Use Pathlib

steering/settings.py

 # Django settings for pv project.
 
 import os
+from pathlib import Path
 
 from corsheaders.defaults import default_headers
 
 # Paths
+BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve(strict=True).parent.parent
 
-PROJECT_DIR = os.path.dirname(__file__)
+LOCALE_PATHS = (BASE_DIR / "locale",)
 
-LOCALE_PATHS = (os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, "locale"),)
-
-MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, "site_media")
+MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "site_media"
 MEDIA_URL = "/site_media/"
 
-STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, "static")
+STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "static"
 STATIC_URL = "/static/"
 
 ROOT_URLCONF = "steering.urls"
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ if os.getenv("VIRTUAL_ENV"):
     DATABASES = {
         "default": {
             "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.sqlite3",
-            "NAME": os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, "db.sqlite3"),
+            "NAME": BASE_DIR / "db.sqlite3",
         }
     }
 else:
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ SECRET_KEY = os.getenv("SECRET_KEY", default="secret-key")
 TEMPLATES = [
     {
         "BACKEND": "django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates",
-        "DIRS": [os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, "templates")],
+        "DIRS": [BASE_DIR / "templates"],
         "APP_DIRS": True,
         "OPTIONS": {
             "context_processors": [