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Comment by KittenInABox | Hacker News Reader

You could bring the entirely of NYC to a standstill by simply abandoning a large bus or truck in a single artery of manhattan or one of the bridges. Literally just drive into a tunnel, then get out and walk off. The amount of chaos this would cause would take ages to get any towing services in to clear it.

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While many bridges and tunnels have tow trucks and operators stationed at both ends for normal vehicles, they probably do not have heavy-duty towing available quickly. These specialized trucks can tow other semi-tractor-trailers, dump trucks (both garbage and material haul trucks), etc.

Extra points for putting the large bus or truck on it's side, requiring a crane or much more work to get it on its wheels.

And you don't have to walk off, you can unload your electric scooter and zip away to start your new life as a fugitive.

No need to put on its side. Slash the tires!

Then light it on fire!

Dump the concrete! Put baby powder around the scene with bio hazard warnings!

The accidental Mont Blanc Tunnel fire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Blanc_Tunnel_fire?wprov=s...) puts it out of commission for three years, and that's a very important link between France and Italy...

It doesn't take ages, they have dedicated teams for this as it happens pretty frequently in the lincoln tunnel that buses and trucks break down. There's a weird little specialized towtruck they have that can remove vehicles quickly and cameras are everywhere. Some details on it: https://www.nj.com/traffic/2018/08/how_do_they_unclog_the_li...

Buses and trucks break down all the time in Manhattan bridges and tunnels.

That’s a nuisance but not economically threatening. Disabling railway permanently is a serious threat. Especially in countries dependent on railways for logistics.

A stopped vehicle is a few minutes to tow clear. But add fire.... At least twice in recent times, a gasoline tank truck crash has destroyed a bridge that took weeks to replace.

I wonder if Kubernetes/Cloud Cluster guy jumps in conversation telling how they could resolve this issue by using Cloud resiliency techniques.

Real world has lot to learn from IT infrastructure management. :-)

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