• macniel
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    1 month ago

    The city’s new climate plan promises to drop speed limits, repurpose traffic lanes, remove 60,000 parking spots and create urban “oases” to combat extreme heat.

    I don’t think that word means what the journalist think it means. Dropping means abolishing the speed limit in this case, drive as fast as you like. Instead Paris is actually lowering Speed Limits on the Ring Road down to 50km/h.

    • @darthelmet
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      1 month ago

      Eh. People sometimes using “dropping” to be synonymous with “lowering.” I got what they meant.

      Just as an example off the top of my head, when describing the temperature, a person might say “the temperature dropped by 10 degrees” or “to 20 degrees.”

      • macniel
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        -131 month ago

        Yeah okay, but context matters in this case.

        Temperature dropped? Fine.

        A case was dropped? Its no longer applicable.

        A Speed limit was dropped? Its no longer applicable.

        My Sandwich got dropped in the trashbin? You threw my Sandwich Away!? MY SANDWICH? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYFevK2lDJI

        • @[email protected]
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          161 month ago

          No way. When something numerical is “dropped” it usually means lowered. Especially in the form “drop numerical value”, as was this case.

          • macniel
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            -101 month ago

            There is no numeric value in that teaser text though. “[…] promises to drop speed limits”

            • WIZARD POPE💫
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              91 month ago

              Because speed limits are usually given in essays?

              They are numerical values even if not explicitly stated here because the details are not that important.

              • macniel
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                -51 month ago

                because the details are not that important.

                then why are the 60.000 parking spots mentioned? Why not just parking spots?

                • WIZARD POPE💫
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                  41 month ago

                  Because the parking spot reduxtion is one number. You surely don’t expect them to list all the current speed limits (probably quite a few different ones throuout the city) and the different reductions of those.

                  • macniel
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                    1 month ago

                    Thats not the issue here FFS. Its about drop which can mean TWO THINGS. But sure who ever wrote that teaser could have just said that Paris is reducing the amount of parking spaces.

                    When they want to be specific in the teaser they need to be consistent across the board.

        • @darthelmet
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          41 month ago

          Sure. But the way I look at language is “if you can understand it, it’s right.”

          If you understood what they meant enough to be pedantic about it, it was probably a fine use of the word.

          • macniel
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            11 month ago

            I only understood because I read the article afterwards as I was confused by that teaser text.

        • @TheGrandNagus
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          21 month ago

          If you talk about numbers, saying dropped means the numbers have lowered.

          Just like with your temperature example.

          Temperature (a number) dropped

          Speed limit (a number) dropped

          Pandas in the wild (a number) dropped

    • @[email protected]
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      51 month ago

      I agree with you, had to read it twice to make sure they don’t mean to remove speed limits.

      After a quick search I found a different article from BBC about a speed limit that is dropped from 30 mph to 20 mph. TIL.

    • JaggedRobotPubes
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      41 month ago

      Oh yeah that’s a really bad ambiguity to end up in an article.