I covered this topic in April but I'm going to post on it again.
One of my greatest pet peeves whilst driving is slow drivers. That doesn't mean I like to speed, it means I like to make progress as traffic allows, and sometimes, traffic is idiots. If I were in law enforcement, I'd make sure that speed limits weren't "limits" but indicated the speed you're supposed to drive. How many times have you been stuck behind someone who's doing 17mph or 18mph in a 30 zone? Or in England, stuck behind someone doing 39mph on a single-lane A road? (60mph)? I'll tell you why they're doing it - for two reasons, both of which are wrong.
Firstly, they think it's safe and it patently isn't. Traffic in crossing streets will be expecting them to be doing the limit or close to it - not half of it - and that results in errors of judgement about closing speed and distance, and that leads to accidents. In addition, when people like me and everyone else get behind someone like this, we become impatient, which makes us prone to doing stupid things in order to get past and - you know - drive at the speed limit and make some progress. The worst case I've seen of this was driving up to the skiing resorts last winter when one of the uphill drivers was going so slowly that even the ski busses were overtaking him, in snow, going uphill, crossing double yellow lines to do it.
Secondly, they think it somehow saves them money. It doesn't. Modern cars are designed to be fuel efficient at two key speeds - around 30mph and around 57mph. If you're going too slow or too quick, you'll be either labouring the engine or pushing more air out of the way, both of which cost you gas mileage.
So to the police - instead of going after the easy prey and ticketing people for speeding (which by the way isn't dangerous and doesn't cause anything like the number of accidents you claim), why don't you address the more hazardous problem of people driving too slowly?
Happy independence day to my friends here in the colonies :)
Monday, July 4, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monotone
Since we moved to the US, I've noticed by far the most predominant car colours are white, silver, grey, beige and black. Looking out of my window this morning, in the rows of several hundred cars in the parking lots around my office, I can see three red cars, one yellow, one blue and one green. The rest of them are all the usual suspects. It's like living in a 1950's movie and not in a good way either.
I haven't been able to determine yet whether this monotone colour choice is actually a choice people make, or something that the car companies thrust upon us over here under the assumption that people won't buy anything colourful.
You can see the problem for yourself if you go to any of the brand name's US websites. Take my current ride for example - a VW Tiguan. On the US site they have red, blue, silver, black, grey, and two shades of white. In Europe you can get all those colours, plus metallic cream, sky blue, yellow and orange (depending on the variant). Toyota vehicles - in the US we get beige, white, silver, grey, black and dark blue (almost black). One or two models have red available.
The light at the end of the tunnel here are the new Ford models (Fiesta, Focus) that come in an explosion of colours. Fiat are doing the same thing - wild colours - bright yellows, orange, green, several different reds. Time will tell if people buy them or if we'll end up in the same monochrome world. It's not looking hopeful though - when I spoke to the new Fiat dealer in town, they'd sold 12 Fiat 500s in the first couple of weeks. Two silver, two white, eight black, none of them with any coloured graphics. The four they had on special order were three grey and one red.
You can see examples of this monochrome world by looking in Google earth. Best place to look is airport long-term parking lots. Here's a starting point.
Amsterdam - explosion of colour: 52 17 28.29N 4 44 9.28E
Chicago - monochrome with the odd red car: 33 57 4.45N 118 23 38.95W
I haven't been able to determine yet whether this monotone colour choice is actually a choice people make, or something that the car companies thrust upon us over here under the assumption that people won't buy anything colourful.
You can see the problem for yourself if you go to any of the brand name's US websites. Take my current ride for example - a VW Tiguan. On the US site they have red, blue, silver, black, grey, and two shades of white. In Europe you can get all those colours, plus metallic cream, sky blue, yellow and orange (depending on the variant). Toyota vehicles - in the US we get beige, white, silver, grey, black and dark blue (almost black). One or two models have red available.
The light at the end of the tunnel here are the new Ford models (Fiesta, Focus) that come in an explosion of colours. Fiat are doing the same thing - wild colours - bright yellows, orange, green, several different reds. Time will tell if people buy them or if we'll end up in the same monochrome world. It's not looking hopeful though - when I spoke to the new Fiat dealer in town, they'd sold 12 Fiat 500s in the first couple of weeks. Two silver, two white, eight black, none of them with any coloured graphics. The four they had on special order were three grey and one red.
You can see examples of this monochrome world by looking in Google earth. Best place to look is airport long-term parking lots. Here's a starting point.
Amsterdam - explosion of colour: 52 17 28.29N 4 44 9.28E
Chicago - monochrome with the odd red car: 33 57 4.45N 118 23 38.95W
Monday, June 20, 2011
When TV race coverage goes bad
Speed Channel cover Formula 1 racing - they have done ever since we moved to America. Occasionally though, Fox will cherry-pick a race and show it on their channel instead. The good news is that they keep the Speed Channel commentary team. The bad news is that they destroy the race by starting coverage after the race has started (missing the start and the run to the first corner), going to commercial every 11 minutes no matter what, and filling the screen with so many Fox popup promos that it's hard to see the cars or racing.
OLN do the same thing to the Dakar rally each year. They're the only network that broadcast the event and they cram it into 30 minutes a day. There's four commercial breaks, local-interest features that nobody is interested in, and when they finally get to the racing, they show the motorbikes and the cars and that's it. They barely mention the trucks, the quad bikes, or any of the non-mainstream teams (the independents).
The icing on this little turd-cake is that the BBC cover all these events but if you don't live in the UK, you can't use their on-demand service to watch any of it. Even if you pay for BBC channels on your satellite or cable service.
I'd like to believe that the US channels would learn a thing or two about motorsports but if it's not NASCAR they're just not interested.
OLN do the same thing to the Dakar rally each year. They're the only network that broadcast the event and they cram it into 30 minutes a day. There's four commercial breaks, local-interest features that nobody is interested in, and when they finally get to the racing, they show the motorbikes and the cars and that's it. They barely mention the trucks, the quad bikes, or any of the non-mainstream teams (the independents).
The icing on this little turd-cake is that the BBC cover all these events but if you don't live in the UK, you can't use their on-demand service to watch any of it. Even if you pay for BBC channels on your satellite or cable service.
I'd like to believe that the US channels would learn a thing or two about motorsports but if it's not NASCAR they're just not interested.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Washing the right bits
With spring in full swing, it's amusing to sit in line at the local jetwash and watch lazy owner after lazy owner failing to clean the only part of their car that really matters after a winter of salty roads : the underside. Sure people will clean the paint and windows and everything that is visible without bending over. They'll use calcium-free water for the rinse, and spend 30 minutes with a chamois cleaning every last water drop away. Meanwhile, the salt is slowly feasting on all the metal underneath. It takes so little time to do this job properly. Bend over, poke the jetwash wand underneath your car, pointing upwards, and spray the underside with clean water. Doesn't need wax, doesn't need soap, nothing special, just water. It takes an extra minute. Do it on either side, from the front and the back and your car will last a lot longer.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Peugot 3008 : Worst Car Ever
Well maybe not 'ever' but it's appalling in a way that wasn't accidental. A herd of engineers spitefully thrust this abomination on the motoring world. I had one as a rental car last week on business and it is ugly. I mean really ugly - as in on par with the Pontiac Aztek ugly.
There's a possibility you can forgive a car's looks if it's a true driver's car and this thing isn't. Not even remotely close. I'm not even sure a father of four who's given up on driving would drive this thing.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of what's wrong with it, but in my one day with the car, these were my main problems. Actually, most of these cropped up in the first 30 minutes, but it took me a day to get back to a rental facility to change it (more on that later).
The power steering is ultralight - so much so that it's like an American car - you have to steer it to keep it in a straight line. The interior is covered in chrome, all angled to reflect sunlight at the driver from every possible angle. The radio display is an orange-on-black affair that is tilted away from the driver so it's impossible to read because of reflections. The cruise control stub is right under the indicator stalk meaning you spend half the time trying to snap it off when using the indicators. Same is true for the radio stub under the windscreen wiper stalk. The brake pedal and accelerator are too close together so that you end up pressing both. This is especially hazardous when braking because you end up gunning the engine at the same time as you're trying to brake. In an automatic, that's disastrous. The up/down adjustment for the drivers seat moves it forward and backwards too so in the full down position, the rear passenger seat is crammed up against the back of the drivers seat preventing any recline. And finally, the rear visibility is abominable in the extreme, hindered by gigantic C pillars and headrests that you can't remove.
All in all, this thing should never have seen the light of day much less been put on sale. It's a truly vile, spiteful piece of automotive crime. For some photos of the many things wrong with this thing, see my dropbox here.
After a single day I took it back to Avis and had them replace it. I got a Citroen DS3 instead. Much, much better. It shared the hideous stalks on the steering column but all the other issues were pleasingly dispatched into the rear view mirror. If you must have a French car, start with the DS3 and compare from there.
There's a possibility you can forgive a car's looks if it's a true driver's car and this thing isn't. Not even remotely close. I'm not even sure a father of four who's given up on driving would drive this thing.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of what's wrong with it, but in my one day with the car, these were my main problems. Actually, most of these cropped up in the first 30 minutes, but it took me a day to get back to a rental facility to change it (more on that later).
The power steering is ultralight - so much so that it's like an American car - you have to steer it to keep it in a straight line. The interior is covered in chrome, all angled to reflect sunlight at the driver from every possible angle. The radio display is an orange-on-black affair that is tilted away from the driver so it's impossible to read because of reflections. The cruise control stub is right under the indicator stalk meaning you spend half the time trying to snap it off when using the indicators. Same is true for the radio stub under the windscreen wiper stalk. The brake pedal and accelerator are too close together so that you end up pressing both. This is especially hazardous when braking because you end up gunning the engine at the same time as you're trying to brake. In an automatic, that's disastrous. The up/down adjustment for the drivers seat moves it forward and backwards too so in the full down position, the rear passenger seat is crammed up against the back of the drivers seat preventing any recline. And finally, the rear visibility is abominable in the extreme, hindered by gigantic C pillars and headrests that you can't remove.
All in all, this thing should never have seen the light of day much less been put on sale. It's a truly vile, spiteful piece of automotive crime. For some photos of the many things wrong with this thing, see my dropbox here.
After a single day I took it back to Avis and had them replace it. I got a Citroen DS3 instead. Much, much better. It shared the hideous stalks on the steering column but all the other issues were pleasingly dispatched into the rear view mirror. If you must have a French car, start with the DS3 and compare from there.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Finally a pedestrian is blamed for being stupid.
You'll know if you read this blog regularly that I have very little tolerance for the "blame the driver for everything" attitude of the police. Especially when it comes to pedestrians walking in traffic.
Well finally there's a good news story for those of us who have a self-preservation instinct. Scottsdale police are pushing for charges to be dropped against a driver who hit a pedestrian and her child in a crosswalk. Of course the story that the pedestrian gave was that the driver jumped a red light and mowed her down at speed. In reality things were a little different. Fortunately, there was a red light camera at the intersection and the video shows what actually happened. The crosswalk lights went red, she decided to run across the road and when the traffic lights went green, she was obscured from the view of the driver because she was running in front of a larger vehicle to his left. The driver rightly went on his green light only to be presented with a mother and stroller running in front of him.
Now I hate to come across as insensitive, but frankly in this video, I see the pedestrian getting everything she deserves. And I'm wonderfully happy that for once the driver isn't being blamed for something that was clearly not his fault. Perhaps this mother should have thought twice before playing in traffic. She clearly doesn't care for her own life, much less her child's. In fact, I'd have her arrested for attempting to pervert the course of justice, and wanton child endangerment now the video shows the truth of what happened.
The full story is on the Scottsdale ABC15 news site:
Story
Well finally there's a good news story for those of us who have a self-preservation instinct. Scottsdale police are pushing for charges to be dropped against a driver who hit a pedestrian and her child in a crosswalk. Of course the story that the pedestrian gave was that the driver jumped a red light and mowed her down at speed. In reality things were a little different. Fortunately, there was a red light camera at the intersection and the video shows what actually happened. The crosswalk lights went red, she decided to run across the road and when the traffic lights went green, she was obscured from the view of the driver because she was running in front of a larger vehicle to his left. The driver rightly went on his green light only to be presented with a mother and stroller running in front of him.
Now I hate to come across as insensitive, but frankly in this video, I see the pedestrian getting everything she deserves. And I'm wonderfully happy that for once the driver isn't being blamed for something that was clearly not his fault. Perhaps this mother should have thought twice before playing in traffic. She clearly doesn't care for her own life, much less her child's. In fact, I'd have her arrested for attempting to pervert the course of justice, and wanton child endangerment now the video shows the truth of what happened.
The full story is on the Scottsdale ABC15 news site:
Story
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