[HN Gopher] I ran the length of every street in Pittsburgh [video]
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I ran the length of every street in Pittsburgh [video]
Author : Audiophilip
Score : 252 points
Date : 2022-12-29 01:13 UTC (21 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| donretag wrote:
| There is some gamification like this at https://wandrer.earth/
|
| I've been doing the same using Strava Heatmaps, cycling the
| Hollywood Hills. Lots of very steep dead-end streets. Cannot just
| wing it since you never know when there might be a street coming
| up, new streets need to be planned.
| NotYourLawyer wrote:
| Great YouTube channel. Here's a fun video where he integrates a
| raspberry pi into a NES cartridge to do all kinds of crazy things
| using the NES's native hardware. Spoiler alert: full-motion video
| of the rickroll video is not the craziest thing he manages to
| pull off.
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ar9WRwCiSr0
| kibwen wrote:
| Here's my favorite video of his, where he reinvents computing
| from scratch while eschewing inelegant 1s and 0s for elegant
| floating-point values: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TFDG-y-
| EHs
| francisofascii wrote:
| This is fantastic. Very impressive video. There is an web app I
| used a few years ago, https://citystrides.com, that links to your
| Strava/Garmin account and would give you a percentage of roads
| you traversed for a particular town. Haven't used it in a while
| but it seemed to work pretty well.
| loeg wrote:
| CityStrides is what I used, too. Once you've covered a lot of
| ground and need to drive to get to runs it got less fun for me.
| I think the trick to it is being able to move around as a
| renter and run new areas over time.
| zabzonk wrote:
| good title for a springsteen song?
| js2 wrote:
| I ran the circumference of an entire country once while on
| vacation:
|
| https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/616188437
| dirtyid wrote:
| Rare treat. Probably my "most enjoyed : least amount of videos
| ratio" content creator on youtube. Here's to waiting another
| year.
| iforgotpassword wrote:
| Nah, this was an out of season April's fools joke. So just
| another four months. :-)
| mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
| I believe the reason it tends to be one video a year is because
| he's a comp sci PhD and does a SIGBOVIK paper every year, and
| makes a video out of it. The rest of the year he does serious
| research I guess.
|
| This running thing was a personal project of 16 years though,
| so likely we'll get another SIGBOVIK type video in spring of
| next year?
| shadowgovt wrote:
| His Harder Drive paper was amazing
| [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJSW7Rprio], most
| especially the ending that considered a surprisingly common
| configuration of utterly useless, inefficient mass data
| storage that solves a problem nobody actually has.
| mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
| That's the one that led me to him; popped up in my
| recommendations one day.
|
| My favourite was actually the first one. I had a lot of fun
| thinking about how to do this with different protocols +
| ECC in a way that would let you use this as a sort of
| secret storage that goes away unless you refresh it in n
| days or so.
|
| Not saying I got anywhere, but it was fun to think about!
| anodyne33 wrote:
| For more info on the city stairs that are mapped as streets,
| Laura Zurowski walked all 739+ and documented with Polaroids and
| wrote a vignette inspired by each. Lovely writing style and she
| did a great job of capturing pictures that you'd see if you're on
| foot, off the beaten path, and deliberately surveying your
| surroundings.
|
| https://mis-steps.com/
|
| Her Instagram I think is the best way to browse the project.
| kawsper wrote:
| Fun video, I like his style and humor.
|
| If you want to run all the streets in your city, there's loads of
| us using https://citystrides.com to track how many streets we've
| run (not affiliated, just a happy subscriber).
|
| It's also a handy way of finding ways to contribute to
| OpenStreetMaps, you discover lots of little details that isn't
| mapped correctly on these runs.
|
| I'm at a depressing 83 of 2655 streets (3.13%) in Copenhagen,
| Denmark. But at a whopping 86 of 446 streets (19.28%) in Malvern,
| England!
| JeromeLon wrote:
| Can you get any taste of the supporter features before paying?
| I opened an account, got 60 activities imported from Strava, I
| can see them individually from citystrides, but clicking on one
| of the "Lifemap" buttons just zooms out, and shows nothing on
| the map.
| ibdf wrote:
| Is there anything like citystrides but for biking?
| alephxyz wrote:
| https://wandrer.earth is similar
| ibdf wrote:
| Thanks, I will check it out.
| durkie wrote:
| Wandrer.earth founder here! Happy to help you get lost :)
| raybb wrote:
| What kind of details have you found go not be mapped correctly?
| It seems a bit difficult to go from running around go looking
| at a map and seeing what doesn't match.
|
| I like editing OSM after walking around and area but maybe I'll
| try running!
| kawsper wrote:
| I usually plan my routes a bit before I run, so I'm aware of
| what streets I am supposed to be running.
|
| I've discovered a street that wasn't mapped at all on OSM
| (Tanglewood Heights, Malvern), I've discovered a gated
| community with no public access that were marked as public
| (Danebury Park, Malvern), and there was another parking
| lot/street I couldn't access because it was behind gates.
|
| I update the details on OSM, and then CityStrides updates
| their data sometime later.
| matsemann wrote:
| As someone doing the same but for biking on
| https://wandrer.earth/
|
| It supports downloading a "map" of everything I haven't done,
| and then on my Garmin unit I can use that as an overlay on
| the map. Thus when I'm out and around I can try all sideroads
| showing as un-biked. Then I often find streets that OSM think
| are bikeable, but really are not. Either behind gates, a
| highway etc. And fixing this makes it better for everyone.
| GrayShade wrote:
| I made something similar for myself. I probably wouldn't have
| tried it had I known about CityStrides or other apps.
|
| https://blog.dend.ro/mapping-my-walks-osrm-rust/
| mgkimsal wrote:
| Tangentially related, a friend of mine planned a shaped run, ran
| it, then it got picked up by some local media (couple years ago).
|
| https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020...
| kernal wrote:
| I found the uncovering of the "trap streets" amusing and how they
| would change once made public.
| dendrite9 wrote:
| Ricky Gates did a similar project in San Francisco in 45 days.
| http://www.rickeygates.com/everysinglestreet
|
| During the start of covid I tried to walk every street within a
| distance of my house, since it started from home and it was more
| about seeing what was near me the range became more arbitrary
| over time. Cool to see he stuck with this.
| SpaceInvader wrote:
| He was the first I know of that did such thing.
| mannykannot wrote:
| I wondered if Tom would include the streets that are long
| staircases, and, starting at the 10 minute point, he does.
|
| I have tried a "Manhattan nondeterministic run" a couple of
| times. The rules are simple: do not cross streets except where
| and when permitted by the crosswalk signs, and then you must
| cross. In practice, strict adherence to the "don't start crossing
| on flashing signs" rule leads to there being many times when you
| go around the same block more than once, and I am not suggesting
| one should do otherwise.
| decasia wrote:
| It's interesting, it seems at first somewhat gratuitous to have
| such a complex gamified system for something like running along
| city streets, and you can find yourself wondering why humans find
| such joy from following self-invented rules like this...
|
| But then I think to myself: Let's consider the physiological side
| effects of this project -- the exceptionally great physical (at
| least cardiovascular) shape that you would end up with from doing
| anything like this...
| LadyCailin wrote:
| His other videos are worth a watch too. Fantastic content.
| FpUser wrote:
| Fantastic project and presentation. Best wishes.
| w0m wrote:
| Absolutely love this. Great job Tom.
| rzzzt wrote:
| That's a half marathon on average for each run?
| shadowgovt wrote:
| It'd be fair to say Tom is an expert runner. He does the
| Pittsburgh marathon consistently and tends to do it in costume
| or with props
| [http://radar.spacebar.org/f/a/weblog/comment/1/1031] to up the
| difficulty.
|
| ETA: But as he notes in his video, the only thing he really did
| to be "expert" at running was stick with it for years and lots
| of trial-and-error.
| chucksmash wrote:
| He also talks about the costume and props around the 24
| minute mark:
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1c8i5SABqwU&t=24m21s
|
| He ran a 10k in ice skates!
| rzzzt wrote:
| He shows a histogram somewhere in the video and the numbers
| do line up, it is very impressive.
| jrochkind1 wrote:
| Pittsburgh's street map is especially insane.
| blamazon wrote:
| Knowing Pittsburgh, I had a feeling before I clicked that this
| would become a sort of philosophical exploration of what
| exactly constitutes a 'street' with not quite conclusive
| results. Glad to not be disappointed, what a delightful video.
| mgce wrote:
| I've done something similar - and less ambitious - on bike in
| NYC: I biked all Brooklyn and at this point 90% of Manhattan.
|
| I bet Pittsburgh is next-level confusing. But I think the
| philosophical questions apply anywhere. I enjoyed that as
| much as the actual endurance, and I loved seeing him dedicate
| so much time to that. It's not obvious when you start how
| subtle these questions get.
|
| Challenges I remember:
|
| - what level of highway counts. Some surface road highways
| are clearly navigable. Interstates obviously aren't.
|
| - on-ramps. When does a local road end and highway begin?
| What do you do when the ramp is a gradual transition from a
| local road?
|
| - divided roads (i.e. parallel north/south roads separated by
| a median, highway service roads)
|
| - roads that peter out into alleys, sort of go through
| peoples' property, may be fenced off, may be legal
| thoroughfares even if fenced off
|
| - campus road networks with varying levels of gate access /
| accessibility
|
| - access roads behind apartment complexes that only led to
| driveways
|
| - housing project street grids
|
| - park roads, bike paths, walking paths, trails
|
| - intersections with distinct turn lanes, plazas in the
| middle, etc.
|
| - highways / bridges only accessible once a year (i.e.
| dedicated bike tours)
| mgce wrote:
| Examples:
|
| - old beach lanes: https://shorturl.at/fty07
|
| - apartment road network: https://shorturl.at/cikrR
|
| - waste management access road: https://shorturl.at/bjM17
|
| - one conceptual road; three physical roads and median bike
| path: https://shorturl.at/eJS68
|
| - center lanes become a bridge: https://shorturl.at/tvxLU
|
| - complex intersections: https://shorturl.at/fxAC4
|
| - apartment entrance loop: https://shorturl.at/bgDKU
|
| - technically a road: https://shorturl.at/eJNYZ
|
| - checkpoint for an entire neighborhood:
| https://shorturl.at/vzLP1
| 1auralynn wrote:
| Yeah, I lived on a "street" called Shady Forbes Terrace,
| which was actually just a sidewalk.
| zeendo wrote:
| Awesome video.
|
| There's also https://wandrer.earth/ which tracks either cycling
| or running and your progress within various administrative
| districts. I'm not affiliated with it but I do know the creators
| - it started as an Atlanta only project but has been global for a
| few years now.
| say_it_as_it_is wrote:
| I was interested in the "GoPro Knockoff" mentioned in the video.
| It's an Akaso 5000 series. Akaso now has a 7000 model for $70.
| I'm very curious about this product! Not much info about storage
| media compatibility. Can anyone comment?
|
| https://www.akasotech.com/product/ek7000
| Centigonal wrote:
| why though? by all accounts the video quality was terrible
| shadowgovt wrote:
| Depending on what you want to hack together, sometimes
| terrible video quality out of an incredibly cheap machine is
| acceptable.
|
| At that price, you could afford to buy five of them and the
| micro computer to amalgamate the camera output into something
| better than bad.
| ldaw wrote:
| If all you're looking for is cheap, you can find action
| cameras like that for around $20 on Amazon, probably even
| cheaper through AliBaba or similar.
| zzigge wrote:
| Bought two of them for my kids. They work with the 32gb sandisk
| microsd cards I bought at the same time. Biggest gripe with
| them is the RTC looses power when you switch batteries,
| somewhat allieviated by automatic timesetting when connecting
| with the akaso app, but alas only somewhat, since the time is
| lost every time the kids replace the batteries, which means the
| photos are all in jumbled order on the memory card.
|
| Aside from that, they came with a bunch off accessories,
| including a non-coded remote that allows "one button" picture
| or video taking, without caring about the mode of the camera
| (and the buttons on the remote are easier for kid hands to
| press, less force needed)
|
| The non codedness comes in handy, since one remote will trigger
| both cameras, allowing synchronized videos to be created for
| front/rear or stereoscopic purposes.
|
| btw, created an account to post this, hope it has value.
| throwaway4736 wrote:
| Pittsburgh is an awesome town. Very underrated. Lots of friendly
| people, great food, thriving business, and a lot more culture
| than you'd think.
| jvm___ wrote:
| And a great children's museum and science center.
| pilingual wrote:
| If people want to learn more about Pittsburgh, there is nothing
| better than the Rick Sebak documentaries:
|
| https://www.wqed.org/watch/pittsburgh-history-series/flying-...
| adsims2001 wrote:
| And it has affordable housing! The population is about half of
| its peak, so there is more housing than needed, the opposite of
| many places in the U.S.
| bm0 wrote:
| Plugging https://arcane.city/ for the music scene
| DonHopkins wrote:
| I used to live in Shadyside on Gettysburgh Street in Pittsburg
| when I worked at CMU in the early 90's. (Yay CMU Common Lisp!)
|
| It really tweaked my OCD that Pittsburgh is spelled with an h,
| but Gettysburg isn't.
|
| Half the time when writing my address I'd get them both wrong.
| I just did now, but googled and corrected it, but I didn't have
| google back then, so I just had to wing it.
|
| There was a cute little bohemian cafe near a park in Shadyside
| with back yard garden seating.
|
| Apparently whoever owned the cafe had inherited or otherwise
| come into a copious supply of used bowling balls.
|
| So they used them to make tables, chairs, fences, and weird
| artwork and decorations, whole and cut apart, some with extra
| holes drilled, some metal rods through them.
|
| Lots and lots of bowling balls, artistically arranged. The
| darnedest thing.
|
| I'll never forget it, but I can't tell if I totally
| confabulated it or not.
|
| (Like how I can vividly recall that episode of the Muppet Show
| guest staring Bob Dylan and the Band, where they played Too
| Much of Nothin' with all the hippie and monster muppets: as far
| as I can tell it never happened, but I still will never forget
| it.)
|
| Has anybody else ever seen such a thing, around '92-93 or so?
|
| Was there an old bowling ball factory nearby?
| kens wrote:
| > Pittsburgh is spelled with an h, but Gettysburg isn't.
|
| There's some interesting history behind this, which I learned
| on a tour. The US Board on Geographic Names standardized
| place names in 1891 by dropping the h from places ending in
| "burgh". However, residents of Pittsburgh didn't like this
| change and lobbied for the original spelling, which was
| restored in 1911. So that's why you have Pittsburg CA and
| Pittsburgh PA.
| Schiphol wrote:
| It also has what's arguably the best philosophy of science
| department in the world https://www.hps.pitt.edu/
| jart wrote:
| Wow. If he did that while handing out campaign flyers, he'd be
| the mayor.
| thrdbndndn wrote:
| Great video!
|
| What is sports onion?
| beckerdo wrote:
| That is part of his humor for the video. I laughed out loud.
| [deleted]
| ianferrel wrote:
| It was a joke based on the fact that there were onions in the
| first shot where he mentioned what he brings with him.
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