• solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
    1284·
    23 days ago

    what are these people expecting everyone’s reaction to be when they buy these cartoonish giant clownshoes trucks?

    because i see those things and think “oh look, another sensitive douchenozzle”

    • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.worldEnglish
      32·
      23 days ago

      Back when I was young, I had a job building, and installing, custom stereos for cars. The place I worked at also did a lot of modifications, one of the most popular things we did was lift trucks, add huge wheels, move exhaust to end above the backs of the cabs, etc. People who had trucks like that, just like the people with the stereos you could hear 5 miles away, absolutely did concern themselves with the way they were perceived, having that tricked out truck. They also rarely used them for work, or took them off road. They liked to cruise them down the night life areas, and show off. They would talk about how excited they were to do this. This was the same with people who tricked their cars out like something from TFATF movies. They never raced, they just showed off.

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        23 days ago

        A lot of that is for the same reason people dress nice or have nice accessories like watches and handbags: Conspicuous consumption makes it look like you have money to at least some people.

        And anywhere there are vehicles there’s going to be a vehicle culture, from low riders to pickups to rice tractors

        • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          23 days ago

          correct, and fast fashion, precious metals, and gems, etc for this are bad. it is a lot harder to deal with the fast fashion thing, because it took over the industry needed for clothing. but yeah, I feel the same about doing things like buying jewelry without concern for where it came from, as jewelry is something that can be easily boycotted. The big difference is, someone wearing a ring with a big old blood diamond on it will never inject its way into my life, and what I am doing, like getting stuck in traffic with some big coal-rolling d-bag, or someone whose muffler is replaced, or their stereo is as loud as a stadium concert, and so on.

            • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.worldEnglish
              4·
              23 days ago

              I mean, you can make cars cool without making them obnoxious, inefficient, intrusive, poorly fit for local infrastructure, etc.

              Unless you think things that cause greater issues for other people are the only ways in which cars can be cool. Then I don’t know what to tell you, at that point it is a personal problem.

              • P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish
                3·
                22 days ago

                I love my $30k Miata. 2339 lbs, 35 mpg, its fast enough, handles better than enough, can go for 200k+ miles, I’ve driven faster and more expensive cars, but that one is by far the most fun. Yes, cars can definitely be cool without having 13 mpg, and annoying other people, without blocking the vision of others to operate safely. The only issue is that it forces you to drive aggressively to avoid these giant fucking emotional support trucks killing you cause they can’t see you.

                • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  22 days ago

                  Yes, I am glad to hear that the feds are at least looking at new regulations on truck/suv design due to the increase in pedestrian death.

              • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                23 days ago

                Most of what are generally considered coolest cars are loud, inefficient, and hard to maneuver around a city. Think Lambos, Ferraris, Bentleys, low riders, hot rods, in addition to lifted trucks and fart-can Hondas.

                • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  3·
                  23 days ago

                  It doesn’t have to be that way though. A lot of that desire was created by car companies using massive advertisement campaigns over decades, to convince people the cars with the most profit margin, and dependency on the system, are cool. All the reasons beneath the obnoxious parts, that ultimately are what people like, can be done differently now. You don’t need a loud car, with shitty normal road compatibility, to have a fast, agile, car, that could be targeted at the consumer. You don’t need loud, smog belching, monster trucks, that fit nowhere, to be able to do all the off road shit. The rest are aesthetic desires, which are easy to manipulate, through advertising, over time.

                  The whole car industry could just start an unrelenting ad campaign on the side of those who do not like coal rollers, and paint those using them as bad people, and, since a huge amount of the population hate them already, it wouldn’t be all that long before they are a thing of the past.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        23 days ago

        At least performance mods can improve efficiency, with the focus of getting more power from the motor to the pavement. If they are actual performance mods (as opposed to just making exhaust louder or adding a rear spoiler on a front wheel drive car), with exceptions of ones that do that by increasing fuel use.

        Though even with that one, driving style can matter. Anecdotal, but my car has a sports mode and an eco mode, as well as a fuel use indicator. I found that using sports mode and then having a range of speed I’d drive at (accelerate hard to top speed of the range, then reduce power so that it slows to the low end then accelerating again) was the most efficient way to drive it. If I tried the same in eco mode, the reduced power meant I spent more time doing the acceleration, and either of those was more fuel efficient than just maintaining one speed. Though it was a frustrating way to drive (both for me and I’m sure for anyone who ended up behind me). You couldn’t go on auto pilot doing it that way and had to pay constant attention to your speed.

        It’s kinda like the race to idle strategy for CPU/GPU efficiency. Use lots of power when it’s needed so that it can go back to using much less power.

        • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          23 days ago

          Yeah, I don’t mind mods that make things better for daily use. I also don’t mind big performance mods, or truck get bigger mods. There is a caveat though, please put the mods to use. If you spend 10k turning your car into a racing/performance car, and you take it to the track, good for you for having a hobby, and skill. Need a big fucking truck to hall around your construction site worth of tools, and materials? Awesome, you have what you need. Modify it for off road use? If you go off road, even just for fun, sure, fine. If you need it because you work in remote locations, or something, wonderful, you have what you need.

          Having these loud, intrusive, difficult, gas hog, emission machines, and all you do is daily drive it, and show off? Well, I will look down on that behavior.

          • P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            22 days ago

            Can we say the same about motorcycles? I feel like leftists give a pass to motorcycles because of efficiency, but they’re always the loudest vehicles on the road, one fucking boomer around me loves cruising the neighborhood blaring his ambiguously gay 80s hairband music louder than I can even get either of my vehicles.

            • captainlezbian@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              22 days ago

              I absolutely feel that way about motorcycles. You love your motorcycle? Hell yeah, but if you’re driving past and I have to stop talking because you’re drowning my conversation out I think you’re an asshole. Honestly, I don’t even get why people think super loud motorcycles are cool. Motorcycles definitely can be cool, but obnoxiousness removes all coolness

              Hell, I’m generally sympathetic to loudness, I’m hard of hearing and can struggle with volume control and need things louder than some people like, but there’s a line.

              • P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                22 days ago

                Yeah, the line is causing hearing loss apparently lol. But yeah there’s no way those guys don’t have hearing loss on those things. And I swear to God, if I ever catch someone wearing earplugs on a loud motorcycle? Hoooo boy! Someone’s gonna wish they WERE back in 'nam!

        • P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          22 days ago

          A spoiler on a fwd car is not always for downforce. Yeah a giant wing on a fwd car puts more weight (both from the weight of the spoiler, and from the down force acted on it) on the back, and less on the front, reducing grip. However a lot of spoilers just make the car a little more slippery through the air, giving a passive, mild efficiency bonus.

    • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.spaceEnglish
      2·
      23 days ago

      They’re probably not thinking about it as such, but rather it’s an atavistic dominance display, like a gorilla beating its chest, coming directly from the hindbrain.

  • Num10ck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    911·
    23 days ago

    what kind of work places have communal shower rooms where you can laugh at each other?

    • rosamundi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      52·
      23 days ago

      The office where I work in central London, UK has bike parking for 300 and only eight vehicle parking spaces. We also have a fitness suite. There’s two (male and female) locker rooms with showers, towels provided, a drying room.

      At least one of the green building standards doesn’t give you the top rating unless you have provision for active travel, institutional investors won’t buy your shiny new building unless it’s rated “Excellent” or “Platinum”, tenants are looking for added extras which encourage their staff to come to the office rather than WFH.

      And Westminster Council charges business rates (property tax) on parking spaces.

    • Damage@feddit.itEnglish
      301·
      23 days ago

      Manufacturing plants? Usually if there’s a changing room there’s showers

    • BakerBagel@midwest.socialEnglish
      25·
      23 days ago

      Used to work at a tire factory and we got paid $1.50 a shift on shower time. I absolutely needed it with how filthy i would get each shift

    • XiberKernel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      17·
      23 days ago

      The building I worked at in the Chicago loop had showers for bike commuters. Might be a big city thing.

    • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      14·
      23 days ago

      As someone mentioned, gyms. I biked to work at one of my previous places, and if I wanted to shower, I’d head to the on campus gym. That gym had stalls, so theoretically ou could talk in the shower, though I never did.

    • MrsDoyleEnglish
      41·
      23 days ago

      Office I worked in had shower rooms. I did bike to work but never showered there because eeewwww.

    • dankm@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      21 days ago

      My last two offices had showers. No communal room, but the thing I remember most about the last one is the hot water being pumped from the furnaces of hell itself. It took so long go get there, and was so hot once it did I can’t think of any other explanation.

  • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
    54·
    23 days ago

    shower rooms at work

    Damn, I’ve spent years commuting by bike and never once had a shower room at work. At one place I had to join the nearby Y and deal with naked, old, fat southern men lounging around on couches in the locker room every morning making jokes about imprisoning black men for life.

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        23 days ago

        Close enough - Shreveport, Louisiana. This Y was where all the judges and prosecutors (and the defense attorneys as well, of course) from the courthouse hung out. I kinda wish I hadn’t told this story because now I can’t those locker room images out of my head. So much overfed, droopy white flesh covered in gray hair.

        My favorite thing about this Y was that they still had a bunch of those motorized fat-shaker belts from the 1930s or whenever on the top floor - and this wasn’t even quite 20 years ago.

        • blindbunny@lemmy.mlEnglish
          3·
          23 days ago

          Ha! It was kinda the same for pcola except all the bureaucrats in Pensacola had to share the Y with the uptown gays until they built a new one downtown. Lots of wild stories from that place, including shower room assaults.

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
            5·
            22 days ago

            all the bureaucrats in Pensacola had to share the Y with the uptown gays

            So, I was friends with a lot of the gay community in Shreveport. Let’s just say that I don’t think the fat old white racist servants of the justice system in Louisiana had any problem sharing the Y with the gays. I was strongly advised to avoid the steam room there.

            • blindbunny@lemmy.mlEnglish
              3·
              22 days ago

              Oh yeah kinda why I mentioned it. I know a dude that took great pleasure in visiting that Y and literally moved shortly after the downtown Y was built 😂

  • Etterra@lemmy.worldEnglish
    335·
    22 days ago

    Fuck oversized trucks. That lady deserved to have you - and everyone else - laugh in her stupid face.

    • cynar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      199·
      22 days ago

      You wouldn’t laugh at a fat guy going to the gym.

      The lady is cycling to work each morning. The initial impetus might have been bad, but she’s doing a lot better than most people. Once she gets into the habit of cycling, she’s a lot less likely to stop than if she’s laughed at for it. It might also help her realise the truck isn’t worth the hassle.

  • Destide@feddit.ukEnglish
    252·
    23 days ago

    Can’t believe that workplace abuses their workers like this, making people think she’s poor! /s

  • Xanis@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    22 days ago

    Some time ago I was standing chatting next to my vehicle in a parking lot. This was in college. About 50-60ft away was one of the lot entrances. Not too steep, though one of those that will catch a lower car if it doesn’t come in carefully. Anyway, in comes screaming a Lamborghini. The very expensive sound the bottom of that car made still makes me wish I was recording. Could’ve turned it into my morning alarm.

    I like to think me bursting out laughing still haunts the driver to this day.

  • meep_launcher@lemm.eeEnglish
    7·
    22 days ago

    Ya know, this is a good argument for all cars to be cartoonishly oversized. That way they can only be used when absolutely needed.

    Or of course the car lobby will just push to make all the infrastructure fit around the giant gas guzzlers.

    • P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      22 days ago

      No! Cause that bitch got home after her bike ride and drove that truck 4x more than her commute would’ve been. I work at a place that smells pretty bad due to the chemicals needed for the job. A LOT of people have “beaters” they use for work so their good cars won’t smell bad. This saves them enough money to afford ridiculous cars and trucks for their “normal life”. There’s a guy that drives an old geo metro for work. Awesome! Those get great gas mileage and it’s a 30 year old car, good on you man! “Yeah I just don’t want my ZL1 Camaro to smell like this place” well, fuck.