View from the Driver's Seat
Mar. 31st, 2006 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellyssianWith nearly two hours of drive-time each work day, I spend a fair amount of time - for one not particularly employed to pilot a vehicle - on the road. That is to say, I spend a good deal of time attempting to avoid hitting the car that pulled out in front of me - that's 55 mile per hour me and 22.7 mile per hour him/her/it - and observing other driving patterns of Pennsylvania drivers in their unnatural habitat. Thought it was high time to start a "Feature" post on the subject, collecting bits and pieces of thoughts and observations, to generally poke fun at a variety of subjects that wander through, by, or (hopefully not) into me on my way to and from work.
So noted, it is considered unwise to ride a Japanese sports bike with an engine size in cubic centimeters that is less than what you weigh. It does not make you look cool. When that ratio slips even further, perhaps approaching or even surpassing 2:1, you have entered the realm of the ludicrous.
In the lack-of-inspiring-confidence department, there is a certain lack of safety felt when you are side-by-side and first in line at a red light with an eighteen wheeler, the cage-like trailer filled with many tubes and bottles, and placarded with words like "Flammable" and "Explosive" and "I'm so unstable, if you blink, I'll blow up." It's enough to make one crawl to the shortest possible safe distance and then run as far and fast in the opposite direction as one can go. However, when the left-turn arrow appears, and the truck starts to lurch - and is aimed quite straight ahead and *not* in the left-turn-only lane, one's heart leaps a bit and one goes a bit pale. Thankfully, you sigh, he realized the situation was not a "go" and you relax, right up until he starts to slowly roll through the red light... there was, luckily, no one in the opposing direction in their left-turn lane. I'm sure someone rocketing down that road and swinging left on their signal would not expect to find their front-end crunched under a trailer and a full load of Things That Shouldn't Be Disturbed becoming Very Disturbed.
In the last five minutes of the ride in this morning, I saw no less than six folks having nice conversations on their cells - all large SUVs, one male, and one (the guy) with a passenger in the vehicle who could have been doing the talking. One woman was very animated, and I watched, at the red light, how she gazed off the side, thoroughly engrossed in the conversation. No surprise she fell behind quite a bit when the light changed. I wonder if the old line about being so poor you can't afford to pay attention applies to those who drive Lincoln Navigators and Mercedes SUVs and the like? I think it does, it just refers to quality rather than the monetary.
One biplane sighted this morning, circling low through the gap and either heading to ground or to the other ridge line - didn't stick around to find out which. Didn't see any on the ride home last evening. Every time I see them up along the very top of the ridge - which really is where they're focusing their reseeding efforts - I wonder if folks wandering![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
thetrail get a bit of a surprise dusting...
So noted, it is considered unwise to ride a Japanese sports bike with an engine size in cubic centimeters that is less than what you weigh. It does not make you look cool. When that ratio slips even further, perhaps approaching or even surpassing 2:1, you have entered the realm of the ludicrous.
In the lack-of-inspiring-confidence department, there is a certain lack of safety felt when you are side-by-side and first in line at a red light with an eighteen wheeler, the cage-like trailer filled with many tubes and bottles, and placarded with words like "Flammable" and "Explosive" and "I'm so unstable, if you blink, I'll blow up." It's enough to make one crawl to the shortest possible safe distance and then run as far and fast in the opposite direction as one can go. However, when the left-turn arrow appears, and the truck starts to lurch - and is aimed quite straight ahead and *not* in the left-turn-only lane, one's heart leaps a bit and one goes a bit pale. Thankfully, you sigh, he realized the situation was not a "go" and you relax, right up until he starts to slowly roll through the red light... there was, luckily, no one in the opposing direction in their left-turn lane. I'm sure someone rocketing down that road and swinging left on their signal would not expect to find their front-end crunched under a trailer and a full load of Things That Shouldn't Be Disturbed becoming Very Disturbed.
In the last five minutes of the ride in this morning, I saw no less than six folks having nice conversations on their cells - all large SUVs, one male, and one (the guy) with a passenger in the vehicle who could have been doing the talking. One woman was very animated, and I watched, at the red light, how she gazed off the side, thoroughly engrossed in the conversation. No surprise she fell behind quite a bit when the light changed. I wonder if the old line about being so poor you can't afford to pay attention applies to those who drive Lincoln Navigators and Mercedes SUVs and the like? I think it does, it just refers to quality rather than the monetary.
One biplane sighted this morning, circling low through the gap and either heading to ground or to the other ridge line - didn't stick around to find out which. Didn't see any on the ride home last evening. Every time I see them up along the very top of the ridge - which really is where they're focusing their reseeding efforts - I wonder if folks wandering
thetrail get a bit of a surprise dusting...