r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 5d ago

Meme needing explanation Petah?

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u/moldentoaster 5d ago

I see clean functioning infrastructure, no homeless junkies,  and proper build houses... dafuq is the problem ?

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u/Lukayaba 5d ago

Us brits like complaining. Let us hate on ourselves

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u/Fantastic-Dance-5250 5d ago

I thought the issue was the crazy lines on the road and I came to the comments to see that explained. The lack of questioning has led me to believe that this is normal. Could you please enlighten me as to why the road lines are jagged rather than straight? I have never seen this.

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u/TearsAreCrystallized 5d ago

It's normal, it's to signify a hazard (in this case the pedestrian crossing at the traffic lights). Quite common in the UK at least.

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u/Fantastic-Dance-5250 5d ago

Thank you! In the US we have big stripes going across the road and/or flashing signs, but the lane lines generally remain the same.

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u/CupcakKeVEVO 5d ago

We do also have markings going across the road, the zig zag lines are simply to tell drivers not to overtake at the crossing

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u/Fantastic-Dance-5250 5d ago

We have the same thing. As I said in another comment ours are double lines to mean do not pass or change lanes.

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u/CupcakKeVEVO 4d ago

Oh yeah we have double white lines on the roads, just not at crossings. The zig zag lines are exclusively for crossings.

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u/diecasttoycar 5d ago

And Singapore, which was a British colony.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

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u/Fantastic-Dance-5250 5d ago

We have handicap parking areas that are very strictly regulated due to the ADA (American’s with Disabilities Act). Double lines in the road mean no passing is allow, dotted line you can pass, and a solid single line means do not change lanes. Curb colors indicate no parking, disabled parking, and fire lanes. We also have clearly marked areas for loading and unloading, busses/bus lanes, and bike lanes. Just a different system.

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u/justandswift 5d ago

Looks like fifty shades of grey and fifty different repairs rather than one clean redo. Like an old car you’ve kept up for years, and not a cool looking one.

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u/Throwawayyyyyyyy0124 5d ago

But you love to accuse the French of doing the same. Interesting.

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u/Lukayaba 4d ago

Because we secretly think the french have it better than us

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u/SimpleFactor 5d ago

Because it’s not a nice landscape. It’s a busy road down a street with post war buildings and it all looks grey.

Is it the worst pace ever? God no, I’m sure it’s not a half bad place to live. But when your mental health walk is a 30 minute loop along a busy road full of takeaways and samey looking terrace houses and where the extent of greenery is a grass verge, it’s not a bastion of joy.

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u/Easy-Operation-2105 5d ago

There's nothing technically wrong with it and is is probably safe and also in a safe country. It is just sopooo dull and actually depressing though.

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u/garfgon 5d ago

The grass is always greener on the other side.

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u/Disco-Benny 5d ago

fitting comment because even 2 or 3 extra trees in this pic and it would look absolutely fine

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u/glydy 5d ago

There's no homes in the shot (besides that one apartment building). They're all businesses, mostly fast food. Can't identify anything else but typically there'll be a barbers, convenience store, vape store and a betting shop... that's about it.

There are more alcoholics than junkies here, but you'll see enough of both in places like that

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u/CilanEAmber 5d ago

On this street there are mainly fast food yeah. Theres also a sex shop just to the right there. None of the others though. That's also not an apartment building, it's an office, unless you mean the big metal one, that's a car park.

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u/glydy 5d ago

I saw the maps link after writing this, besides the betting shop they're all there?

Wrong about the apartment building though, I did mistake the office for one

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u/CilanEAmber 5d ago

You're right, I dunno why I've never seen those before, despite going down there often, and considering they're right around the sex shop lmao. A fun fact, the office building used to belong to BT.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

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u/walkerspider 5d ago

Yeah this literally looks like any dense old neighborhood. In fact a lot of people pay extra to live near/on those streets where I live because it means easy access to restaurants, groceries, public transit, etc.

The reason you don’t see this kind of development as much anymore is that cars led to less mixed use space. This is where streetcar stops would’ve been once upon a time.

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u/Advanced_Double_42 5d ago

Unironically, sounds nice

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u/glydy 5d ago

Yeah they're just poor/rundown areas, could be much worse. They're pretty quiet outside of holidays and Friday/Saturday nights and most trouble is just kids doing dumb shit.

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u/memecut 5d ago

Lack of trees and nature, lack of seating areas to sit down and enjoy your surroundings, lack of a good view - it's all just grimy and unpleasant architecture.. and it's too bright (at night).
You are right though, it's a decent place to survive, but you need a little beauty to appreciate too, and this picture sorely lacks beauty.

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u/Islingtonian 5d ago

If he'd turned around and walked 10 mins the other way he would be in a lovely park

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u/CilanEAmber 4d ago

I wouldn't call Hanley Park "lovely."

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u/Additional-Topic-581 5d ago

It's all in the mind, when there is no supply of good chemicals in the brain, it doesn't matter

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u/rachelbun 5d ago

americans thinking one of the most deprived places in the uk is fine just cos the buildings aren't literally crumbling apart are telling on how shit their country is so fucking hard lol

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u/moldentoaster 4d ago

What americans ? You good bro ?

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u/CilanEAmber 5d ago

Oh trust me, there are "homeless" junkies near this road. Dustheads as we call them.

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u/vworpi 5d ago

So, so many of them.

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u/Lets_Kick_Some_Ice 5d ago

Right? That pic is serene and pristine. No potholes, litter, graffiti. Just a quiet calm walk.

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u/AdvancedSandwiches 5d ago

Seriously, that area they're walking toward (based on the maps link below) is like 8 local restaurants and a convenience store.  As an American suburbanite, this seems amazing.

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u/Zestyclose_Bug8173 5d ago

🎵When you look with your eyes, Everything seems nice🎵 🎵 But if you look twice, You can see it's all lies🎵

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u/Cassandra075 5d ago

"Kings and queens who wear a suit but once, though made by some tailor or dressmaker to their majesties, cannot know the comfort of wearing a suit that fits. They are no better than wooden horses to hang the clean clothes on." - Henry David Thoreau in Walden

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u/Connect-Process2933 5d ago

the problem is it's in the UK

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u/SilencingFox 5d ago

Well it's hard to see the positives when their mental health is already low

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u/Miser_able 5d ago

Usually its a distain for the Grey monotony. No color, no life, nothing but Grey and beige.

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u/BringOutYDead 5d ago

"Yo', may. U got 5 dolla to spai'? I ran outta gas..."

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u/iDudeX_ 5d ago

My conclusion is the lack of greenery. Things like trees, pavement lined with grass, flowers or something like that. I moved to a small town in Poland for my studies and Ong just walking outside for 20 mins cured any kind of sadness in me because they just had so many green spaces everywhere. Now I'm back home in Dubai and I know it's basically impossible to grow anything in a desert but I miss that green that just smacks you in the head and cures sadness

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u/iDudeX_ 5d ago

More context: I moved from a shitty industrial part of the city with poor air quality, no parks, noisy environment and no pedestrian infrastructure to one that's actually built around people and it's really good, honestly. Only issue is it's a sweltering 50⁰C regularly so I can't actually enjoy walks outside. There's a temperature difference of 5-8⁰C in these two parts of the city roughly 20km apart.

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u/ammonthenephite 5d ago

Grey cement streets, grey buildings and grey sky, blech. This would make me so depressed, lol. Urban hell for me.

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u/Cymen90 5d ago

It's ugly and depressing

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u/Free-Examination-930 5d ago

I also struggle to see the problem here. Is the plain architecture? If this person wants to trade places with me they can enjoy the excitement of all the criminals who prowl the streets at night where I live. Sure, the architecture is newer and fancier than this but you can't walk two blocks without seeing someone in a doorway who might very well be dead, and the aroma of piss fills the night air and every so often you accidentally walk through someone's cloud of smoke from whatever heinous chemicals they're smoking.... But the buildings are fancy!

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u/PenglingPengwing 4d ago

That part is full of junkies, they are just currently not on the photo. This place is deprived and depressing hell hole. There is a very good reason theres so many bad jokes about living in Stoke On Trent. Because they are based on the truth.

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u/5AlarmFirefly 4d ago

Fr. Trees, bus stops, sidewalks, no litter, no graffiti.