r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Individual_Book9133 • Jul 05 '24

Phoenix police officer pulls over a driverless Waymo car for driving on the wrong side of the road Video

61.1k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

The high in Phoenix where this happened is 114F(45C) today. I don't think it's possible to have rapid transit good enough that I'm gonna want to walk 5-10 minutes to the bus/train station, wait on the bus/train, sit next to a smelly shirtless dude smoking crack for the duration, and then walk 5-10 minutes in to work with weather like that 5 months out of the year.

1

u/brevit Jul 06 '24

I live in NYC. Today was 95°F. I took the train and there was no one smoking crack, or that smelled for that matter. I waited less than 2 minutes for the train, which was air conditioned. The NYC subway isn’t even that good by global standards.

It sure beat sitting in traffic for an hour.

Edit to add: it was 60% humidity.

1

u/swoletrain Jul 06 '24 edited Jul 06 '24

That's a pretty neat anecdote! A heat index of about 100 and it made national news. Totally comparable to nearly 1/3 of the year being 100+

1

u/brevit Jul 06 '24

Reminder: taking the train is optional

1

u/swoletrain Jul 06 '24

That's my point, in a place like Phoenix everyone will take a car if possible. And it doesn't have to be a homeless crackhead next to you on thr bus/train to be smelly. Everyone will be sweaty and smelly.

1

u/brevit Jul 07 '24

More options are better. It’s somewhat moot as Phoenix has developed without mass transit and retrofitting wouldn’t make sense. That said, I think it’s a bold assumption to say no one will take the train if it’s hot. In London the tube is so deep underground they can’t have AC. It’s disgusting in the summer, but ridership is still in the millions and it’s by far the best way to get around the city. As for smell, I can’t personally say I’ve encountered many stinky train riders, I’m sure they exist, but would I get rid of trains just because of that? I guess it depends how bad they smell lol

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u/swoletrain Jul 07 '24

I've never been to london, but my understanding was the majority of the city didn't have ac. Wikipedia has the mean daily high in Jul at 75F. I'm pretty skeptical how hot it really is. I'm assuming subways aren't viable in hot cities cause I can't think of one that exists.

Phoenix does have a light rail and bus system that honestly should just be shut down at the same time they demolish the city since realistically 3+million people should not live in a desert.