Another open-minded city council: Lodz, Poland

Lodz - street racing capital of Poland apparently. The city had such trouble with illegal street races that it decided to do something about it. Instead of sending in the police, heavy-handed to arrest everyone, they did the opposite and endorsed street racing by organising the events themselves. They provide fire and ambulance cover as well as blocking off streets and providing official timing gear.
Now that's an open-minded idea. I wonder how long it will last? In the UK or America it would never happen of course. In the UK there would be no revenue because the police wouldn't be able to ticket anyone, and in America the city would be sued when someone got a stone in their eye.
Lodz - street racing capital of Poland

Three Cheers for Swindon Borough Council

Finally. FINALLY someone has seen sense. Swindon Borough council are considering scrapping their speed cameras. They've figured out that they're a waste of money and do nothing more than make the roads more dangerous. It's about time. Now maybe drivers in Swindon can concentrate more on driving and less on looking for speed cameras - that alone should make the roads safer.
It boggles the mind that anyone believes speed cameras make roads safer. Especially in light of the facts and fiction about speed cameras.

Check your tread depth - it isn't that hard.

A new system is being made available to police forces, that can measure your tyre tread depth as you drive past it. (Story) The idea is that it will enforce tread depth laws like speed cameras do - automatically. Yet another method of bleeding the motorist dry. But it's all so unnecessary. Check your tread depth every now and then - once a month maybe. It's not that hard. Apart from eliminating the chance of a spot fine, you're doing us all a favour. The less worn your tyres are, the more chance there is of you being able to stop or corner properly. Unless you live in Utah, that means one less thing that could cause an accident. I single out Utah of course because logic goes out of the window here when it comes to driving. No amount of driver training or vehicle safety can account for the sheer random stupidity of these people. But that's a topic for another entry.

Another great reason to avoid OnStar / GM

I'm not a huge fan of OnStar. I have a huge problem with a for-profit company being able to remote start and stop a car I might be driving, as well as being able to listen in to any conversation I might be having. Well - here's another great reason to avoid OnStar-equipped vehicles : from September 2008, OnStar operators will now be able to disable your accelerator too.
OnStar's site is full of self-inflating guff, proudly proclaiming Stolen Vehicle Slowdown is another example of OnStar's commitment to deliver unparalleled security and enhanced public safety on the road.

Honestly I'm not sure how that company's employees can sleep at night. Their systems have already eroded any sense of privacy a GM driver might have had, and now they've been allowed to implement a system to disconnect your accelerator "for your safety"? Isn't it bad enough that they track your every movement and can listen to your every word, now they are free to dictate whether you can drive your own car or not?

Does nobody else see the problem with this?

Hello?

Anyone?

Bueller?

Story: E-monitor : Stop That Car!

OnStar's PR for it: Stolen Vehicle Slowdown

10 tips for better fuel economy

With gas prices going ever upwards, I thought it timely to add a new page to my site. 10 tips for better fuel economy. Enjoy.

Innovate I-80

Being a motoring and engineering geek, I feel lucky to be so close to the UDOT (Utah Dept. of Transport) "Innovate I-80" project. It's really amazing what they're doing here. They're replacing 7 bridges in 6 weeks along a stretch of the I-80 motorway that bisects Salt Lake City.

Here's the kicker : they're doing it without closing the motorway.

They've built a bridge farm at the intersection of I-80 and 1300 East, and are fabricating all the bridges there. Every weekend, they close down surface streets around I-80, and use massive self-propelled Mammoet low-loaders to drive the pre-assembled bridges to their new destination. At the moment they're doing the westbound lanes and all the normal I-80 traffic has been diverted to the old eastbound bridges. Once the westbound bridges are done, they start over with the eastbound bridges, moving all the traffic on to the new westbound ones.
It truly is an amazing civil engineering project. The bridge farm is a modern marvel all on it's own - I just hope Discovery networks are doing a documentary on this because it deserves to be documented.

Innovate I-80