Rare French bean

Frits Pieper
27 January 2023

I help my mother grind green beans.

At the top I put a green bean in the grinder.

I turn and at the back the green bean comes into the pan in pieces.

 

I think that can be done more efficiently. I put three French beans in the machine together. The beans are ground neatly. With eight beans at the same time, the whole lot gets stuck.

 

If there are too many cars on the road at the same time, it will also get stuck. Many people consider traffic jams to be the biggest mobility problem of our time.

But is that really so?

 

Does the traffic jam problem exist because it costs so much?

The economic damage is about €4 billion per year. This is written by the Knowledge Institute for Mobility Policy. How do they calculate this? A tenner per hour for everyone stuck in traffic. Of course, there are expensive people in it, but also people who cost nothing.

 

By the way, that €4 billion is much less damage than what accidents cost. That is €17 billion per year. And also less than the environmental damage of traffic jams. That is €11 billion (KiM, 2019). If you remove all volunteers from the traffic jam, the damage is only €1 billion. That is for the stationary trucks that of course do not stand in the traffic jam for fun.

 

Suppose the government magically removes all traffic jams. That would save €1 billion. But making all roads so safe that no more accidents occur would save €17 billion. Then I know what to choose.

 

So the cost is not the problem.

 

What then is the traffic jam problem?

Red brake lights flash on. 

The car next to it turns on its hazard lights. 

files.

Shit, you're home later than you thought.

 

Just like Max Verstappen, you can try to get to the front. Overtake left and right, take a piece of the hard shoulder every now and then. You might be home a bit earlier than those stupid sheep who all stand still.

 

Or get really annoyed by the idiots who pretend to be Max Verstappen. Constantly changing lanes, cutting off others. What idiots.

 

So you can choose: To be annoyed by yourself. Or to be annoyed by others.

 

You can also think: 'Well, then I don't have to mow the lawn when I get home.' What could be better than not having to do anything? Okay, you can't go anywhere, but that's perhaps the beauty of a traffic jam. No one is going to do anything to you, it's time for yourself.

 

So: no longer experience traffic jams as a problem. Then the traffic jam is not solved, but the traffic jam problem is. 

 

Will the traffic jam problem still exist in the future?

Mercedes has received German approval for their system that enables driving without hands on the steering wheel. Okay, not yet at 130 in the left lane. But it is a start. It is a system that can drive completely autonomously up to 60 km/h. According to Mercedes, useful in rush hour traffic, for example. The car then takes over the driving completely so that you can focus on things that you find more important than driving.

Then driving in a traffic jam becomes perfectly fine. You don't have to get annoyed and you can do something else in the meantime.

 

But I'm not a zen driver at all.

Imagine that traffic jams no longer exist. Then you race in a straight line to work, and back eight hours later. That may seem great, but of course it isn't. Always on time at work, always on time home. Never any time for yourself. No time to pick your nose, flirt with the person in the car next to you or listen to your own music.

 

I don't have a Mercedes that you can drive with no hands.

That is not necessary at all. Go to our website. Reserve a Hyundai Kona there. This car has adaptive cruise control. In traffic jams it can brake and accelerate by itself.

Listen to the radio and find a nice traffic jam. Preferably one in Germany, that's not too far.

And if you get cut off in a traffic jam? Then you think: oh, weird string bean.

 

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