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Comment by akerro | Hacker News Reader

I know that's an international standards, and in general it's safe and nothing to worry about, but I hate the fact that we build houses under bridges or bridges above houses. Even probable things like a drunk throwing glass bottle to my garden from moving train scare shit out of me.

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People committing suicide in Seattle, jumping from the 99 bridge, led to at least one PTSD retirement from Adobe. People seemed not to want to land in the water, but on land, and the Adobe area was apparently an inviting target.

Some homeless guys smoking crack under an overpass ignited nearby material; the resulting fire led to the collapse of a stretch of I-85 in Atlanta last year.

Don't live under a bridge if you can help it. Given the state of disrepair of most American infrastructure it takes very little to bring them down.

What about the Netherlands, with 20% of the population living below sea level, waiting for the day the dike breaks?

We're not waiting, we're currently reinforcing the dikes so they'll be estimated to break only once every 100,000 years instead of every 10,000 years, while taking sea level rise into account.

There's that one dike in Wilnis though that threatens to break every time we have a severe drought, like this year...

I know, I've lived in NL most my life. Must remember Poe's law next time.

> threatens to break every time we have a severe drought

Interesting! Why would a dike be under greater threat in a drought when there is less water?

It dries out, loses volume and weight, then deforms and tears. There was a dike near Wilnis that actually broke in 2003, leading to half a metre of water in some streets there. Maybe the dike that was in the news a few weeks ago (it didn't quite break, but there was some danger) was a different one; I didn't check, but it was also near that village.

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadebreuk_Wilnis

It's not a prime location, but beats not having enough housing.

Or someone taking a shit in a train with an old-style toilet...

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