The National Tree will save Japan

[Taro Toporific]

The National Tree, the sacred concrete utility pole, can now have even more use besides being an icon of Japanese religious fervor.

Predicting with poles
Asahi Shimbun, Japan - 22 April
Scientists at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have shown monitoring the changing gaps between poles and tension in the cables strung between them is an accurate measure of geological activity... `This is a simple, but effective, measure that can be applied immediately,'' said Tsutomu Sato of the Institute's Geological Survey of Japan.

crow_in_flight_pole_350x262.jpg

[Taro Toporific]

Japan to ban the National Tree---the sacred Concrete Utility Pole!

National, local governments advance project to bury unsightly power lines
Mainichi.jp | February 14, 2016
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is considering a bill to promote the relocation of power lines underground, a project backed by local governments, businesses and the prime minister to improve Japan's scenery...
...In the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, around 8,100 utility poles collapsed, blocking rescue and recovery efforts and underscoring the need for removing the poles. But even Kobe, which was hit hard by that earthquake, has only buried a little over 2 percent of its power poles.
The bill being considered by the LDP would require power companies and other businesses to refrain from laying new overhead power lines and installing power poles, and move forward with the removal of existing ones.
More...

hachioji-shotengai.jpg

[legion]

Long overdue but very difficult to push through. There are multiple interests to navigate to get the lines laid underground, NTT, power companies, cable companies.
It will take years.

[Wage Slave]

Long overdue but very difficult to push through. There are multiple interests to navigate to get the lines laid underground, NTT, power companies, cable companies.
It will take years.

Not so sure that's the main issue. It's not exactly rocket science and there are plenty of other countries that have done it to copy from. The main problem would seem to be just the amount of work to be done digging up the road, taking down all the garbage that it up at the moment and hooking it all up again. That's going to take a long time and will cost a fortune. But hey, stimulus anyone?

Needs to be done of course. Overhead power lines and other services are so third world. And the longer it's left the more it will cost so get started I say.

[Coligny]

Long overdue but very difficult to push through. There are multiple interests to navigate to get the lines laid underground, NTT, power companies, cable companies.
It will take years.

Or a good war/quake...
I vote for nuking the place...

image.jpeg

Wonder if we got a boomer around... Our SLBM are a bit... untested...

[legion]

Long overdue but very difficult to push through. There are multiple interests to navigate to get the lines laid underground, NTT, power companies, cable companies.
It will take years.

Not so sure that's the main issue. It's not exactly rocket science and there are plenty of other countries that have done it to copy from. The main problem would seem to be just the amount of work to be done digging up the road, taking down all the garbage that it up at the moment and hooking it all up again. That's going to take a long time and will cost a fortune. But hey, stimulus anyone?

Needs to be done of course. Overhead power lines and other services are so third world. And the longer it's left the more it will cost so get started I say.

According to the shiyakusho it is, I asked.

I'm gonna take a wild bet whoever owns the poles charges rent to the other users

[dimwit]

To me, the problem is one of lack of planning. The idea of coordinating underground utility corridors would seem to require an functional planning department, which no Japanese city has.

[Wage Slave]

I don't know it was a failure of planning as a process, rather than very poor strategic decision. They have planned and implemented overheard delivery about as well as it can be done, the problem is it is an inferior method if you care at all about appearance.

And not that I know but I'd probably risk a small bet that the poles and infrastructure are owned by the power companies. Other than NTT and the occasional cable TV operator there isn't much else up there. I suppose NTT have to pay a contribution to string their stuff up there but they aren't the main show by a long way.

[wagyl]

Why risk a bet, when the owner of each pole is shown by a plaque on it. Overwhelmingly it is the power companies, but there are places where the poles are primarily owned by NTT. They pay rent to the landowners for using the space, and charge rent to other providers using the poles.

[dimwit]

Yes, the power companies do own the poles. The reality is that is many cases the power companies have elected representatives in city governments that are there largely to resist any attempts to bury the poles, as it would be a additional cost to them.

[Coligny]

Yes, the power companies do own the poles. The reality is that is many cases the power companies have elected representatives in city governments that are there largely to resist any attempts to bury the poles, as it would be a additional cost to them.

They didn't exactly won that fight in the big T...
Burying everythang starting from the cnetral ekimae. You can still see the former wire cage protection on some pedestrian crossing bridges. But except for the railcars powerlines.

Nothang...

[Wage Slave]

Why not really stimulate the place and actually gain some benefit at the same time (for a change) and convert the system to 240V from our idiotic 100V while they are at it? That would really get the economy going and make friends and influence people. Instead of handing vast sums money to banks for them to play the markets give people grants to help buy new stuff from Panasonic, Haier and all the rest.

[Coligny]

Those idiots still can't settle for a common frequency (50/60hz) and you want them to lose their isolationnist policy of 100v...

[Wage Slave]

I know, but I can dream .....

[matsuki]

Overhead power lines and other services are so third world.

Something something Japanese style something something Japanese culture

At least near my office and apartment, there isn't a single street that hasn't been dug up and repaved at least once in the past couple years. Coordinating with the regular construction that already goes on really shouldn't be that hard...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Overhead power lines and other services are so third world.

Something something Japanese style something something Japanese culture

At least near my office and apartment, there isn't a single street that hasn't been dug up and repaved at least once in the past couple years. Coordinating with the regular construction that already goes on really shouldn't be that hard...

I thought it was American culture.

What’s the ugliest thing about America the Beautiful?

Utility poles. And the wires strung between them. Those who have grown up in the U.S. generally don’t notice them––or how unsightly they look. But visitors from abroad are often astonished. In much of the rest of the rich world, utility lines are hidden, underground and out of sight.

Complaining about the wires draped all Gulliver-like across America isn’t just a European pastime; 19th-century Americans did the same. Samuel Morse, credited with the first deployment of utility poles, decided to foul America’s streets and skies only when efforts to run telegraph lines underground failed. Concerns that lines were unsightly and would require the ongoing destruction of trees were one reason Thomas Edison developed underground electrical wiring (for Brockton, Massachusetts).

[matsuki]

Overhead power lines and other services are so third world.

Something something Japanese style something something Japanese culture

At least near my office and apartment, there isn't a single street that hasn't been dug up and repaved at least once in the past couple years. Coordinating with the regular construction that already goes on really shouldn't be that hard...

I thought it was American culture.

That's like saying the local corn and tuna pizza is American culture...it may have started in the US but...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Overhead power lines and other services are so third world.

Something something Japanese style something something Japanese culture

At least near my office and apartment, there isn't a single street that hasn't been dug up and repaved at least once in the past couple years. Coordinating with the regular construction that already goes on really shouldn't be that hard...

I thought it was American culture.

That's like saying the local corn and tuna pizza is American culture...it may have started in the US but...

The point is that the US hasn't done a very good job of burying its utility lines either. The lower population density and wider streets and sidewalks means it's not as much of a cluster fuck as Japan. Also some cities like NYC have mostly put everything underground. However, scenes like those below are still pretty fucking ugly and not unusual.

sf.jpg

seattle.jpg

la.jpg

[matsuki]

I guess I'm just spoiled by LA, none of the places I grew up had them...and the saying was usually overhead lines were basically an indicator of how shitty the area was. (but even the neighborhoods with them had nothing like what you just posted, or Japan)

[Samurai_Jerk]

I guess I'm just spoiled by LA, none of the places I grew up had them...and the saying was usually overhead lines were basically an indicator of how shitty the area was. (but even the neighborhoods with them had nothing like what you just posted, or Japan)

That bottom picture is LA. Yeah, shittier neighborhoods tend to have it worse.

[legion]

Overhead power lines and other services are so third world.

Something something Japanese style something something Japanese culture

At least near my office and apartment, there isn't a single street that hasn't been dug up and repaved at least once in the past couple years. Coordinating with the regular construction that already goes on really shouldn't be that hard...

Is that third world comment a quote from me?

I generally avoid the phrase third world, and 三国人

http://seesaawiki.jp/against-hatespeech/d/%C0%D0%B8%B6%BF%B5%C2%C0%CF%BA%BB%E1%A4%CE%A1%D6%BB%B0%B9%F1%BF%CD%C8%AF%B8%C0%A1%D7%B2%BF%A4%AC%CC%E4%C2%EA%A4%C0%A4%C3%A4%BF%A4%CE%A4%AB

[matsuki]

I guess I'm just spoiled by LA, none of the places I grew up had them...and the saying was usually overhead lines were basically an indicator of how shitty the area was. (but even the neighborhoods with them had nothing like what you just posted, or Japan)

That bottom picture is LA. Yeah, shittier neighborhoods tend to have it worse.

Does it say where? The only site I could find with it just said LA county...which is huge.

Overhead power lines and other services are so third world.

Something something Japanese style something something Japanese culture

At least near my office and apartment, there isn't a single street that hasn't been dug up and repaved at least once in the past couple years. Coordinating with the regular construction that already goes on really shouldn't be that hard...

Is that third world comment a quote from me?

The interweb fairy says so It's a sign!

[Samurai_Jerk]

How about this nice shot of downtown LA?

[matsuki]

Yuck, but I'm pretty sure that's hood. (though still not as bad as the wires here)

[Samurai_Jerk]

Yuck, but I'm pretty sure that's hood.

How about RPV?

[matsuki]

Yuck, but I'm pretty sure that's hood.

How about RPV?

Yeah, some of the older neighborhoods like that, even as wealthy as RPV, still have some but look:

https://www.google.co.jp/maps/@33.73898 ... 56!6m1!1e1

...even where they exist, it's nothing like the mess we see here. (and they already bury new lines and are in the process of burying existing lines)

[Samurai_Jerk]

it's nothing like the mess we see here.

Yup, which I've already acknowledged. The point is the US is also way behind and there are still lots of places there where they aren't burying and have no plans to bury the lines. And only burying the lines in nice neighborhoods is pretty shitty.

By the way, you don't have to go far on Street View to find ugly power lines in RPV.

[matsuki]

Ahhh, then we're in agreement. On topic, the cost to get a pole installed and get you hooked up to the grid is also insane. The estimates I've gotten vary by an extra zero but I am very tempted to take the time to cement in my own pole and find someone qualified to just hook it up. I already dug the fucking hole.... but all this could be avoided if it were simply digging a trench to install lines.

[wagyl]

You seriously think the estimates would be cheaper if it was a quote to dig a trench or bore a horizontal hole and get you hooked up?

[Takechanpoo]

ironically burying power lines in japan will just increase road works even more than now......
dig and bury to renew asphalt. dig and bury to renew water pipes. dig and bury to renew gas pipes.
in addition, renewing and inspecting power lines will add the piles.....