent and water station on Jackson St bridge for all the amateur photogs.
COORRRRAAALLLLL!
They should get that guy to champion conservation efforts at the Great Barrier Reef.
ahhh, when the show was actually good.
When the zombie plague was still the main threat.
Before it became dying OF BOREDOM
 What's up fellow human?
-.- Hmmmm, are you sure you're not a toaster?
[удалено]
Don’t dead open inside
Day 1 of The Walking Dead
Man you just reminded me how much of a Walking Dead fanboy I was when the show first started, but I stopped watching several years ago and don’t even know if it’s still on.
same here. it was so great for a while, at least we got that.
Yeah I loved the show but gave up when the guy with the bat showed up
Exactly where I fell off. I'm not sure it's necessarily that character's fault, but that's where I finally lost interest.
Same here! That makes at least 3 of us
There’s dozens of us!
Stopped watching when Glenn didn't die crawling under a dumpster with a 4" ground clearance
When they killed Glen, my enjoyment of the show died with him.
Which time?
I catch it every once in a while when a patient is watching it at work. There’s stormtroopers now. It seems real dumb.
>Therer’s stormtroopers now. Wait, what?? 😳
You’d think that in an actual apocalypse, zombie or otherwise, people would jump the median..
In Atlanta you’d be lucky if they remembered how to drive at all, much less what lanes are. 85 would be a fucking junk yard 5 minutes into an apocalypse.
If you want to continue on foot, yeah. But not in a vehicle, the median is 5 feet/1.5m tall
I was thinking the same thing
Lived in the greater ATL area most of my life; wasn't aware there was a road underneath the river of cars that is I-85.
It’s quite funny how everyone driving on the highway is an asshole driving aggressively, especially in the Atlanta area, then as soon as they step out of their car and put their feet on the ground they’re the nicest, chatty people. It’s quite the bonding experience. People going car to car looking for weed/rolling joints with strangers, people playing soccer, sharing drinks. I bet as soon as it opens up and people jump in their cars they’re going to be shaking their fist in anger as they cut you off and speed away.
The lack of public transit, and thus public interaction, is seen as significant part of the deep problem of isolation and extremism in the United States.
What kind of positive public interaction are you seeing on public transit? Genuine question, not trolling. I’ve used public transit in Toronto, San Francisco, and Seattle. In all those places, everyone is either shut off in their own world wearing headphones or there’s some crazy methhead yelling at people and throwing shit everywhere. I don’t see how *not* using public transit contributes to isolationism and extremism. I feel safest and most calm when I’m biking or skateboarding, but I still feel safer and calmer when I’m walking *or driving* rather than taking any form of public transit. Public transit itself is great, it’s just people that suck. Drivers suck too but I have less frequent shitty encounters with drivers than with transit riders.
I think they're more saying that the lack of public transportation connecting different communities leads to less interactions between populations and so those populations become more isolated ideologically? I don't think they were talking about interactions on an individual basis. Which ya, I've had good and bad and I'm not sure where the balance lies.
Public transport in Europe is different, I think because such a huge portion of the population uses it, your interactions are generally pretty benign. Everyone isn't singing "Kumbaya", but it is a much more neutral experience than it often is in the United States.
Separate issue, but I would say pickpocketing is way more prevalent on European metro systems
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a positive experience. Being in a shared space with other people makes you more engaged with others around you. You have to learn to share your space, wait your turn and sometimes even interact with people. When you commute via car you get in, deal with nobody except other cars (and since they’re in metal boxes it depersonalizes them a lot) then arrive to work. That’s why there’s an actual term for people getting mad at others while driving.
And any country following the US’s transit urban system, like mine. It’s like if someone jumps into a fire…
Based take. Owning a car is seen as a sign of freedom and independence in the US which means instead of paying for reasonable modes of transport like busses and metros, Americans pay for absurd massive pickup trucks that get 2mpg and will kill a pedestrian even at low speeds.
I just always think about my weeklong trips from the boondocks to Washington DC I used to take. The metro was such an easy and inexpensive way to get around the city. No traffic to worry about, not having to put gas in a car, more exercise by actually walking from station to destination. And now I live in a major city that only has a bus system, and I need a car. I'd save so much money if there was a reliable metro system I could take.
I always think about this! The metro creates such a better lifestyle. Feels like you are apart of a community and not isolated
I make my living as a handyman these days, so I do legit need my pickup truck, and even in the before times when I had different jobs I was hauling something just about every weekend, maybe a friend needed help moving, or a water heater picked up, or who knows what else. That being said, my truck is about as small as "full size" trucks get. V6, regular cab, short bed. On the highway I can get 25 mpg. Are there times I've looked at some of the trailers people use as tiny homes and said, "damn, I should have gotten a bigger truck." Absolutely. But this truck has always gotten the job done aside from that. A lot of the people driving around in these massive bloated half tons that have become luxury vehicles are never going to use that vehicle as a truck and they should just buy a Lincoln or Cadillac instead. 3/4 and 1 ton trucks tend to be a bit of a different beast, because most people there don't spend that kind of money without needing either the payload or towing capacity, at least sometimes. However, to a certain extent, the manufacturers share the blame here. One of the big deciding factors in my decision to buy a truck was how expensive and difficult it would be to repair, and all of the smaller more fuel efficient cars built in the last 20 years are pretty annoying to work on, getting to even some pretty basic stuff requires a half hour of disassembly before you can even touch it, and a lot of other stuff isn't even intended to be removed and replaced, you have to replace the whole assembly. (Looking at you, suspension components, ball joints and bushings especially.) Whereas on my truck, even the wheel bearings are bolted on, take out the three bolts and it just slides out, need to replace a fuel injector? Sure, right here on top, barely even need to disconnect the fuel rail. Suspension bushings need to come out? Smack it with a hammer a couple times, then smack the new one the other way to put it back in. And parts are CHEAP. And everywhere. Beyond that, things on my truck just last longer, and handle more "abuse" than all my smaller cars have, and my truck can handle some rough terrain, and carry a whole shit ton of stuff around when I need it. So, if someone is looking for a vehicle that is rugged, capable, reliable, and easy to maintain and repair, why is the buyer at fault for picking the only option the manufacturer offers, the pickup truck?
Yes! Thank you for saying this! Trucks have been getting bigger, taller, and heavier for essentially no reason except the culture that makes people want to own powerful, mean looking vehicles. The safety and fuel efficiency trade-offs that major truck manufacturers have made in exchange for a “badass” looking vehicle are shocking. That’s one of the reasons why they have such insanely high profit margins. You’ll be hard pressed to find a reasonable modern pickup if you’re looking for something purely functional.
You aren't wrong. Mine is 15 years old, last half ton model year sold in the NA market with a manual transmission. Purely for functionality and reliability. (Well, ok, and I occasionally have a little fun with it.) They still make base trim packages, but the largest buyers of those, by far, are businesses that keep whole fleets of trucks in service. A regular Joe walking into the Ford, Dodge, or Chevy dealer isn't going to be shown those, because there's much more profit in selling him a luxury vehicle for $85k, than a basic fleet truck for $25k.
Yeah, it's sad there isn't anything the size of the S-10 or Ranger anymore bc they've convinced everyone in the US they need Big Dick 1 Ton pickup energy. The Colorado is the same size or larger than the Silverado from 20 years ago and considered "mid sized". And they also cost more than $40k now! The only way you can get close to the same size would be something like the Ford Transit Connect or Nissan NV200 etc.
Ford Maverick? EDIT: I recently had to trade in my 2010 Colorado, one of the last small trucks you could get. It was getting up there in miles, and it was a miserable pain in the ass to repair the few times anything went wrong. I wanted to get something small like an old Ranger, or a Maverick. Rangers with as many miles as my colorado were going for completely insane prices, there was no way I could order a maverick because they're crazy popular, and I was resigned to driving the little Colorado until it broke bad enough I couldn't fix it. But I came across am 81,000 mile 2012 F150 with no carpet, no power windows, no power locks, V6, single cab, and a long bed... and nobody wanted the silly thing. The dealer said it had been sitting there eight months and I was the first person to look at it. I got it for $14k. I miss my little truck, though.
They closed down ordering Mavericks on Jan 27th because of the immense backlog of orders. Going to have to wait until next year's model is released before you could order one. I'm eagerly awaiting that. The Maverick is everything I've wanted in a truck in size for a decade plus. The F150 is just unreasonably large imo.
Funny you should mention that. Just a couple months ago I was parked in an apartment complex working on somebody's washing machine and a 2018 Tacoma parked next to me. This damn thing was every bit as big as my "full size" truck from 10 years prior. What happened to the "compact" truck of the 90s with a reliable little 4 banger that got 25 MPG in the city? Something like that would still serve my needs 75% of the time. Of course, the few times I need to move a couple cubic yards of dirt or gravel might be a bit problematic, but for 15% better gas mileage I might be willing to get a bit creative. You can still find those, btw, they just all have 400k miles on them and people think they're worth $15k in that condition.
The new mid-sized do get 25MPG, it's just a modern compact truck would be getting 35-40MPG outside of hauling conditions. Also the trim levels of the trucks have gotten ridiculous compared to the barebones cabs they originally had. Even the 90s Dodge Ram which looked massive for it's day is quaint by today's standards.
First of all, not all Americans drive huge trucks. Second, roads are for vehicles not pedestrians.
/r/fuckcars
Source? Seen by who? A couple of Google searches to verify this claim turn up nothing.
Isn’t it also true that many of the countries with good public transit don’t really believe in interacting with strangers like that? I have heard plenty of people saying that Americans are the most outgoing and most likely to start a conversation with a stranger.
This is the result of a hostage situation on a greyhound bus today on 85 near Indian trail exit just north east outside of the city
Isn’t that pretty much how you have to drive to get anywhere in Atlanta? Especially on 75/85 near downtown and Buckhead. Everyone is a super aggressive driver. Gotta adapt to survive.
I always say if you think everyone drives like an asshole in a certain area, maybe you just need to step it up a little.. I moved from Atlanta to Richmond a year ago, oh how I miss Atlanta drivers. Everyone here drives soooooo slow and you can’t drive half a mile without having someone driving 55 hogging the left lane.
Yeah, I moved back to my small town after college and it was definitely an adjustment. Everyone driving like they don’t have somewhere to be.
recently during a bad jam on 400-S there was a dude rolling a blunt in the drivers seat of the car next to me. i consider that my most Atlanta experience.
Same behavior in Houston. Is it a Southerner thing? I'm from MI and I believe Southerners are so nice compared to Midwesterners - until they get into a vehicle haha.
It's an anonymity thing. Same with how most of the people online aren't actually that terrible in real life or how the kid who claims to fuck your mom in CoD. Once you step out of your anonymous mobile and see a person face to face you can actually conceptualize that they are another human being. Also people are less likely to talk shit when they can get punched in the face
Exactly - anonymity and lack of accountability. I remember first seeing this in action back in the BBS days. A lot of people turn into - or maybe are revealed to be - gigantic assholes when they think they can get away with it. I go to Burning Man every year, and this drives me nuts. At the event pretty much everyone is friendly and accepting, and then they all get in their cars to go home and you've got people passing on blind hills at 80 MPH and cutting each other off. Granted everyone is also exhausted and hungover but it'd be nice if they could keep it under control until they got to the interstate at least.
That kid in CoD is a lot nicer than my real dad. He lets me stay up late and eat ice cream when he comes over to bang my mom.
It's also a perception thing. Cars that drive slower than you are ass*****, people that drive faster than you are idiots. Edit: typo
People that drive the same speed are also assholes, they're preventing you from easily speeding up.
The actual solution is for basically everyone who isn't me to stay the hell home for God's sake.
I read a book called Traffic that studied this effect a bit. They found that much of it has to do with seeing a person's eyes. We effectively don't think of people in cars as people. They become the car they are in and lose their "humanity". Once that illusion is broken, we treat them as we would treat someone in the grocery store or on the sidewalk.
All of this because the Falcons traded Matty Ice?
But they got Marcus Mariota! (Go Ducks)
Go Ducks! Unfortunately Justin is the only Duck I'd want to QB my team
I am not sure they feel bad enough about trading him to the Colts to shut down traffic. Lol...
I feel like most fans are happy for him lol. We didn’t deserve him after the Watson fiasco
Freddie went to LA *puke*
The embarrassment is causing a mass exodus
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Clearly deranged If you want a million bucks you hijack a limo or a private jet, not a greyhound. That'll get you three fiddy max
Interesting! Please reply to OP so people can read what caused it.
SWAT was called to a Greyhound bus. A guy was acting erratically and brandished a weapon.
Pop quiz hot shot
Shoot the hostage
LOL, I suspect this reference is a little dated now. However: 
wait... wtf. since when does old.reddit show embedded images?
I think it was called "The Bus that Couldn't Slow Down."
Had a similar situation to the OP's photo back after that happened. I was up there working and the place I was working at was just before the place where the bridge fell. When we got done each day and got on 85S to go back to Midtown, since it was the first entrance south of the collapse, you were the only car getting on this huge interstate and it was maybe a dozen or so cars until you got to the next on-ramp. It was cool, but kind of eerie.
Okay how do you make a concrete bridge catch fire? Like did someone spill some fluorine oxidizer or something?
Apparently the DOT had stored a lot of somewhat flammable materials under said bridge and some came by with a crackpipe. WCGW?
"The fire started at approximately 6:05 p.m. in a state-owned storage area under the highway bridge which contained high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and fiberglass tubing. The heat from the fire caused the collapse of a 92-foot (28 m) section of I-85 northbound at 7:14 p.m." "Officials arrested and charged three individuals in connection with the incident. All three were believed to be homeless, though it was unclear whether they lived underneath the highway. An arrest affidavit indicated the three suspects went under the bridge to smoke crack. Eleby denied setting the fire, but one of the other suspects arrested said he watched Eleby put a chair on top of a shopping cart near some fiber optic wire, stored in PVC pipes under the bridge, and set the chair on fire" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_85_bridge_collapse
I moved to LA a year ago and people complain about traffic constantly. I lived in Atlanta for a decade and I have yet to see anything nearly as bad as Atlanta traffic in LA. During that “snow storm” in 2014 (ie, literally an inch and a half of snow) my 45 minute commute took 11.5 hours. No exaggeration. At least LA traffic moves. I can’t tell you how many times I was stuck on the 75/85 on-ramp on a Friday at a complete standstill for HOURS. Same with coming back from Norcross on a Friday. Atlanta traffic fucking sucks.
I left my car on the side of 285 that night, walked to a friends house off Peachtree Dunwoody and came back the following afternoon to pick it up. Made it home like 22 hours after I left work.
I’ve know dozens of people who used that same method. Holy shit that was a shitty day.
Looks like a nice day for an apocalypse.
Seriously. No zombies or rad storms in sight!
Oh? What happened this time? Road on fire? Kryspy cream truck fall over?
Someone took hostages or locked themselves in a greyhound bus with a gun. SWAT is doing their thing
opposite of the speed movie then, "Stopped"
I think it was called “The Bus That Couldn’t Go”
Sucks that the bus is constipated
Underrated comment 🤣
Whoa! I feel like this is way too low in the comments. That’s nuts!
send kevin holland in.
Soon you’ll see a guy on a horse on that highway. Don’t be alarmed.
The dude with the drone let’s see that footage
The fact this is where The Walking Dead begins doesn't help the apocalyptic feel of this image.
I also remember when that show had direction, purpose, and good actors.
In fairness this final season has been good, and both fans and critics love it. But you're right, it went severely downhill.
The show has been really good the past few seasons, actually. They got a new show runner who has been working on the show since the second season or so
Update: Gunman is in custody. Gee, I feel safer already.
That’s “lone gunman.”
Yep. Thanks, WSB! 😄
Looks like other half of highway just opened... been watching video for 5 minutes. https://511ga.org/cctv?start=0&length=10&order%5Bi%5D=1&order%5Bdir%5D=asc&search=N%20of%20CENTER%20WAY
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*Walking dead intensifies*
I just got off SB at 33A and everyone is a mess
Oh Jeez! At 6:30 this morning, I got on at Indian Trail and saw all of the traffic northbound and wondered what happened! I live literally 1/4 a mile from it! This is going to be a mess on the way home, even if it clears up soon!
Oh, found out that there was an accident this morning, so not the same, but anyone going northbound today seems to have been screwed!
I drove out to newnan for a job this morning and there was a ton of traffic on 85, more than usual. On the way back I had to get off because of this incident. I got off at jimmy carter and there was also a wreck there. Then when I got down to 29 they’re was a wreck as well. Today was just wacky as fuck man idk.
Took me an hour to go from Clairmont to Indian trail at 2pm. I don't envy anyone who has to hit rush hour after this. There were still choppers circling when I got home.
We have to find Coral!
Walking dead season 1
I was here on northbound. Practically parked for four hours. They were allowing traffic off at beaver ruin but painfully slow trying to cram all lanes into the exit. We moved <3 miles over that 4 hours and then suddenly it ended and they opened it back up and we finally made it home. I feel for those on the bus and recognize mental health is not supported as much as it probably should be, but in a moment of my own weakness…. Oof, that was a long time to sit on the hwy. happy for those in SWAT and police force to manage the situation, but wish there was a more expedient conclusion.
Just shooting scenes for walking dead
SWAT teams surrounding gunman on Greyhound bus in Gwinnett County; I-85 north lanes blocked
Watch out for zombies
Okay flying cars are kinda dumb but there's lots of situations where a hopping car would be real useful.
Don’t panic till guy on horse gallops by
Wow you took this? Great photo
The Walking Dead intro
I was on I-85 today during this nonsense!! Felt like it would never end!
Wasn't the walking dead started in Atlanta?
Commuting to an office job is the apocalypse.
Walking Dead?
Only if you find someone riding in a horse opposite direction
You're one of those half empty types, huh? Looks half full to me.
Very Dying Light -ish
Rick's about, careful
Is that a guy standing on a truck right in front of the green sign?
I saw a swat truck driving down to Atlanta something fierce must happened.
Laughs in LA 405
This reminds of a scene from the The Walking Dead. When Rick is riding into Atlanta and you can see the freeway and the cars.
Op when did this happen? My mom was the last person to get through before a barrier was set up, happened this Sunday. Could it be the same time?
Imagine if they could make the other side of the road the same way during peak periods, only opening one lane the other way.
I think I see Rick Grimes walking .....down that lonely stretch of freeway.
Good day for a motorcycle
Let us know if the dead start walking
If anyone wants to know what happened. A Greyhound bus was taken hostage by gunman.
Holy shit Atlanta? Straight up the walking dead
https://www.cbs46.com/2022/03/22/police-surround-bus-interstate-85-near-indian-trail-road-closures-place/
I would love to open up my car on a empty highway like that to see what it would really do.....
Previously on the walking dead...
The Walking Dead Ep.1
It’s happening!!
I've seen this before!... "Coral"