Ehhh, i still disagree, because that doesnt make sense. Less congestion with less lanes? The extra lanes are added to ease the growing congestion in an area. OP asked about traffic engineering, there is it very simply. Adding lanes doesnt magically create more cars on the road.

I’ve seen the exact opposite in places like Hawaii when they expanded H1 at Honolulu, shrinking all the lanes down to the minimum 8ft so they could add another lane. Now at, I think 6 lanes each way, in places. No space to expand, so the lanes were shrunk to make room for another. You know what adding another lane did? Lessen congestion. Sure there’s still congestion, but it’s way better. They, and other big cities (ie- San Fransisco), literally add and change lanes throughout the day (zipper lanes) to ease congestion. Or even legally allow the shoulder to become yet another lane during peak hours. Because more lanes = more flow.

I’ve also seen what happens when the extra lanes arent open (like the zipper lane cant function because the truck is broke) the whole place is gridlocked taking people up to 9 hours to get home. Because of 2 less lanes.

Not just in America. Places like Auckland, NZ and their famos Nippon clip-ons. If adding lanes added congestion just because of the fact that there is more lanes, then why are roads expanded in the first place? Everything should just still be 2 lane roads.

Not always the case, but you’re not wrong. Most of the times the new road or added lanes was needed because the traffic density had already increased. Kind of a chicken or the egg scenario. For a new road, well roads arent just built for no reason…obviously the road was needed, so now there will be traffic on it. Sometimes even just an influx of people using the new “alternative route” because they think no one will be on it from the old route, yet many other people had the same idea.

Exception to all this, however is evacuation routes. I grew up in the south, on the gulf of mexico. When hurricanes are coming and everyone is trying to leave, you need those huge highways. 30 years ago you would just have 1000s of people grid-locking 2 lane highways just trying to get anywhere away from the storm, and in some cases being stuck in their car for the storm. Now a lot of those highways are full-on 4 lanes with medians, huge shoulders, etc. These are everywhere across the south, more still being built. Even extra bridges built across bays and sounds that are largely unused (usually have high tolls). 99% of the time the big highways are mostly empty (which makes road trips super nice!) and someone not familiar would think it’s a huge waste. But come an emergency situation, and their purpose is served!

Pretty sure that exact feature is built into the native Hue app, as long as you have the bulbs that support those kinds of colors. I see it when i try to make a “wake up” automation, i’d have to look again to see if there is an opposite for sunset. You can automate bedtime or go to sleep automations, and schedule them for sunset/sunrise or specific times.

Edit- just quickly looked through the app- there IS a sunrise for a wakeup automation, but not seeing any default sunset types. Might have to create your own by fading through some other sunset colors while dimming. Which is done basically like you are sayin; pick a color and and start time, then another color at another start time, etc. you can set whether to snap to these colors or fade to them over a period of time which also picking brightness. BUT- this is just in the native Hue app, i dont know about other Hue compatible apps.

Well said! I read the books long before the first movie, and have seen all the screen adaptations, and pretty much agree with you. Hell, my 12 year old Border Collie is named Lyra! However, I actually mostly enjoyed HBOs TV series, even with all the changes and such, which i was expecting because it was a screen adaptation. Didn’t much care for the new characters, but i was able to get over it because of all the other parts that were well done. They did a great job appropriately making you dislike Ms. Coulter! I forgot all about the newer books, though! Thanks for the reminder!

Those touch mechanics are things you don’t need on any other platform as opposed to literally the only option via mobile. Games as shallow as Fruit Ninja, seriously? You ever pay a Nintendo Wii? Or any of the Xbox Kinect type motion tracking games (i dont remember the Playstation variant)? That’s a hell of a lot more immersive than twitching your finger on your phone. Lets not even get into the world of VR gaming that’s been around for years now.

Multi finger gestures- like an entire PC keyboard…while moving your mouse? Can you use 10 fingers on your phone at the same time? Or multi button/direction combos on a controller? Plus the fact you can program multi-function macros on a PC.

Pinch zoom- mouse wheel: faster, more control, & way more range.

Swipe- like move your mouse? Or a controller joystick? Or the arrow keys? RTS or any top-down games have been using “swipe” variants to move around maps basically as long as the game genre has existed. Most mice come standard these days with thumb buttons that are pre-programmed as literally Forward and Backwards buttons (think page turn, or swipe left/right). Even the mechanic of hotkeys that most games have.

Add in the ability to right-click, or hold any button and click and you open literally endless opportunities for any sort of “finger” or “swipe” type control. A PC mouse is literally your hand with a LOT more fingers.

But lets go deeper…there ARE touch interfaces for other platforms. Not used much for gaming, but how do you think digital artists draw and paint?

Basically, these touch gestures you’re so hung up on are literally all you have- and it ain’t much. Anything else i could add has been said multiple times from all the other comments….

Okay, i’ll bite and try to answer these. Without knowing any details of which chain and where exactly this station is located (in a city/town or right off a motorway/interstate?)

A lot of “truck stop” type stations are this big to accommodate large vehicles and potential larger trailers they might be towing. Like a 3/4ton pickup with a huge 5th wheel trailer. Or even Class A/C motorhomes and RVs. These pumps likely have diesel and petrol so even large box trucks will pull in the fuel up. There are usually different areas for full tractor-trailer (lorries) but those pumps are for those trucks only. Further, the gap is three vehicles wide so a vehicle can be on a pump on either side and someone arriving or leaving can fit between them- especially if there is a case of 3 pumps in a row.

Pizza for breakfast? Judging by the picture and the title, this looks like actual Breakfast Pizza. Eggs, sausage, etc are the toppings. Had this a lot growing up just at home. And pizza style is common “grab and go” type food from gas stations since it’s easy to eat, even while driving.

Now, a cola with/for breakfast…naah. I’m with you there. That’s a bit off. But otherwise, the size is normal for a truck stop. Fountain drinks are a lot cheaper than canned or bottled of the same drink. For example 24oz bottle for $2-3 or a 48-64oz fountain for the same price or less. People are traveling when they come through here, or stopping by to grab stuff on their way to work for the whole day. So the idea is the drink is to have on hand for hours if not most of the day. The styrofoam cups are junk but a lot of people transfer to a more practical container, or some stations chains would sell their own fancy insulated cups and allow discounted refills in their cup.

How is this so cheap? Gas station food, man! Doesn’t mean it’s any good! I just covered the soda portion for pricing and a slice of pizza (breakfast or normal pepperoni) is usually only like $2. So the pricing advertised here makes sense.

Midwest is a kind of marketing thing with many layers or points. The midwest region of the States is the massive, wide-open middle section where there’s usually cattle ranching, farming and a lot of nothing. So this can be spun in a lot of ways- farmers/ranchers allegedly eat big (unhealthy) food and drinks, the midwest is big, things are cheap because nothing and no one is out there, etc. Also this gas station is likely located in the midwest and targeted towards people that are traveling through, so it’s got that “tourist” hook to it.

I think that about covers it?