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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 26, 2024

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Then how will the delivery truck utilize the road effectively?

I don't see the problem. There are multiple layers of roads in the city:

  • highways that let you drive at 120km/h, allow all motor vehicles and avoid residential areas
  • arterial roads that let you drive at 60km/h and allow heavy motor vehicles only with permits
  • residential streets that let you drive at 30km/h
  • pedestrian streets that allow only emergency vehicles and small delivery trucks

So the delivery truck will progressively slow down until it reaches the shop, unload the goods and then progressively speed up until it reaches the warehouse.

This seems like it would increase the cost of goods significantly compared to the current system. Places like Amazon already face significant last step of delivery costs. Doing so for every supplier to a grocery store? That will make Biden's inflation look like childs play.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That's how corner stores work in Europe and Japan. It's not that big of a deal, you just have a shared warehouse for multiple stores that aggregates the deliveries from multiple suppliers. Perishables are usually delivered by the manufacturer, but you usually have a single supplier for each category.

Food in Europe does take up a higher % of their income though.

The usual suggestion seems to be only allowing trucks to deliver at night. This has the added benefit of keeping the peons who take deliveries out of sight and mind. And of course keeping us off public transit that only runs during the day.