8 Objects I Only Encountered After Moving to America | ROADSIDE EDITION
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2023
- It's not just that Britain and America drive on opposite sides of the road; the roadside objects are different, too. Here's a look at some of America's.
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the lack of headrest on the driver's side of the car makes me so nervous, that is SO dangerous
Right!? The headrest protects you from whiplash in an accident. In a lot of modern cars they have a built in feature that cause them to move forward to shorten the distance of your head flying back even more. Don't let your wife's big hair be an excuse not to be safe!
I said the same thing on his last video when I saw that. I just wince when I see that. If they're in an accident whoever's driving is going to have their neck snapped!
I noticed that too and was gonna comment if not one else did! They do that In some movies for some reason, but I don’t think that applies here. Be safe out there!
As someone who has had whiplash, seeing the lack of a headrest is highly triggering. Not good. Especially if the airbag engages.
Gives me extreme anxiety. The headrest isn't a comfort feature. It's there to keep your head attached to your neck in an accident.
I beg you to put the headrest back on that driver seat. I've been to so many crashes as a firefighter, and believe me - that headrest is a major safety feature to keep your head from snapping back and causing major neck and spinal damage. It is not just there for comfort - it works with other safety features to prevent major injury.
"Traffic light" and "stoplight" to me are equivalent and interchangeable (although I typically use stoplight). I've never heard an adult say "stop-and-go light" and if I had, they'd probably have gotten a pretty weird look from me 😂 it'd be cute coming from a child though!
Stop-and-go light is, I think, a very regional term, especially in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Like "bubbler" for drinking fountain.
@@nancylindsay4255 never heard that one either! Huh...
@@nancylindsay4255 So what you're saying is, in the Midwest they let the children name all the new-fangled gadgets...
Be glad it's not pennsylvania dutch... they'd be saying go otten the light while ee alter is reed
bubblers come from the midwest, It started as a brand name for the early ones and the name stuck@@amybee40
Okay Lawrence, transportation engineer here. The vertical part of the TRAFFIC SIGNAL is called the POLE. The metal bit that sticks out horizontally that has the SIGNAL HEADS is called a MAST ARM. And don't worry, the signal pole and foundation is designed to withstand the wind load of most storms typical of the area they are located. Not *all* storms, obviously, as sometimes really unexpectedly bad ones blow through, but that's pretty unusual. I see more signal pole come down when vehicles hit the pole, and even that's not common!
And please, please, please, PLEASE get that head rest (or head restraint) back in for your wife. From somebody who's had the WORST luck with car crashes (I've had 2 totaled on me in under a year, 2 in 2017 a month a part from each other, and my story will be in a NYT article in the future), you want all the safety protections you can get! I've suffered bad whiplash and a concussion from my most recent crash that would have been so much worse without the head rest. And the crash that broke 2 bones last year which had my airbag deploy, I don't even want to know how much worse that would have been without the restraint in place. And no, not one of these crashes were my fault.
Car crashes are so painful
Hey I've also had the worst luck with car crashes! 4 totaled cars!
One when I was 16 which was me being inexperienced plus a shitty intersection, one when I was 18 and fell asleep behind the wheel (been using a cpap ever since), one a few years later at the hands of a likely insurance scam, and then in 2019 when I got rearended on the freeway and it bent the frame
My worry is that without the headrest whiplash turns into broken neck. It's just an unnecessary risk to drive without that headrest, turning something you walk away from into a funeral.
Yea, I havent personally seen a traffic pole down and I live in OKC. We get some gnarly winds.
I saw a pole one come down during an icy night. Not because of the ice, but because someone's car slid into it. I was surprised it fell down too.
Driving around with no head rest in your modern car, of which head rests are considered part of the safety features to reduce physical injury, with TH-cam evidence of it no less, gives your insurance company an easy out of a claim if you're in a collision and a head/neck injury happens, regardless of who's fault it is. Don't give them a reason to deny you medical coverage in the event of a collision.
It probably involves the wife’s bun.
@@D_Parksthat’s what I’m thinking too
Correct. Insurance companies main job is to make money by not paying out claims.
it is not safe- "I love whip lash" said no one ever. And not smart, bun or not!
@@D_Parks it doesn't matter. even I as a woman who had to put her hair up in a stiff bun for 6 years in the navy managed to drive with my headrest on the seat at all times. Volvo even has the split head rest for hair to go between. Find something, anything, that will fit in the mechanism for safety's sake.
You wouldn't want hydlrants underground in the midwest because of snow. The things would be buried and you wouldn't be able to get to them.
To a certain latitude they get buried anyway.
Then again, snow is bulldozed to the sidewalks. (Cars need roads, but pedestrians can take a long walk off a short pier. )
And hydrants can be buried that way too.
@@ginnyjollykiddAs much as living on the East Coast has made me appreciate my Midwestern people where I was raised, I do have to say that 1 of the things about living here that I have noticed and like is that when we do get a bunch of snow, which happens maybe once a year, people take the find to shovel out the hydrants, so that if there is a fire, the fire department can get to them easily.
In Northern Wisconsin and other snowy regions, the hydrants have 8 foot poles, bright orange and white for the firefighters to dig out.
Cities clear the area around the hydrants.
Firefighter. The valve part of a hydrant is under the frost line. Everything you see above is dry and can't freeze. In turn unless you live somewhere where the frost line is inches under the ground the whole movie, car wreck, spraying water is more or less bs.
Funny story about fire hydrants. My grandma recalls one winter when there was a lot of snow (which is not the usual for piedmont region NC) the local kids kept building a snowman but some teens kept running over it with their car. So the children built it again this time over top of the fire hydrant. You can guess the rest. Lol
i remember! any time they cancelled school we'd stay hom÷& have Neeses liver pudding with grits& moon pies
Retired fire suppression lieutenant here.
Technically, non-fire department persons are not supposed to paint over fire hydrants . It’s illegal in some places.
The top part’s color (bonnet area) is sometimes painted a specific color to let the fire department personnel know what the pressure rating is for that particular hydrant.
Black-399 gpm or less
Red-400-499 gpm
Orange-500-999 gpm
Green-1000-1400 gpm
Blue-1500 gpm or more.
We used to put down in the roadway a blue reflector to let the fire engineer/driver know where the hydrant was located.
I’ve see out west a long thin pole with an orange flag on the end mark the location in the snow, also.
Fun fact: During the country’s bicentennial, lots of hydrants were painted red-white-blue, even as red-white-blue people!
The person you heard say that a stoplight was a stop and go light is probably the only person who calls traffic signals that. I’ve never heard it or read it before.
Me either. It's a "traffic light" when I'm speaking in general terms, and a "stoplight" when I'm specifically talking about a red light, like saying "I was sitting at the stoplight when I saw this British guy admiring a fire hydrant on the corner." But I've never heard of a "stop and go" light, nor have I ever read that term used anywhere.
In NJ it's just reduced to "light". For example when giving directions: "At the end of the street, make a left, go past 2 lights and at the 3rd light, make a right".
midwesterners call them stop and go lights.
Come to Wisconsin and marvel at our stop and go lights.
@@skidmark316 We also use that here in PA. Traffic light, light, and stoplight are all acceptable, but used in different situations. Like if you just held up a photo and asked me what it was, I'd say traffic light. If you showed me specifically a photo of a red light, I'd say either red light or stoplight. And, like you said, if I was giving directions, I might say something like "make a left at the next light." They're all acceptable, but situational, if that makes sense.
Fire hydrants are also directly responsible for the National Institute of Standards (and Technology).
Back in the early 1900s, there was a major city wide fire in Baltimore. Fire Engines from Philadelphia and Washington showed up to help. Unfortunately, their hoses didn't fit Baltimore's fire hydrants. Afterwards, the US Government set up the NIS to standardize such things as fire hydrants to prevent this sort of problem in the future.
NIST is actually a really cool organization!
I thought I knew a lot about Baltimore history having grown up in here and having both sides of my family living in the Baltimore area since the mid-1800s. But dang, I learned something new! Thank you!
There's still a lot of places that have their own proprietary threads.. example FDNY runs it's own and any neighboring departments carry adapters
That was the National Fire Protection Association, not NIST.
@@TheRandomSpectator I knew a guy (Doctor of Physics) who worked there who was trying to get a better measurement of G (Big G), the universal Gravitational Constant (as opposed to "little g' the Earth's gravitational constant ~ 9.8 m/s²)
Back in the 1970s, there was a fad going around in the US of people painting fire hydrants to look like little people. I remember reading a funny in Reader's Digest about a couple of hydrants in front of a couple of churches (one on each side of the road). Someone had painted one to look like a nun, the other to look like a monk. A few days later, someone had hung a sign on the monk that read "I'm not a monk. I'm a fryer hydrant" 🤣
I remember the tail end of that trend...but I haven't thought about it in years!
oh god, i havent thought about the RCA dome in so long! thanks for making this hoosier nostalgia
also, yes, road salt/grit facility owned and operated (usually) by the D.O.T.
Put that headrest back in. It's there for a very very good reason.
It snows more with higher accumulation in the United States. It’s crucial that firefighters have immediate access to water without the need to search or dig the snow off of the lid to access an underground valve in the event of a fire during winter.
Often times the coloring indicates the flow capacity for the hydrant
I started noticing in Chicago that the city also attaches flags that stick up about six feet. I’m guessing that is so the hydrants can be located in heavy accumulation or after the plows pile snow to the roadside.
@@pamelasimone5084 They do that here in northern Minnesota too, they all have really tall red flags on them.
Good point!
In my city when we have had a snow storm the city does come out to uncover the hydrants and we citizens are asked to help by keeping any close or on our street lawn cleared off.
The head "rest" in vehicles is a safety device more properly referred to as a head restraint. Apparently it's called that in the UK as well.
well, since all of the subscribers are from either USA or UK: there was reallly no reason for u 2 explain that to us: now was there?
Whatever the proper term, he needs to put it back. It's dangerous to drive without it if someone is sitting in that seat.
There is an indicator on the roads (at least in Indiana) to tell you where the hydrants are located as well. If you look carefully at the reflective lights in the middle of the road occasionally you'll come across a blue one in the sea of yellow/orange. That blue light helps our fire departments find hidden hydrants. Especially useful when they're completely covered by snow. Blue=water.
I’ve seen the blue ones before and had no idea what they were for
In Central New York we have posts on the hydrants so that they won't get hit by snow plows and so that volunteers can dig them out.
We have the same indicators in Louisiana. Unfortunately, those little reflector buttons don't seem to stay in place, nor do they get replaced with any regularity.
@@PMickeyDeeit’s hard to keep them attached to an asphalt surface in the heat of the Deep South. They stay attached better to concrete.
@@butterbeanqueen8148 that's along the lines of what I assumed along with the fact that we can't perform basic maintenance with any consistency
I think Tara might be able to tolerate the headrest if she uses a lumbar support or thin cushion up the back of the seat. They’re uncomfortable, especially with a bun in your hair but headrests are to prevent whiplash and in very bad cases, internal decapitation. Really hope you put the other headrest back in the car Take care!
I've seen too many people texting behind me to contemplate EVER removing a headrest in a car. You WILL get rear ended at some point.
I turn the headrest around so it is not forcing my neck bending forward.
Try raising the headrest instead of lowering it. This puts the curved part above your head while still keeping you safe
Head rest shouldn't be touching your head while normal driving anyway
Have you ever noticed blue road reflectors? They actually signify that there's a fire hydrant next to them!
Any time you see one, try looking for the other!
Shoes -- Where there's been a car accident and someone died. Friends throw them up in remembrance. There's a cross and flowers and shoes at my closest intersection.
@@veramae4098
Down south, they signify a drug dealer's house.
I just typed that then seen your comment. 😅👍
👍🏼👍🏼 such a fun game to play 😁😁
@@Garjahn That’s what I’ve heard
I've never used the phrase "strip mall" and instead have always used "shopping center". When I moved to Illinois I was delighted to see so many water towers, every town seems to have their own. They remind me of Ferris Bueller's Day off when "Save Ferris" gets written on one.
Sometimes the term you use depends on how nice it is. If it's an older, smaller place with the usual hair salon/check cashing/liquor store/Subway or local equivalents, it's a strip mall. If it consists of more than one building and has a larger parking lot, and has newer stores, or maybe even department stores, it's a Shopping Center. They build those instead of malls, these days.
Sometimes in my neck of the woods (another regional idiom), we prefer the term strip mall to insult a modern, commercial eyesore that replaced some lovely farmland or forest land.
Maybe someone already mentioned this, but the city names on water towers go back to the early 1900s. The early "barnstormer" and airmail pilots would actually uses them for point to point navigation. Small towns that wanted airmail service would make sure they had some visible landmark to ensure they would be part of the route.
Why do you not have the headrest on your driver side seat? It’s rather dangerous to drive without the headrest and we all want to keep both of you safe!
I wager it has to do with the vanity of the person driving.
>perms are expensive.
yeah yeah i know, not as expensive as whiplash. hence the vanity comment.
Wife's big hair, not a good reason to do, only reason to remove is if your car is going under water. Designed to remove to smash the window open.
never heard that, thanks.
yes, they do need the headrest on the driver's seat, he should DO THAT NOW!
@@neolithicnobody8184 if your car gets hit you’ll be whipped back and forth while snapping you head/neck violently. With the headrest your neck/head will be held upright in one position.
The color of the hydrant tells firefighters how much water flow they can get from it. The yellow one you showed with the blue top should flow in excess of 1500 GPM. Also, you won't have it where you are because of street plows, but in the south, in the middle of the lane will be a blue reflective marker, that tells where the hydrant is and on what side of the road.
I don't know if every city uses the same color coding, but yes, within a city the color can let the firefighters know what the pressure is for that hydrant, to know whether it'll get water to the top of the taller buildings nearby.
I think they dig the markers down into the asphalt, like a little hollowed out wedge
The color of the hydrant identifies the source of the water and if its potable or not
@@csickpuppy Sounds like it means different things in different jurisdictions!
The blue reflector must be some kind of USDOT regulation/recommendation. Whenever my city in north central Ohio repaves a street they include blue reflectors set off center on the side of the street where the fire hydrant is. The county does that too, now that I think about it.
The traffic light pole(mast type) is typically mounted to a concrete base approximately 2 to 2.5 feet wide and about 10 feet deep. The pole is bolted to this foundation. I have been on many contracts that included installing these.
Fun fact: The color a hydrant is painted idenitifies the potential waterflow from said hydrant so the firefighters know how powerful it is. This helps them determine if it is sufficient or if they need to call in ater trucks for support.
In some cases maybe, but in some places they indicate whether it is on a meter or not. As a construction worker this is very helpful to know whether we need a meter in line with our hose or not.
@@randomvideosn0where I don't know where you are, and even Google doesn't know about what you just claimed.
Per the NFPA, hydrant color is about water flow pressure, and nothing else.
@@BigJeremyBeyer Near Newark NJ was the first time I had seen this. We had one color for the hydrants downstream of the Owner's water meter and the city hydrants were a different color. This was also the case on a project near Richmond VA.
Yeah, i never got that. It's under pressure, but the truck can suck it out to increase the pressure. It's obvious if you think about it, i just never did.
@@onequickthing8950 based on that logic, they can get proper pressure from a garden hose.
There is always a maximum amount.
I've never understood the shoe thing either. I've never seen anybody do it, I've never known anybody who would admit to doing it, I am absolutely clueless as to why it is done. Always struck me as bizarre.
it’s just a thing teenagers do for fun
In a police course I learned that they are a marker that shows what type of drugs are being sold, and where you get them.
@@Lili-xq9sn
I was coming in here to see if anyone else knew that & yes. You're right.
It's about drugs
It's gang territory for drug dealers.
For the traffic lights, I mostly hear people just say 'lights'. "Turn left at the second light from Safeway," as an example.
Usually, when the light has to be differentiated, it's usually the street lights that get the extra word. "Why do the street lights turn off when it's still dark in the morning?"
Together you might get a conversation like:
"It's dark on that corner since they still haven't fixed the street lights."
"Where?"
"Second light from the Safeway."
I noticed a similar problem here in PA. I will be at the corner of 'Walk' and 'Don't Walk' and after a minute or two the street signs change to 'Don't Walk' and 'Walk'. Have other people noticed that in their towns? I grew up in a small town in Colorado. We only had metal signs, no traffic lights. Hmmnn.
@@Colorado_Native The corner of "Walk" and "Don't Walk" sounds like an existential crisis. One to which the answer is probably "Ruuuuun"....
That reminds me of how my mother gives directions... "Turn left where the old grocery store used to be, then turn right at the Smith's house...." To which I reply, "Mom, the Smiths haven't lived there in 30 years."
@@s.h.6858, that reminds me of practically EVERY episode of Doctor Who when a villain sees the Doctor and companion(s) -- "RUN!!" ☺️
@@starling5188 I've learned the history of places I've just moved to from directions like that.
I grew up on a corner lot. We had two yellow fire hydrants. One was tall (4 feet?) and one was a short squatty one. When “Chinese” jump rope was a thing, tall hydrant stood in for a person if there weren’t enough players. We also used to climb it as a lookout. Wikipedia says Chinese jump rope was from China and it is called “elastics” in Britian.
If you come to Central California, the water tower in Kingsburg is a coffee pot to commemorate their Swedish beginnings, and Fresno's water tower is made out of brick with a book store in the bottom. It was featured in the television mini-series "Fresno" starring Carol Burnett.
Please put the headrest back on the drivers seat. Whiplash is going to be a lot more uncomfortable when someone rear ends your Prius
Laurence, I don't know if you've noticed an interesting fact about strip malls, but around here (North Alabama), any small to medium sized strip mall is *guaranteed* to have three things: a hair salon, a nail salon, and a Chinese restaurant. Otherwise it's not a proper strip mall, lol!!
😂
Laundromat too, they always have one of those.
@@monkeyboy4746 I don't see many of those for some reason. Could be the size of the city too. I can only think of about 3-4 around Huntsville
Don't forget a boba tea shop.
@@terrib627 hmm, don't really recall that one around here. Just looked, I guess there are a few, but they're only in a couple areas of town.
I'm a former Firefighter/EMT. It has been a long time, but there is an NFPA Standard that states that the bonnets (or tops) of hydrants would be painted with a certain color to signify the water pressure that the hydrant supplies. The hydrants have to be recertified periodically to make sure that the water pressure is remaining the same. (I think that NFPA Standard is 291. And someone who is still in the field and obviously more current that I, feel free to interject and correct me if I am wrong).
That pressure will alert the engineer manning the pump pannel on the rig how many gallons per minute (gpm) they can operate so they don't cavitate/crush the hydrant's supply line.
If that happens, it complicates the whole scene because the hydrant is no longer supplying water, and the water is now leaking underground and into the street and the structure fire is getting out of control. And it's a lot of paperwork. Not to mention, a whole lot of explaining yourself to a whole lot of people. 🤣
Also, i understood exactly what "notice boards" are, and everywhere I have lived here in the States, they call them "marquis" whether they are electronic or otherwise. Perhaps it's regional? But that's what I've mainly heard them referred to as.
It's a small thing to point out but it's gallons per minute not pressure. You can have high pressure but very little gallons.
@@robertheslop1628 Thabk you. I told you it's been a long time... 🤣 I couldn't remember which one it was, and I thought wrong.
I love these videos. Every one is a gem. Ty for doing these Lost in the Pond Team 😊😊😊
One of the interesting parts of salt domes is that they use no metal, as salt would rapidly corrode metal.
I actually never considered that! I have wondered however if they have rivers of water coming out of the bottom since as you know, salt in storage is a dehumidifier. 🤔
@@BritIronRebelThe salt doesn't make water precipitate out. It absorbs into the salt.
I guess if the salt absorbs enough water it dissolves and you get salt rivers. But then you aren't storing the salt anymore.
In Austria a lot of salt is needed too in the winter, but there are no domes, just normal buildings. Probably more on the beton side with wooden roofs as is generally common here.
Instead they're made of wood and rot.
@@ScottCleve33 Actually salt is a conservation medium for wood. In salt mines you find very old wooden structures which are very well preserved. In China wood was stored in salt water. We also have complete wooden silos for salt at the roads.
FYI driving without your head rest installed is not safe. If you get rear-ended in traffic, your head is going to snap back and you will likely get a serious neck injury.
Here in Minnesota I have heard MANY people call a traffic light a "stop light". But I also hear plenty of folks say "traffic light" as I do. I personally think it just sounds better. Sure you do stop at them, but you also get to go forth and reach your destination.
Besides the headrest issue which has been addressed.....thoroughly, thank you for your restraint for Arthur and also using a harness and not attaching it to the collar. Pets become projectiles in car accidents and hit the windshield. This happened to a friend of mine and luckily the dog only lost a leg. They do sell restraints that hook into the seat latch like a child's car seat. And lastly don't forget to spay or neuter your pets.
During the Bicentennial, my Boy Scout Troup went around painting all the fire hydrants as colonial or patriotic figures and such. I had a Minute Man at one end of my block, and a flag motif design at the other end.
I'm old enough to remember that too!
we did that in my home town as well.
Cool idea!
Yeah, 1976 was the year I turned six. I remember all the fire hydrants (including the one across the street from my house) being painted in red, white, and blue designs. I thought that was a really neat idea at the time. (I still think it's a neat idea.)
When the Syracuse University men's basketball team got into the final four, the City of Syracuse had the hydrants near City Hall painted orange in honor of The Orangemen.
For those warning about the headrest, a better solution than removing it if it messes up your hair or pushes your neck too far forward is to turn it around. You can put most of them in backwards and they will be a few inches farther back when reversed. That way, you still have some protection against whiplash.
Yeah, I noticed the lack of headrest and thought probably getting in the way, like hair or such. But at the same time, any accident it's going to really hurt. Good tip, but I do know some headrests have a wire that goes up into it for angle adjustment or such with a motorized chair, so those can't be flipped around. Also often the locking adjustment is just on one side of one peg, so it wound 't lock into place if reversed.
@@marcusdamberger For the motorized/adjustable ones, you probably don't need to do this since you can just adjust it properly. My dad and brother both reverse theirs to prevent neck pain.
I ended up doing so instead of keeping it off because my mechanic warned me it could give your insurance company a reason to deny coverage, since the piece was missing/taken off.
Enjoy your whiplash.
@@mikelundquist4596 For people with good posture, turning the headrest around sometimes isn't enough - it still pushes their head forward. I don't think whiplash will be a problem.
The giant blow up building is what my town used to do with the community pool in the winter so it could stay open year round. It was officially the recreation center, but everyone called it "The Bubble" even in the summer when the big bubble was taken down.
We must be from the same home town. The bubble has been gone for about 10 years but a lot of people still refer to it as The Bubble
There used to be an ice rink near us that was housed in one of those blow-uo domes.
I love your videos, they make my day a little brighter. I appreciate the hard work and dedication that you and your wife put into making them. Keep up the good work.
A friend lives in a small town an hour from me here in Illinois. The town is RIO, a relative was visiting and got “lost”, called and when asked about landmarks he could see said there was a water tower with the “number” R10 on it, true story.
My parents' vacation home in the country in southern Illinois was close to an old water tower - great easy landmark for new guests to find the house . When I first met my future husband , we discovered that he & his grandfather had hunted in that area by the water tower years earlier , possibly when I temporarily lived there . Coincidence ? Fate ? 🤔 😂
@@cynthiajohnston424 Awesome, Moody Blues sang “isn’t life strange…”
Kind of like the person who thought her Ford truck was a FISO, not an F150.
@@61rampy65 People can be hilarious!
Kind of like my cousin who was new in town, saw the Popeyes Chicken sign and thought she was in a Catholic neighborhood because of the "Pope Yes" sign! 🤣☮️
on, whiplash will be horrible if you even get into a fender bender. 😢 pls this is not a hate comment, I love this channel ❤
Since you so confidently told me to subscribe, I did. Really enjoy your channel.
Salt huts! If you drive by in October or so, you'll sometimes see trucks filling the huts for the coming winter
There’s quite a few where I live in Scotland, dotted around different parts of the city and its outskirts. I have always loved the shape of them.
Lawrence, fun fact about the fire hydrants. The colors actually mean something. It has to do with how much water output it is capable of. Typically in residential neighborhoods they will be Red which is the smallest diameter pipe and lowest flow rate of the types of hydrants. Sufficient for a typical house fire. Here's the breakdown: Blue - over 1,500 gallons per minute (gpm) | Green - 1000 to 1,499 gpm. | Orange - 500 to 999 gpm. | Red - less than 500 gpm. Private (not owned by the city/town) hydrants are usually Yellow. They may have a different color cap to indicate the flow rating.
When I was growing up they were painted. Not just a single color but like people and animals or things. They got art students from the local school to go around and pain them something creative.
Fire departments also have access to maps the show nearby hydrant possibilities that are connected to a different water main other than the one nearest the fire. In the event of a multi-alarm fire the fire responders can tap into the "alternate" hydrant without greatly affecting the flow on the original hydrant. A deck gun or tower gun will consume over 500 GPM alone.
Interesting factoid!!!
Your figures may be true in some places but in suburban areas I see a huge majority of hydrants sporting all sorts of colors and combinations, as well as artistic endeavors as mentioned above.
Our property had yellow ones, but we didn’t own them. I read that colors also tell water quality or source. My favorite color purple means “non potable.” Good for fires, not for drinking.
In 1976 the city of South Bend Indiana painted all the fire hydrants to look like important historical people of the founding of the United States of America. Growing up with that, all other fire hydrants bore me a little. Unless something is actually on fire. As a firefighter I am happy to see any working hydrant when its time to really work at work
For my town's bicentennial the hydrants in our downtown were painted in various designs. One was even painted like R2D2.
In the town where I grew up, the hydrant in front of the fire station had a fireman's hat and was painted to look like a fireman's jacket.
On my last day of working at a place, I leave my work shoes at work. Hanging from the most obvious place to see it, my last goodbye.
These videos always make me smile, Laurence. Take a look at the water towers we have in Texas. They're huge, often made of a concrete tower and steel tank, and much more fantastically painted. Also, in Texas, many of our stoplights (traffic lights) hang horizontally by preference, but each municipality can choose which they prefer. For one thing, it gives more vertical clearance. You see this orientation in other countries like Japan.
Ah, Texas, the queen of large "look at me" roadside oddities. I've always preferred the drive to San Antonio or Brownsville so much more than, say, Pensacola. There's always something to look at, even if it's just a pasture full of cows and whatever contraption the rancher thought it'd be fun to build
If it's an array of lights it's a traffic light, if it's a single red blinking light it's a stop light, single yellow blinking lights are caution lights. The stop and caution lights usually face different directions on the same box at an intersection, but stand alone stop lights can also be found on four-way stops while caution lights can be found at yields.
(Ohio & New York here) I (and AFAIK most people) still call it a stoplight even if it has red/yellow/green lights. It’s fully a synonym for traffic light.
@@kc9scottTexan here, and same. Stop light is just another way to say traffic light. Or traffic signal if I'm feeling REALLY fancy.
@@CptJistuce In Michigan in my expectance, Traffic light, then stop light, and then traffic signal are the favored in descending order.
In Wisconsin, they're often called stop and go lights.
in my small area, the shoe thing was an act of bullying. Grab the classmate's shows during PE change, play keep away as long as possible, eventually throw them over the wires, classmate goes home shoeless. Haha very funny. PS, billboards are not allowed in Alaska. Its a wonderful relief to be able to see the scenery,
Billboards are also banned in my county. I always know I’ve crossed the county line when I start seeing them. It’s so distracting whenever I go out of state and they’re just EVERYWHERE. So distracting! Even other counties in my state have them spread out.
Banned in Vermont, too. Billboards, that is. Not shoe-throwing.
I loved that about Alaska when I lived there. They are every where here in GA. With technology, who needs them? haha
One style of what you call "electronic [digital] notice boards" that I used to see everywhere growing up (back in the '80s and thru the '90s) but don't see anymore were ones that would show the time and temperature, most often seen at the entrances to shopping centers or sometimes outside banks or gas stations -- especially if they were on the corner of an intersection. I don't know when I last consciously remember seeing one of these signs but it was some years ago when it dawned on me that I haven't seen one in a long time
They used to be common outside banks. One of the common reasons is due to banks being the prominent building in many towns wanting to provide a public service and gain favor with the people.
Traffic Light: General term for the device, often shortened to just, "Light."
Stop Light: Usually synonymous with "Red Light," as far as I've ever heard it.
I have never heard "Stop & Go Light" in my life.
Back at my previous job, I drove mostly on back roads to get to the office because there wasn’t a convenient highway going there from my home. Along the way I passed a church, and one day I noticed it had gotten a big shiny fancy new electronic sign. As I passed, I noticed that the sign was displaying an animated logo with text reading “Watchfire.” I had never heard of that, but from the context I guessed it was maybe a youth ministry or he name of a Christian rock band that was going to put on a concert at that church. When I got to a computer, I was still curious so I looked it up. Turns out it’s the name of a company that makes big shiny fancy new electronic signs. The sign was so new that the church hadn’t gotten around to actually programming it with their own content yet.
That's funny.
Or hadn't yet found someone who could figure out how.
Traffic lights. You are right about the fire hydrants - when I actually went looking for them in my neighborhood, I discovered I went by four obvious ones everyday and just never pad attention to them.
there is one every other block in my city. in both main directions. the furthest you will be from one, ever, is 1 block, until you hit the industrial areas.
I did the same thing several years ago (but I'm old). I never really noticed the blue reflectors, until I did. Now I see them everywhere! 😱
Shoes hanging overhead means that you can find someone nearby to sell you drugs... according to the legend in the small northwest town I grew up in.
You are vastly underrating how common inflatable buildings are and how wide are the range of their uses. They are particularly useful as annexes to main buildings. Some churches even meet in them. About 15 years ago I was regularly attending a church that used their enormous inflatable building for youth services and for the Spanish services whenever those conflicted with the time of the English services. I think we could seat 500, if I recall.
The obvious downside is that they are vulnerable to bad weather, and hence bad to use for expensive things, such as a professional quality lighting and sound system. A tornado (of a type known as a "miniburst") started out of nowhere and we cowered in the main building as 50 mph winds heralded the imminent approach of the tornado. I begged the head pastor to let me try to go in and rescue some things, at least the soundboard, pleading that I was "expendable", but he refused to let me go.
Because you are so kindly, Lawrence, I call them traffic lights. But my husband, who was from South Africa, calls them robots.
I learned that from Die Antwoord.
@@ferretyluv I am so old that I had to ask my college age nephew who they were.
Traffic light and stop light are common here in the metro NY area. NYC DOT calls them "traffic control lights". I learned that when trying to report a broken traffic light. Never heard of "stop and go light".
In the context of a casual conversation about the road, I will often refer to them as simply, “lights.”
E.g. “I made the light at the bottom of the hill on my way home today.”
I thought you might find it interesting that at Mountain crossings, the first direct resupply point on the Appalachian trail, there is a tree outside. The tree is COVERED in the handing boots of all of the people who reached mountain crossing and decided to end their hike there. It is certainly not the origin of the boots on power-lines, but, it is interesting none the less. Actually, you could probably make a video just on the appalachian trail, something like "UK hiking trails have nothing on these" or something. If you don't know much about it, it's fun to research.
I know this will drive my ocd mad but how come Tara’s seat doesn’t have the headrest but Laurence’s does 🤷🏿♂️
They ever in an serious accident she is going to have severe whiplash if not a worse injury. For her safety she should put the headrest back in place.
A lot of headrests push your head too far forward, which is uncomfortable. I bet that’s it.
@@dforrest4503 Most are adjustable. At least up and down. And that can help.
It’s dangerous to drive without the headrest installed. Very easy way to snap your neck in even a slow speed wreck. Seriously you could die… don’t die.
I love this guy.He has a great sense of humor and interesting blogs.
I love these videos and the way you present them.😅
I always thought the shoe hanging thing was just teens being obnoxious... I still think that.
Me too
Before malls what are now called 'strip malls' were called shopping centers. You actually had to go outside to go from store to store.
Exactly, Shopping Centers in the 60s and ‘70s. Some of them were quite large.
Today it seems malls are starting to die out for some reason. All new places are these new shopping centers where half of them are free standing large big box stores and the other half of it is strip malls. And they're always difficult to navigate for some reason. They never just put straight road that goes through. They always need to make the road branch off and curve for some reason.
Shopping centers have a large anchor store, like a supermarket. Strip malls don't. They may have a famous store, like Subway or Starbucks, but they aren't large.
@@shells500tutuboyes. I was going to comment similar. They aren’t the same thing.
When they were first built in the 1920's - 30's they were known as 'Parades' ( the shops were parading along the street)
We still call them "fire plugs" sometimes. In the early days of public water, fire fighters would start by digging down to a pipe, then under the pipe, then cut a hole in the pipe so it filled the space they dug under it, then pump water out of that. When the fire was out, they plugged the hole in the pipe, eventually with plug that had a valve in it that could be reopened. So, the next time there was a fire, they wanted to find the previous plug, so they marked it above ground.
Southerners of my generation call them fire plugs.
The term comes from Great Britain... London.
We have those domed salt stores in the UK too. One I pass often is on the M6 near Shap.
a fun hydrant fact: in the majority of the US, hydrants are designed in such a way that simply breaking the top off one will not cause a geyser, because they are designed with the valve below ground, and a long rod running down from the top that opens and closes the valve. however, in climates where there is no danger of freezing, the hydrants have a valve at each outlet, and those will make the movie scene geyser if you break one off. they also normally have a backup valve a few feet away, that you have to lift a round cover and reach down the hole with a special wrench to turn that valve off. - if the hydrant valve fails.
How did a conversation about American water towers in movies not hit on Ferris Bueller's Day Off? A movie that was filmed in my current home of Northbrook, IL, and prominently featured a water tower that I pass every day.
Because it wasn't that big of a deal in the film. Unlike Gilbert grape, or sweet home Alabama, it did not play a prominent role.
@@LindaC616 fair enough. I’m just biased.
@@michelleneal6860 😉
Does it still say Save Ferris? 😅
Sadly, no.@@mshonle
It's probably been said a dozen times now but not having the headrest on is a surefire way to get whiplash when in a collision.
Before Seattle’s Kingdome was demolished, there was a curved inflatable extension by it. It was locally called the Slug
A little known fact about fire hydrants is that in most states and cities, they put a blue reflector in the middle of the street in line with the hydrant so the fire department can see where it’s at a lot easier.
@@Martys-4x4 so you have actually looked? Total nonsense. I’ve lived in 3 states and done fire sprinklers and hydrants and all 3 had them. May not be in small hic towns, but bigger cities do.
@@kevinwallis2194Lol, not ones that get a lot of snow. Those raised reflectors don’t stand a chance against a snow plow, lol.
You'll find things in every quarter of the country. The southwest and northwest have their own incredible and unique landscapes. Dotted with their own little towns and landmarks. Keep traveling!
I agree. I live in Kentucky and the eastern Appalachian Mountains are nothing like the Bluegrass region and western Kentucky is completely different as well.
@@jonathanmorrison2225 Heck, even northern Appalachia and southern Appalachia are completely different. There are so many different and interesting places to find in the US.
@@Martys-4x4 If you divide the country into 4 sections, like the commenter was talking about (northwest, southwest, northeast, southeast) then there are 4 quaters. And there are no sections "clearly defined." Maps are clearly defined. The country isn't.
So, what's your favorite flavor of crayon?
@@Martys-4x4
PLUS , water towers in the U.S. can look like Giant Peaches (Georgia ) or Giant Cobs of Corn (Nebraska) or Baseballs, etc
What I think is amusing is Tara's expression as you're talking. Like, "Yeah, whatever." 😆
Laurence, I liked it when you called it “shoe dangling” 😂😂😂
When I was growing up, we called it a "plaza". Strip mall is a relatively new term to me. To me, a mall has an interior concourse for the shoppers to go from store to store.
where I am, a strip mall is specifically when the stores are arranged in a straight line on one side of a parking lot. ours usually have 4-6 stores.
That's what used to be called an "indoor mall". The term implies it exists in contrast to an outdoor mall.
@@kenbrown2808 Many of the folks around where I live in the Southeast just call that a shopping center. They vary in size and whether or not they have large or popular/well known franchised businesses. Officially, some of them are given the name "Plaza" on their signs, but nobody calls them that.
@laurie7689 shopping center is a catch-all, here. A strip mall is a specific type.
I think the difference is the layout. “Plaza” where I’m referred to is basically a big parking lot with separate stores surrounding it (usually) in a horseshoe shape. Whereas strip malls are referred to when it’s basically the layout of the ground floor of any indoor mall, but it’s outdoors. So you’d park somewhere close but not right by any store.
Though people do use the terms interchangeably I’ve noticed.
Chicago needs above ground fire hydrants because of the freezing temperatures. They actually extend 10 feet underground well below the frost line. That bolt head is a long bolt that extends to the valve that is at the bottom so it doesn't freeze.
"Traffic light" in Maine. Also, in Maine we do not have billboards. Some brilliant lawmaker decided many years ago that there would be a largest size sign beyond which we shall not go. I'm so happy about that. We have TREES alongside the highways, and the towns look decent.
To me, I don’t really think about traffic/stop lights when I’m driving, they’re more of a concept tied to a color, so I’ll call them the green light or the red light. You can catch a red or green, and a yellow is simply a green that makes you speed up to catch it, that’s a joke I’ll usually stop at yellows if I’m too close.
Ooo Lawrence, love your channel and content 😎👍. It brings a 😁 every time.
Oh, and be glad there are so many hydrants around. I know some jurisdictions where your homeowner's/ fire insurance rates depend on you being within 300 feet or something from the nearest hydrant. Not a problem in towns and cities, but as you move outward from town, it can impact your rates.
In downtown Venice, FL the fire hydrants are painted sky blue. There are blue reflective markers in the middle of the road opposite each hydrant, making them easy to locate day or night.
Interesting to learn something new after living in the US for 60 years. I have never seen a salt storage building and never thought about where people stored salt. In Alabama we get so little snow that we just shut down 2 or 3 days a year and enjoy a little staycation. Of course we know in advance and are so inexperienced with winter weather that we do a panic run on the grocery store, especially for bread and milk for some reason.
A true southern tradition, the milk sandwich. :)
I also live in Alabama. I've never seen our ALDOT salt the roads, but once in a while they might put sand mixed with salt on icy patches. I've seen salt domes before when I was a child visiting my Mom's parents who lived in Maryland.
I've lived in Oakland, California for over 30 years, and it's never snowed here in that time. And, we don't have domes to store salt or sand, since we don't get icey roads. However, go into the Sierra Nevada mountains, only a few hours drive east, and you will find plenty of snow and ice in the winter.
@@laurie7689 Marylander here, and yup, they are all over the place. Often right next to or very near major exits on highways. I assume built there to allow quick access to major roads in weather events.
It does tend to vary from city to city, even in places where it snows I've seen come cities just have it covered with a giant tarp, or in a different little building. Illinois seems to like the little domes though from when I lived in Chicago.
I-65 is a horror show, no matter which state you are in. The entire route through Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama is a frickin' nightmare. That's just the drivers.
Absolute truth.
Yup, two lanes both sides thru Indiana. Can't get around an 18 wheeler to save your life. I now go south thru IL to get to Florida.
@Zuxiasunicorn that's what the shoulder is for.😅
@@pickleeater3102 I get cha but if only! 😒 My advice, don't screw with truckers, they'll make you pay cuz it happened to me. I used to drive thru the night so I know they were targeting me. Don't know what I did but I pissed them off. After an hour of them waiting for me to approach then pulling out in front of me, I pulled over for a few hrs. When I got back on the road the radio-aided team punishment was gone. Truckers, I apologize, you're a critical cog in the economy, thank you for your long hours, sacrifices and patience with us four wheelers.
I65: perpetually under construction, semi trucks will cut you off at merges, and everyone driving a minivan will pass you then get in front of you and drive slower than you were going.
Aww love Arthur! He is getting so big 😊
Sending support, love, and kindness from Lexington, Michigan, USA
I’ve always thought that the American water towers look like a real life google map pin 📍
As for the fire hydrants, I’m Australian cities like Sydney for example, the fire hydrants are mostly concealed. Similar to the British hydrants, and they also have a lettering system.
Without going into the minutiae of it all, on a street light/electricity pole you’ll see the letters HP or HR which tells people that the hydrant is located on the Road, or the Path. Often there are also small numbers that provide the approximate distance to the hydrant from the pole.
Public buildings and office blocks usually have a dedicated hydrant that sits above the ground and is painted that BRIGHT red colour. Others still will have a dedicated high pressure pump, so as to pump the available water up up up to the tippity top floors.
That’s my 2p’s worth.
Thanks again for sharing your videos, your thoughts and your adventures
In the USA, it is not uncommon to make the water towers into a feature. There are water towers that have been designed to look like: peaches (there is one in my State of Alabama that does), catsup/ketchup bottle (Illinois), smiley faces (Michigan, among others), pumpkin (Ohio), an ear of corn (Minnesota), etc.
@@laurie7689 thanks for sharing this. My father was from Alabama. Two of my older siblings were also born there and I was born here in Australia. I’m going to be looking online for that peach water tower.
@@SecretSquirrelFun I believe it is in Clanton, Alabama off of the interstate. I've seen it before going down I-65. Clanton is known around here for its peach orchards. A lot of the grocery stores sell Chilton County peaches and Clanton is one of the small cities in the county.
@@laurie7689in Connecticut there used to be one with apples painted on it nearby where I live since there’s so much apple picking up here, but they’ve painted over it which kinda sucks cause it looked pretty nice for a water tower
One thing about the traffic lights in the USA is that they are often on the far side of the junction. As a Brit, I am accustomed to stopping at the light. This observation made my American Wife very nervous, so she does the driving ... much like you by the look of it.
Seems like it would be too hard to see if you were right under it. It it’s on the far side it’s still far enough away that you can see it when you’re stopped without needing to crane your neck up (and without needing x ray vision if you’re not in a convertible with the top down).
@@jasonlescalleet5611 UK traffic lights are on a short vertical pole, so you're looking out your side window at it.
another difference that bears mentioning, in the UK, the lights have a phase with both red and amber lit before they go green, because UK drivers are trained to put the car in neutral and set the parking brake every time they are stopped at a light. the red/yellow gives them time to get it back in gear.
@@kenbrown2808In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania we always had traffic signals that went from green, to yellow-green, to yellow, then to red. It gave you more warning it was about to change to red.
However, somehow they were forced to standardize them to just green-yellow-red in the last 10 years. But it was unique to Pittsburgh from what I've been told.
I prefer the American design having driven in Europe. It can be quite hard to see the light if you're stopped directly at it in Europe. Sometimes they even have baby traffic lights mounted lower to help drivers.
I do like the yellow+red phase in Europe that warns you the light is about to turn green though.
In the UK, there are almost always two sets of lights for every direction that you can approach a crossroads: one before the crossing and another immediately afterwards, on the opposite side of the junction. The first set marks where you should stop but, as others here have noted, are difficult to see once you are right next to them. Instead, you can observe the next set of lights, across the junction from you.
Good luck finding that yellow H marker (on the ground) and the plumbing (under the ground) under three feet of snow. I assume that snow is also something we'll see in another episode of "things I only encountered after moving to America".
Honestly the statement about notice boards like that being hand written is itself interesting, because *before* electronic ones, in america they were almost universally the signs that have moveable letter pieces you can use to spell things out.
On a canal boat ride in The Netherlands, we saw something in the distance that looked like a castle turret. When we got back to the gift shop, I asked the young man at the cash register about it. In a tone of voice that indicated he thought we were idiots, he informed me it was a water tower. 😂😂😂😂😂
Re the traffic lights: those things look rather small hanging way up there. But after a horrendous wind storm, I found a green light in our backyard. It was as big as my head!
The USA has many water towers that were designed to be a feature. My State of Alabama has one that is designed to look like a giant peach. There are other states that also have "peach" water towers among other fruits/vegetables, etc.
The other one I forgot to mention is the first roundabout in my state was a black-and white diagonal painted obelisk known as the "automatic cop". It pre-dated the automobile and used to confuse the horses because they couldn't read the "keep left" signs.
The Philmont Scout Ranch does have a sign where hiking boots are tossed up to celebrate finishing a week or more of backpacking in the backcountry
Here in Brooklyn there are still elderly folks who call fire hydrants "Johnny Pumps".
The shoe thing has no meaning. It's something that idiots do.
8:24 Here is something I learned in my early 20’s, a long, long time ago: whenever you notice a fire hydrant (in the US), you will also notice the differentiation in the color of the fedunkah. They are officially called, “rumble strips,” now. The colorful little bumps…you will notice a blue one in the road, opposite the hydrant. 🤗🤗🤗Just trying to be helpful.🤗
"fedunkah"? WTF? The reflective yellow-colored markers are lane dividers and are visual rather than auditory. They are designed to reflect your headlights at night to define the lanes. The blue markers are usually offset so that they are closer to the hydrant so firefighters can easily figure out which side of the road has the hydrant. They are also reflective for the same visual reason.
Rumble strips on the other hand, are a series of raised dome-shaped white devices known as Botts Dots, and they are installed perpendicular to the direction of travel, and are installed in a set of four or five rows. The object is to warn drivers to slow down for safety for a variety of reasons
Where I am, "rumble strips" are grooves cut into the asphalt on the outside edges of (some) roads (mostly highways) that cause a loud growling noise when driven over at speed, to alert drivers that they're wandering off the edge of the road.
@@ecphorizer The technical brand name for those blue reflectors is Stimsonite Delineators.
On the UK hydrant signs the upper number is the flow rate and the lower number is the distance from the sign to the in-ground hydrant. I don't know why but when I was in the fire academy here in the US they taught that during Hydrant Week. As for the salt domes they are indeed for road salt, but some places use them for sand or cinders as well. Traffic lights are also called "Traffic Signals" here in the US.
Random blue reflectors on the road or on the side of the road on a pole are also very indicative of fire hydrants. Not all cities use this, but most do.
2:33 This film was filmed in my hometown. There are many friends of mine that were extras. The water tower is still standing, although it has been decommissioned from use. Even before the movie, it was a town landmark. I’ve since moved back.