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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 24th, 2023

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  • I think you are missing the point why people take issue with overtourism.

    Amsterdam isn’t a themepark, it’s a city where people actually live, grew up, have lives. And overtourism tends to hollow out what makes the city authentic. The houses get converted to AirBnB’s and hotels, the regular shops, pubs and restaurants can’t find regular customers anymore so start catering to tourists instead, etc. This results in a sort of Disneylandification of your city. It’s generally a nuisance to the inhabitants of a city.
    Ultimately a city is for the people who live there, not the people who visit.

    Tourism can be good for the local economy, but there is only so much people are willing to put up with.


    Edit: Also, old hotels are allowed to be renovated, as long as the number of sleeping places in the city doesn’t increase

    A new hotel in Amsterdam can only be built if another hotel closes, if the number of sleeping places doesn’t increase, and if the new hotel will be better, for example more sustainable.






  • Humanius@lemmy.worldtoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    8 months ago

    It’s because back when smartphones and Whatsapp were new, unlimited text messaging plans were either expensive or unavailable in much of Europe (and I would imagine other places as well). From my understanding these kinds of plans were much more common in America.

    When your cellphone plan has limited text messages, but sending messages via Whatsapp takes so little data that it might as well be unlimited, the barrier to early adoption becomes very low. So people start using Whatsapp, and get their friends to use Whatsapp. And once that ball is rolling it becomes very hard to stop.

    These days people use Whatsapp because everyone else uses Whatsapp.
    It’s the assumed default.


    Edit: Heck… even to this day I have limited text messages.
    My current cellphone plan is for 12 GB, Unlimited calls, and 500 texts.

    And I’ve not sent a single text message in months, if not years.



  • I agree with you entirely that automated trams are more difficult than automated metro systems. However I do think that trams are a most likely a more easily solvable problem than automated cars.

    • Trams are restricted to their track, so the number of unique situations in which they can end up is more limited.
      Because of this you can model the environment in more detail.
    • Trams are large, heavy and commercial vehicles. So you can justify shelling out for more detailed sensors such as lidar etc, whereas on a Tesla you have to make due with merely a camera sensor.
    • You could potentially hire a dedicated person in a central location whose job it is to remotely get trams out of tricky situations.
      This would not remove the need for drivers outright, but could reduce the number of drivers you need per tram.

    That is not to say automated trams are easy, or already viable. I’m just saying that they are likely more viable than automated cars will be in the nearby future.


  • If the situation in Germany is anything like the Netherlands, it legit is just a shortage of workers outright.

    There are more job vacancies than people to fill those vacancies, so you end up with a shortage of workers.
    Making tram driving more attractive by paying them more would draw employees away from other industries, who also need people to do the work.

    Not saying tram drivers shouldn’t be paid more, but if the situation in this German city is anything like what we are dealing with here in the NL, then paying people more is not going to solve the issue. Only solution is to either decrease the number of open positions (which usually only happens in a recession, which is not great), or to increase the number of people who can do the work (for example through immigration)


    Edit: A possible solution specifically in the case of trams could be automation (self-driving trams), which would relax the overall demand for workers.
    There are already transportation system without drivers that have been operating since the 80s (e.g. the London DLR)

    It’s probably a bit more tricky in mixed traffic, but since trams are on predictable rails it would be easier than automating cars.